The Toronto Solos got off to a great start this year when we held our first meeting on October 5, 2004. Ten solos started the meeting off with introductions and a brief overview of backgrounds and work places. The next item on our agenda was sharing our favourite resource and we all got so interested in the ensuing discussion we ran out of time for anything else.

Our next meeting was held on November 9, 2004, at the new LexisNexis offices, where we discussed problems and issues that arise in our work. It turned out that most of us can handle the day-to-day library issues but occasionally we have some difficulty with management issues either supervising non-professional staff or explaining our value to upper management. We didn't solve the world's woes, but we did manage to come up with a selection of suggestions and we are looking forward to hearing progress reports at our January meeting. The topic proved so interesting that it has been requested that we open our February meeting to discussion of more such issues.

In January we will be discussing three short articles on Solo Librarians. The articles can be found at the following links:

• Four Steps I Took That Transformed My Solo Corporate Library by Tom Nielsen (in Marketing Library Services, vol 16 nos 6/7, 2002)
  www.infotoday.com/mls/sep02/nielsen.htm
• Practical Tips to Help You Prove Your Value by Amelia Kassel (in Marketing Library Services, vol 16 no 4, 2002)
  www.infotoday.com/mls/may02/kassel.htm
• Solo Librarians and the Future of Small Libraries and Information Centres by Michelle Van Dyk (Council of Federal Libraries, 1999)
  http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/201/301/liaison-e/liaison-eh/1999/mar_apr/04e.htm

Upcoming Meetings
For those of you who might be interested in attending a meeting of the Downtown Toronto Solos, we will be getting together on February 8, March 8 and April 12 at the LexisNexis offices at 181 University Avenue (at Adelaide), Suite 200.

Some interest has been shown in a GTA dinner meeting but only in Peel Region and that meeting will take place on March 1 (location TBD).

SLA Conference - Toronto
Finally, don't forget that the SLA Conference is being held in Toronto this coming June. We will be holding a "no-host" Solo dinner to meet all our out-of-town colleagues on June 5. Fellow solos - make plans to join us. We have also been asked to organize some "neighbourhood" walks around the city on June 9 for those solos staying on to explore our city. Volunteers welcome!

Toronto Solo's Favourite Resources

• Canadian Almanac & Directory (print source)

• Copernic Agent www.copernic.com
  Desktop version has a file indexer/search agent, search recent Internet history

• CRIC www.cric.ca
  Public opinion poll results

• EEVIL: Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library www.eevl.ac.uk/
  Portal to many engineering links

• European Union - Europa http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm

• Factiva(subscription only)

• Fraser: Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research http://fraser.stlouisfed.org

• FreePint www.freepint.com

• Gary Price’s Resource Shelf www.resourceshelf.com

• Google www.google.ca

• How Stuff Works www.howstuffworks.com
  Fun site that gives straightforward explanations of everyday phenomena

• Librarians' Index www.lii.org

• National Library of Canada - Amicus www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html

• “On-line Retrieval” FIS course handouts www.fis.utoronto.ca/programs/courses/LIS/1325/readings.htm (click on “Content” for both classes)

• Research Buzz www.researchbuzz.com
  News and information about search engines, databases, etc.

• Search Engine Watch www.searchenginewatch.com
  Tips about Internet search engines

• Solo Librarians Listserv SOLOLIB-L www.sla.org/content/community/lists/instruction/index.cfm

• Teoma www.teoma.com
  Alternative search engine

• Toronto Public Library Virtual Reference www.tpl.toronto.on.ca
  (free with library card) and Custom Research (fee-based). Pay attention to copyright issues.

• Transportation Libraries Catalog http://ntl.bts.gov/link.cfm
  Union catalog (> 1 yr old) for U.S. transportation research libraries

• TRIS: Transportation Research Information Services http://trisonline.bts.gov/sundev/search.cfm
  Full database accessible through Dialog, Free databases (US and rest of world)

• University of Calgary Library www.ucalgary.ca/library/

Gillian Clinton is the principal of Clinton Research. Her company provides information research, knowledge management and library services to corporations or individuals on an as-needed basis. She can be reached at clintonresearch@yahoo.ca or 416-502-9036