Re: GEN: New trend in librarianship?

[Dan Robinson <dlrbnsn2@eclipse.net>]

Carol, I would say that this not a being taught in Library School,
but it a common belief amongst people who have not spent much time in
libraries and a small amount of time online.  It *seems* as if
everything *is* available on the web .... and available for free.

However, when professionals start examining the information available
on the web, they usually find that it is not duplicated in print, it
is redundant, and very ephermal. Most Good information on the web
costs money.  Exceptions are government web sites, and even some of
those are find their way into the pay for use arena.

Much is made of the magazine fulltext databases on the web.  The
first point to make to the "everything" people is that any fulltext
with indexing is not free.  The second, is that usually evey page
from a magazine is not duplicated in the fulltext database.  If it is
being provided by an indexing vendor, usually only the articles that
are indexed are included.  Some vendors do selective indexing, and
therefore selective fulltext.

Can you find letters to the editor? The advertisements?  Cartoons?
All the photos?  Are they in color or black&white? Is what you get
images? PDF files? HTML pages? ASCII text?  Are tables and charts
included?

Finally, some authors are retaining electronic rights to their
articles and are refusing to let them be disseminated without large
royalty payments.  If the vendor can't come up with the money, or if
the accounting will cost too much, the articles are not included.

If you encounter this "everything" attitude, challenge the person to
find something very specific for you in a set amount of time.  Make
it something that you can find quickly in a print resource in the
library.  <grin>.

Dan Robinson
Indexing Services
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@hwwilson.com (work)
dlrbnsn2@eclipse.net (home)

On  7 Aug 99 at 11:24, Carol Petrie wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I would like to bring up a topic for possible discussion.  While on vacation
> this summer, I was talking with my mother who had just had a discussion with
> the new librarian in my old high school in upstate New York.  During their
> discussion he mention that he was going to throw out all the magazines!
> When she told me that I almost had a stroke.  His justification to that was
> that "everything can be found on-line".
>

>
> Carol Petrie, Media Coordinator

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