In an age inundated by a plethora of Web sites how can quality be easily determined? This 386‐page book of 15 chapters focuses on the role libraries and scholars have in the dissemination of Internet resources, and it answers this question by pointing the way to quality sites. The introduction sets the volume’s tone in providing the reader with well‐referenced access to the Internet, in addition to facts and figures on the current themes, particularly archiving and quality control.
Often librarians are asked: “Where do I start to look for X?” The Internet is increasingly the most logical place to start but is not necessarily the only source, as is explained by the editors. The short but useful paper by Carol Tenopir compares traditional services such as Lexis‐Nexis with the Web and comments on the strengths and weaknesses of these media.
For librarians the articles on Internet reference services and “getting what you paid for” are valuable. Of special interest to academics in the social sciences are the numerous articles on anthropology and sociology, art, history, English and US literature, philosophy and politics. Bruce Pencek’s article, “Internet resources for politics, political science and political scientists”, clearly describes useful Internet gateways in this field and provides the reader with sites to assist research in political methodology, public policy and international relations. For science scholars biology, engineering, medical reference tools and natural sciences are covered in detail, while the commerce and business information and legal information chapters feature useful Web sources.
The authors, for example associate professors, library team leaders and library directors, are well qualified to comment on their topics. Detailed “Webliographies” appear in all chapters and provide the reader with research resources and tools to further their knowledge. The numerous URLs and detailed footnotes to each chapter also provide a wealth of further reading, while the use of case studies add value to many aspects of the Internet searching. Although specifically focused on the US educational research environment, the book will be useful to researchers and librarians in other countries.
One annoying feature of the publication, which acts as a deterrent to the readability of the book, is the layout. This could be dramatically improved by turning off the automatic hyphenation, reducing the size of the body text and increasing the use of leading and white space. That aside, the comprehensive index allows readers easy access to the material on the topics, all of which are current and timely in an ever‐changing world of information that is easily outdated, and the division by the editors of the 14 disciplines covered has been evenly handled.
So can a librarian answer the question of “Where do I start?” more easily? Yes, with access to the information in this book, a researcher or scholar would be well on his/her way, headed in the right direction. This volume provides an edited summary by two well‐known library professionals and is a useful reference tool for researchers and librarians.
