1. Science owes more to the steam engine
The Internet and the than the steam engine owes to science
(L.J. Henderson, 1917).
library
Nick Moore The virtual library
Virtual libraries are frequently referred to as
``libraries without walls'' and it is the Internet
that provides the ``windows'' and the
``transparency'' which makes this possible. It
allows users who are physically isolated from
the library to see in and it allows those inside
the library to see out. Although the great
dreams of Universal Availability of
Publications (UAP) and Universal
The author Bibliographic Control (UBC) (Law, 1998),
that have enthralled generations of librarians,
Nick Moore is an Information Consultant, Visiting
are still unfulfilled, the permeation of the
Professor at the University of Brighton, and Internet Editor
Internet throughout every facet of daily life
of Library Review.
brings the dream closer to reality. The major,
but by no means exclusive applications of the
Keywords Internet have been in the form of the World
Libraries, Librarians, Library services, Internet Wide Web and the establishment of intranets
(locally based Internet functionality).
Abstract
Library Web sites
The current and future applications and implications of
In recent years a great deal of activity in
the Internet within and for libraries are indicated. Aspects
libraries has been devoted to the design,
of the virtual library are considered, followed by the
implementation and refinement of library
impact of the Internet on aspects of library holdings.
Web sites. These have formed the basic
Features of online access, including search engine
structure and infrastructure of the virtual
performance, are noted and collection development
library and the services have included online
effects pointed out. Security issues, including pornography
public access catalogues (OPACs), distance
and copyright are described, and finally future
learning, library publicity, library holdings
implications of the Internet for libraries, through home
and other facilities.
versus library use and discussion groups, and influences
on the Internet of library science are discussed.
OPACs
Most libraries have devoted large
Electronic access
expenditures on the development of online
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is public access catalogues (OPACs). The
available at online aspect of these catalogues, originally
http://www.emerald-library.com aimed at internal use, has now been extended
to include external access. In addition to the
library's stock of materials, such as books and
audio-visual materials, the OPACs can also
provide access to the library's journals
holdings and enable outside users to
determine which journals are held by the
library and in which part of the library. The
Internet enables libraries at different locations
to form networks involving their OPACs to
give rise to powerful union catalogues,
particularly of journals holdings. The
Library Review
Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . pp. 422±427 cataloguing efforts have tended to be dual in
# MCB University Press . ISSN 0024-2535 that they use the Internet as a medium for
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2. The Internet and the library Library Review
Nick Moore Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . 422±427
co-operation while developing techniques for range of library publicity options offered by a
cataloguing Internet-based materials (Weber, library Web site is the updated introductory
1999). library guide for first year undergraduates,
produced by Bath University Library and
Distance learning Learning Centre in which the printed guide was
Academic libraries serving a scattered student replaced by a credit card holder bearing the
population can provide sophisticated distance Library logo and Web site URL on the front
learning programmes[1]. The widespread and a concertina insert with basic information
access of the Internet into the homes of the (SCONUL Newsletter, 2000).
students ensures the success of these schemes
and enables the libraries to provide course
materials and other documents electronically Library holdings
to students scattered over wide areas,
particularly rural areas. Typical applications The implications of the Internet for library
include the DERAL (Distance Education in holdings are both wide-ranging and
Rural Areas via Libraries) project[2] and contentious. The ability to replace internally-
Project LISTED (Library Integrated System held paper stock with either access to
for Telematics-based Education), a European electronic equivalents via the Internet or
Commission project part funded under the storage and provision of electronic materials
Telematics Applications Programme held on library or library-group intranets is
(Libraries sector)[3]. A number of models particularly attractive given the growing
have been applied to the various ways in pressures placed on the library's ability to
which the Web can be used as part of the store physically a growing amount of material
student learning experience: (Bawden, 1999; Rowlands, 1999).
. the ``open resource model''; where the
Web is accessed to retrieve information Electronic journals
from diverse sources which may, or may The frustration (for libraries), caused by the
not, be educationally-based; reluctance of many journals publishers to face
. the ``learning materials model'' where the the perceived risks of moving away from
Web contains specific resources for printed and towards electronic journals, seems
students such as background reading to be fading as the growth and acceptability of
recommended by academic staff; business-to-business electronic commerce is
. the ``teaching materials model'' which prompting publishers to make a commitment
contains information provided by to the new formats. In addition to the large
academic staff and related to a particular number of free electronic journals that are
course of study and may contain brief currently available to libraries, there are a large
summaries of lectures and be a number of subscription journals that offer
replacement for paper-based handouts; libraries the ability to subscribe on the same
. the ``directed learning model'' containing basis as print or to access on a pay-for-view
the complete set of learning materials for basis. The role of the aggregator, well
a course; established in the world of print journals, in
. ``computer assisted learning model'', the form of the subscription agent, far from
involving computer-based training for being rendered obsolete by the emergence of
self-study by students; and electronic journals has actually been
. the ``communication model'' where reinvented and forms one of the main means
students discuss and collaborate on their by which libraries access electronic journals via
studies through facilities such as the Internet (CatchWord[4], EBSCOhost/
computer conferencing. EBSCO Online[5]).
Library publicity Electronic books
The Internet has stimulated libraries into Electronic books (e-books) are currently
investing a great deal of time and imagination showing sign of taking off after a somewhat
into providing information about the library shaky start. Publishers who are contemplating
and its services. The provision of searching shedding their book programmes could well
facilities on most sites allows users to be acting prematurely. Many publishers are
interrogate the Web sites. An example of the generating HTML versions of the first
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3. The Internet and the library Library Review
Nick Moore Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . 422±427
chapters of their books and these will be Search engines
extremely valuable as collection development It probably came as a nasty surprise to many
tools. A range of sources describing e-books to see the relatively poor coverage of the Web
are available[6-10]. by the major search engines reported in recent
studies (Lawrence and Lee, 1998; 1999).
Patents Nevertheless, improvements continue to be
An excellent example of the availability of made in the coverage, timeliness,
freely accessible online databases is the wealth functionality and special access features
of full text patent databases (UK and US incorporated into the current range of search
Patent Offices[11,12]) accessible on the Web. engines. Reviews of search engine features
The ability of users to access and obtain continue to appear regularly in the literature
copies of UK and US patents from these (Webber, 1998).
databases has meant that the British Library's
patent libraries are virtually deserted and the Gateways, portals and vortals
remaining users tend to be those interested in The value of Web sites as information sources
old patents currently held on microfilm. As for libraries has been greatly increased with
these patents become digitised, the British the emergence of gateways, portals and vortals
Library will be able to reallocate the space to (vertically integrated portals). These services
other functions. The vision of a library provide structured access to other, related,
comprising electronic material is unattractive Web sites and benefit the users from the
to many people but there can be no denying intellectual effort that goes into the selection
that electronic materials have both the means processes that are used to select the site (a
of relieving the pressure on space and the process very much analogous to the selection
plasticity to lend themselves to easier process undertaken by libraries to gear library
transmission, copying and reprocessing into collections to the needs of library users).
special formats such as talking books. There Portals and vortals are particularly valuable for
are still many problems remaining to be business information and tend to provide
solved and these include issues of permanence information free of charge, the services being
in archival material[13]. funded by advertising (Peek, 1999).
Image databases
Online database access
As image databases continue to become
One of the major revolutions introduced by
important as means both of preserving images
the Internet is the vastly increased access to
from printed media and for enabling access to
online information made possible via the
visual information, so the need for indexing
World Wide Web. The range of information
and subject access has become pressing.
sources, in terms of both bibliographic and
Digital libraries of geospatial and similar
image databases and specialized Web sites on
multimedia content are currently deficient in
all subjects is vast. A huge improvement in the
providing fuzzy, concept-based retrieval
access to online medical information has been
mechanisms to users. Considerable work has
wrought through the provision of free and
been undertaken by the United Geological
unlimited access to MEDLINE through a
Survey in mechanising the labour-intensive
number of differently packaged versions,
processes of indexing and thesaurus creation
notably PubMed[14]. When this is coupled
for text documents and especially for images,
with online document delivery (Loansome
where 800,000 declassified satellite
Doc), the result is a powerful online tool for
photographs have been made available
all libraries. Similar examples include the free
(Ramsey et al., 1999).
access to the ERIC database and to the full
text patent databases mentioned above. The
major online vendors, such as DIALOG, now Collection development, outsourcing,
all offer Web versions of their dial-up services, interlending and document delivery
taking advantage of the possibilities of
document delivery of electronic journal The Internet provides a number of
articles directly from the publishers or opportunities for libraries to improve their
indirectly from the aggregators. collection development, interlending and
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4. The Internet and the library Library Review
Nick Moore Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . 422±427
document delivery processes and switch to materials to be loaned or the transmission of
outsourcing. electronic copies of actual documents. The
influence of the Internet has been felt
Collection development throughout this process and manifests itself in
The process of collection development has the use of electronic mail (e-mail) for ordering
been revolutionised by the emergence of documents, the use of the Web for the
brand new Web-based information sources, transmission of electronic articles or other
in addition to Web-based equivalents of materials and the exploitation of the
traditional selection tools. Of particular value Internet's ability to provide libraries with the
for book selection is the Amazon.com family opportunity to develop their collections
of Web resources, which incorporate beyond the walls of their libraries; where the
searching facilities, reviews written by physical location of materials is no longer the
volunteers and mechanisms for purchasing key issue, but rather the provision of timely
books that have been selected. Old favourites, access to information (Scully, 1999).
such as Bowker's Books in Print, have also
launched Web sites with similar functionality
and customer-friendly features. These Security issues
selection tools will become even more
powerful as publishers develop electronic In addition to the security issues facing
books (e-Books) and release HTML versions libraries in the use of electronic commerce
of the first chapters of their books to these for purchasing and similar cash transactions,
services enabling libraries to have even more there are also Internet issues involving the
information on which to make their selection access, by children and young people, to
judgements. The increasing acceptability of pornography or other material likely to be
business-to-business electronic commerce is considered unsuitable and to copyright
bound to make library purchasing a smoother issues.
and more efficient process and lead to cost
savings. Periodicals market forces, budgetary Access to pornography
constraints and growth in electronic resources One of the challenges facing public libraries is
purchasing have resulted in a decline in the that of unsupervised access to the Internet by
acquisition of print items. Due to the decline children and young people. Public libraries
of print collections, libraries are exploring are increasingly adding Internet and Web
co-operative collection development of print access, along the lines of the burgeoning
materials to ensure access and preservation. cybercafes. Considerable concern has been
Â
The decline of approval plan use and the need expressed regarding the possibility of children
for co-operative collection development may and young people becoming corrupted by
require additional effort for sound collection some of the less attractive corners of the Web.
development (Blecic, 1999). Part of the problem lies in the shortcomings of
the search engines which can give some very
Outsourcing strange ``false drops''. These problems,
As the Internet and World Wide Web break together with the possibility of deliberate
down the barriers separating the library from access, have been addressed by attempts to
the rest of the world and as communications develop ``filtering'' software; so far with mixed
are improved drastically, so the advantages, results. Currently available filtering software
particularly to public libraries, of outsourcing and services are notoriously clumsy,
library processes, such as cataloguing and sometimes blocking perfectly respectable sites
acquisitions, are becoming increasingly and curtailing whole areas of legitimate
attractive. The reason given most often by enquiry for young people through the use of
libraries for outsourcing was that it resulted in terms which might have sexual connotations
cost savings (Blecic, 1999). (Stoker, 1999). Many companies are
installing software designed to block access,
Interlending and document delivery by employees, to selected Internet sites
The underlying problem of interlending and (Rudich, 1999). The issue tends to be
document delivery has always been that of wrapped up with considerations of freedom of
communication, whether it be the information and is still racked with
communication of information regarding contention.
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5. The Internet and the library Library Review
Nick Moore Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . 422±427
Copyright Science owes more to the steam
Publishers have tended to have mixed feelings engine F F F
about the Internet and libraries. The marriage
between publishers and libraries, though a The profound influence that the steam
natural and, for the most part, a symbiotic engine had on the development of ideas in
one has always been fraught with difficulty, thermodynamics is finding an echo in the
with each tending to suspect the other of influence that the library and information
infidelity from time to time. The emergence science (LIS) profession is starting to have
of the Internet has served to make a difficult on certain aspects and functions of the
marriage even more so, despite the fact that Internet.
enormous opportunities exist. Publishers The search engines, which started out in
probably do not have enough experience yet isolation from the mainstream of LIS
to make permanent policy about copyright research, are beginning to take stock and
and fair use but everyone involved in the apply some of the long-established library
publishing chain should be flexible and trust techniques, particularly classification, to
the market to dictate what is required[15]. additional layers of structure to Web sites.
An important example of where library
Home use versus library use practice has influenced Web site design and
search engine functionality is in the
Of all the library/Internet challenges yet to
emergence of metadata (Vine, 1999; Heery,
become clearly defined is the likely future
1996). OCLC's Dublin Core metadata
effect of home access to information sources
elements, drawing heavily on the structured
on the Web. Users who can access full text
databases from the comfort of their homes computerised bibliographic database
may avoid the traditional visit to the library. formats, such as MARC, originally
The trend towards end-user searching, much developed for sharing cataloguing data, are
vaunted and much maligned in the 1980s and playing an increasingly important role in
early 1990s, where it was applied to dial-up bringing order to the Web[16].
online services, is now starting to come into Similarly, the efforts expended by the
its own with access to the Web. Public library and information community in
libraries may not be affected as much as creating USMARC Field 856 (Electronic
academic libraries and the services provided Location and Access) (Riemer, 1998),
by national libraries, but the question arises as Persistent Uniform resource Locator
to the degree to which the powerful (PURL)[17] and the Digital Object
information access tools that are readily Identifier (DOI)[18-20] have played a
available to anyone with a personal computer significant role in achieving greater library
(PC) at home and access to the Internet will exploitation of the Internet.
reshape some of the services and service One possible outcome could be the demise
philosophies currently applying to libraries. of the traditional abstracting and indexing
(A&I) services, which have for a long time
Discussion groups been sources of heavy expenditure for
libraries. As search engines become
The application of the Internet and World
increasingly sophisticated and publishers
Wide Web, as a medium for various levels of
include metadata (including abstracts and
discussion and the communication of ideas
indexing) with their electronic journals, the
and views, is becoming particularly valuable
for library and information science (LIS) need for A&Is could diminish unless they can
professionals who can use discussion make a sufficiently good case for their
software, Usenet, electronic mail discussion standardised indexing.
lists (Mailbase, LIS-LINK), electronic Another example of this phenomenon is
conferencing, instant messaging, chatrooms the way that the traditional concept of
and videoconferencing to assist them by selective dissemination of information (SDI)
calling on the expertise of other LIS has become adopted by the Internet in the
professionals if they have particular needs or form of ``push'' technologies (Solomon,
are stuck for ideas. 1999).
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6. The Internet and the library Library Review
Nick Moore Volume 49 . Number 9 . 2000 . 422±427
Notes Blecic, D.D. (1999), Bulletin of the Medical Library
Association, Vol. 87 No. 2, April, pp. 178-86.
1 <http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-01/ Heery, R. (1996), Program, Vol. 30 No. 4, October,
hooke.html> pp. 345-73.
2 <http://deral.infc.ulst.ac.uk> Law, D. (1998), Library Review, Vol. 47 No. 5/6,
3 <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/listed/> pp. 296-300.
4 <http://www.catchword.com> Lawrence, S. and Lee, C.G. (1998), Science, Vol. 280 No. 3
5 <http://www.ebsco.com> April, pp. 98-100.
6 <http://www.ala.org/alonline/netlib/il500.html> Lawrence, S. and Lee, C.G. (1999), Nature, Vol. 400 No. 8,
7 <http://www.biblio-tech.com/html/e-
July, pp. 107-9. (Summarized by David Green in
book_technology.html>
8 <http://www.biblio-tech.com/html/e- Information World Review, No. 151, October 1999,
book_update.html> pp. 31-32 and in a three page summary from Steve
9 <http://www.sls.lib.il.us/infotech/presentations/ Lawrence <lawrence@research.nj.nec.com>.
ebooks/> Peek, R.P. (1999), Information Today, Vol. 16 No. 8,
10 <http://bibliofuture.homepage.com/> September, pp. 36-7.
11 < http://www.patent.gov.uk/dbservices/> Ramsey, M.C. et al. (1999), Journal of the American
12 < http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html> Society for Information Science, Vol. 50 No. 9, July,
13 <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/vanderwerf/
pp. 826-34.
09vanderwerf.html>
Riemer, J.J. (1999), Cataloging & Classification Quarterly,
14 < http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi>
15 <http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-03/ Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 5-9.
strong.html> Rowlands, I. (1999), Libri, Vol. 49 No. 4, December,
16 <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january99/bearman/ pp. 192-202.
01bearman.html> Rudich, J. (1999), Link-Up (USA), Vol. 16 No. 2, March/
17 <http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-03/ April, Vol. 6 No. 12.
lindquist.html> SCONUL Newsletter, (2000), Vol. 19, Spring, pp. 25-26.
18 <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may99/05paskin.html> Scully, P. (1999), Australian Library Journal, Vol. 48 No. 2,
19 <http://www.icsti.org/icsti/forum/ May, pp. 178-88.
fo9904.html#fennessy> Stoker, D. (1999), Journal of Librarianship and Information
20 <http://www.icsti.org/icsti/forum/ Science, Vol. 31 No. 1, March, pp. 3-6.
fo9904.html#paskin> Vine (1999), Vol. 116, pp. 6-48; Vol. 117, pp. 3-53.
Webber, S. (1998), Business Information Review, Vol. 15
No. 4, December, pp. 229-37.
References Weber, M.B. (1999), Library Hi Tech, Vol. 17 No. 3,
pp. 298-303.
Bawden, D. (1999), Libri, Vol. 49 No. 4, December, Solomon, M. (1999), Searcher, Vol. 7 No. 6, June,
pp. 181-91. pp. 70-6.
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