ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


688/C&RL News

Web Day in Portland, Oregon
On July 14, 1995, while all o f France was 

celebrating Bastille Day, library staff in the 
Portland, Oregon, area were celebrating Web 
Day, a full day o f workshops dealing with 
various aspects o f the World Wide Web. This 
event was sponsored by PORTALS, the Port­
land Area Library System.

PORTALS was established in 1993 to pro­
vide improved library and information ser­
vices to the Portland metropolitan area. Mem­
bers include twelve academic libraries, one 
public library system, and the Oregon His­
torical Society. Users enjoy access to 21 data­
bases and improved access to member col­
lections. Access is available through direct 
Internet connections and modem dialup. The 
State o f Oregon and membership dues pro­
vide PORTALS’ funding.

Web Day featured introductory and key­
note sessions attended by all participants, fol­
lowed by five focused breakout sessions and 
a lab equipped with personal computers run­
ning Netscape and staffed with volunteers. 
Municipal and state government representa­
tives, as well as Portland area library staff at­
tended Web Day.

The introduction presented by Millard 
Johnson o f PORTALS, “The Web, PORTALS, 
and the Virtual Library,” challenged the audi­
ence to consider the implications o f a Virtual 
Library independent o f traditional institutional 
identity. Gary Sampson o f Portland State Uni­
versity delivered the keynote address, “The 
World Wide Web,” in which he provided an 
overview o f the Web’s history, its present state, 
and speculations about its future.

Breakout sessions included “‘Cool’ Sites,” 
which explored selected Web sites notewor­
thy for their wide appeal and usefulness; 
“Home Setups,” which investigated the tech­
nological and financial issues involved in set­
ting up a Web browser on a home computer. 
A “Netscape/Lynx” workshop covered the es­
sential “how to” elements o f navigating the 
Web. There was a “Creating Web Pages” ses­
sion, as well as a “Spiders, Crawlers and Other 
Wondrous Things” workshop which compared 
various search engines.

Plans are under way to repeat Web Day 
this winter for those unable to attend the first 
one.— Rhona Klein, Portland State University; 
e-mail: rhona@godzilla.Hb.pdx.edu

ALA holds inform ation literacy 
hearing at M idw inter
ALA’s User Instruction for Information Literacy
Committee invites interested members to a hear­
ing to determine the need for the committee
on Monday, January 22, 2:00–4:00 p.m., at the
ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. The
committee stated it had difficulty carrying out
its charge to “review and coordinate . . . activi­
ties within ALA regarding instruction for users
in acquiring, or organizing, information . . .  to
encourage association-wide programming. . . 
Cited reasons for the difficulty include lack of
formal representation from other ALA groups
involved in information literacy and the fact
that those other ALA units are carrying out the
programmatic activities.

H a rv ard  an d  MIT sign reciprocal 
access agreem ents
Representatives o f the Harvard College Library
and MIT Libraries signed an agreement on July
24 establishing reciprocal library privileges for

 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

many members o f the MIT and Harvard com­
munities. The agreement, which went into ef­
fect on September 1, establishes closer rela­
tions between two schools that historically have 
had strong connections. It also follows the trend 
o f academic libraries creating alliances' with peer 
institutions to expand their resources in a cost- 
effective way.

Richard De Gennaro, Roy E. Larsen librar­
ian o f Harvard College, said, “I think this agree­
ment will be advantageous to both schools, and 
I expect it will lead to other forms o f library 
cooperation in the future.”

“ Rettig on Reference” debuts on the 
Internet
“Rettig on Reference,” a free service sponsored 
by the H. W. Wilson Co., provides reviews of 
new reference books and Internet-based refer­
ence sources. As was the case when Jim Rettig 
was the reference book reviewer for the now 
defunct Wilson Library Bulletin, he writes all 
o f the reviews. According to Rettig, “I have

mailto:rhona@godzilla.Hb.pdx.edu