The creation of webliographies is very common at the level of individual libraries. Designated librarians spend part of their jobs searching for web sites that will be of interest to their users, and creating webliographies that can be accessed through their library's web page. Library webliographies are useful because they take the burden of extracting useful and relevant information from the web away from the user. Instead, information professionals are providing access to the results of their searches. Another advantage of library webliographies is the fact that the information professionals who create them take the time to review the web resources they choose to include in their compilations. Users can be more secure about the reliability of the resources they are accessing.
An example of a library webliography on a large scale is Canadian Information by Subject. Canadian Information by Subject is a resource created by librarians at the national library of Canada. They "arrange Web sites based on both the Dewey Decimal Classification and an alphabetical index of subject terms" (Web Watch 32). This webliography is aimed at National Library users -- the Canadian public -- but is of use to anyone seeking information about Canada. (For example, Texas A & M University has a Canadian Studies Program. Its web site [http://cibs.tamu.edu/canada.htm] includes a link to Canadian Information by Subject.) Like all other library webliographies that are available to the general public on the web, Canadian Information by Subject is useful to diverse populations beyond its primary user target audience.
A glance at the Canadian Information by Subject page indicates
the work that goes into creating such a resource. It includes information
about the site, information on how to use the site, subject listings, a
constantly updated page of newly added links, and an internal search engine.
A librarian had to create all of these sections, and must continually maintain
the site. Librarians everywhere are duplicating these efforts, creating
links of sites that are useful and relevant to their library users.
For example, if you go to the University of Alberta's Guides
to Resources by Subject page, and click on any of the subject areas
listed, you will see that internet resources have been gathered and indexed
by a librarian for each subject area. If you go to almost any other
library's web page you will find a similar set of indexed web resources
that were compiled (and sometimes even annotated, and sometimes in two
languages) by a librarian at that institution:
Academic Libraries
Until the use of metadata becomes widespread, librarians will continue to create indexes of web sites. They have developed special sets of collection criteria that apply to world wide web resources. Librarians have identified many selection criteria, but they can be boiled down to three major questions. The first two apply to any type of resource: Is it easy to use (ie: user-friendly?) Is it relevant to your target audience, and is it authoritative, current and accurate? Determining authority on the web is sometimes problematic. The Web Collection Development page at Berkeley, and the Collection Development Policy for Internet Sites Public Library of Des Moines page list resources that can be used to help ascertain the authority of web sites. The third criterion applies to the technological aspect of web sites: Is it accessible to people with all types of browsers and all modem speeds? Providing access to sites that are loaded with graphics and java script will be of no help to people who do not have the latest hardware and software at their disposal. These concerns also apply to metadata. If the metadata is too enormous or complicated, it will not be of use to users or web page creators. The technologists who are working on metadata have to consider the development of the metadata standards themselves, plus the tools that people will use to read and interpret this data.
author: Lindsay Johnston
Last Updated: March 21, 1999
