Hi. I am working on my ten minute panel presentation for the Columbia gig next Friday. My topic: "Honoring Tradition, Embracing the Future. How we keep current with evolving educational, technological, and cultural trends, while maintaining our traditional reference skills and our commitment to public service" [I did not write that] I'm planning something to do with collaborative information systems and maybe put in a few good words for sites like Web Junction. Or I may just focus on how "cultural trends" lately include turning the public library into one big place to check email and play games online. I am not suggesting that this isn't a good role for the library to fill, just that in Vermont we don't have staffing or systems or enough of a technology-aware culture to appropriately deal with it. There are many many reasons why giving someone access to an hour on an Internet-enabled computer is different than handing them a book. Maybe I'll just spend ten minutes listing them....