EDITORIAL. By Ruth C. Carter

PROFILES IN DIGITAL INFORMATION    Laurel Jizba, Editor

            Susan Dumais: Senior Researcher, Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group, Microsoft Research

42.    Mistakes we love to revisit: 42 ponders search engines, directories and other Web navigation blunders wonders.  By Eric Childress, Erik Jul, and Eric Miller

Classification Practice and Implications for Subject Directories of the Chinese Language Web-Based Digital Library. By Zi-yu Lin, Seton Hall University.
Abstract. The availability of an increasingly large number of Chinese-language resources in cyberspace underpins the foundation for a global digital library. This study presents a methodology to investigate the classification practice of this digital library by examining more than one hundred Chinese language subject directories. The findings show that the construction of these subject directories does not follow established classification systems that are widely employed in the traditional library cataloging of the Chinese-speaking world. Numerous top-level subject headings have emerged in subject directories due to the lack of uniform subject heading control. However, each subject directory usually entertains 12 to 16 subject categories. Pareto's rule, or the 20/80 rule, may govern the access to the resources of this digital library.

Keywords: Classification, Subject Directories, Uniform Subject Headings, Digital Library, Chinese Language.

Librarian, Catalog Thy Work! Getting Started Integrating Internet Resources into OPACs. By David Ward & Diane VanderPol.
Abstract: The Internet, and user demand for information from the Internet, grows and expands at a phenomenal rate, daily.  As academic publishing trends change and stability comes to resources already present on the Web, libraries will find more and more useful Internet resources that they want to connect their users to.  The OPAC already serves as a central finding tool for much of a library’s intellectual holdings, and can perform the same function for a library’s Internet “holdings” as well.  While the prospect of  “cataloging the Internet” seems daunting at first, developing a staged approach for integrating Internet resources into the OPAC can provide libraries with valuable experience for deciding how to best harness this growing body of knowledge. A logical first stage is the cataloging of a library’s own Web pages.

Keywords: Internet Cataloging, OPAC, Internet Resources, World Wide Web

BOOK REVIEWS

“Human Response to Library Technology” Library Trends 47(4) 605-827, Spring 1999.  Edited by Janice J. Kirkland and  Michael Gorman.
                        Reviewed by Casey Palowitch

NEWS FROM THE FIELD   Gerry McKiernan, Editor