EDITORIAL
This issue of Journal of Internet Cataloging introduces a new column called: 42. 42 gets its name from Deep Thought, a gargantuan computer in the novel The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; its three authors explain their reasoning behind their choice of title. In addition to starting with "42", the issue closes with the News from the Field column. In between are three articles and a book review. The review looks at the "practical" digital library.
The three articles are very different. They range from a report on the Scout Signpost, a service funded by the National Science Foundation and located in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Signpost serves to demonstrate that through the use of the Library of Congress Classification scheme and the Library of Congress Subject Headings in conjunction with the emerging metadata standard known as the Dublin Core, that Internet resources can be cataloged, classified, and arranged. A second article examines REESWeb and its growing pains. An early site developed at the University of Pittsburgh to collate links to Russian and East European sites around the world, REESWeb has outgrown its early organization. Some of the factors in restructuring such a site are considered. The third article describes a small in-house project to develop cataloging staff expertise in searching the Internet. In this case, the Internet and its resources, cataloged and uncataloged, fit into an institution’s learning environment.
All of the contributors to this and other issues are congratulated for seizing the opportunities inherent in the publication of the Journal of Internet Cataloging. More than ever there is a need to document the issues and efforts to provide organization for and access to resources available through the Internet. The Internet itself is dynamic as are many of the resources locatable through it. What we find today is not what we found yesterday or will find tomorrow. How can we track the history of any one site much less the collective resource? Will we be able to document the evolution of a site such as REESWeb? Or for that matter the home pages of the Journal of Internet Cataloging or Cataloging & Classification Quarterly? No one has figured out how to archive electronic resources on a long-term basis. For now and the forseeable future periodic ‘capturing’ for print of the images may be the best approach. It is also important to record research into methods of organizing individual sites or providing efficient access to multiple sites. As the Internet grows, the subject of its organization and access (or cataloging) becomes more critical. It is as important to know what doesn’t work or the limitations of a particular approach as it is to document successful strategies.
We know that there is considerable activity related to cataloging and organizing Internet available resources going on around the world. These efforts should be documented for posterity and shared for the benefit of others in the present. Few people start an Internet site just for their own benefit. Putting something on the Internet is an outreach activity and sharing is implicit. The sites and resources are intended for use. Structure, organization, and systems for access will facilitate the use as opposed to random stumbling around. This is not to denegrate serendipitous findings which are often useful, but the Internet is huge and growing exponentially. Unless we take control of its organization we can never fully reap its benefits.
If you are involved in a project involving organization of and access to digital resources available through the Internet, consider describing your efforts for publication in the Journal of Internet Cataloging. Either of us would be pleased to hear your proposal or arrange for review of your manuscript. Both of us are readily available by e-mail: Roger at rob@psulias.psu.edu; Ruth at rcc13+@pitt.edu. We would like to hear from you. In the meantime, all of us are in this brave new world together!
- Ruth C. Carter
- Roger Brisson