The Old Woman: Kay E. Vandergrift Kay E. Vandergrift has dwelt in the forest of the imagination for most of her adult life, having shared children's literature with young people themselves and with teachers and librarians for more than 40 years. She has been a classroom teacher, a librarian, and a school principal as well as a faculty member in graduate programs in library and information science and elementary education. She created and manages an extensive website in youth literature, feminism, and historical children's literature, including the award-winning Snow White site. She is now Professor Emerita, Rutgers University.

The Wise Seer: Jane Anne Hannigan Jane Anne Hannigan, Professor Emerita from Columbia University, expert in technology and in youth literature and manager of this project is truly a wise seer. She kept the team moving when Mother Goose just wouldn't fly and continued to work on the site in the years after the original team disbanded. She also tried to keep the Old Woman working on ECLIPSE when other responsibilities and tasks intervened. Jane was truly the driving force behind this project, learning new technologies as the need arose in order to update and complete various aspects of the site and serving as the link between the content experts and the technology team. She was also the organizer of most of the team's fabulous feasts.

The Magician-in-Training: Rebecca Platzner Rebecca Platzner has a B.A. in English Literature from Cornell University and was a doctoral student in Rutgers University's School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies, where she also earned her M.L.S., when this project was initiated. Since then she has completed her Ph.D, taught at the University of Iowa, and has now moved on to pursue other goals. She has published book chapters and articles in such journals as Knowledge Quest, The ALAN Review, and Women & Language, as well as a number of publications on youth literature on the WWW. Her work has also been presented at the Association of Library and Information Science Educators.

The Wizard: the World-Wide-Web

The Internet has become one of the driving forces of a newly emerging economy, and brought about a whole new means of spreading information on a scale only imagined just a few short years ago. For a little more insight into the Internet and more specifically, the World-Wide-Web try these sites: http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/ http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/ http://www.oii.org/index.html http://www.webhistory.org/home.html

The King: Saul Amarel (1928-2002) Saul Amarel was the Alan Mathison Turing Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Rutgers University Information Science Council, a university-wide, interdisciplinary council that supports innovative computing and information science initiatives such as Project ECLIPSE. Professor Amarel was an innovator in the development of artifical intelligence and the founder of the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University. He was a recipient of the prestigious Allen Newell Award from the Association of Computing for his lifetime of contributions to the field.

The Knight in Shining Armor: Alex Daley Alex is a a programmer with experience in embedded systems, internet communications and protocols, and database design and management, but his main expertise lies in web design--both frontend and backend. He has worked for the University of Pennsylvania Hospital System and more recently Rutgers University developing web based tools to improve both the way we teach and learn. He is currently employed by Microsoft.

The Keeper of Records: Michael Joseph Michael Joseph is a scholar of early American children's literature and children's book illustration. He has written about various aspects of Mother Goose, particularly the development of related imagery in the nineteenth century. His exhibition at the New-York Historical Society in 1992, Mother Goose in New York, was the last exhibition ever held in the NYHS Library Gallery, although he does not accept the blame for its closing. He is currently at work on a book about the relationship between wood engraving and the emergent American picture book during the period 1865-1880. MJ is also a printer, and, between 1985 and 1990 published a series of miniature children's books for his daughter, Hannah, which are called Hannah Goose Nursery Rhymes.

The Protector of Precious Images: Gail Aaron Gail Aaron serves as Assistant Curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings, at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ. Since beginning to work in the Department of Prints and Drawings in spring of 1994, Gail Aaron has been responsible for diverse curatorial aspects of the Rutgers Collection of Original Illustrations for Children's Literature, including research, collection development, and exhibition planning. Aaron's experience includes academic training in fine art and art history, English literature, and education, as well as employment and volunteer work in a variety of educational settings.

The Seeker of Meanings: Shannon Roper Other than being a Mother Goose reader as a child (and resembling the "little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead"), Shannon was a doctoral student of communication in the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies at Rutgers University at the time of this project. Her research has focused on interactivity in computer-mediated communication systems. Her research interests also include the different relational and identity aspects of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal communication. Her work has been presented at conferences including the International Communication Association, the National Communication Association, the Eastern Communication Association, the New York State Communication Association, and the New Jersey Communication Association. Shannon is now a faculty member at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The All-Seeing Observer: Lisa Covi Lisa M. Covi, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers. Her research is in the area of team collaboration with a particular focus on the use of technology as part of the process and product of collaboration. She enjoys reading and singing Mother Goose rhymes with her friends' children. http://scils.rutgers.edu/~covi/

The Pathmaker: Barbara Battles As long as I can remember, I thought my dream job would be to do research in a university environment on a project that personally interested me and on topics that were mentally challenging. I have lately found myself at a point where the quality of my life can finally outrank my need for a salary. Therefore, when the opportunity arose for me to assist with the Mother Goose project, I was eager to volunteer. I bring to the project team my experience as a reference librarian and my personal interest and enthusiasm in information seeking and dissemination. I also bring a background in visual arts with an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and over fourteen years experience in commercial design. I met the key members of the team in 1994, when I attended Rutgers in pursuit of my Master of Library Service degree. Although I specialized in and now work in adult reference in a public library, I have always been intrigued about the study of reading development in children and in the analysis of the picture book and visual learning.

The Keeper of Instruments and Magical Boxes: Doug Riecken A principal investigator and senior scientist at the IBM Watson Research Center. His research includes common sense reasoning, theories of mind, and the role of emotions. His industrial research has focused on system infrastructures that enable applications in distributed cooperating agents and human-computer interaction (HCI). Over the past 17 years he has conducted research in agent based systems, end-user programming, music composition models, real-time computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) environments, multimodal reasoning systems, and human/machine learning applications. Doug also serves as a member of several editorial and advisory boards for various journals, publications, major conferences and universities. Prior to joining IBM Research, Doug was a principal investigator and manager at AT&T Bell Laboratories Research.

The Sorcerer: David Neal Dave Neal is a computer scientist with over 30 years of experience programming computers. He is currently self-employed in computer consulting and multimedia production and distribution. Dave produced a two-hour multimedia CD-ROM of Dave Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which includes animated illustrations by 12 early 20th century artists, including Arthur Rackham, Margaret Tarrant, Peter Newell, and others. The animations in this CD-ROM rely heavily use of morphing between images by the various artists, although many other techniques are used. http://www.exit109.com/~dnn

Young Scholar One: Carol van Houten Carol Van Houten received her MLS from Rutgers. She was working part-time as a Special Projects Librarian at Hudson County Community College at the time of this project. She now works in the library of the Bank Street College of Education. In her former life, she was a bookstore manager for many years. Her reading interests include fiction, poetry, children's literature, and New Jersey history.

Young Scholar Two: Amanda Eigen Amanda Eigen was an MLS candidate at Rutgers, specializing in Educational Media. She rediscovered Mother Goose as a student in Kay Vandergrift's class, The History of Children's Literature. Her favorite nursery rhyme is Hey Diddle Diddle because as a little girl, she remembers looking for the cow jumping over the moon.

One of the Forest Friendlies: Jon Oliver An Engineer by education and system administrator by career. He graduated from Rutgers with a BA and MS and often toys with the idea of pursuing his PhD. He has been at Rutgers for more than 15 years, first as a research scientist for 8 years and then as a system administrator since then.

Another Forest Friendly: Virginia Normann A Secretarial Assistant for the School of Communication Information and Library Studies. I'm the person who feeds the hungry people in this story. I order and order and they eat and eat. I also order their electronics and CD-ROM's to keep them entertained and truly on the educational path with the best learning technology.

Yet Another Forest Friendly: Jack Grasso Jack Grasso retired from AT&T in 1998 and served for several years on the faculty of Rutgers University's Department of Communication as a visiting professor of public relations. His 32-year career in corporate communication includes executive positions in marketing communication and advertising as well as public relations. His industry experience covers telecommunications, computers, aerospace and professional services. Jack earned his bachelor's degree in economics and sociology from Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

The Chronicler of Zimmer: Enola Romano Enola Romano currently works as a librarian with The Montclair Free Public Library's Youth Services Department. As a recent graduate of Rutgers University School of Communication, Information and Library Studies she enjoys sleeping and reading an occasional adult book. Before deciding to become a librarian Enola spent ten years working as a museum educator. Thus, the Petra Project allowed her to combine aspects from both the library and the museum world. In her off time Enola enjoys raising reptiles. She recently lost her iguana named Ishmael but still has a forty-plus year-old turtle named Ready.

The Ancient Scribe: Janet Hilbun Janet Hilbun recently completed her PhD at Rutgers University. She has an MLS from Texas Woman’s University, a MEd in reading from East Texas A&M University, and a BA in English from Texas Tech University. She has taught English, reading, and journalism at the high school and middle school level as well and has also worked as a middle school librarian. She now resides in Texas and, when not teaching at Texas Women's University, she likes to read and play with her granddaughter.

The Knight's Young Apprentice: Lin Lin Lin Lin was a Ph.D. student and a Teaching Assistant in SCILS at Rutgers University. She received her BS and MA in Information Science from Peking University in China. Her research interests include website usability and navigation. She is always eager to learn about new information technologies and to polish her skills in web design. In her spare time, she likes carrying her digital camera and photographing squirrels living near her apartment.

The Rescuer: Andy Mudrak Andy Mudrak received a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers University and looks to expand on that with a Masters degree in the near future. He has been working at SCILS for two years, originally as Netops staff in the SCILS IT infrastructure, later becoming a supervisor of part-time staff, and now recently became the full time systems administrator. At SCILS, he has worked on a number of web development projects and some of his own projects at home as well–mostly in his favorite programming language, Java. He's come onto the ECLIPSE project to help oversee it's final touches before making it's grand debut. He has also been married for 2 years, and enjoys computer and video games, and loves the sport of hockey.

The Repairer: Ping Chao Ping Chao is an undergraduate student at Rutgers College and at SCILS, Rutgers University, pursuing dual degrees in Information Technology and Informatics and in Economics. His current academic and professional interests include web design, flash design, and networking. Outside of school and his work at the SCILS Netops Helpdesk, Ping’s other interests include playing sports (basketball, tennis) and video games.