York Information Connections: an attempt to catalogue the Internet

Christine Ellwood, Head of Subject Services and Information Systems (and LibWeb Coordinator)     cve1@york.ac.uk     (J.B. Morrell Library University of York)   Sarah Thompson Periodicals Librarian     st20@york.ac.uk     (J.B. Morrell Library University of York)

Ariadne 1997
(ReLIS:doi:doiari:y:1997:i:11:p:8)

Abstract:

LibWeb is the University of York Library's web information service. LibWeb was designed right from the start as a comprehensive site which would provide as much information as possible on library services, staff and collections, and which would include electronic versions of all printed library guides. One of the first questions that arose in designing the site was how to deal with Internet resources. The Computing Service had maintained a campus information service for several years before the Web became the standard method of access to the Internet. The Library already had a collection of bibliographies and other resources downloaded from other sites and made available on the information service which we did not want to lose. On the other hand, there were already other national collections of resources, notably at BUBL and NISS which we did not want to duplicate. As a compromise solution, we decided to provide a convenient collection of links to resources that would be of particular interest to the staff and students at York, including links to other more comprehensive sites where available. This developed into the York Subject Tree and, ultimately, York Information Connections. The development of this service and the rationale behind it is outlined in the first half of this article. The cataloguing of electronic journals involves many of the same issues which apply to other Internet resources. However, they also pose some of their own problems and these are highlighted in the second half of this article.

Keywords: Issues of particular interest to librarians. This month cataloguing electronic resources.
Note: Christine Ellwood and Sarah Thompson outline the rationale behind the approach of the University of York Library to cataloguing Internet resources. This article appears in the Web, and not the print, version of Ariadne.
Month: September 1997
Year: 1997

 (go top)