Internet Resources and Services for International Business: : A Global Guide

Citation

Chawner, B. (1999), "Internet Resources and Services for International Business: : A Global Guide", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 11, pp. 443-444. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.11.443.8

This book is intended to “help individuals and organisations easily pinpoint specific business information on any country in the world”. It begins with a three‐page overview of international trade, doing business in other countries, and the Internet and international business. This is very general and is likely to be useful only to someone new to the field of international trade.

The main part of the book lists over 2,500 Web sites. It begins with a general section listing global resources, and this includes both international organisations such as the OECD and the IMF as well as international business directories. From there entries are arranged by region: Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia and Oceania. Within a region, entries are arranged alphabetically by country, though there are also general sections under Asia, Africa, and Europe. Within a country entries are classified into groups under these headings: General Information, Economy, Business and Trade, Business Travel, Contact Information. Each entry includes a title, the URL and a brief description. There are also indexes by Web site title, country, and subject.

Sites were located using a range of Internet search engines (Alta Vists was the most effective according to the preface), and only sites from governments, organisations and educational institutions have been included. Selection of specific entries seems to be uneven; the entries for New Zealand include a real estate company’s listings, one minor political party (but not the two main ones), and photographs of a tourist attraction, but only a few government listings.

One problem with the entries is that in many cases these refer to specific Web pages rather than to top‐level home pages, and many of these have disappeared or moved since the book was published. For example, when I checked the general information entries for Costa Rica, I found that just five of the 11 URLs still worked as they appeared in the Guide, although I could access a higher level page for one additional entry.

The subject index shows that the Guide covers a wide range of subjects, but few, if any, of these are comprehensive. Many subjects have only one or two entries, and some of these are very odd: Environmental News shows a single entry, the Canada/Czech Republic Chamber of Commerce (and this is another site that has disappeared).

The main problem with this book is that it has tried to be too comprehensive in its coverage. It would be much more useful if it had been prepared using stricter selection criteria for sites ‐ eliminating commercial sites, for example. And, of course, it would be much more useful as an electronic publication, or if it had a related Web page, as typing the long URLs accurately is a challenge for even the most accurate keyboarder. Even so, it does provide a starting point for people looking for information about international business and trade, or for people interested in specific countries. The work is recommended only for large collections with a focus on international business.