At my age and with my background as a teacher, the sorts of long-run goals
feasible and means to achieve them are different from those appropriate
to a person 20 years younger and just beginning a career as a Librarian.
The familiar path of career mobility by leapfrogging from one job and
locale to another and assumption of professional society responsibilities
has little appeal;
far more important for the next dozen or so years is concentration on
proximal tasks and opportunities within the W&L setting, where it is
possible to have influence upon the evolution of information services
for a face-to-face community. This work is already providing an empirical
basis
for wider contributions to the evolution of computers in libraries,
through Internet communication, writing and conference participation. I
have made use of
several opportunities to attend issue-oriented regional meetings
(American Chemical Society DIALOG workshop, SIGWAIS and SIGNIDR meetings,
Humanities Computing) and have made or proposed presentations at wider
gatherings (Computers in Libraries, Virginia Library Association, EDUCOM),
and I certainly intend
to continue such involvement. I have generally found non-presenter
attendance at large meetings (viz: American Society for Information
Science) to be of limited value in terms
of new ideas or personal contacts. LISTSERV and USENET groups are much
more effective means to follow the development of professional
specialties and interests, and these (together with incessant web
trolling) have been important sources of ideas and inspiration for my
development of WWW resources at W&L.