Neal‐Schuman Complete Internet Companion for Librarians

Citation

Line, M.B. (2002), "Neal‐Schuman Complete Internet Companion for Librarians", The Electronic Library, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 429-430. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2002.20.5.429.3

I did not see the first edition of this work, published seven years previously. A lot has changed since then. This edition is substantially (161 pp.) longer, several new sections have been added, and there is also a CD‐ROM containing a subject directory. The expanded definition and role of “librarians” are recognised, along with the importance of such matters as metadata, Web design and publishing, and multimedia, which has a whole new section.

There are 28 chapters of text, organised in six parts: Essential Background, What You Need to Get Ready, Tools and Resources, The Multimedia Experience, Communication Systems, and Your Library as an Electronic Publisher. The aim seems to be near‐comprehensiveness; it is not easy to think of topics that are not covered. Both generic topics (e.g. mailing lists) and specific systems and tools (e.g. TILE.NET) appear: if you want to know how to download binary files, find a free statistical tracking service, learn what makes a good digital video camera, filter spam, or link to electronic journal sites, you will get the information here, together with thousands of other items of information. Most of these you will never want, but you can always select from the comprehensive, whereas you cannot add to the selective.

All the same, the book does seem unnecessarily long. Elementary information is included alongside some valuable material, and among the mass of technical information there are occasional rather discursive chats, e.g. on the role of librarians in a global information network. These do no harm, but I doubt if I am the only user who would have preferred a slimmer and more tightly constructed work. And for all the comprehensiveness, there are some astonishing omissions – for example, there is, so far as I can discover, no single mention of Google in all the discussion of searching and search engines.

One feature that limits the book’s value outside the USA and Canada is its understandable North American bias. This shows up in many places, for example, in the chapter on Online Library Catalogs, which makes no mention of COPAC or the British Library catalogue. Several of the Appendices are almost useless outside North America. Passages that specifically relate to the USA and Canada can easily be ignored, but a UK (or Australian, or South African) edition would undoubtedly cover some different topics or the same ones (e.g. copyright) from a different perspective.

The index could be improved. Topics and names that occur in the text do not always appear there, and when they do it is not always where it might be expected. For example, Yahoo! is indexed as such, but Lycos and AltaVista appear only under Search engines.

The paper used is stout and of good quality, but the book has paper covers which will become tattered with use. Worse, it has “perfect” binding, and as a result it will not stay open at the first and last 100 pages without the use of a heavy weight, a real handicap for a work intended for regular reference (perhaps heavy weights should be supplied with such works).

My reservations about the work need to be read in the context of its breadth and usefulness. Most librarians are likely to find, as I did, many passages of much interest, and some of real value. It is good value for money.