ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ July/August 1999 /  565

I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s Sara Am ato, e ditor

Best Inform ation on the Net (BIOTN).
Access: http://w w w .sau.edu/bestinfo.
Best Inform ation o n  th e Net (BIOTN), an

award-winning collection o f Internet resources 
com piled by librarians at St. Ambrose Univer­
sity in D avenport, Iow a, has m any useful 
components.

T h e “H o t P a p e r T o p ic s” p a g e  ( h t tp : // 
w w w . s a u . e d u / c w i s / i n t e r n e t / w i l d / H o t /  
hotindex.htm ) is one part o f the site that is sure 
to be appreciated by undergraduates w hose pro­
fessors let them  use W eb pages as references.

The page provides links to Web sites on top­
ics that librarians will recognize as hot topics 
for their ow n library’s patrons, including affir­
m ative action, th e d eath  penalty, drug issues, 
gun control, hu m an  rights, an d  sm oking. The 
majority o f the links have annotations; all a p ­
p e a r to be w ell-chosen an d  informative. The 
H ot P ap er Topics organizers have taken care 
to provide a variety o f resources; site dom ains 
are a mix o f governm ent, non-profit, ed u ca­
tional, and com pany sites.

Some o f the sites have been  review ed else­
w here in library literature. Site visitors will find 
a mix of primary (content sites), secondary (lists 
of links to primary sites), an d  tertiary sites (lists 
o f links to secondary sites).

An additional link o n  the H ot P ap er T op­
ics page, labeled “Index,” leads site visitors to  a 
page on Internet search engines, which includes 
information about particular engines as well as 
guidelines for selecting a search engine. Below

this link is an o th e r to  UCLA Librarian Esther 
Grassian’s page on  evaluating W eb resources.

Navigation o f th e Hot P aper T opics page 
could cause som e visitors problems. Some top­
ics are anchored to lists on the same page, while 
others have their ow n  page. At the bottom  o f 
these separate pages is a link to the main BIOTN 
page, but not to  the H ot P aper Topics page.

Clicking o n  “C ensorship” takes the visitor 
to the “Useful Links for Librarians” page, which 
could be  confusing. At the main BIOTN page, 
visitors will en co u n te r resources that are re­
stricted to St. A m brose University students, 
faculty, an d  staff.

Taking into account this limitation, the Hot 
Paper Topics page is a useful bookm ark for any 
general-reference desk.— H eidi Senior, Univer­
sity o f  Portland, senior@up.edu

@brint.com .Tccess http://w w w .brint.com /. 
@BRINT has b e e n  in existence since 1994. 

It w a s fo rm e rly  k n o w n  as “A B u sin e s s 
Researcher’s Interests.” As recently as fall 1998, 
the founder, Yogesh Malhorta, w as a Ph.D. stu­
d e n t  a n d  le c t u r e r  a t th e  U n iv e rs ity  o f 
Pittsburgh’s Katz School o f Business.

@brint.com
The BizTech Network

As o n e  might expect, @BRINT has a strong 
academic slant. The site may be searched by use 
o f a dro p  d o w n  m enu, a quick find list, o r by 
using the @BRINT search engine. This search 
engine allows only the use o f the AND and OR 
operators and the use of parentheses. A novice 
user of this site w ould b e w ise to use the table 
o f contents page, w hich is available from the 
drop dow n menu.

Most o f the inform ation in @BRINT co n ­
sists o f categorized lists o f links to o th er W eb 
sites. T hese links are g ro u p ed  by subject area 
and are excellent to use as access points to aca­
dem ic an d  business resources on the Web. Es-

Sara A m a to  is electronic services and W eb d evelopm ent 
librarian a t Bowdoin College, e-mail:samato@bowdoin.edu

http://www.sau.edu/bestinfo
http://www.sau.edu/cwis/internet/wild/Hot/
mailto:senior@up.edu
http://www.brint.com/
brint.com
mailto:samato@bowdoin.edu


566 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1999

pecially useful are the categorized links, w hich 
can be fo u n d  u n d er “Magazines a n d  Journals,” 
“Biz-Tech Library,” a n d  “Jo b s a n d  C areers.” 
Original co n ten t o f this site consists m ainly of 
pap ers, presentations, a n d  articles w ritten by 
M alhorta. Most o f this original m aterial has 
know ledge m anagem ent as its subject.

In addition to the categorized lists, there are 
sections o f the site that allow  real time interac­
tion. T he first o f th ese is th e  @BRINT O nline 
Interactive Magazine. Readers are encouraged 
to  react to  th em  a n d  are p ro v id ed  w ith a link 
to d o  so.

O th er interactive sections are included u n ­
d e r the “BIZ-TECH & K-MGMT” link a n d  the 
“B IZ -T EC H  & K-MGMT EVEN TS” lin k . 
Anyone may read posts to the interactive sec­
tions, b u t only netw o rk  m em bers m ay post 
inform ation an d  com m ents to  them . Joining 
th e netw ork is free and, w hile you m ay pro ­
vide other information, the only required in­
form ation is u ser n am e an d  e-m ail address. 
Most posts discuss know ledge m anagem ent 
as it relates to business. There is som e adver­
tising, b u t it is h a n d le d  in a w ay that d o es 
not ham p er the usefulness o f the site.

In short, @BRINT can b e an excellent start­
ing po in t for th e researcher interested in tech ­
n o logy a n d  k n o w led g e m an ag e m en t as they 
relate to  business. H ow ever, @BRINT is not 
the “prem ier netw ork for business, technology, 
an d  k n o w led g e m an ag e m en t” it claims to  be. 
— C heryl M. B allard, University o f  A la b a m a , 
cballard@bruno.cba.ua.edu

The C h ild re n ’s Literatu re Web Guide.
Access: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/.
T he C hildren’s Literature W eb G uide m ain­

tains a collection o f Internet resources for young 
readers a n d  oth ers interested in children’s lit­
erature. The site w as established in 1994, and is 
m an ag e d  b y  D avid K. B row n, d irecto r o f the 
D oucette Library o f Teaching Resources at the 
University o f Calgary. In th e introduction sec­
tion, Brow n ho p es that users o f this site will be 
“tem p ted  aw ay from  th e  Internet, a n d  back to 
the b ooks themselves!”

The site is organized into four m ain catego­
ries: “F eatures,” “D iscussion B oards,” “Q uick 
R eference,” a n d  “M ore Links.” U nder “Fea­
tures,” users can brow se “W hat’s N ew ” to keep  
up-to-date on new ly a d d ed  links an d  to th e en ­
tire site. T h e “W eb-T raveller’s T oolkit” a n n o ­
tates selected children’s literature W eb sites and

is a g o o d  starting point for further exploration. 
T h e “D iscussion B oards” p ro v id e a forum  for 
com m ents o n  recen t aw ard-w inning books, 
readers seek in g  answ ers to  various children’s 
literary topics, and postings o n  conferences and 
programs.

“Q uick R eference” offers inform ation on 
aw ards given to  children’s literature a n d  links 
to  ch ild ren ’s b estseller’s lists, as w ell as “top 
picks” lists from professional organizations and 
publications. Also p a rt o f “Q uick R eference” 
is the D oucette Index, w hich “provides access 
to  books and websites that contain useful teach­
ing suggestions related to  b o o k s for children 
a n d  y o u n g  adults, a n d  th e  creators o f those 
b o o k s.”

While th e boo k s indexed are those held by 
th e  D o ucette Library o f T eaching R esources, 
this index identifies specific resources that may 
b e available in o th e r libraries. “More Links” 
contains g o o d  collections o f links to  authors 
and illustrators, resources for parents an d  teach­
ers, an d  lists o f publishers an d  booksellers.

A site-specific index allows for simple search­
ing an d  seem s to  b e  m ost effective in finding a 
m ention o f a specific author, story, o r aw ard 
within the site’s pages (versus com plex subject 
o r content searching).

Page layouts are simple and clean, and graph­
ics are k e p t to  a m inim um . Som e o f th e  “last 
updated” dates on selected pages are one or tw o 
years old, but th e links checked for this review  
w ere current a n d  active.

This W eb site is a valuable resource for pu b ­
lic librarians, for th o se perform ing collection 
developm ent in the area o f children’s literature 
an d  young adult literature, an d  also for parents 
an d  curious young readers w anting more infor­
m ation on  specific authors, selected reviews of 
books, an d  links to o th er quality children’s lit­
erature W eb sites. College o r university librar­
ies should consider including a link to this site 
w ithin their education o r literature-related ref­
e ren ce subject guides.— C aroline L. Gilson, 
R adford University, cgilson@runet.edu ■

mailto:cballard@bruno.cba.ua.edu
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
mailto:cgilson@runet.edu