Legal Issues of the USA PATRIOT ACT (Continued from Session One)

LibQUAL+: An innovative, technology-based assessment tool for libraries
Julia Blixrud and Consuella Askew Waller, Association of Research Libraries

LibQUAL+ is an innovative, technology-based research and development project jointly undertaken by ARL and Texas A&M University. The survey defines and measures library service quality across institutions and creates useful quality-assessment tools for local planning. This year the survey was completed by more than 78,000 respondents at 164 institutions. The LibQUAL+ survey instrument is a scalable, web-based tool that relies on a solid technological foundation, including Cold Fusion programming and SQL servers located at Texas A&M. This presentation will focus on LibQUAL+'s technical infrastructure and web interface.

The Laptop Experience at OSU's Valley Library
Valery King and Jeanne Davidson, Oregon State University

In 1999, OSU's Valley Library began making laptop computers available to students. The presenters will discuss the many issues that we encountered in circulating laptops including startup costs, lending policies, security issues, maintenance, promotion, and ways of keeping up with new technologies (and what to do with the old). Arranging for people to use their own laptops in the library brought other concerns: registration, configuration, and a push for new technologies. We will discuss our solutions as well as our processes for finding them, especially relating to the impact of new wireless technologies.

GIS on the Reference Desk: Answering Business Information Questions
Andrew Nicholson and Kaiping Zhang, University of Oregon

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have the ability to query and analyze geographic information in a variety of different contexts. While GIS has rapidly become a leading research tool in many academic disciplines, libraries have also found GIS to be a useful tool for helping to answer reference questions, particularly as they relate to business information and demographics. Areas of business research that may utilize GIS information, include resource management, marketing, and site selection. Kaiping Zhang, Business Librarian, and Andrew Nicholson, Map/GIS Librarian from the University of Oregon Libraries, will demonstrate, with several examples, how a GIS can be used effectively in helping patrons conduct their research.

Andrew Nicholson is the Map/GIS Librarian at the University of Oregon. He obtained his MLS from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) in 1998 and certificate in Business Geographics from the Center of Geographic Sciences in 2001. He has worked as a Librarian for Dalhousie, Trent University (Ontario,Canada) and the Halifax Regional Library.

Kaiping Zhang is the Business / Economics Reference Librarian at the University of Oregon. She obtained her MLS from the University at Albany, State University of New York in 1992. She also obtained a Master of Science in Developmental Reading in May 1988. She has worked as a reference / Instruction Librarian at Pittsburg State University at Kansas, Marietta College at Marietta, Ohio, and Mohawk Valley Community College. Her collection development focus is in the areas of business and economics.