This mission of this nonprofit organization is to assist "educators, psychologists, parents, policy makers, administrators and others to learn about the unique educational and affective needs of gifted and talented children and how to meet these needs effectively in our schools, families, and communities." As librarian and member of the Board of Directors, I have used my research and web-authoring skills to identify print and Internet resources for gifted and talented education. As noted in a letter from Sylvia Burke, co-President, I am applying these skills for the benefit of the regional conference (New England Conference for the Gifted and Talented) which will be hosted in Connecticut in October 2004.
Although this K-5 elementary school in Region 15 (Southbury and Woodbury, Connecticut) has a full-time librarian and a technology specialist, classroom teachers have requested my assistance in developing pathfinders of print and Internet materials suitable for class unit studies. As part of the certified leader of a pull-out Junior Great Books group, I created pathfinders to extend the learning from each week's story theme and to guide students in independent research in the library.
Many churches, some founded during Colonial days, still operate largely on technology from the 1980's. Through my work in my church's elected leadership, I have introduced some of the benefits of computer technology to the congregation and staff and have endeavored to make a variety of print and electronic resources available to support the faith life of individuals locally and as part of the Internet community. This included the development of a prototype Web site as a model for an Internet presence for the church, the reorganization and automation of the church library, and the creation of a digital library Web site for electronic resources, Koinonia eLibrary. An important element in these efforts has been an on-going public relations campaign to raise awareness, program interest, and financial support for the library among the various user groups. I have used management techniques and evaluative methods from my coursewook to maintain a reach out to potential users. I invited representatives of area religious libraries to an ecumenical meeting of congregational librarians in April 2004, where we established a collaborative network for our area and are working to revive the Connecticut chapter of the Church and Synagogue Library Association (a key professional organization).
Early in my graduate program, I found it difficult to determine which online databases offered full-text electronic versions of relevant professional journals for my research and what range of issues was available. Regrettably, the library's catalogue does not include a complete listing of journals accessible through online subscriptions. For my own use and the benefit of other library school students, I indexed a large number of the library science journals as part my coursework for Indexing and Abstracting. The broad need for such indexing is now being answered by commercially-produced online subscription indexing products, although this focussed-subject index may continue to be of value to those in information and library science.
With reference work in a special or academic library as my career goal, I sought out internship work in the libraries at Cheshire Academy and Capital Community College, where I had the opportunity to use two popular integrated library system programs (Athena and Voyager) for cataloguing and research. With experienced librarians as my mentors, I learned the "art" of cataloguing with the user in mind, being aware of the particular features and limitations of the electronic catalogues. Both schools attract faculty and students from diverse language, ethnic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, requiring a range of reference services. In assisting students and faculty through reference work, I put into practice the reference interview skills to clarify a user's information needs and to customize the package of materials presented to conform to those priorities.
Problems? Questions? E-mail Barbara J. Hampton.
Last updated: 12 January 2006