School Psychology: Webmaster Musings </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EE" vlink="#551A8B" alink="#FF0000">  <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript"> s="na";c="na";j="na";f=""+escape(document.referrer) </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript1.2"> s=screen.width;v=navigator.appName if (v != "Netscape") {c=screen.colorDepth} else {c=screen.pixelDepth} j=navigator.javaEnabled() </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript" LANGUAGE="javascript"> function pr(n) {document.write(n,"\n");} NS2Ch=0 if (navigator.appName == "Netscape" && navigator.appVersion.charAt(0) == "2") {NS2Ch=1} if (NS2Ch == 0) { r="&size="+s+"&colors="+c+"&referer="+f+"&java="+j+"" pr("<A HREF=\"http://www.TheCounter.com\" TARGET=\"_top\"><IMG"+ " BORDER=0 SRC=\"http://c2.thecounter.com/id=1230413"+r+"\"><\/A>")} </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://www.TheCounter.com" TARGET="_top"><IMG SRC="http://c2.thecounter.com/id=1230413" ALT="TC" BORDER=0></A> </NOSCRIPT>  <center><table> <tr> <td><img SRC="./pix/kids3.gif" ALT="kids" height=98 width=60><img SRC="./pix/clear.gif" ALT="spacer" height=1 width=30></td> <td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="500"><img SRC="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/pix/sprologo2.gif" ALT="School Psychology Resources Online" BORDER=0 height=44 width=500> <center><table COLS=3 WIDTH="90%" > <tr ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP> <td><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net">Main Page</a></font> <br><b><font size=-1>Cholent Corner</font></b> <br><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_bk.html">Bookstore</a></font> </td> <td><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_03.html">What's New</a></font> <br><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_jobs.html">Jobs</a></font> <br><font size=-1>Members Only (soon)</font></td> <td><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_index.html">Index (search)</a></font> <br><font size=-1><a href="http://www8.bravenet.com/cartoon/show.asp?userid=pj22688">Daily Cartoon</a></font> <br><font size=-1><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_awards.html">Awards</a></font></td> </tr> </table></center> </td> </tr> </table></center> <center><table CELLSPACING=3 CELLPADDING=5 COLS=1 WIDTH="580" > <tr> <td> <center><b><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+1>Cholent* Corner</font></font></b> <br><font size=-1>An occasional column on matters of interest to webmaster, Sandra Koser Steingart</font></center> </td> </tr> </table></center> <center><table CELLSPACING=6 CELLPADDING=5 WIDTH="500" BGCOLOR="#FFCC00" > <tr> <td> <center><b>School Psychology Resources Online: An Interview</b></center> </td> </tr> </table></center> <center><table CELLSPACING=7 CELLPADDING=7 COLS=1 WIDTH="480" > <tr> <td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="50%">Wow. July 8, 2000, the<b> fifth anniversary of School Psychology Resources Online.</b> Hard to believe. <br>The figures are approximate, but here are the "page views" for the main page by year. <center> <p>First year (7/8/95 - 7/7/96): 46,470 <br>Second year (7/8/96 - 7/7/97): 64,240 <br>Third year (7/8/97 - 7/7/98): 106,025 <br>Fourth year (7/8/98 - 7/7/99): 145,000 <br>Fifth year (7/8/99 - 7/7/00): 177,486 </center> <p><i><font size=-1>A while ago, I was interviewed about how I started School Psychology </font></i> <br><i><font size=-1>Resources Online. Here is that interview.</font></i> <p><b>When did you get started?</b> <br>My first experience with the Internet was in November, 1994. The University of Maryland was providing free text only accounts to K-12 educators. As a practicing school psycholgoist employed by Baltimore County Public Schools, I qualified. <p><b>How did you get involved in developing the site</b> <br>The site began as my own set of personal bookmarks to information that I found helpful in my own school psychology work. Initially, it was not a <br>website at all, but only existed on my own hard drive. <p>When my county library began offering Internet accounts, I signed on, mostly because I was getting constant busy signals trying to <br>log in to my university account. A benefit of the BCPL account was web <br>space. Eventually, it occurred to me that other school psychologists might <br>find my bookmarks helpful, so I posted them as a long, poorly organized list. <p>At the time, I had been collecting bookmarks for about five months. I <br>estimate that it took me a few weeks to turn my bookmark collection into a simple website. I learned some basic HTML and went online on July 8, 1995. SPRO has evolved considerably since I first went online. <p><b>How long did it take you to get it up and running?</b> <br><b>How much maintenance must you put into it?</b> <p>Maintaining the site requires at least a few hours a week. Some weeks I <br>put in much more, rarely less. As the site has grown, I have done some <br>major design overhauls which take a lot of time. I try to do those during <br>vacation periods. <p><b>What method have you found most useful for finding useful links to</b> <br><b>include?</b> <br>At first, I used various search engines and directories (Yahoo, Alta <br>Vista, etc.). I still do that occasionally. Now, however, I find that the <br>site is well enough known that people often send me urls to include. I <br>still have a large collection of urls that I have not had a chance to <br>examine. <p><b>Anything else you would like to tell us about your and your site?</b> <br>As a result of creating SPRO, I get e-mail from people around the world. Some people want to share new sites; some want information for school papers; some want advice for working with local school systems; and <br>some want counseling or counseling referrals. <p>One interesting e-mail I received was from an Israeli woman whose daughter had married an American and was living in Baltimore. The marriage was in trouble, and the mother asked me if I could recommend an Orthodox Jewish marriage counselor who could understand the family's cultural/religious underpinnings. As it turned out, I was familiar with a local family services agency that fit the bill. <p>Maintaining this web site has truly been a labor of love for me. I <br>continue to amazed at the growth in hits (visits) to the main page (this <br>is the only page on which I keep count). <p>The figures are approximate, but here are the "hits" by year. <br>First year (7/8/95 - 7/7/96): 46,470 <br>Second year (7/8/96 - 7/7/97): 64,240 <br>Third year (7/8/97 - 7/7/98): 106,025 <br>Fourth year (7/8/98 - 7/7/99): 145,000 <br>Fifth year (7/8/99 - 7/7/00): 177,486 <p>I think I was fortunate to be on the WWW before many of my colleages. I know my site pre-dates NASP's. When I started the site, I was the the first or second school psychologist to begin such a site. This gave my <br>site the advantage of being the "first kid on the Net." I also work hard <br>to add relevant information and keep my site timely. It also helps to have <br>been recognized by a number of groups that make "awards" for WWW sites. <p><b>Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.</b> <br>You're welcome. Thanks for asking. <HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> </td> </tr> </table></center> <center>Please visit the <b><a href="http://www.schoolpsychology.net/p_bk.html">Bookstore.</a></b> <p><i><font color="#FF0000"><font size=-1>* Cholent is a delicious stew, often prepared for the Jewish Sabbath, that can contain a mix of just about anything. It typically cooks for a long time before it is ready.</font></font></i> <br><font size=-1>July 8, 1999</font></center> </body> </html>