Portals and Libraries

Citation

du Preez, M. (2006), "Portals and Libraries", Online Information Review, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 754-755. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520610716298

The traditional dictionary definition for “portal” is a “doorway, entrance or gate; an entrance or means of entrance”. The South African Concise Oxford Dictionary (2002) adds “computing and Internet site providing a directory of links to other sites” to this, thus creating “a portal of knowledge” – a flexible term that could be used to describe an information gateway. Portals and Libraries sets out to illustrate just how flexible the word “portal” can be. It provides detailed background on a variety of portal projects, offering observations on their successes and failures.

One of the first library portals on the Internet was that of the Internet Public Library (IPL). I find it quite fitting that this volume starts off with a discussion of the history of the IPL and its current manifestation. The chapter also discusses the IPL's relationship to other important library portals. Compared to the IPL which was seeing a portal as a virtual library, the Library of Congress Portal of the World envisioned an array of resources relating to a particular body of knowledge, followed by the North Carolina State Library's institutional portal, MyLibrary@NCState.

A total of 11 chapters in this volume demonstrate the continued viability and variability of the portal concept by discussing 11 different aspects of the portal idea. Innovation and technical skills are consistent themes throughout the volume. Other important capabilities and understandings addressed include reflections on library market analysis, usability testing and user feedback analysis, service development, skilled management of a complex software implementation process, and commentary on the successes and failures of various online learning systems.

In Chapter 8, “Online catalogs and library portals in today's information environment”, John Byrum describes the essential functionality of federated searching portal applications to manage the flood of digital information that has become available. Byrum concludes that, while the online catalogue will continue to function as the principal tool for access control of the library's physical collections, the federated searching portal will ultimately serve as the library's principal web gateway to digital resources.

Chapter 12 concludes the volume. Here Mary Jackson identifies and describes nine key issues that will affect the future of portal development and its potential to become the preferred tool to discover quality information resources. Jackson also notes the lack of consistency in how libraries currently define a portal and refers to the Scholars Portal Project as an example of portal implementations in research libraries.

Portals and Libraries is an exciting and valuable resource discussing the goals and philosophies surrounding the portal concept. It also is a practical volume in which librarians honestly share their experiences, successes, failures and visions of library portals. The volume reads easily, and includes a useful index and references at the end of each chapter.