An Interview with Ronald Still, Administrative Assistant
North Carolina's Governor's Waste Management Board 1989-1993
Reprinted with Permission
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askSam: Mr. Still, what can you tell us about your use of askSam with your work in environmental education.
RONALD STILL: At the request of Governor Martin in 1991, we were preparing to be a "one stop shop" for environmental education materials for North Carolina students and residents. By mid 1993, the organization would be repositioned and renamed as the Office of Environmental Education. We increased our telephone lines and advertised a statewide toll free number. We had serious concerns about how to handle the data necessary to answer the questions we were being asked. Questions were coming to us on a wide variety of topics, such as the red wolf reintroduction project by the federal government, supplemental coal fired power plant projects in the mountains, and agricultural nitrates in the drinking water. We looked at the software being used by other state agencies and businesses running help lines, but quickly determined those solutions were out of the question. Many required main frames or mini computers, programmers, or would have cost over 50% of our total annual budget. I knew that askSam would run on DOS and Windows based computers with low memory requirements. I had some experience with the product and knew we could put anyone on the computer with little training and they would get fast replies to common English queries. We put a copy of askSam on a 386 and tried it with great success. We put the entire text from the park brochures in the same database that we put our contacts' telephone numbers and addresses. By having all the data in one file, we were easily able to produce mailing lists as well as answer our phone questions.
askSam: How has askSam made your job any easier, faster or more efficient?
RONALD STILL: We were able to place any data, regardless how obscure into a record and find it quickly and easily. The speed to run the search was critical in keeping our toll charges down on 800 lines and residents' charges down on regular lines.
askSam: What can you tell us about the type of customer support you received as a user?
RONALD STILL: Other than holidays and hurricanes we've been able to reach tech support and get solutions to our problems. We've had help on developing search and report programs when we used the DOS versions, assistance on printing reports when we migrated to the Windows version, and are currently receiving help on getting out a complicated report.
askSam: What can you tell us about your use of askSam today?
RONALD STILL: Currently, I am with the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. We have developed the largest indexed collection of environmental documents and videos of any comparable state office -- over 12000 pieces. I use askSam to assist in my response to many calls coming into our information clearinghouse.
askSam: Would you recommend askSam and why?
RONALD STILL: Yes. It is a simple to use program for folks needing to bring large amounts of diverse information to their screens quickly.
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NOTE: These are are personal comments on the product and are not an endorsement by the State of North Carolina.
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Ronald Still
1413 Kenbrook Drive
Garner, NC 27529-4447
Email: cw_rls@bellsouth.net
URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/schools/rls/
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