Wall Street Executive Library (Executivelibrary.com) fails to provide what its targeted audience needs most – a clear, easy‐to‐navigate site with links for busy business researchers. Long pages of links, headings followed by “more”, and links such as “Ross’s Picks” offered as a main category along with “Health and medicine”, result in a site that is impressive in its number of links, but disappointing in its lack of annotations. There are better starting‐points for business researchers on the Internet.
Wall Street Executive Library is intended to be a one‐stop site for business researchers seeking information. Links to other Web sites are categorized by subject and then displayed in three columns. There are three pages and 16 categories. Three of the categories – Web search and computer, Reference, and Government research – are supplemented with the word “more”, indicating that there are yet more links on another page. Other categories include Newspapers, TV and Radio, Business and Legal Research, and Careers and Education. There is also a Web Directory Search category, which, when displayed, is a “mini‐subject directory” rather than a keyword search page. In addition, at the top of each page are links to other parts of the Wall Street Executive Library, including an About Us section and a tutorial.
Claims on every page that Wall Street Executive Library features the “Web’s best business sites” with more than “1,450 content‐rich resources” count for little when locating those sites involves scrolling through long pages or leaving the site to see if the links are useful. Some of the links are preceded by either US or Canadian flags. While this is somewhat helpful, descriptions of the sites would be better. Even the flag system of identification is limited, since it seems to apply only to US and Canadian sites. Elexia, a site included under Law in the Business and Legal Research category, is the creation of a UK firm, yet there is no flag to indicate that it is UK‐based.
It is the paid advertising on this site that will concern researchers the most. While the usual banner and tile ads are present, there are other, less obvious links to advertisers’ sites. Users who click on the main page’s link to the “Famous People Store” will reach a page that is an AllPosters.com affiliate, with a list of posters of famous people for sale. “Popular deals” is a directory of sites for mortgages, hardware suppliers, and other advertisers. Following a compilation of magazine and advertising research links, a listing for “The brain audit: how to look inside a customer’s brain and get them to buy every time” seems to be an advertisement, but its commercial nature is not clearly disclosed. All Internet users are familiar with seeing advertisements but, when this advertising appears only after clicking on a link and visiting the external site, their time is wasted. Other misleading and time‐wasting links appear on the top of each page. Researchers should not expect to find any librarians in the Library. This section consists of books published by site advertisers. The Tutorial provides little assistance to researchers.
This site’s strength is in its large number of links. Despite the often unhelpful titles of the links (i.e. “Anti‐study” under Libraries), the three‐column presentation on a crisp white page is easy to read. One section that can be recommended is Prospect Research. This page provides a wealth of links for non‐profit‐seeking potential donors. Particularly helpful here is the organization of the links into sections such as News, Non‐Profit Resources, Government Research, and Search (including non‐profit search engines and directories).
The About Us section states that Wall Street Executive Library was created as an alternative to bookmarking valuable individual sites. Only the best resources would be included for a “tough, demanding, élite” of the “Web’s intelligentsia and literati” needing “quick access” to those resources. Unfortunately, most of the Web’s intelligentsia and literati will find navigating the site tedious and not worth the time. Other free sites such as CEOexpress.com are easier to navigate and less likely to contain hidden advertising pitches.
