Journal of Internet Cataloging, Vol. 1 No. 1

Citation

Hodes, J. (1998), "Journal of Internet Cataloging, Vol. 1 No. 1", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 58-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.7.2.58.1

A Journal of Internet Cataloging aims to be “an international journal focusing on the organization, access and bibliographic control of Internet resources. It explores practical and theoretical issues in making electronic data available through remote access using the Internet. In recognising the need to organise Internet resources, the journal will publish articles specific to their organisation and control in a networked environment.” The first issue contains seven articles: Brisson and Carter, “Reflections on Gutenberg, the Internet and the Need for a (Paper!) Journal on Internet Organization and Access”; Johns, “Cataloging Internet Resources: An Administrative View”; Neumister, “Cataloging Internet Resources: A Practitioner’s Viewpoint”; McKiernan, “The New/Old World Wide Web Order: The Application of Neo‐Conventional Functionality to Facilitate Access and Use of a WWW Database of Science and Technology Internet Resources”; Callery and Tracy‐Proulx, “Yahoo! Cataloging the Web”; Sun, “Issues in Cataloging Chinese Electronic Journals” and Beall, “Cataloging World Wide Web Sites Consisting Mainly of Links”.

The second article, by Cecily Johns, outlines the need for Internet cataloguing and explores some of the issues involved, using OCLC’s InterCat Project as a basis for discussion. In this interesting paper Johns discusses why we should catalogue Internet resources when search engines are available, whether Internet cataloguing is original or copy cataloguing, whether we should be adding catalogue records for sources we do not own to our OPAC, selection of Internet materials for cataloguing and who is going to the URLs on the Library OPAC. Johns believes that librarians need to see their OPACs as gateways to information sources that can be made available to their users and that it should be the responsibility of cataloguing staff to maintain and update URLs. The other paper of particular interest is Callery and Tracy‐Proulx’s discussion of Yahoo! ‐ a fascinating, behind‐the‐scenes insight into how search engines operate. The articles by practitioners provide detailed information on how various libraries are approaching the challenge of cataloguing Internet resources, and several examples of full MARC records are provided.

The journal will be published quarterly, with the next issue in early 1998. Forthcoming topics will include issues in cataloguing electronic serials, database management, implementation and use of the 856 field, organising and making GIS material accessible on the Web, overview of metadata and what it means for Internet cataloguing, training issues for staff related to use of Web organisation and access tools, organising subject specific Web sites, the JSTOR project, and the Web browser wars.

This is a timely and interesting journal which will be of value to those wrestling with Internet cataloguing issues. It is recommended for cataloguing departments of large libraries and for library schools.