| ISSUE NO. 71 | 
| JANUARY 1999 |
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UNC's Undergraduate Library introduced its first online tutorial to incoming freshmen this fall.
Students in freshman English were required to complete the tutorial and submit a printout of their
score to their instructor before their class visit to the library for a hands-on research session
for one of their course unit papers.
The tutorial covers very basic skills: finding reserve materials, finding books and other library materials using the online catalog, and finding periodical articles using Expanded Academic ASAP. Just enough information to impart a feeling of confidence in face of all the resources available. The tutorial consists of a series of GIFS and a floating window of text that serves as a tour guide. Each of the three sections is followed by a quiz. Students can search for the answers using the floating window to access the appropriate database. The program uses HTML, Javascript, and cookies. Sorry, it doesn't run with Microsoft Explorer. The URL is http://www.lib.unc.edu/house/tutorial/tutorial.html. It works best with display settings at 640/480. Books I found indispensible include: Designing with Javascript / Nick Heinele (O'Reilly), JavaScript Bible / Danny Goodman (IDG Books), the quiz script was adapted from Mastering Javascript / Jamie and James Jaworski (Sybex). | 
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Gary Momenee
Reference Librarian
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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