+ Page 29 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no 2 (1992): 29-34. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Farley, Laine, ed. Library Resources on the Internet: Strategies for Selection and Use. Chicago: American Library Association, 1992. ISBN 0-8389-7576-3. Reviewed by Caroline R. Arms. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Take this guide with you next time you set out for a trip to explore some online catalogs on the Internet highway. Library Resources on the Internet was developed by the ALA/RASD/MARS committee on Direct Patron Access to Computer-Based Reference Systems. It "seeks to give users practical strategies for identifying and using one type of resource--library catalogs on the Internet." It is also a kit of sections that can be modified, updated, and reassembled into a more specific handout for a particular library or as the basis for a training session. Knowing that their committee was to be reorganized out of existence, the authors wisely chose to concentrate on the aspects of the Internet where their librarian's training and experience would provide most added value and to rely on providing pointers to existing directories of catalogs and other "road maps" that were more likely to be updated. One thing that sets this guide apart from other documents related to catalogs on the Internet are the pointers to "travel guides," resources that may help a patron decide which remote catalogs would be appropriate to search. The authors' metaphor of maps and travel guides builds on the widely used analogy between the Internet and the highway system. It evokes images of Rand McNally road atlases, of Michelin travel guides that rate the hotels and restaurants and suggest scenic routes, and of the AAA, ready to prepare an itinerary for you and help you if you get lost or have an accident. Perhaps the metaphor is worth pursuing. Setting out on a vacation in unfamiliar territory, you would usually take both a road map and a travel guide. In the new "wired" information infrastructure, there will be a need not only for formal catalogs of resources (road maps), but also for travel guides that give you information about the local culture and conventions, suggest routes or tours, evaluate restaurants, and describe museums. Travel guides vary widely, and you can choose one that suits you; you may prefer Europe on $25 Dollars a Day to the Michelin guide. Developing such guides to resources on the Internet (or the National Research and Education Network) could be an important role for librarians. This guide takes a step in the right direction. + Page 30 + Current guides to the Internet, however excellent, often give the impression that the Internet is only for the intrepid and self-sufficient individual. The very titles of two of the most popular, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet and Zen and the Art of the Internet, confirm that impression. Library Resources on the Internet is different. This guide is not written for computer experts or network hackers. Nor does it make the assumption that the only source of information is the network itself. It points out that, if you want access to the Internet, your starting-point should be your local computer network support organization. This point could even be stressed more; the Internet is a network of networks, and the network through which you have access has a responsibility to facilitate that access. Whether your connection is through an academic institution or one of the commercial operations that now offer access to the Internet, you can usually get help from the supplier of that connection with basic telecommunications procedures, including recommendations for acquiring and configuring software. Like your car dealer, the network supplier can give you the basic owner's manual and check whether the vehicle works, at least using the software they recommend. Once you have a connection to the Internet and know how to connect to a remote computer, you need a different level of assistance: help selecting the resources that will be of most value to you and guidance in the use of those resources. Library Resources on the Internet provides this type of assistance for people interested in exploring the increasing number of online catalogs accessible over the Internet. In a relaxed, non- technical style, it presents a variety of information directly, and it describes other important tools for the explorer's kit. It begins with a brief introduction to the Internet and a list of possible reasons for searching remote catalog systems. Then comes a section on other road maps and travel guides, followed by tips on using online catalogs effectively. The last section is a description of related resources, with examples of campus-wide information systems and specialized databases that are not part of online catalog systems. Finally come four appendices: a bibliography of articles that address use of the Internet for public services in libraries; a very useful introduction to searching the catalogs of the most widely installed library systems; a glossary of networking terms; and a primer on the use of the Internet file transfer protocol, FTP. + Page 31 + The guide pulls together a variety of information relating to the use of online catalogs in a single document. Naturally, some material is presented in a brief, introductory fashion, setting the context rather than presenting a full explanation. Topics that may be important for future developments, such as Z39.50, the standard protocol for information retrieval, and Z39.58, the Common Command Language, are introduced in appropriate contexts. The authors have succeeded in their aim of providing a practical guide that serves both the user who wants to explore online catalogs on the Internet and librarians who are trying to get a broader picture of how the accessibility of library resources on the Internet may change their world. Two of the central sections are particularly valuable because they are not duplicated elsewhere. The first covers existing road maps and travel guides. The road maps include the directories of online catalogs and other network resources, such as the catalog lists maintained by Art St. George at the University of New Mexico and Billy Barron at the University of North Texas as well as the Internet Resource Guide. Databases and software packages that facilitate access to remote catalogs are also described. Participants in the PACS-L discussion group will have seen most of the items mentioned regularly. However, when it comes to the travel guides, there may be some unfamiliar suggestions. Not surprisingly, given its authorship, the guide suggests that you ask a reference librarian for help in identifying library collections with strengths in your area of interest. For those to whom talking to a live reference librarian would be painful, it includes some print directories that either describe collection strengths explicitly or list university doctoral programs that suggest areas of emphasis. It is refreshing to be reminded that not all information about network resources is on the network itself. At the end of this section is a brief discussion of gateways, such as the CARL (Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries) system, and client/server systems, such as WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). The whole section is sprinkled with useful tips and caveats. + Page 32 + The other particularly valuable section, "Using Systems Successfully--Survival Tips," is entirely tips and caveats. Instructions and hints on using TELNET for connecting to the remote catalogs are presented in a non-technical way that is not specific to any particular type of computer. The tips on searching catalogs may seem self-evident to librarians used to searching online systems, but they are ideal for novice or occasional searchers. They range from "Read the SCREENS" to suggestions for identifying appropriate subject terms and for broadening and narrowing searches. Referred to in conjunction with the appendix of catalog interfaces from commercial systems, this section alone would save a great deal of frustration for librarians and end users. The authors explicitly designed the guide as a source of material for others to incorporate into their own documentation or instructional handouts, provided that the source is duly credited and the use is noncommercial. As it stands, the guide could be handed to a patron who already knows how to log on to a remote computer on the Internet, but has had difficulty using a remote catalog or wants to determine which catalogs might have good collections in the patron's field of interest. To make a complete travel kit, select some sections (updating where appropriate), replace others with details appropriate for your local environment (such as telecommunication procedures), and package them with one of the lists of online catalogs that it suggests. You may want to involve computer services staff in preparing the package and making it and some of the related documents or software available online. At the very least, I strongly encourage academic libraries to make sure that computing services staff in their institution have a copy of this guide for their own use and as a resource for user consultants. The guide is available in print as an occasional paper of the Reference and Adult Services Division of the ALA. It is also available online for anonymous FTP retrieval. It has also been transformed into an interactive, hypertext form by Ernest Perez, formerly Library Director of the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Sun-Times. This version is also available online for anyone to retrieve and run on a personal computer that uses the DOS operating system. Although I thoroughly recommend reading through the entire document, the hypertext version will suit some people very well for later reference. The online version of the document states that it will remain in its original location (DLA.UCOP.EDU, see below) "until it is obviously out of date or until it has a successor." I certainly hope for the second outcome. As is always the case, some of the material is already out of date, but only in very minor ways. This guide deserves to be kept up to date and available so that both librarians and end- users can take enjoyable and profitable trips to visit catalogs on the Internet. + Page 33 + How to Obtain This Document Print: o American Library Association as RASD Occasional Paper no. 12; $18 for ALA members, $20 for non-members. Anonymous FTP: ASCII file: o Host: DLA.UCOP.EDU; directory: pub/internet; file name: libcat-guide. o Host: HYDRA.UWO.CA; directory: libsoft; file name: libcat.txt. o Host: FTP.UNT.EDU; directory: library; file name: libcat-guide. WordPerfect 5.1 file: o Host: HYDRA.UWO.CA; directory: libsoft; file name: internet.com. Self-Extracting executable hypertext file: o Host: HYDRA.UWO.CA; directory: libsoft; filenames: libinet.exe and libinet.doc. o Host: FTP.UNT.EDU; directory: library; file names: libinet.exe and libinet.doc About the Author Caroline R. Arms, Head, Microcomputer & Media Center, Falk Library of the Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. Internet: cra@med.pitt.edu. + Page 34 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic journal that is distributed on BITNET, Internet, and other computer networks. There is no subscription fee. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 (BITNET) or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet) that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name Last Name. PACS-P subscribers also receive two electronic newsletters: Current Cites and Public- Access Computer Systems News. This article is Copyright (C) 1992 by Caroline R. Arms. All Rights Reserved. The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1992 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. 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