Teresa Malinowski, Column Editor Tools of the Serials Trade

TOOLS OF THE SERIALS TRADE

Teresa Malinowski, Column Editor with contributions from Karen Chan, Evelyn l? Council,

Darcy L. Jones, Alfred B. Kraemer, Diane M. Lewis, Charity Stokes and Naomi K. Young

Best Bet Internet: Reference and Research when You

Don ‘t Have Time to Mess Around, by Shirley Duglin Kennedy. Chicago:

American Library Association, 1998. vii, 194 p. ISBN 0-8398-0712-l.

Karen Chan

Malinowski is Serials Coordinator and Chair of the Technical Services Dept., California State University, Fullerton, CA 92834-4150 <tmalinow@fullerton.edu>.

The number of Internet resources and books about the Inter- net are increasing rapidly because change is constant in the electronic environment and its pace is accelerating. Keeping up with new Internet resources is truly a great challenge in this post-modem era. Who has the time to sort through thou- sands of hits resulting from a keyword search? Who has the time to keep track of new search tools and indexes? Who has the time to read all the books about the Internet? The author poses these questions in the preface of this book, written to address the dilemma of overwhelming Internet resources and limited time to examine them. As the title indicates, Kennedy’s book is for those who don’t have time to “mess around” on the Internet but want the best resources. Using or

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browsing the Internet is different from researching on the Internet: this book is intended to present “how-to-do-efi- cient-Internet-research” rather than “how-to-use-the-mter- net.” Librarians, information professionals, and serious Internet researchers are the suggested audience, although others with a keen interest in the Internet will also find this book helpful.

Since the purpose of this book is to promote effective Internet research, good search tools, sites and indexes are emphasized. Over 450 sites are mentioned in the twelve chapters; most are discribed and discussed, some in greater detail than others. Out of these several hun- dred sites, readers are likely to find a good number will fit their needs. Some of the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) provided are already outdated, despite the fact that the sites were verified before publication. This is understandable and unavoidable because of the dynamic nature of Internet resources. Inclusion of obsolete URLs is a common problem in publications of this type.

The book is well written and well organized. There are many illustrations of various types of Web pages throughout the volume. Printed on the first page of each chapter is a “what’s here ?’ box in which the headings and subheadings of the chapter are listed. This feature supports quick and easy browsing.

The first chapter briefly outlines the reasons why search- ing the Internet can be frustrating and time-consuming. The next five chapters cover topics related mainly to searching and browsing tools, including subject trees, resource cat- alogs, metapages, virtual libraries, major search engines, parallel search engines, and news/journalism related sites. The succeeding three chapters focus on people-finding sites, mailing lists, and Usenet newsgroups, and non-Web Internet resources such as gopher, telnet, WAIS, finger & ftp. Though the Web is dominant, Kennedy points out that there are still important non-Web-based resources avail- able. For example, she suggests the University of Califor- nia’s MELVYL system (telnet://melvyl.ucop.edu/) and its “update” feature. There is a separate chapter on finding technical support and software on the Internet. An example of the recommended site is Windows95 Annoyances &tp:Nwww.creativelement.com/win95ann/intro.html~. Another chapter covers browser tricks and tips, including changing details on default homepages, turning off auto- matic image-loading, cache, plug-ins, and cookies. The final chapter is about evaluating Internet resources and keeping up with what is new.

The book includes three useful appendices. The first, “Chapter by Chapter Sites and URLs,” provides a list of the 455 sites found in the volume. This list of sites would be eas- ier to use if provided in electronic format on an accompany-

ing floppy disk. Readers could then save time and avoid typographical errors. The second, “Web Page Checklists,” provides checklists for five different types of resources: advocacy Web pages, business/marketing Web pages, infor- mation Web pages, news Web pages, and personal home- pages. These checklists, created by Jan Alexander and Mar- sha Tate, reference librarians at Widener University in Ches- ter, Pennsylvania, are very handy tools, especially for information literacy or bibliographic instruction. The third appendix is “Citing EIectronic Resources.” A short glossary of Internet searching terms, an index to the volume, and a bibliography organized by formats such as Web-based resources, print magazine and journal articles, and books, complete the volume.

Books of this nature can be dry and boring. How- ever, the author uses a light-hearted approach that makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. Kennedy is a well-known author on this subject and has published a number of articles in Technology Today. Some of the contents of this book appeared in these previously pub- lished articles. Nevertheless, I recommend the book to those who prefer selecting sites from a prescreened source, rather than trying hit-or-miss searches of the Internet. Most librarians will find the book valuable. To make the most it, readers should have ready access to the Internet, so they can examine and bookmark sites immediately.

Chan is Serials/Government Documents Librarian, John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Eastern Washing- ton University, Cheney, WA 99004 <kchan@ewu.edu>.

Introduction to the Use of Computers in Libraries: A Textbook for the Non- technical Student, by Harold C. Ogg.

Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 1997. 323~. $42.50. ISBN O-

938734-99-7. Evelyn P. Council

In the delightful preface to Introduction to the Use of Computers in Libraries, Harold Ogg defines the book’s purpose by stating that its “aim is to heal one malady, technophobia, by prescribing a regimen of pragmatic applications for users and potential users of such hard- ware.” Today, serialists from the “Systems Savvy Seri- alist” to the “Lone Ranger Serialist” are involved with computers and automation. This book is wonderful for

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