CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Ellen Hoffman/Merit Minutes of the Network Training Materials Working Group (TRAINMAT) Ellen Hoffman announced that, due to a change in her role with Merit, she could no longer act as co-chair. At the end of the meeting, two volunteers offered to consider becoming co-chair. Jill Foster and Joyce Reynolds, User Services Area Director, will work out the details in the next few weeks. Round Table Sharing of Experiences The session started with introductions, and each person described the training activities at their organizations. This sharing of information included training activities around the world (Europe, Pacific Rim, North America and Australia). These included subject-based training, involvement of librarians in training, and training educators (in NASA, K-12 and German schools). The group would like to see network training materials used in a pilot on networked multimedia delivery. RARE and IETF Activities Jill briefly discussed the RARE Network Training Task Force. She noted that the group is studying what exists and seeks to provide a mix-and-match package of materials; it is more operations- than standards-oriented. She outlined a plan to develop a training video building on a COSINE video. Jill also described the NISP/ITTI network training materials project at the University of Newcastle, UK. An initial stage of the project developed a catalog of training materials and work is ongoing to develop curriculum materials for Internet training. The generic training materials can be used by trainers as-is, or tailored to particular circumstances and/or subject groups. The first unit of this package, an overview entitled ``The World from your Desktop,'' was produced by Margaret Isaacs, Margaret.Isaacs@newcastle.ac.uk. This is a presentation (Powerpoint), accompanying handout, speakers notes and suggestions for demonstrations. There are worksheets for an accompanying hands-on workshop. Jill ran a short demonstration of the disk-based presentation and handed out examples of the accompanying material. This is UK-biased, but should be easily adaptable by trainers. Margaret sent out messages about obtaining the files via FTP from tuda.ncl.ac.uk in /pub/network-training. README files have more details on what is available. 1 Catalogue of Network Training Materials The catalogue of network training materials was discussed. Various volunteers will look at defining the template for collecting the information, and will each take about ten items from the NISP/ITTI catalogue and update the information on these items, as well as collect information on further items. o Data Elements Data elements for the catalog were reviewed and the group reached consensus on most areas. Jill will mail a revised set to the TRAINMAT mailing list. Issues discussed included audience type, keywords, media type and access information, cost as concept rather than specific number (free versus charge), and whether to include all fields for all types (FTP, telnet, etc.) in every entry, or just those that apply. o Subject Headings Volunteers will agree on a limited set of subject headings based on the actual material collected for the catalogue. Subject Resource Guides A discussion of subject-specific Internet resource guides was held. It was agreed that subject resource guides were a useful aid in making training relevant. Many exist and we should pool what we have and develop others. These should be along the lines of ``the top 20 most interesting resources in subject area X'' rather than an exhaustive list. Australian and UK librarians are willing to help on this. Other volunteers are encouraged. Using the Network to Deliver Training. Issues in using the network for training delivery were briefly reviewed in an open discussion. Included were recovery of costs for training development, self- or peer-based training through applications like IRC or interactive ``games'' like MUD or MUSE. Jill noted the multimedia group was looking for pilots, and that Internet training might be a possibility. This will be further discussed at the next meeting. There was also the recognition that training for the absolute novice did not always work on the Internet, as these folks are least likely to be able to use the Internet when they start. Jill requested information on any training projects others might know of. 2 Liaison Activities Susan Harris has been assisting in posting a limited set of training information to the mailing list from net-train. The RARE Network Training Task Force and USWG mailing lists are currently being used for TRAINMAT discussion. The USWG addresses can be found in the TRAINMAT charter; the RARE addresses are: General discussion: wg-isus@rare.nl To subscribe: mailserver@rare.nl In the body of the message type: subscribe wg-isus [your first name] [your last name] Charter Revisions Jill noted that the dates on the charter need revision, mainly because the data element issues have slowed production of a catalog. This will be done and posted to the list. Attendees Matti Aarnio mea@nic.nordu.net Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu George Clapp clapp@ameris.center.il.ameritech.com Reinhard Doelz embnet@comp.bioz.unibas.ch Michael Erlinger mike@jarthur.claremont.edu Jill Foster Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk Klaus Fueller klausf@osgo.ks.he.schule.de Ben Geerlings ben.geerlings@surfnet.nl Raymond Harder rharder@eis.calstate.edu Maria Heijne maria.heijne@surfnet.nl Ellen Hoffman ellen@merit.edu Nandor Horvath horvath@sztaki.hu Xander Jansen xander.jansen@surfnet.nl Peter Koch pk@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de John Kunze jak@violet.berkeley.edu Thomas Lenggenhager lenggenhager@switch.ch John Lindsay lindsay@kingston.ac.uk April Marine april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov Mark Prior mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu Jennifer Sellers sellers@nsipo.nasa.gov Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu Bert Stals bert.stals@surfnet.nl Hisao Uose uose@tnlab.ntt.jp Marc van der Noordaa noordaa@rare.nl 3 Chris Weider clw@merit.edu 4