Electronic Resources: : Access and Issues

Citation

Chowdhury, G.G. (1999), "Electronic Resources: : Access and Issues", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 55-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.2.55.2

This is neither a book on electronic resources per se, nor much of a guide on how to access various kinds of electronic resources. It basically talks about the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), Web search engines, electronic publishing, document delivery and digital libraries. Though there are five chapters, the last one contains a bibliography, and hence the book has only four chapters to talk about a number of things. Consequently, the information provided is rather brief.

Chapter 1 sets the background by providing an introduction to the evolution of electronic information resources and their implications for libraries and information professionals. The information provided is brief and useful, though one could perhaps expect more information on the traditional online information sources and services. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Internet and the various Internet services including Gopher and FTP. The discussion of the WWW is relatively more elaborate, with brief information on 16 Web search engines and subject guides.

Chapter 3 begins with brief descriptions of some electronic book projects and publishers. The discussion of electronic journals covers characteristics of e‐journals and other issues, including distribution methods, accessing and archiving. This chapter also provides an overview of some e‐journal publishers and projects. There is also a section on electronic document delivery services that provides brief information about nine document delivery services. Chapter 4 begins with a discussion on interactive multimedia technology. It also discusses the virtual library concept, with brief discussion of five virtual library initiatives. The latter part of this chapter discusses the concept of digital libraries and addresses the interface issues, collection management issues, etc. It also briefly describes six digital library projects.

The book could be useful for beginners in this field. Readers who are looking for, say, the various issues concerning the organisation of, and access to, information resources on the Web and in the digital libraries environment, and the corresponding ongoing research initiatives, will be rather disappointed. However, they may refer to Chapter 5, which presents a good list of printed and online resources relevant to this area. While this is a strength of this book, a couple of problems are worth mentioning. First, separation of the references that have been used to write this book from the bibliography would have made it more readable; and second, the reason for including those sites that the author herself has indicated as “no longer available” is not quite clear. Another strength of the book is the glossary.

This book addresses some topics that are timely and topical and will be useful for librarians who are trying to catch up with the fast developments in the WWW and digital libraries environment.