Date: April 14-17, 1998
Location: Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Institute, Dania, FL
Host: Kathy Maxson
The conference was a great success. Three members from the Caribbean were able to attend thanks to a grant from IAMSLIC. They were Rob Bateson of CERMES at the University of the West Indies, Sheila Dunstan of the University of Puerto Rico and Shirley Lincoln of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Among the speakers were several SAIL members. Linda Pikula discussed electronic journals, Maria Bello presented a new search engine she designed, and Evelyn Poole-Kober talked about collaboration across boundaries in the era of high tech. Donald Riggs, V.P. for Information Services and the University Librarian at NSU talked about the emerging digital age. Other topics were copyright law for electronic materials, by Carol Yecies of NSU’s Law School, and aggregators and catalog access on the web, presented by Lia Hemphill and Peggy Madison of NSU’s Einstien Library. The Oceanographic Center provided two speakers: Dr. Charles Messing gave a wonderful presentation on Deep Reefs and Ancient Gardens and Bill Margolis spoke on the Sea Turtle Montioring Project funded by Broward County Natural Resource Protection. Guest speakers were Susan Olson from the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) who discussed the problems unique to Florida Bay, Gail Clements who demonstrated the Everglades database, and Jim Lushine of the National Weather Service who gave a presentation on tornadoes and hurricanes in the southeastern United States.
Vendors CRC Press, Island Press, and EBSCO were all represented, with Kristy Manning of Island Press (and a SAIL member) discussing the Knowledge Environment Project.
Other events included a barbecue with a camp fire program presented by Jim Sawgrass of the Miskogee Creek Indian Tribe and trip out to the Everglades with an airboat ride through the sawgrass.
Next year’s conference will be hosted by Joyce Shaw at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory of the University of Southern Mississippi in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.