ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


1 4 2 /C&RL News

Monitor as mentor: Internet's 
role in professional growth

By Mary W. George

Five tactics to help increase 
knowledge a nd expertise

A decade ago networking meant just one thing: establishing professional contacts 
beyond one’s immediate colleagues. The meth­
ods people used were traditional— meetings, 
letters, or the telephone— and their reasons for 
networking varied widely, from the general 
urge to find others with similar interests, to the 
specific intent to gain or spread influence. Pro­
fessional development, in the sense of each 
individual’s efforts to master new concepts, 
specialties, or techniques, was occasionally a 
by-product of such networking, but rarely its 
goal.

I doubt whether this traditional type of net­
working will ever vanish. If it does, if we even­
tually conduct every aspect of our professional 
lives from hermetically sealed workstations 
with no notion o f the human shape or char­
acteristics of those we “touch" or who “touch” 
us, I hope I will not be around for the expe­
rience.

N etw o rkin g's n e w  dimension
Technology in the mid-1990s has in fact en­
hanced interpersonal networking. Those o f us 
with access to Bitnet, the Internet, any of the 
commercial electronic systems, or to campus, 
local, or regional computer connections, can 
now supplement our previous ways of network­
ing with online communication. Instead of 
making a phone call to set a lunch date with a 
former colleague whom I want to see at an 
ALA conference, I now make those arrange­
ments via e-mail. Instead of being introduced

to my counterpart at another institution by a 
mutual acquaintance, I will use a gopher to 
find her e-mail address and may correspond 
with her electronically for several years before 
we ever meet.

Objectives of " w ire d "  professional 
developm ent
The same technology has vastly enriched and 
expanded our opportunities for professional 
development. Whereas previously we relied on 
journals, formal or informal courses, in-house 
or association-sponsored workshops, and per­
haps teleconferencing to extend our knowledge 
and expertise, today anyone with access to the 
Internet literally has at their fingertips all the 
resources of the electronic world. We must use 
these resources prudently: our time is not free, 
even though many of us pretend our connec­
tion is.

And, just as we do for user instruction or in 
any planning process, we must carefully de­
fine our objectives. The three I have for my 
own electronic professional development are: 
1) to learn how to expertly negotiate this terra 
incognita, 2) to discover what sorts of infor­
mation are buried there, and 3) to decide when 
networked information is superior to printed 
information for my work. If you have refine­
ments on these or think there are others, please 
let me know and I will compile them for a 
future issue.

For any academic librarian who can tap 
the Internet and whose professional life would 
be richer as a result— and I cannot imagine 
any job in our field where that would not be 
the case— here are five tactics of mine to adopt 
(or adapt) to increase knowledge and exper­
tise.

M ary G eorg e is h e a d  o f  th e G en era l a n d  H u m an ities R efer e n c e D ivision a t  P rin ceton  University’s F irestone 
Library; e-m a il: m w g eo rg e@ p h oen ix .p rin ceton .ed u

mailto:mwgeorge@phoenix.princeton.edu


March 1 9 9 4 /1 4 3

Tactic # 1: Read
Start by reading cover-to-cover a book on elec­
tronic networking, geared to your level of ex­
perience with computers and the Internet. I 
browsed several titles in various bookstores 
before buying Ed Krol’s chatty but basic work, 
The Whole Internet (O ’Reilly & Assoc., 1992) 
which I devoured over the 1992-93 New Year’s 
weekend. That plus experience led me to real­
ize I need to know more about the Unix oper­
ating system, so I intend to purchase an el­
ementary text on that. (Yes, I do use my own 
and the local public library for works on the 
topic, but when I sense a long-term commit­
ment to an area, I always want to own at least 
one title and keep it in my office for reference.)

Read a wide assortment of articles: practi­
cal ones like those which appeared recently in 
this journal, describing Internet resources in 
particular subject areas such as Russian and East 
European studies; news reports about how aca­
deme, business, and government are struggling 
or collaborating; technical contributions that 
discuss how to manipulate electronic docu­
ments; and philosophical pieces that speculate 
about the impact on our lives of the so-called 
Electronic Superhighway. The best way to iden­
tify these is to use your usual multidisciplinary 
index, whether on paper or online. Library Lit­
eratu re now has a separate heading for the 
Internet, as does Library & In form ation  S cien ce 
Abstracts (classification 13.11). Read appropri­
ate electronic listservs or Usenet newsgroups 
regularly. Although there is no such thing as a 
complete directory, that in the back of Krol’s 
book and the more recent compilation by Eric 
Braun are helpful guides to electronic forums 
in all disciplines.

Tactic # 2: Confer
Find a buddy or two— a colleague, friend, an 
electronically talented student—to answer your 
questions patiently and coach you step-by-step 
through such arcana as unzipping compressed 
files or modifying your computer’s hidden pa­
rameters to make some procedure work more 
smoothly.

Tactic # 3: P lay
Practice as much as possible in an unpressured 
environment (not at the reference desk!). Try 
Hytelnet to browse other libraries’ online cata­
logs. Tackle Rick Gates’s monthly In tern et 
Hunt, available on several library-related elec­
tronic listservs. Work through all the examples

in a text like Richard Smith and Mark Gibb’s 
N avigating the Internet. Get comfortable with 
the many paths and destinations gophers pro­
vide. Make sure you can both send and re­
trieve files using ftp and that you can identify 
them using Archie and Veronica. Any of these 
efforts, systematically pursued, will help you 
become fluent on the Internet.

Tactic # 4: Contribute
Share your ideas, comments, and experiences 
with others, both locally and remotely. Partici­
pate in electronic discussions, offer to be a 
buddy for someone even newer to technology, 
or teach a workshop on a topic or area you 
have become expert in.

Tactic # 5: Ponder
Reflect on what you are learning and whether 
there are more efficient or thorough ways to 
master the Internet. Put yourself in your users’ 
place and brainstorm with colleagues about 
what is reasonable and possible to expect fac­
ulty and students to do on their own and what 
is an appropriate part of reference service or 
research consultation. Draft a policy to delin­
eate these areas and then implement it, modi­
fying your guidelines as technology and user 
sophistication improve.

These are my observations as of early 1994 
about the Internet and professional develop­
ment. It is a very powerful tool, permitting every 
possible learning style, and conquering it—  
whether because it is an intrinsic challenge, 
just plain fun, or the tidal wave of the future—  
should be a resolution for every academic 
librarian. ■

(In tern et cont. f r o m  p a g e  141)
much more. Select “UofM Campus Information,” 
then “University of Minnesota Women’s Cen­
ter.”

O ther Resources
• SOC.FEMINISM FAQ (Frequently Asked 

Questions) provides “an informal compilation 
of potential resources for women” and includes 
feminist organizations, related organizations, 
feminist and women-oriented publications, 
feminist and women-oriented electronic mail­
ing lists, and a list of catalogs/bookstores. It is 
available through ftp to rtfm.mit.edu as “re­
sources” under /pub/usenet/news.answers/ 
feminism. ■



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