ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ March 1998/ 183 C O N F E R E N C E C I R C U I T Internet Librarian ’9 7 The latest developments by Naomi Lederer T h e first In tern et Librarian forum , prim a­rily s p o n so red b y Inform ation Today in c o o p er a tio n w ith the S p ecial Libraries As­ so c ia tio n w as h eld in M onterey, California, N ovem ber 1 7 -1 9 , 1997. E leven hundred atten d ees enthusiastically sam pled from “tracks” related to the Internet. O verall to p ics w ere: “D igitizing R e so u rc es”; “T o o ls & T e c h n iq u e s ”; “M anaging O rg ani­ zational K n o w led g e”; “Virtualizing S erv ices”; “Net & W eb M an ag em en t”; “Sea rch in g & the W e b ”; “N ew T e c h n o lo g ie s , N ew R o le s ”; “C a p tu red b y th e W eb : L ibrary S y stem s, T raining & th e N et”; an d “Net Strategies & T re n d s.” A co n v e rsa tio n w ith search e n g in e s T h e s e s s io n e n title d “L ib ra ria n s T a lk to Search E n g in es” w as extrem ely popular; rep ­ re s e n ta tiv e s fro m m a jo r s e a r c h to o ls e x ­ p lain ed w h y th eir sea rch e n g in es w ere the b est, e licitin g sou n d s o f am u sem en t from the crow d — surely th ey all c a n ’t b e the b est s ea rch engin e! T h e lan g u ag e se le c tio n featu re w as high ­ lighted by Lou M onier o f Alta Vista. Search es c a n b e n arro w ed to o n e o f o v e r 20 la n ­ g u ages, s o o n to in clu de K lin gon (fo r th o se o f you n o t in the kn ow , a hu m an oid s p e ­ c ie s o n “Star T re k ”) and Latin. T h e re is a fresh in d ex every fo u r to s ix w e e k s, norm al su b m ission s ad ded daily, an d a con sta n t re ­ m oval o f d ead p ag es. Ed A nuff o f H otB ot p ro m o ted its ov er 80 m illion (1 0 0 m illion s o o n ) in d ex as the largest s e a r c h en g in e. T en m illion are refresh ed p e r day for a new d atab ase ev ery tw o to th ree w e e k s. H o tB o t u ses fu ll-tex t in d ex in g — all w ord s o n th e page. Intended for serious searchers, N ewsBot has the top 200 new s W eb sites and “Classifieds fo r 2 0 0 0 .” R ep resen tatives o f o th er sea rch e n g in es high ligh ted th eir strengths. Copyright issues w ere discussed by Laurie G asaw ay , w w w .un c.ed u /~u ncln g/gasaw ay. htm. Frans Lettenstrom from T h e Royal Li­ brary, N ational Library o f S w ed en d escrib ed how his library is carrying ou t Sw ed en ’s 1993 rev ision to the l 6 6 l N ational Legal D ep o sit Act; th e revision req u ires that W eb m ateri­ als b e archived. A com p arison o f old vs. new rev ealed that S w ed en ’s first p a p er journal from 1645 is archived , but the first elec tro n ic jo u rn al has already b e e n lost ( w w w .kb.se/ bibsam /). Amy T racy W ells (In te rn e t Scou t P ro je ct) d esc rib ed h o w to a c c e s s th eir re­ s o u rc e s : q u ic k s e a r c h , a d v a n ce d , s u b je c t h e a d in g s , a n d LC c la s s i f i c a t io n (http:// w w w s co u t. c s .w isc.edu/scout/). Pull an d p ush T h e s essio n entitled “Filterin g T o o ls: From P u ll t o P u s h , ” f e a t u r e d L a u r i S h a f e r , w e b m a s te r at M ic r o s o ft C o rp . a n d P au l P in ella, d irecto r o f E nterp rise P rodu ct M an­ a g em en t, Individu al, In c. Pull te ch n o lo g y p ro m o tes self-serv ice use o f inform ation via e-m ail, W e b , o r o th er m ed ia; users sele c t w anted inform ation. Pinella d escribed P u sh’s A b o u t the author Naom i Lederer is reference librarian/undergraduate instruction specialist at Colorado State University; e-mail: nlederer@manta. library, colostate.edu http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/gasaway http://www.kb.se/ 1 8 4 /C&RL News ■ March 1998 usefu ln ess as a w ay to avoid inform ation overload , k e e p curren t, c o m b a t the fear o f m issing som ething im portant, and avoid sur­ prises. W ith Push, u sers set up profiles o f interests; the te ch n o lo g y sea rch es m ultiple inform ation sou rces (o r providers— new sp a­ pers, e tc .); a “sm art” filter filters that in for­ m ation a cco rd in g to the profile; and the fil­ t e r d e l i v e r s , u s u a lly v ia d a ily e - m a i l , inform ation that fits the profile. P erso n al­ ization o f th e s e s erv ic es insu res a strong fo cu s to relevan t to p ic areas. U sers c an a c ­ com p lish this o b je ctiv e in a sim ilar fashion by setting up personal hom epages with links to sites that interest them. Net se a rch e rs' secre ts Reva B a s c h ’s (A u berg in e Inform ation Ser­ v ic e s) “S ecrets o f Su p er Net S ea rch ers” p re­ sen tatio n cov ered h er findings from inter­ v iew in g s e a r c h e x p e r ts . E x p e rts find th e In tern et g o o d fo r com p an y new s, current even ts, g ov ern m en t reports, and alternative view s. S earch en g in es are regarded as o n e a p p roach to locating m aterials, but “ex p ert p a g es ” are frequ en tly m ore useful. W eb rings that have oversigh t are w ell reg ard ed as cen ters o f e x c e lle n c e (fo r e x ­ am ple, FedWorld http://www.fedworld.gov/ a n d N e w s p a p e r s O n lin e ! h ttp :/ / w w w . new sp ap ers.com / ). In g en eral, inform ation quality is s e e n as q u estio n a b le, and exp erts reco m m en d “trian g u lation ,” o r finding tw o o r th ree o th er s o u rces w ith the sam e infor­ m ation. Copyright rem ain s a m ajor issue. Digital c ash tran saction s m ay b e the n ex t w ave on th e W eb as sites b e g in to requ ire f e e s fo r a c c e s s . E x p e r ts b e lie v e as th e In ternet b e c o m e s m ore com m ercialized the overall quality will drop, so P ush te c h n o l­ o gy will grow to d o the n ecessary w eeding. M ake it a ccessib le fo r all An im portant sessio n , “M aking Y o u r W eb Site A cc e ss ib le ,” ad dressed m ak in g sites a c ­ c e s s ib le to u sers w ith d is a b ilitie s . P au la Palm er, librarian , Library M edia C en ter at L ake W a sh in g to n T e c h n ic a l C o lleg e , d is­ c u ssed the D O -IT (D isabilities, O p p o rtu n i­ ties, In tern et-w ork in g and T e c h n o lo g y ) P ro­ g r a m (h ttp -./ / w eb er. u. w a s h in g to n .e d u / -d o it/ ) at th e U niversity o f W ash in g to n . U niversal A ccess D esig n to the W e b is im ­ p ortan t b e c a u s e it p rom otes eq u itab le use. E x p e rts b e lie v e as th e In te rn e t b e co m e s m ore co m m e rcia lize d th e o v e ra ll q u a lit y w ill dro p , so Push t e c h n o lo g y w ill g ro w to do th e n e ce ssa ry w e e d in g . S o m e u sers c a n n o t s e e grap hics o r h ear au­ d io b e c a u s e o f visual o r h ea rin g im pair­ m ents. P oorly org an ized sites are difficult to navigate by th o se w ith learn in g disabili­ ties or for w h om English is a s ec o n d lan­ gu age. V o ic e outpu t prod u cts read tab les and fram es left to right. S o m e users have tro u b le click in g on small icons/buttons, and slow con n ectio n s and old er equipm ent m ake it difficult to d ow nload large files. T h e Ameri­ can s w ith D isabilities Act gives a legal in ­ cen tive to m ake sites w idely accessib le. Basic U niversal D esig n P rin cip les ad d ress p ag e d esign and the n e e d to test a p ag e through a variety o f b row sers, inclu ding at least o n e text b row ser. “B o b b y ” is o n e o f the re c o m ­ m en d ed HTML valid ator program s (http:// w w w . c a s t. org /bobby/). C orp orate librarians heard talks fo cu sed o n b u sin ess uses o f the Internet. Intranets h e lp c o r p o r a te lib r a ria n s fo rm a llia n c e s w ithin a corp o ration , give them op p ortu n i­ ties to o ffe r training and support, and p ro ­ v id e a m e a n s o f c re a tin g an d m an ag in g “k n o w le d g e ” d atab ases fo r an organization (noted from the proceedings, Mary Corcoran, T h e K n ow led g e Forum ). Advertising on the W eb is an oth er rapidly grow ing business use. O th er talks ad dressed tea ch in g use o f the Internet and using th e Intern et to teach . T h e c o n f e r e n c e p r o c e e d in g s h a v e 27 c h ap ters (n o t all s p e a k e rs con trib u ted ). In ­ clu ded w ere abstracts o f presen tation s, p re­ sen tation softw are displays (so m e with nifty g rap h ics), and full papers. T h ere w ere many v en d ors p resent, displaying In ternet ac ce s s to d atab ases and o th er resou rces. In addi­ tion , th ere w ere a few term inals set up in the e xh ib it area for atten d ees w h o desired a c c e s s to their e-m ail at the c o n fe re n c e. O v e ra ll, In te r n e t L ib ra ria n ’9 7 w as a ch eerfu l c o n fe re n c e. T h e World W ide W eb is the curren t cutting e d g e o f the In ternet an d th e re w as m u ch to d is cu ss — an d to learn. ■ http://www.fedworld.gov/ http://www