The University of Queensland Library's Pathways commercial internet training service helps take the hassle out of a journey along the information superhighway.
Pathways offers an experienced team of information professionals, top-class training facilities, substantial hands-on practice time, small class sizes, and extensive
training notes and exercises.
Courses cater for net surfers from novice to expert, and for those who want to learn how to gain maximum value from their research into specific topics.
The current courses are Navigating the Internet (for beginners); The World Wide Web (for more advanced users); Resource Discovery Tours (four-hour subject-based training courses) and Weaving the Family Web (providing resources for family historians and
genealogists).
Pathways can also tailor a training course for specific needs, or run seminars and presentations on the Internet.
The next three-and-a-half hour Navigating the Internet course is on Tuesday, August 12, from 1.30pm to 5pm.
It combines instruction and hands-on practical exercises, with individual workstations for all participants.
The two main aspects explored are the Internet's immense stores of networked information and other resources and its use as a communications tool.
The course covers what the Internet actually is, what it offers, basic navigation, addresses and URLs, finding information, communication, including electronic mail, discussion lists, newsgroups, keeping up to date and getting connected.
The next World Wide Web course is on Monday, July 7, from 9am to 12.30pm, and on Thursday, August 21, from 1.30pm to 5pm.
The second training session concentrates on the World Wide Web (the latest development on the Internet, and its fastest growing area).
The course investigates current WWW tools such as search engines, subject pages, specialist directories and resource guides. Both general and subject-specific search engines, (for example, people finders, news search engines), will be covered.
Through the use of practical exercises, course participants learn how to find specific information on the Internet via the WWW. They also learn how to download images, software and text from Web sites.
Techniques for refining and narrowing search strategies to maximise results will be covered, as will some evaluation methods for assessing Web material. Web publishing, including electronic journals, and copyright issues will be explored.
The course touches on the effective use and configuration of WWW browsers and will examine some of the most useful sites on the Web. The importance of keeping current will also be discussed.
No previous Internet experience is needed by participants, but some computer experience would be useful, particularly experience with using a mouse.
The four-hourly Pathways Resource Discovery Tours are run on demand.
The tours are advanced and subject-based, combining instruction with hands-on practical exercises.
Sessions investigate in detail the information resources in a specific subject area, such as architecture, medicine or law, currently available on the Internet, and the mechanisms, such as subject pages, search engines and specialist directories, for finding them.
Other topics addressed generally include (depending on the subject) government information, library catalogues, bibliographic databases, newsgroups, discussion lists, electronic journals, and keeping up-to-date with new developments such as specific new sites in the subject area and the ever-improving tools on the Internet for finding information.
Two Weaving the Family Web courses are coming up, on Thursday, July 17, and Friday, August 1, both from 2pm to 5pm.
The course will cover the existing Internet resources for the family historian and genealogist. It will also cover sites for beginners surname lists and archives, genealogy and surname discussion lists, the use of the Internet for communication, societies and research services, genealogical software, archives and records online.
This is a new course, with classes to be run later in the year, possibly on weekends if demand is great enough.
The cost for all courses is $120 per person, $100 per person group bookings (minimum 10 people), $60 for University of Queensland Alumni members, and other selected groups.
Bookings are essential for all classes. For more information, contact Belinda Weaver Phone: (07) 3365 7529; Fax: (07) 3365 6888; Email:uqlpathways@library.uq.edu.au or check the
