The Web Library. Building a World‐Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources

Citation

Spence, S. (2005), "The Web Library. Building a World‐Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources", Library Management, Vol. 26 No. 6/7, pp. 422-424. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120410609879

How much does your library have to spend on periodical subscriptions or online services? How many hours do you spend trawling/surfing/mining the 'net for free current information to reduce those subscription costs? The stated purpose of this book is, “to show how individuals could take advantage of free or low‐cost resources to build their own personal libraries online”. This is a big call but Tomaiuolo delivers the goods, and not just in print through this book. The author has also made the information and all the links available through his web site. This cleverly combines the portability of a book with the currency of online, constantly updated information. As the foreword states: “there are few libraries that won't find ways to stretch their limited acquisitions budget a good deal further within these pages”.

He begins by discussing the relative merits of magazine article indexes and aggregator services. MagPortal, Findarticles and Ingenta are already well known, but there are many less familiar databases mentioned, including those that access medical and scientific preprint papers. The author includes transcripts of interviews with publishers of online magazines as well as providing worked examples of searches to illustrate the relative merits of free, pay‐per‐view and subscription services.

From journals and research papers we move to newspapers. Here the emphasis on US news sources is an irritating limitation. Apparently all of America's largest newspapers have web sites, some of which provide free access to the most recent articles, e.g. New York Times, which is similarly the case with Australian newspapers that are not mentioned here.

While the interviews with publishers of online services can provide some interesting insights it can become a channel to market that company's services. The message that online services are a valuable adjunct to, rather than a replacement of print resources is oft repeated, but the latest technology is not neglected. After a acknowledging the “virtual newscaster”, Ananova, the author spends some time discussing the merits of blogs and explaining how to create your own news portal.

As Tomaiuolo states:

… identifying and assessing the strongest reference sites while imposing a semblance of order on them remains a desideratum of many librarians and other information professionals.

While the cultural bias appears again with mention of sources like the Statistical Abstract of the US, Tomaiuolo does provide a useful list of free reference resources on the web as alternatives or surrogates to the most frequently used print reference sources such as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. At every opportunity he refers to the cost savings of using these alternative free or nearly free resources. His interview with a reference librarian from the Internet Public Library echoes what many teacher librarians have already found, that students are searching the web rather than using the ready reference texts such as encyclopedias, whether print or digital. That more of the online encyclopedias are becoming fee‐based could be further discouragement to their use.

While web‐based “Ask‐an‐expert” and other digital reference services may fill a gap there are problems with credibility, with Tomaiuolo sensibly warning of the risk of vague, or just plain wrong answers. However many libraries are coming to grips with the digital age by providing “ask‐a librarian” or even live chats with a reference librarian to help those seeking answers.

The success of Amazon.com and the continuing popularity of public libraries give the lie to claims that the internet means the end of books and reading. Tomaiuolo gives an effective summary of the various forms and formats of e‐texts or e‐books. While they may not match all the tactile and visual attributes of a real book, at least they are accessible, which is not the case with many rare or antiquarian books. It is predicted that there will be 18‐19 million e‐texts on the internet within ten years. The author provides an annotated list of the best sites offering e‐text collections, including the Adelaide University collection. The most famous of course is Project Gutenberg and there is a fascinating interview with its founder, Michael S. Hart who discusses the subversive nature of the project. Tomaiuolo also considers developments aimed to extend the experience of reading through the use of hypertext; electronic “choose‐your‐own adventure” type texts with all the enhancements multi‐media can offer.

Switching from text to images, Tomaiuolo gives us good insights into the ways and means of accessing images on the web while also discussing the thorny issue of copyright. This effectively leads into a consideration of “virtual” exhibitions, galleries and museums. While a real exhibition can be presented online, there are many online exhibitions that could not be replicated in real life, and Tomaiuolo points the way to many of these and to search tools to find more. Mention of the more interactive, “virtual field trip” sites would have been of interest to educators but these perhaps fall outside the scope of this book.

The final chapters are devoted to how all these free or nearly free resources can be pulled together for rapid and easy access. Tomaiuolo provides a useful annotated list of plug‐ins and toolbars that will make setting up your own web library portal much easier and then provides advice on web authoring software to create that portal. As an end note Tomaiuolo refers to what you will not find on the web, which in relation to what is available, is not much, and is likely to appear in some form in the digital future. As he points out, the web library has incalculable value; “Knowing about, linking to, reading from, and using the web sites recommended in this book will provide immediate value; but we have only just achieved lift off.”

Tomaiuolo has provided a comprehensive and wide ranging collection of web sites which individuals and libraries can “mix and match” to set up a web library tailored to their personal needs. His consideration of issues such as copyright and the complex interrelationship between the ever‐evolving internet and individuals and organisations is succinct, informative and pertinent. Cultural bias aside, Tomaiuolo is careful to point out the limitations of the sources he recommends and demonstrates his own research skills in developing those recommendations. With this book Nicholas Tomaiuolo has supplied many cash‐strapped librarians with a valuable tool to enhance their virtual collection; one that I look forward to using myself.