Tseng, Gwyneth, Poulter, Alan and Hiom, Debra.
The Library and Information Professional's Guide to the Internet.
Library Association Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1 8560 4151 4
Price: 16.95
Review by Ruth Jenkins
Internet books seem to be proliferating at the moment but most of them are aimed at the 'popular' end of the market and many have an American bias. This book claims to be the perfect book for us, UK-based librarians and information professionals. It has chapters on what the Internet is, how it got here (including a UK perspective as well as the familiar US-based tale), what is available on it and how we can utilise it. For the benefit of beginners and all those of us whose knowledge is somewhat patchy, all jargon is clearly and simply briefly explained wherever it is used. There is still too much jargon, which may put complete beginners off, but that is the fault of Internet culture rather than the authors. T he book is very succinctly written throughout and is very easy to dip into, aiming to provide enough information to get people started without overwhelming anyone. Its only real faults are the low quality of the diagrams and the fact that one often has to flick from section to section rather more than would be ideal.
Just over a third of the book consists of annotated 'bibliography' of key resources and starting points on the Internet itself. The authors claim that these sites are relatively stable (unlike many others whose locations change frequently) and that this section should not date too quickly. The selection appears to be a good one, illustrating the range of quality materials available. If nothing else, this section should whet your appetite to find out more.
This book is wonderfully pragmatic in tone; avoiding the ęgosh, wowĘ excesses of many articles and books on the Internet. The wonderful possibilities of multimedia and electronic information for all are mentioned but there are also notes of caution. For example, the authors acknowledge the fact that, in practice, the Internet is too slow to use for finding answers for users at a conventional enquiry desk. They also point out the dangers of feeling overwhelmed by e-mail messages and Web page addresses and suggest techniques for dealing with these.
The authors acknowledge that it would be futile to attempt to cover everything and include details of online courses about using the Internet, for those who want to know more. Unlike Web based Internet guides, you do not have to be a Web user even before you start. Therefore this would be a good book to pass onto complete beginners, as well as library school students and their teachers. But the book is not just for 'newbies': anyone who has learnt most of what they know about the Internet by trial and error (which includes most of us I suspect) will find a copy useful to fill in the gaps and provide ideas. Every academic library should own one.
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This page last updated on July 15th 1996