Siteseeing

ABSTRACT

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of selected sites on the topic of Movies.     

The Assessment Portfolio: A Possible Answer to the Distance Education Assessment Dilemma

ABSTRACT

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of Awards sites.     

Form-based proxy caching for database-backed web sites: keywords and functions

Web caching proxy servers are essential for improving web performance and scalability, and recent research has focused on making proxy caching work for database-backed web sites. In this paper, we explore a new proxy caching framework that exploits the query semantics of HTML forms. We identify two common classes of form-based queries from real-world database-backed web sites, namely, keyword-based queries and function-embedded queries. Using typical examples of these queries, we study two representative caching schemes within our framework: (i) traditional passive query caching, and (ii) active query caching, in which the proxy cache can service a request by evaluating a query over the contents of the cache. Results from our experimental implementation show that our form-based proxy is a general and flexible approach that efficiently enables active caching schemes for database-backed web sites. Furthermore, handling query containment at the proxy yields significant performance advantages over passive query caching, but extending the power of the active cache to do full semantic caching appears to be less generally effective.     

Entertaining and Party Web Sites

ABSTRACT

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of selected Web sites on entertaining and parties.     

HealthLinks: A ColdFusion Web Application

SUMMARY

Libraries are beginning to use Web applications as they grapple with sites of increasing complexity, and the move of more user services to the Web. This article reviews the basic concepts of a Web application, and outlines some of the features of the HealthLinks Web application and site http://healthlinks.washington.edu at the University of Washington Health Science Libraries, and the transition from a Java-based application to ColdFusion.     

Siteseeing: Crime and Criminal Justice Web Sites

ABSTRACT

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of selected crime and criminal justice Web sites.     

Searching for Anne Frank on the Internet

ABSTRACT

Teaching the subject of the Holocaust is difficult enough for educators; identifying useful, topical, and appropriate Internet sites is most complicated given the plethora of sites on this subject. This article is a result of visiting and evaluating hundreds of Web sites to highlight those sites that are the most effective for students, teachers, scholars, and librarians.     

A Review of “Reference Sources for Small and Medium-sized Libraries”

SUMMARY

In the summer of 1999, the libraries at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) embarked on a Web redesign project. Essential to the new Web site were the development of a database of resources, Sage, and the creation of various in-house tools, which are used to enter and edit database resources. Tools were also created which assist in the creation and maintenance of various Web sites. With the completion of the project, UCSD students, faculty and staff can easily locate the resources and library information they need and library staff have more tools for Web site management.     

Health and Humanitarian Information on the Web

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and details a number of selected Web sites that provide free information in the areas of health and humanitarian aid. A brief analysis of content and a guide to navigation accompanies each.     

Dumbing Down Dewey

ABSTRACT

This column takes a look at Web sites specifically for use by children and young adults. Sites from ALA, the Internet Public Library, the Librarians' Index to the Internet, and Yahooliganst are evaluated. The inclusion of information on sexual topics within these sites is also discussed.     

An Examination of Library World Wide Web Sites at Medium-Sized Universities

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of a study of World Wide Web (Web) Sites for 133 academic libraries serving medium-sized universities. Each library Web site was examined, and all of the features were recorded. The study identified 31 core components which were present in over 50 percent of the libraries surveyed. The study indicated that: the navigational and design aspects of library Web sites should be improved; materials should be placed on the sites only if they will be accessed and utilized by the user community; and libraries could profit by making greater use of online tutorials and virtual tours to supplement regular bibliographic instruction.     

Technical Report Literature on the World Wide Web

Abstract

This article reviews and analyzes the current state of Web access to technical report literature. Besides locating sites for bibliographically identifying technical reports, it also looks at the ways the full-text of technical reports are being distributed. Where appropriate, it compares the electronic bibliographic control products with their print or formerly print equivalents. Most widely available at this point are federal government reports and computer science technical reports. Information on coping with the various file formats found at the sites is also provided. URLs to the various technical report sites and to sites dealing with the software applications needed to access the reports are included.     

Finding Acorns in the Technical Services Arboretum: A Reference Librarian's Guide to Vendor Home Pages

Abstract

Historically reference librarians have had limited contact with the book vendors and serials agents used by their colleagues in technical services. However, most vendors now support Web sites, including information on publishing trends, price studies of books and periodicals, and access to useful databases. The proliferation of such sites offers reference librarians additional resources, particularly for questions regarding the publishing industry. An overview of the nature and scope of these sites is offered, along witH some suggested reference uses. In addition, a brief survey of some vendor home pages is presented.     

A Review of “Managing Electronic Government Information in Libraries,Issues and Practices”

ABSTRACT

Included in this bibliography are Internet sites pertaining to the United States Congress. Covered are the official sites from Congress and its supporting agencies. In addition, there are unofficial sites that contain Congress-related information. These include general Web sites of interest groups, document collections sites, general Congress-related sites, voter information and e-mail sites, as well as sites providing access to newsgroups, newsletters, and bulletin boards.

There is a great deal of information on Congress to be found on the Internet. With public Internet stations popping up in libraries, and the increase in personal Internet accounts, the Internet can help technology meet democracy. And with the ever-increasing trend by government agencies, including the Government Printing Office, to move toward electronic information, it will be important to know where to find the information. Hopefully, this bibliography will help you locate the information you are seeking on Congress.     

Usability Testing of Academic Library Web Sites

ABSTRACT

This is a selective annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and electronic resources relating to the usability assessment or testing of the academic library Web site. It focuses on the library Web site specifics, thus answering a librarian's need for one source of information on the available publications. All journal articles have been written by or for academic librarians. This bibliography embraces the issues of usability testing as a process, its goals, objectives, tools, and methodology. The bibliography is grouped by the following topics: background information, tools and methodologies, case studies, dedicated Web sites, and samples of presentations.     

Applying Learning Style Theory to Web Page Design

ABSTRACT

Library Web sites can be instructional tools, especially for those patrons who utilize library resources from their homes. Many libraries are developing online tutorials, but there is an opportunity for Web instruction on another level. The organization and design of a Web site can act as an instructional tool in itself. This paper is a call to library Web designers to assess their work in terms of learning style preferences. Learning style theory is based on how people process information and learn new material. Applying these ideas to Web page design can make library resources more accessible and improve the patron's comprehension of how the library works.     

The Art of the Accessibility Statement

ABSTRACT

Many libraries recognize the need to create Web sites accessible to users with disabilities, as legislated in U.S. Code Section 508, but Section 508 compliance defines a minimum legal level of accessibility. The same technology that can make a Web site available to users with disabilities can also make the site available to users with wireless devices, such as PDAs and cell phones, with Internet access. To bring about “maximum accessibility,” library Web designers need to implement Web standards. This article argues the place to begin implementing these standards is with an accessibility statement which serves as both a contract and a navigational aid.     

Service Priorities and Balance: Delivering a Menu of Quality Services That Reflect Users Needs and Tastes

ABSTRACT

With the increasing use of technology, librarians are being asked to provide instruction in a variety of different formats. One way for academic librarians to meet the demand of teaching is for them to take a closer look at what is written in the educational literature about teaching. This article reviews eight academic Web sites that deal with teaching effectiveness and describes their usefulness for librarians and others interested in teaching.     

Automatic integration of Web search interfaces with WISE-Integrator

An increasing number of databases are becoming Web accessible through form-based search interfaces, and many of these sources are database-driven e-commerce sites. It is a daunting task for users to access numerous Web sites individually to get the desired information. Hence, providing a unified access to multiple e-commerce search engines selling similar products is of great importance in allowing users to search and compare products from multiple sites with ease. One key task for providing such a capability is to integrate the Web search interfaces of these e-commerce search engines so that user queries can be submitted against the integrated interface. Currently, integrating such search interfaces is carried out either manually or semiautomatically, which is inefficient and difficult to maintain. In this paper, we present WISE-Integrator - a tool that performs automatic integration of Web Interfaces of Search Engines. WISE-Integrator explores a rich set of special metainformation that exists in Web search interfaces and uses the information to identify matching attributes from different search interfaces for integration. It also resolves domain differences of matching attributes. In this paper, we also discuss how to automatically extract information from search interfaces that is needed by WISE-Integrator to perform automatic interface integration. Our experimental results, based on 143 real-world search interfaces in four different domains, indicate that WISE-Integrator can achieve high attribute matching accuracy and can produce high-quality integrated search interfaces without human interactions.Received: 2 January 2004, Accepted: 25 March 2004, Published online: 12 August 2004Edited by: M. Carey     

The Best Web Sites in Psychology and Sociology

Abstract

The World Wide Web offers a large and ever-expanding number of resources in the fields of psychology and sociology. Growth of the Web has been so fast that it has been difficult to keep track of all the new resources that are rapidly becoming available. With so many new Web sites cropping up, there is a growing need to sort through these resources and determine which sites are the most valuable for research in these subject areas. This study first discusses some criteria for assessing the quality of Web sites, and then applies these criteria to the Web sites currently available in an effort to determine which sites are the best for these two fields.