The Library and Information Professional’s Guide To the World Wide Web follows on from The Library and Information Professional’s Guide to the Internet by two of the same authors (Alan Poulter and Gwyneth Tseng). The book is divided into four parts, each with several chapters: Part 1 (“Fundamentals of the World Wide Web”) contains five chapters; Part 2 (“World Wide Web applications in UK libraries and information units”), two chapters; Part 3 (“Developments in World Wide Web technology”), two chapters; Part 4 (“World Wide Web resource guide”), with individual sections linked to Parts 1 to 3.
The first part is an introduction to Web‐related rudimentary concepts, Web technology and Web applications in information areas. This part outlines the history of the WWW and explains the basic technical terms such as hypertext, hypertext transfer protocol (http), hypertext markup language (html) and uniform resource locators (URLs). It indicates briefly and clearly how the Web functions. The most important content in this part is the discussion of how to create Web pages and design and publish a Web site. It also provides some features which the Web site designer must follow in order to exercise quality control. In addition there are matters of Web security and copyright addressed by the authors in Part 1. In particular, they discuss two methods for solving the security problem in Web access.
The second part emphasises Web applications in libraries and other information service units (e.g. training, databases). The authors show in their examples of libraries in the UK that many institutions have broken through traditional service patterns and now can provide more innovative Internet access and related services for users. The book mainly examines academic and research libraries, showing how they play an important role in developing and delivering electronic information resources. These include electronic links with other collections, newsletters and service announcements, etc. However, the authors also maintain that some libraries and information units have not seized this new opportunity ‐ either their Web pages are uninspired in design and content, or they are not cooperating with other libraries in terms of public access via Web pages. They also indicate that information professionals influence the selection and evaluation of information links on their homepages, and they must pay particular attention to this in order to provide the best possible links.
The third part introduces more advanced Web technology, such as common gateway interface (CGI), server‐side scripting and client‐side programming. This is done in a mere five pages of text, indicating that only indicative information is provided. The final part offers a guide to Web resources, to supplement the preceding text and is divided into the same three topical sections as Parts 1‐3. This Web bibliography points readers to a number of very useful and interesting Web sites, for example Sun Microsystems’ Guide to Web Style, Search Engine Watch, Java Technology Home Page, etc.
The main purpose of the book is to introduce the World Wide Web to librarians and information professionals, LIS students and other interested readers. It is particularly beneficial to the Web beginner who already has knowledge of how to use the Internet.
