1292 lines
57 KiB
Plaintext
1292 lines
57 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
+ Page 1 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review
|
|
|
|
Volume 5, Number 6 (1994) ISSN 1048-6542
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
To retrieve an article file as an e-mail message, send the GET
|
|
command given after the article information to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu. (Files are also available from the
|
|
University of Houston Libraries' Gopher server: info.lib.uh.edu,
|
|
port 70.)
|
|
|
|
CONTENTS
|
|
|
|
COMMUNICATIONS
|
|
|
|
The World-Wide Web and Mosaic: An Overview for Librarians
|
|
|
|
By Eric Lease Morgan (pp. 5-26)
|
|
|
|
To retrieve this file: GET MORGAN PRV5N6 F=MAIL
|
|
|
|
URL: gopher://info.lib.uh.edu:70/00/articles/
|
|
e-journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview/v5/n6/morgan.5n6
|
|
|
|
This paper overviews the World-Wide Web (frequently abbreviated
|
|
as the "Web") and related systems and standards. First, it
|
|
introduces Web concepts and tools and describes how they fit
|
|
together to form a coherent whole, including the client/server
|
|
model of computing, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), selected
|
|
Web client and server programs, the HyperText Transfer Protocol
|
|
(HTTP), the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), selected HTML
|
|
converters and editors, and Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
|
|
scripts. Second, it discusses strategies for organizing Web
|
|
information. Finally, it advocates the direct involvement of
|
|
librarians in the development of Web information resources.
|
|
|
|
COLUMNS
|
|
|
|
Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column
|
|
|
|
And Only Half of What You See, Part III: I Heard It Through
|
|
the Internet
|
|
|
|
By Walt Crawford (pp. 27-30)
|
|
|
|
To retrieve this file: GET CRAWFORD PRV5N6 F=MAIL
|
|
|
|
URL: gopher://info.lib.uh.edu:70/00/articles/
|
|
e-journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview/v5/n6/crawford.5n6
|
|
|
|
+ Page 2 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Editor-in-Chief
|
|
|
|
Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
|
|
University Libraries
|
|
University of Houston
|
|
Houston, TX 77204-2091
|
|
(713) 743-9804
|
|
Internet: lib3@uhupvm1.uh.edu
|
|
|
|
Associate Editors
|
|
|
|
Columns: Leslie Pearse, OCLC
|
|
Communications: Dana Rooks, University of Houston
|
|
|
|
Editorial Board
|
|
|
|
Ralph Alberico, University of Texas, Austin
|
|
George H. Brett II, Clearinghouse for Networked Information
|
|
Discovery and Retrieval
|
|
Priscilla Caplan, University of Chicago
|
|
Steve Cisler, Apple Computer, Inc.
|
|
Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group
|
|
Lorcan Dempsey, University of Bath
|
|
Pat Ensor, University of Houston
|
|
Nancy Evans, Pennsylvania State University, Ogontz
|
|
Charles Hildreth, University of Oklahoma
|
|
Ronald Larsen, University of Maryland
|
|
Clifford Lynch, Division of Library Automation,
|
|
University of California
|
|
David R. McDonald, Tufts University
|
|
R. Bruce Miller, University of California, San Diego
|
|
Paul Evan Peters, Coalition for Networked Information
|
|
Mike Ridley, University of Waterloo
|
|
Peggy Seiden, Skidmore College
|
|
Peter Stone, University of Sussex
|
|
John E. Ulmschneider, North Carolina State University
|
|
|
|
+ Page 3 +
|
|
|
|
Technical Support
|
|
|
|
Tahereh Jafari, University of Houston
|
|
|
|
Publication Information
|
|
|
|
Published on an irregular basis by the University Libraries,
|
|
University of Houston. Technical support is provided by the
|
|
Information Technology Division, University of Houston.
|
|
Circulation: 8,372 subscribers in 65 countries (PACS-L) and 2,711
|
|
subscribers in 52 countries (PACS-P).
|
|
|
|
Back issues are available from listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu. To
|
|
retrieve a cumulative index to the journal, send the following e-
|
|
mail message to the list server: GET INDEX PR F=MAIL.
|
|
|
|
Back issues are also available from the University of Houston
|
|
Libraries' Gopher server. Point your Gopher client at
|
|
info.lib.uh.edu, port 70, and follow this menu path:
|
|
|
|
Looking for Articles
|
|
Electronic Journals
|
|
E-Journals Published by the University of Houston
|
|
Libraries
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems
|
|
Review
|
|
|
|
The journal's URL is gopher://info.lib.uh.edu:70/11/articles/e-
|
|
journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview.
|
|
|
|
The first three volumes of The Public-Access Computer Systems
|
|
Review are also available in book form from the American Library
|
|
Association's Library and Information Technology Association
|
|
(LITA). (Volume four is forthcoming.) The price of each volume
|
|
is $17 for LITA members and $20 for non-LITA members. All three
|
|
volumes can be ordered as a set for $45 (indicate that you want
|
|
the PACS Review set, order number 7712-X). To order, contact:
|
|
ALA Publishing Services, Order Department, 50 East Huron Street,
|
|
Chicago, IL 60611-2729, (800) 545-2433.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 4 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
|
|
journal that is distributed on the Internet and on other computer
|
|
networks. There is no subscription fee.
|
|
To subscribe, send an e-mail message to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name
|
|
Last Name.
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C)
|
|
1994 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All
|
|
Rights Reserved.
|
|
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic
|
|
computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and
|
|
libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
|
|
collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. This
|
|
message must appear on all copied material. All commercial use
|
|
requires permission.
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
+ Page 27 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Crawford, Walt. "And Only Half of What You See, Part III: I
|
|
Heard It Through the Internet." The Public-Access Computer
|
|
Systems Review 5, no. 6 (1994): 27-30. To retrieve this file,
|
|
send the following e-mail message to listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu: GET
|
|
CRAWFORD PRV5N6 F=MAIL. Or, use the following URL: gopher://
|
|
info.lib.uh.edu:70/00/articles/e-journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview/
|
|
v5/n6/crawford.5n6.
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Effective public access requires skeptical users, a point that
|
|
the previous two Public-Access Provocations tried to make
|
|
indirectly. Just because something comes from "the computer,"
|
|
there is no reason to believe that it's correct--and, although
|
|
library cataloging represents one of the treasures of the
|
|
profession, catalogs aren't always completely trustworthy either.
|
|
But at least library catalogs represent sincere efforts to
|
|
provide useful, validated, even authority-controlled information.
|
|
Similarly, although commercial online databases are rife with
|
|
typos and other errors, it is still true that the databases
|
|
available on Eureka, FirstSearch, Dialog and the like represent
|
|
reasonable attempts to organize data into useful information with
|
|
good levels of correctness.
|
|
Then there's the Internet, the nascent Information
|
|
Superhighway according to some, where everything's up to date and
|
|
the hottest information is available by clicking away at Mosaic
|
|
or using WAIS to find out everything you could ever want to know,
|
|
magically arranged so that the first thing you get is the most
|
|
useful! And, with disintermediation and direct usage from every
|
|
home (and a cardboard box under the freeway?), tomorrow's
|
|
super-Internet will offer this wonderland to everyone, all the
|
|
time, making everyone potentially an up-to-date expert on
|
|
whatever. Skeptical? Why? It's hot, it's happening, it's
|
|
now--it's on the Internet!
|
|
|
|
+ Page 28 +
|
|
|
|
Seventy Elements: More Than Enough!
|
|
|
|
Thus we can expect to have fledgling scientists learning the new
|
|
and improved seventy-element periodic table with innovative new
|
|
element symbols. It must be right--it's on the Internet. I
|
|
could go on with hundreds of examples; as one version of that
|
|
famous cartoon goes, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a
|
|
fraud."
|
|
Of course, truly up-to-date users may be wary of something
|
|
that's just boring old ASCII. If they can't chew up bandwidth
|
|
with neat color pictures or (preferably) important live
|
|
video--such as vital visual information on how the coffee maker
|
|
at some university lab is doing right now--why would they want to
|
|
be bothered? The newest and most correct information will all be
|
|
graphical, accessed through Mosaic or some replacement.
|
|
Traditionally, well-done presentations have added weight to
|
|
content: there was an assumption that anyone with the resources
|
|
to do high-quality graphics and good text layout would probably
|
|
pay attention to the content. That was never a good assumption,
|
|
of course, but at least it separated well-funded frauds from
|
|
casual cranks and those who simply couldn't be bothered to check
|
|
their facts.
|
|
That's all changed. It doesn't take much to build truly
|
|
impressive World-Wide Web servers. Anyone with an Internet
|
|
connection and a decent graphics toolkit can create pages just as
|
|
impressive as anything from the Library of Congress or NASA--but
|
|
without any regard for factuality or meaning. You don't even
|
|
need good taste to build impressive presentations; modern
|
|
software will provide professional defaults so that you just add
|
|
your erroneous or misleading text and graphics.
|
|
|
|
Knowing the Source
|
|
|
|
The anarchic nature of the Internet and the leveling effect of
|
|
today's software raises the importance of cultivating appropriate
|
|
skepticism among users, which must begin with appropriate
|
|
skepticism among librarians and other library staff. For
|
|
starters, Internet searchers must be trained to look for (and
|
|
understand) the source of stuff that comes over the Net, but they
|
|
must also learn to go beyond simple source awareness.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 29 +
|
|
|
|
Some Internet navigation tools tend to mask sources, and
|
|
that can be dangerous. There are thousands of cranks on the
|
|
Internet now, and there will be even more in the future. Given a
|
|
few thousand dollars and a few weeks of time, I could prepare a
|
|
Library of Regress server that could be seen as a serious
|
|
competitor to the Library of Congress--never mind that everything
|
|
at the Library of Regress was at least half wrong, or at best
|
|
meaningless. A neo-Marxist crank could create an impressive news
|
|
bureau and be taken quite as seriously as a major news agency,
|
|
even if that crank made up the supposed news flashes and wildly
|
|
misinterpreted real events. A few MIT students with good
|
|
software could provide a steady stream of Rubble Telescope (or
|
|
Hobbled Telescope?) discoveries based on creatively modified clip
|
|
art--and they would probably even have a ".mit.edu" suffix,
|
|
assuring credibility. (To the best of my knowledge, all of these
|
|
examples are hypothetical. I use MIT as an example because of
|
|
its reputation for ingenious pranks.)
|
|
What's the solution? Certainly not to restrict Internet
|
|
access to a few hallowed and licensed information providers.
|
|
That would be even more dangerous to our society than having huge
|
|
gobs of erroneous material on the Net and is, I believe, an
|
|
impossibility as things stand. Rather, if there is a solution,
|
|
it is to inculcate caution and healthy skepticism among users of
|
|
the Internet and other immediate resources: to make them
|
|
understand that being online and apparently up-to-date confers no
|
|
authority or even probability of correctness on the information
|
|
they see.
|
|
One way to start may be to use a different name for the
|
|
Internet. It's not the Information Superhighway; it's the Stuff
|
|
Swamp. There is a lot of good stuff out there, to be sure--but
|
|
it's still a swamp, and a heavily polluted one at that. Wear
|
|
your hip boots when you go out on the Internet; the stuff can get
|
|
pretty thick at times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
About the Author
|
|
|
|
Walt Crawford, Senior Analyst, The Research Libraries Group,
|
|
Inc., 1200 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041-1100. Internet:
|
|
br.wcc@rlg.stanford.edu.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 30 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
|
|
journal that is distributed on the Internet and on other computer
|
|
networks. There is no subscription fee.
|
|
To subscribe, send an e-mail message to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name
|
|
Last Name.
|
|
This article is Copyright (C) 1994 by Walt Crawford. All
|
|
Rights Reserved.
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C)
|
|
1994 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All
|
|
Rights Reserved.
|
|
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic
|
|
computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and
|
|
libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
|
|
collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. This
|
|
message must appear on all copied material. All commercial use
|
|
requires permission.
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
+ Page 5 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Morgan, Eric Lease. "The World-Wide Web and Mosaic: An Overview
|
|
for Librarians." The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 5,
|
|
no. 6 (1994): 5-26. To retrieve this file, send the following e-
|
|
mail message to listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu: GET MORGAN PRV5N6
|
|
F=MAIL. Or, use the following URL: gopher://info.lib.uh.edu:70/
|
|
00/articles/e-journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview/v5/n6/morgan.5n6.
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
1.0 Introduction
|
|
|
|
The WorldWideWeb (W3) is the universe of network-accessible
|
|
information, an embodiment of human knowledge. It is an
|
|
initiative started at CERN, now with many participants. It
|
|
has a body of software, and a set of protocols and
|
|
conventions. W3 uses hypertext and multimedia techniques to
|
|
make the web easy for anyone to roam, browse, and contribute
|
|
to. [1]
|
|
|
|
This paper overviews the World-Wide Web (frequently abbreviated
|
|
as "W3," "WWW," or the "Web") and related systems and standards.
|
|
[2] First, it introduces Web concepts and tools and describes
|
|
how they fit together to form a coherent whole, including the
|
|
client/server model of computing, the Uniform Resource Locator
|
|
(URL), selected Web client and server programs, the HyperText
|
|
Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the HyperText Markup Language (HTML),
|
|
selected HTML converters and editors, and Common Gateway
|
|
Interface (CGI) scripts. Second, it discusses strategies for
|
|
organizing Web information. Finally, it advocates the direct
|
|
involvement of librarians in the development of Web information
|
|
resources.
|
|
|
|
2.0 Background
|
|
|
|
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (a particle physics laboratory
|
|
in Geneva, Switzerland) began work on the World-Wide Web. The
|
|
Web was initially intended as a way to share information between
|
|
members of the high-energy physics community. [3] By 1991, the
|
|
Web had become operational.
|
|
The Web is a hypertext system. The hypertext concept was
|
|
originally described by Vannevar Bush, [4] and the term
|
|
"hypertext" was coined by Theodor H. Nelson. [5] In a hypertext
|
|
system, a document is presented to a reader that has "links" to
|
|
other documents that relate to the original document and provide
|
|
further information about it.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 6 +
|
|
|
|
Scholarly journal articles represent an excellent
|
|
application of this technology. For example, scholarly articles
|
|
usually include multiple footnotes. With an article in hypertext
|
|
form, the reader could select a footnote number in the body of
|
|
the article and be "transported" to the appropriate citation in
|
|
the notes section. The citation, in turn, could be linked to the
|
|
cited article, and the process could go on indefinitely. The
|
|
reader could also backtrack and follow links back to where he or
|
|
she started.
|
|
The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that allows Web
|
|
servers and clients to communicate is older than the Gopher
|
|
protocol. The original CERN Web server ran under the NeXTStep
|
|
operating system, and, since few people owned NeXT computers,
|
|
HTTP did not become very popular. Similarly, the client side of
|
|
the HTTP equation included a terminal-based system few people
|
|
thought was aesthetically appealing. [6] All this was happening
|
|
just as the Gopher protocol was becoming more popular. Since
|
|
Gopher server and client software was available for many
|
|
different computing platforms, the Gopher protocol's popularity
|
|
grew while HTTP's languished.
|
|
It wasn't until early 1993 that the Web really started to
|
|
become popular. At that time, Bob McCool and Marc Andreessen,
|
|
who worked for the National Center for Supercomputing
|
|
Applications (NCSA), wrote both Web client and server
|
|
applications. Since the server application (httpd) was available
|
|
for many flavors of UNIX, not just NeXTStep, the server could be
|
|
easily used by many sites. Since the client application (NCSA
|
|
Mosaic for the X Window System) supported graphics, WAIS, Gopher,
|
|
and FTP access, it was head and shoulders above the original CERN
|
|
client in terms of aesthetic appeal as well as functionality.
|
|
Later, a more functional terminal-based client (Lynx) was
|
|
developed by Lou Montulli, who was then at the University of
|
|
Kansas. Lynx made the Web accessible to the lowest common
|
|
denominator devices, VT100-based terminals. When NCSA later
|
|
released Macintosh and Microsoft Windows versions of Mosaic, the
|
|
Web became even more popular. Since then, other Web client and
|
|
server applications have been developed, but the real momentum
|
|
was created by the developers at NCSA. [7]
|
|
|
|
3.0 The Client/Server Model
|
|
|
|
To truly understand how much of the Internet operates, including
|
|
the Web, it is important to understand the concept of
|
|
client/server computing. The client/server model is a form of
|
|
distributed computing where one program (the client) communicates
|
|
with another program (the server) for the purpose of exchanging
|
|
information. [8]
|
|
|
|
+ Page 7 +
|
|
|
|
The client's responsibility is usually to:
|
|
|
|
o Handle the user interface.
|
|
|
|
o Translate the user's request into the desired protocol.
|
|
|
|
o Send the request to the server.
|
|
|
|
o Wait for the server's response.
|
|
|
|
o Translate the response into "human-readable" results.
|
|
|
|
o Present the results to the user.
|
|
|
|
The server's functions include:
|
|
|
|
o Listen for a client's query.
|
|
|
|
o Process that query.
|
|
|
|
o Return the results back to the client.
|
|
|
|
A typical client/server interaction goes like this:
|
|
|
|
1. The user runs client software to create a query.
|
|
|
|
2. The client connects to the server.
|
|
|
|
3. The client sends the query to the server.
|
|
|
|
4. The server analyzes the query.
|
|
|
|
5. The server computes the results of the query.
|
|
|
|
6. The server sends the results to the client.
|
|
|
|
7. The client presents the results to the user.
|
|
|
|
8. Repeat as necessary.
|
|
|
|
This client/server interaction is a lot like going to a French
|
|
restaurant. At the restaurant, you (the user) are presented with
|
|
a menu of choices by the waiter (the client). After making your
|
|
selections, the waiter takes note of your choices, translates
|
|
them into French, and presents them to the French chef (the
|
|
server) in the kitchen. After the chef prepares your meal, the
|
|
waiter returns with your diner (the results). Hopefully, the
|
|
waiter returns with the items you selected, but not always;
|
|
sometimes things get "lost in the translation."
|
|
|
|
+ Page 8 +
|
|
|
|
Flexible user interface development is the most obvious
|
|
advantage of client/server computing. It is possible to create
|
|
an interface that is independent of the server hosting the data.
|
|
Therefore, the user interface of a client/server application can
|
|
be written on a Macintosh and the server can be written on a
|
|
mainframe. Clients could be also written for DOS- or UNIX-based
|
|
computers. This allows information to be stored in a central
|
|
server and disseminated to different types of remote computers.
|
|
Since the user interface is the responsibility of the
|
|
client, the server has more computing resources to spend on
|
|
analyzing queries and disseminating information. This is another
|
|
major advantage of client/server computing; it tends to use the
|
|
strengths of divergent computing platforms to create more
|
|
powerful applications. Although its computing and storage
|
|
capabilities are dwarfed by those of the mainframe, there is no
|
|
reason why a Macintosh could not be used as a server for less
|
|
demanding applications.
|
|
In short, client/server computing provides a mechanism for
|
|
disparate computers to cooperate on a single computing task.
|
|
|
|
4.0 Uniform Resource Locator
|
|
|
|
The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a fundamental part of the
|
|
Web. It is utilized to concisely describe and identify both the
|
|
protocol used by and the location of Internet resources. [9]
|
|
In general, a URL has the following form:
|
|
protocol://host/path/file. "Protocol" denotes the type of
|
|
Internet resource. The most common are: "gopher," "wais," "ftp,"
|
|
"telnet," "http", "file," and "mailto" (electronic mail). "Host"
|
|
denotes the name or IP (Internet Protocol) address of the remote
|
|
computer (e.g., 152.1.39.42 or www.lib.ncsu.edu). "Path" is a
|
|
directory or subdirectory on a remote computer. "File" is the
|
|
name of the file you want to access.
|
|
Using variations of this general form, you can use URLs and
|
|
Web browsers to access just about any Internet resource. Here is
|
|
an example of a URL for an FTP session:
|
|
|
|
ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/pub/stacks/alawon/alawon-v1n04
|
|
|
|
This URL results in the following actions: 1. FTP to
|
|
ftp.lib.ncsu.edu, 2. log on as anonymous, 3. change the directory
|
|
to /pub/stacks/alawon/, and 4. get the file alawon-v1n04.
|
|
Since Web browsers understand and implement the File
|
|
Transfer Protocol (FTP), you do not have to remember all the
|
|
commands necessary to do FTP. All you have to remember is how to
|
|
create a URL for an FTP session.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 9 +
|
|
|
|
Here is an example of a URL for an HTML document:
|
|
|
|
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/alawon-index.html
|
|
|
|
This URL opens up a HTTP connection to www.lib.ncsu.edu, changes
|
|
the directory to stacks, and retrieves the file
|
|
alawon-index.html. URLs are more complicated than the general
|
|
form illustrated above; URLs can also provide the means to
|
|
present the logon name for Telnet connections, a communications
|
|
port, an index/search query, and/or an HTML anchor. Here is an
|
|
example of a URL for a Telnet session:
|
|
|
|
telnet://library@library.ncsu.edu:23/
|
|
|
|
In this example, "library" denotes the logon name and "23"
|
|
denotes the communications port. (Port 23 is the standard Telnet
|
|
communications port.) Thus, a Web browser can initiate a Telnet
|
|
session. This example opens up a Telnet connection to
|
|
"library.ncsu.edu," and, depending on the user's browser, the
|
|
user may be reminded to log on as "library." This URL does not
|
|
use the "path" or "file" parameters because they are meaningless
|
|
for Telnet sessions.
|
|
On the other hand, to manually query the Geographic Name
|
|
Server, the URL would be:
|
|
|
|
telnet://martini.eecs.umich.edu:3000/
|
|
|
|
Since the Geographic Name Server requires no password, no
|
|
password is specified; however, since the Geographic Name Server
|
|
"listens" on port 3000, a nonstandard port number must be
|
|
specified.
|
|
WAIS searches can be specified using URLs. Unfortunately,
|
|
at the present time, only NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System
|
|
directly implements the WAIS protocol. WAIS URLs have the
|
|
following form:
|
|
|
|
wais://host:port/database?query
|
|
|
|
"Port" is assumed to be 210 (the standard WAIS/Z39.50 port),
|
|
"database" is the source file to search, "?" delimits the
|
|
database from the query, and "query" is the your search strategy.
|
|
Here is an example of a URL for a WAIS search:
|
|
|
|
wais://vega.lib.ncsu.edu/alawon.src?nren
|
|
|
|
+ Page 10 +
|
|
|
|
Gopher servers and files can be specified with URLs as well.
|
|
Since Gopher resource specifications require "Type" identifiers
|
|
and paths to Gopher resources often include spaces, Gopher URLs
|
|
usually deviate from the norm. Here is an example of a URL for a
|
|
Gopher subdirectory:
|
|
|
|
gopher://gopher.lib.ncsu.edu/11/library/
|
|
|
|
Notice the pair of 1's after the Internet name of the computer.
|
|
These 1's specify the resource as a directory. On the other
|
|
hand, the following URL specifies a specific text file within
|
|
that directory:
|
|
|
|
gopher://gopher.lib.ncsu.edu/00/library/about
|
|
|
|
The "00" denotes a text file.
|
|
Constructing URLs is more difficult when the path and/or
|
|
file names of the Internet resources contain special characters
|
|
like spaces or colons. In these cases, escape codes must be used
|
|
to denote the special characters. For example:
|
|
|
|
gopher://gopher.lib.ncsu.edu/0ftp%3amrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu%40/
|
|
pub/etext/etext91/aesop11.txt
|
|
|
|
This long URL first asks a Gopher server (gopher.lib.ncsu.edu) to
|
|
FTP a file (aesop11.txt) from an anonymous FTP server
|
|
(mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu). Notice the "%3a" and "%40" in the URL.
|
|
They are used to denote a colon (":") and at sign ("@"),
|
|
respectfully. Furthermore, notice the zero proceeding the "ftp."
|
|
This is used to identify the remote file as a text file.
|
|
As you can see, Gopher URLs are particularly difficult to
|
|
decipher. The easiest way to construct a URL for a Gopher item
|
|
it to access the Gopher server via a Web client, traverse the
|
|
Gopher menus until you locate the resource, and then copy the
|
|
displayed URL from the appropriate part of your client's screen.
|
|
In summary, URLs unambiguously describe the location of
|
|
Internet resources. Using URLs as a standard, Internet client
|
|
programs like Web browsers can interpret URLs and retrieve the
|
|
desired information. URLs describe the protocols and locations
|
|
of Internet resources without regard to the particular Internet
|
|
client software the user is employing to access them.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 11 +
|
|
|
|
5.0 Example Web Client Software
|
|
|
|
Four examples of Web client software are described here: MacWeb,
|
|
NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows, Lynx, and NCSA Mosaic for the
|
|
X Window System. These particular pieces of software are
|
|
described because I think they presently represent the best
|
|
clients for the most common computing environments (i.e.,
|
|
Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, character-terminal-based VMS or
|
|
UNIX, and X Window System).
|
|
The real power of these Web clients (usually referred to as
|
|
"browsers") is their ability to understand multiple Internet
|
|
protocols. Each of the browsers described understands how to FTP
|
|
files, act as Gopher clients, and read and interpret the output
|
|
of Web servers. Additionally, each of these pieces of software
|
|
understand "forms," an HTML extension allowing the user to
|
|
complete electronic forms similar to Gopher+ ASK blocks. While
|
|
none of these clients can directly understand the Telnet
|
|
protocol, each can be configured to load and run Telnet software.
|
|
|
|
5.1 MacWeb
|
|
|
|
As the name implies, MacWeb is a Web browser for the Macintosh.
|
|
Written at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology
|
|
Corporation (MCC), MacWeb is distributed via the Enterprise
|
|
Integration Network (EINet). [10] MacWeb requires System 7 and
|
|
at least MacTCP version 2.0.2. MacTCP is an operating system
|
|
extension available from Apple Computer that allows Macintosh
|
|
computers to understand the Transmission Control
|
|
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) necessary for Internet
|
|
communications. A very important piece of software called
|
|
"StuffIt Expander," is strongly recommended when using MacWeb or
|
|
NCSA Mosaic for the Macintosh (MacMosaic). [11] StuffIt Expander
|
|
is a utility program used to translate and uncompress files;
|
|
compressed files are usually retrieved via FTP archives.
|
|
The advantages of MacWeb are that it is fast, has an elegant
|
|
and easily customizable interface, supports the automatic
|
|
creation of HTML documents from its hotlists, and indirectly
|
|
supports the WAIS protocol by launching MCC's WAIS client,
|
|
MacWAIS.
|
|
Its disadvantages are that you cannot select and copy text
|
|
directly from the screen and, when the displayed text is saved as
|
|
a text file, the displayed text looses all of its formatting.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 12 +
|
|
|
|
5.2 NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows
|
|
|
|
NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows is bound to be one of the more
|
|
popular Web browsers since most people have or will have
|
|
Microsoft Windows-based computers. [12] NCSA Mosaic for
|
|
Microsoft Windows requires a WINSOCK.DLL. Like MacTCP, the
|
|
WINSOCK.DLL software allows your computer to understand TCP/IP.
|
|
Common WinSock packages include LAN WorkPlace for DOS and Trumpet
|
|
WinSock. Additionally, NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft Windows
|
|
requires the 32-bit Windows extensions (Win32s). Win32s runs on
|
|
80386, 80486, or Pentium computers. The Win32s software is
|
|
available via anonymous FTP from NCSA.
|
|
One of the nicest features of NCSA Mosaic for Microsoft
|
|
Windows is the ability to customize its menu bar. By editing the
|
|
MOSAIC.INI file, you can delete or add menu items to the menu
|
|
bar. Consequently, you can configure the client and have it
|
|
display commonly used Internet resources.
|
|
At the present time, you cannot select nor copy text from
|
|
the screen. Therefore, if you want to save displayed text, you
|
|
must use the application's "Load to Disk" option.
|
|
|
|
5.3 Lynx
|
|
|
|
Lynx is a basic Web browser that is intended to be used on DOS
|
|
computers or "dumb" terminals running under the UNIX or VMS
|
|
operating systems. [13]
|
|
Lynx clients are wonderful when your only Internet
|
|
connection is located on a remote computer (i.e., most dial-in
|
|
access) or when you need to provide a lowest common denominator
|
|
interface (e.g., VT100 terminals).
|
|
Lynx clients don't support image or audio data, but they do
|
|
support the "mailto" URL. Mailto URLs are used for the Simple
|
|
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), the Internet mail standard. When
|
|
a Lynx client user selects a mailto URL, the user will be
|
|
presented with a "form" to complete and the resulting text from
|
|
the form will be delivered via Internet mail to the person or
|
|
computer specified in the URL.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 13 +
|
|
|
|
5.4 NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System
|
|
|
|
NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System, coupled with NCSA's Web
|
|
server (httpd), really gave the Web the momentum and visibility
|
|
it has today. [14] This full-featured browser supports copy and
|
|
paste from the display. Direct WAIS support is also provided,
|
|
and URLs such as wais://wais.lib.ncsu.edu/alawon?nren are valid.
|
|
At the present time, just about the only thing it doesn't support
|
|
is the mailto URL.
|
|
The disadvantage of NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System is
|
|
that it requires a relatively powerful computer. While a
|
|
Macintosh equipped with MacX or a Microsoft Windows computer with
|
|
HummingBird Communications' eXceed/W can run X Window terminal
|
|
sessions, NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System really requires
|
|
direct access to a UNIX or VMS machine running the X Window
|
|
System software.
|
|
|
|
6.0 Example Web Server Software
|
|
|
|
If you want to become a Web information provider, you need to
|
|
utilize Web server software. This section describes the most
|
|
popular Web server software for the most common computing
|
|
platforms (i.e., Macintosh, UNIX, VMS, and Microsoft Windows).
|
|
|
|
6.1 MacHTTP
|
|
|
|
MacHTTP is an Web server for Macintosh computers. [15] Written
|
|
by Chuck Shotton, MacHTTP is one of the easiest servers to set up
|
|
and configure. In fact, it is so easy it works "straight out of
|
|
the box." MacHTTP requires System 7 to support advanced features
|
|
like AppleScript. MacHTTP runs on Macintosh II-type computers
|
|
(e.g., Macintosh IIci, SE/30, LC, Centris, and Quadra computers).
|
|
It does not run on low-end Macintoshes based on the Motorola
|
|
68000 microprocessor (e.g., Macintosh Plus, SE, and PowerBook 100
|
|
computers). MacHTTP requires MacTCP.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 14 +
|
|
|
|
Because of its simple installation, I recommend the use of
|
|
MacHTTP to learn the basics of Web servers. Since it is so
|
|
small, just about anyone can create a server on their desktop
|
|
computer and effectively experiment with serving HTML documents.
|
|
A Macintosh is not recommended as an institution's primary
|
|
server, since the potential user population may be very large.
|
|
On the other hand, a group of Macintosh servers that were linked
|
|
together via the HTTP protocol to form a single virtual server
|
|
could easily distribute the load, with each server supporting a
|
|
subset of an institution's HTML documents.
|
|
|
|
6.2 NCSA httpd
|
|
|
|
Based on the number of postings to comp.infosystems.www
|
|
newsgroups, NCSA's httpd seems to be the most popular Web server.
|
|
Running under the UNIX operating system, httpd is distributed
|
|
both as source code and in binary form for the many "flavors" of
|
|
UNIX. [16] This server is robust and only slightly difficult to
|
|
configure.
|
|
If you have a UNIX computer at your disposal and your
|
|
server's intended audience is large, then I recommend the use of
|
|
NCSA httpd. I recommend this for several reasons. First, this
|
|
server is widely supported by the Internet community; you can
|
|
always find an expert, and it is easier to get help for this
|
|
server than for the CERN server. Second, since it runs under
|
|
UNIX, it is intended to coincide with other applications running
|
|
on the same computer, like Gopher, WAIS, or a list server.
|
|
Finally, many Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts are written
|
|
in Perl, a programming language most at home on a UNIX computer.
|
|
(CGI scripts are described in more detail later.)
|
|
|
|
6.3 CERN httpd
|
|
|
|
If you have a VMS computer, you cannot use the NCSA http server;
|
|
however, there is an appropriate Web server available. It is a
|
|
port of the CERN httpd server by Foteos Macrides of the Worcester
|
|
Foundation for Experimental Biology. Like the servers described
|
|
previously, the CERN httpd server for VMS comes in binary form as
|
|
well as in source code form. [17] Configuration is not as easy
|
|
as MacHTTP or NCSA httpd for Windows, but it is not any more
|
|
difficult than NCSA's httpd server for UNIX. Presently, the
|
|
server does not support the POST method, the preferred method of
|
|
transmitting information from forms to CGI scripts, but it works
|
|
just the same. One advantage of VMS is its strong scripting
|
|
language, DCL. DCL is works well for CGI scripts.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 15 +
|
|
|
|
If you plan to maintain a server, your intended audience is
|
|
large, and you have a VMS computer at your disposal, then I
|
|
recommend using this server software. If you have a UNIX
|
|
computer, use the NCSA http server instead.
|
|
|
|
6.4 NCSA httpd for Windows
|
|
|
|
Robert B. Denny has ported the NCSA httpd server to Microsoft
|
|
Windows. [18] Like MacHTTP, it worked for me "right out of the
|
|
box," and it supports all the standard features, such as forms,
|
|
CGI scripts, graphics, and access control.
|
|
Its disadvantages are that it is considered slow and it
|
|
requires a lot of system resources (memory and CPU power) as well
|
|
as a WinSock-compatible TCP/IP driver (just like NCSA Mosaic for
|
|
Microsoft Windows).
|
|
This server would make a good platform for PC users to learn
|
|
the basics of HTTP and server maintenance. Like MacHTTP, I would
|
|
not recommend this application as the main server of an
|
|
institution, such as an academic library.
|
|
|
|
7.0 Web Servers Versus Gopher Servers
|
|
|
|
There are several reasons why Web servers should be used instead
|
|
of Gopher servers.
|
|
First, in terms of computing resources, Web servers are more
|
|
efficient since most of the information processing is distributed
|
|
to the client software. A Gopher client can effectively have
|
|
access to FTP and WAIS services, but the Gopher server is doing
|
|
all the work. On the other hand, Web clients (for the most part)
|
|
understand these protocols and take the load off the server.
|
|
Second, because Web clients understand HTML, Web servers are
|
|
not limited to making their information available via menus.
|
|
Thus, more descriptive texts and abstracts can be added to
|
|
hypertext links making it easier for the user to evaluate
|
|
possible choices.
|
|
Third, Web servers are significantly easier to maintain.
|
|
For example, every "study carrel" of the North Carolina State
|
|
University Libraries' Web server consists of a single HTML file
|
|
created either with a public domain editor or via a report from a
|
|
database program. This is so much easier to maintain and manage
|
|
than all the link files and directories of the study carrels in
|
|
the Libraries' Gopher server.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 16 +
|
|
|
|
8.0 HyperText Markup Language
|
|
|
|
The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is used to format documents
|
|
delivered by Web servers. The formal HTML standard can be read
|
|
from the CERN server, [19] and a few style guides are available
|
|
from the WWW Developer's JumpStation. [20] A subset of the
|
|
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SMGL), HTML's strengths and
|
|
weaknesses are well documented by Price-Wilkin [21] and Barry.
|
|
[22] Therefore, only a brief overview of HTML will be provided
|
|
here.
|
|
HTML files are simple ASCII files containing rudimentary
|
|
"tags" describing the format of a document. Creating an HTML
|
|
document is a lot like using the old word processing program
|
|
WordStar. (Remember WordStar?) For example, to print a word in
|
|
boldface type using WordStar, the user would first select text
|
|
from the screen. Then the user would enter a code like "^b."
|
|
This code would be inserted before and after the selected text.
|
|
When the document was printed, WordStar would interpret the "^b"
|
|
and print boldface letters until another "^b" was encountered.
|
|
HTML works in a similar fashion. The author goes through his or
|
|
her document surrounding text with special codes denoting format.
|
|
Since the Web employs the client/server model, there is little
|
|
control over the fonts and styles of formatted text at the client
|
|
end. Therefore, HTML provides logical rather than stylistic
|
|
formatting capabilities.
|
|
The basic structure of an HTML document looks like this:
|
|
|
|
<HLML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<TITLE>My First HTML Document</TITLE>
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<BODY>
|
|
Hello, World!
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|
|
|
|
The <HTML> and </HTML> tags define the document as an HTML
|
|
document; the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags denote the leading matter
|
|
of a document; the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags specify the
|
|
document's title; and the <BODY> and </BODY> tags specify the
|
|
location of the formatted text. Notice how the second tag of
|
|
each tag pair is identical to the first tag except the second tag
|
|
includes a backward slash ("/"); the backward slash denotes the
|
|
completion of a logical formatting option.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 17 +
|
|
|
|
Within the body of an HTML document there can be many other
|
|
formatting constructs. Examples include the <P> tag for
|
|
paragraph marks and the <BR> tag for simple line breaks. There
|
|
are also the ordered list (<OL>) and unordered list (<UL>) tags
|
|
that allow the user to create lists of numbered items and
|
|
unnumbered items, respectively. An ordered list results in
|
|
formatting something like this:
|
|
|
|
1. apples
|
|
2. pears
|
|
3. bananas
|
|
|
|
An unordered list results in something like this:
|
|
|
|
* red
|
|
* white
|
|
* blue
|
|
|
|
The real utility of HTML is not its ability to format text.
|
|
Rather, its real strength lies in its ability to transport a user
|
|
from one section of text to another (or to a completely new
|
|
document) by clicking on (or selecting) highlighted words. This
|
|
hypertext capability is HTML's greatest asset.
|
|
The hypertext features of HTML are implemented with tags
|
|
called "links." Links are tags containing either an anchor, URL,
|
|
or both. Section headings are usually used as anchors in HTML
|
|
documents. Thus, anchors are used to navigate to another section
|
|
of the presently viewed document or, when used in conjunction
|
|
with a URL, to navigate to a section of a different document.
|
|
|
|
9.0 HTML Converters and Editors
|
|
|
|
Creating HTML documents by hand can be a laborious process; it is
|
|
easy to forget all the various tags and formatting rules.
|
|
Consequently, there are a growing number of software tools
|
|
available to make the HTML document creation process easier.
|
|
|
|
9.1 Simple HTML Editor (S H E)
|
|
|
|
Simple HTML Editor (S H E) is an HTML editor in the form of a
|
|
HyperCard stack. [23] It requires a Macintosh and HyperCard
|
|
version 2.1 (or HyperCard Player). Optional editor features
|
|
require MacWeb and the AppleScript extensions.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 18 +
|
|
|
|
The creation of a document is a four-step process. First
|
|
you create a new document. Second, you enter text into the
|
|
document. Third, to enhance your document, you select text from
|
|
the screen and choose a markup option from the menu. Finally,
|
|
you save the document. Specific knowledge of HTML is not
|
|
necessary, but it helps.
|
|
Unique features of S H E include Balloon Help, forms
|
|
creation, and one-step preview if you have MacWeb. Like all HTML
|
|
editors (with the possible exception of HoTMetaL), S H E is not a
|
|
WYSIWYG editor. In other words, the user is presented with raw
|
|
HTML when editing. Another limitation of S H E is its inability
|
|
to create documents longer than 30,000 characters.
|
|
|
|
9.2 HTML Assistant
|
|
|
|
HTML Assistant is a Windows-based HTML editor. [24] It works
|
|
like other editors in that you enter text on the screen and make
|
|
changes to the text's characteristics by selecting the text and
|
|
choosing a markup option. Like S H E, HTML Assistant is not a
|
|
WYSIWYG editor, but it to has the ability to test your work with
|
|
a Web browser at the click of a button.
|
|
|
|
Other features include:
|
|
|
|
o A user defined toolbox enables you to easily include
|
|
new markup text as more features are added to HTML.
|
|
You can also create your own markup tags for special
|
|
editing tasks.
|
|
|
|
o Facilities for extracting, organizing, and combining
|
|
URLs from different sources.
|
|
|
|
o A multiple-document interface (more than one file may
|
|
be opened at one time) so you can easily cut and paste
|
|
between documents.
|
|
|
|
o Context-sensitive help.
|
|
|
|
10.0 Converters
|
|
|
|
Another popular way to create HTML documents is to convert files
|
|
from a wordprocessor file format (e.g., Microsoft Word,
|
|
WordPerfect, and RTF) to HTML with the help of "converter"
|
|
programs. A collection of these program can be seen at the WWW
|
|
Developer's JumpStation. [25]
|
|
|
|
+ Page 19 +
|
|
|
|
On one hand, converter programs are very convenient. On the
|
|
other hand, they keep you in the dark about HTML, and, unless you
|
|
know something about HTML, you are stuck with the tags the
|
|
converter gives you as output. Although converter programs are
|
|
useful, you still have to manually enter some hypertext links in
|
|
order to take full advantage of HTML's capabilities.
|
|
|
|
11.0 CGI scripts
|
|
|
|
The real potential of Web servers lies in their ability to run
|
|
programs behind the scenes and return the results of these
|
|
programs to the user. This is known as the Common Gateway
|
|
Interface (CGI).
|
|
Basic CGI scripts include the ability to display the current
|
|
time or the number of users who have accessed a server. More
|
|
advanced and useful CGI scripts include features like SFgate (a
|
|
gateway to WAIS servers) and forms for interlibrary loan
|
|
requests.
|
|
CGI scripts are made available to a Web browser by either
|
|
the ISINDEX HTML tag, a specialized URL containing a question
|
|
mark (?), or forms. After the user completes an HTML document
|
|
pointing to a script, the script's query is passed to the Web
|
|
server, which passes the input to the designated script. CGI
|
|
scripts can be written in almost any language. Common languages
|
|
include C, Perl, AppleScript, Visual Basic, or DCL. The scripts
|
|
then process the user's input and pass the results (usually in
|
|
the form of an HTML document) back to the Web server, which
|
|
subsequently sends the results to the Web client.
|
|
|
|
11.1 Tim Kambitch's CGI Scripts
|
|
|
|
One of the best CGI scripts I have seen for libraries has been
|
|
written by Tim Kambitch of Butler University. Tim has written a
|
|
number of scripts allowing the user to search DRA online catalogs
|
|
(OPACs). These scripts allow the user to input a Boolean query,
|
|
including qualifiers like "au" for author, "ti" for title, and
|
|
"su" for subject. These queries are then applied to the OPAC and
|
|
the results are returned. Thus, it is not necessary to Telnet to
|
|
the OPAC to perform a search; a single program (a Web client) can
|
|
be used to access both Internet resources and OPACs. Since the
|
|
DRA searching program used by Kambitch's scripts is a Z39.50
|
|
client, it is possible to use the client to provide access to
|
|
Z39.50 servers. The North Carolina State University Libraries
|
|
have used these scripts to provide Web browser access to its OPAC
|
|
and its government documents database.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 20 +
|
|
|
|
11.2 NCSU Libraries' Mr. Serials Project
|
|
|
|
Collecting serial literature is another application of Web
|
|
servers and CGI scripts. For the past two years, the North
|
|
Carolina State University Libraries (NCSU Libraries) have
|
|
systematically collected electronic serials with a process called
|
|
"Mr. Serials." The result of the Mr. Serials process is the
|
|
creation of HTML documents available on the NCSU Libraries' Web
|
|
server. While the collection is rather small and it is limited
|
|
to library and information science titles, it effectively
|
|
demonstrates how libraries can organize, archive, index, and
|
|
disseminate electronic serials. It is hoped librarians can use
|
|
something like Mr. Serials to convince the academic community of
|
|
the feasibility of electronic publishing.
|
|
With the advent of the 856 field, the MARC record will be
|
|
able to effectively describe the locations and holdings of
|
|
electronic documents. It is anticipated that URLs will be
|
|
entered into a public note subfield of the 856 field. As an
|
|
experiment, the NCSU Libraries have added two records to our
|
|
OPAC. The first describes ALAWON and the other describes The
|
|
Public Access Computer Systems Review. We then added 856 fields
|
|
to the MARC records and added URLs describing the locations of
|
|
these electronic serials. Last, we made these URLs hypertext
|
|
links. Consequently, we can use a Web browser like Mosaic to
|
|
search the NCSU OPAC for "alawon" or "public access computer
|
|
systems review." Once a record is retrieved and displayed, a
|
|
hypertext link appears. The user can then choose the hypertext
|
|
link and go directly to the electronic serial. (We have done
|
|
something similar to an item in our catalog for the University's
|
|
recent self study.) This project demonstrates how traditional
|
|
cataloging mechanisms can be used to help organize the Internet.
|
|
|
|
11.3 Possible Expert System Uses
|
|
|
|
Another, as of yet unrealized, application of CGI scripts is an
|
|
expert system for locating information on the Internet or in
|
|
databases. Imagine a scenario where you are asked a number of
|
|
questions via an HTML form. Based on the answers to these
|
|
questions, other questions are asked. At the end of this
|
|
question/answer process, the CGI script generates either a "game
|
|
plan" for locating the information you seek or it generates
|
|
queries that can then be applied to various databases across the
|
|
Internet (e.g., OPACs, Web servers, and Veronica servers).
|
|
|
|
+ Page 21 +
|
|
|
|
12.0 Organizing Web Information
|
|
|
|
The introduction of technologies like the Web can have a profound
|
|
effect on libraries. Keeping in mind libraries are about
|
|
information and not about books and other printed materials, how
|
|
can libraries use Web clients and servers to provide better
|
|
library service?
|
|
The Web can be used to distribute information about
|
|
libraries. This information includes such things as hours of
|
|
operation, reference guides, policies, descriptions of services,
|
|
lists of subject specialists, and building maps. Like our
|
|
earliest online catalogs, this particular use of the Web
|
|
transfers old services to a new technology without truly taking
|
|
advantage of the new technology's strengths.
|
|
The organization of Internet resources is another use of
|
|
this new technology. We are all aware of the tremendous, ever
|
|
growing amount of data and information available on the Internet.
|
|
Organizing this information into a coherent whole is a daunting
|
|
task being attempted by many, many people. Who can do this
|
|
better than librarians who have special training and experience
|
|
in organizing information? Once a Web server is in place, it is
|
|
a simple matter of dividing it into sections where each section
|
|
contains information on a common theme.
|
|
There are no rules restricting the creation of thematic
|
|
organizational schemes; however, based on my experience with the
|
|
Gopher at the NCSU Libraries, I can suggest some guidelines.
|
|
First and foremost, the organizational scheme must be
|
|
comprehensible to your intended audience. Think about the people
|
|
who will be using the Web server. What are their backgrounds?
|
|
What do they want? What specialized terminology do they use? In
|
|
general, how do they think? Incorporate the answers to these
|
|
questions into the structure of your Web server. "Libraries are
|
|
for use," and, in order for this to happen, your classification
|
|
system must be understandable by most of your clientele.
|
|
Second, create a structure striving to be both enumerative
|
|
and synthetic.
|
|
|
|
Enumerative classification attempts to assign designations
|
|
for (to enumerate) all the single and composite subject
|
|
concepts required in the system. . . . Synthetic
|
|
classifications are more likely to confine their explicit
|
|
lists of designations to single, unsubdivided concepts,
|
|
giving the local classifier generalized rules with which to
|
|
construct headings of composite subject. [26]
|
|
|
|
+ Page 22 +
|
|
|
|
Third, organize materials based on format as a last resort.
|
|
People usually don't care what format the data is in just as long
|
|
as the answer to their query can be found.
|
|
Last, but not least, be consistent in the way things are
|
|
classified. In short, practice good cataloging.
|
|
After deciding what you are going to collect and how you are
|
|
going to organize the material, you need to decide how you are
|
|
going to maintain your data. At first glance, the solution
|
|
appears to be to use an HTML editor and begin the construction of
|
|
subject-specific pages. An alternative approach is to take
|
|
advantage of a database program, and use the database program's
|
|
report generation capabilities to create HTML files
|
|
automatically. With this method, each Internet resource
|
|
corresponds to one record. The record is then divided into
|
|
fields like title, author, date, URL, abstract, major subject(s),
|
|
and minor subject(s). Records are added to the database and as
|
|
many fields are completed as possible, especially the title, URL,
|
|
and subject fields. Finally, a report is generated by creating a
|
|
subset of records sharing a common theme (e.g., engineering
|
|
resources) and then outputting the report in HTML form.
|
|
This database method has many advantages over creating HTML
|
|
files by hand with an HTML editor. First, it reduces human error
|
|
in the creation of HTML. Second, if a particular resource is to
|
|
be classified with more than one subject heading, there is only
|
|
one place where the information needs to be maintained. With the
|
|
manual creation of HTML documents, there will be more than one
|
|
file to edit. Third, a report can be generated containing one
|
|
and only one occurrence of every item in your database. This
|
|
report can then be indexed using a WAIS server, and it can
|
|
provide your users with a way to effectively search your Web
|
|
server. Finally, when the next "killer" Internet protocol
|
|
becomes available, you will not have to reenter your collection
|
|
of Internet resources. You will only have to modify your
|
|
report's output.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 23 +
|
|
|
|
13.0 Conclusion
|
|
|
|
Now is the time for your library to begin maintaining a Web
|
|
server. Read the USENET newsgroups comp.infosystems.www.
|
|
providers, comp.infosystems.www.users, and
|
|
comp.infosystems.www.misc. Start with a 80386-based or
|
|
Macintosh-based server to get acquainted with the principles of
|
|
server maintenance and HTML. Identify your target audience and
|
|
anticipate their needs. Gather information accordingly. If you
|
|
anticipate a large demand, move your server to a more powerful
|
|
UNIX- or VMS-based computer with at least one gigabyte of
|
|
storage, more if you are collecting electronic texts. Keep
|
|
reading the newsgroups.
|
|
The Web and the Internet as a whole are about accessing
|
|
electronic information resources. Libraries are about
|
|
collecting, organizing, archiving, disseminating, and sometimes
|
|
evaluating information resources. Libraries are not just about
|
|
books and journals; books and journals are only one manifestation
|
|
of the information universe.
|
|
Doesn't it make sense that librarians should be involved in
|
|
providing Internet resources? Users often complain about the
|
|
disorganization of the Internet. Librarians have been organizing
|
|
information resources for centuries. Scholars worry about the
|
|
long-term preservation of electronic information. Archiving
|
|
information is a major aspect of librarianship. Some say the
|
|
Internet has a high "noise to signal" ratio. This is true for
|
|
the information universe in general, and librarians have special
|
|
skills when it comes to extracting information from data.
|
|
In short, I advocate the creation and maintenance of Web
|
|
servers and other Internet resources by librarians. Although
|
|
this requires the development of new skills, librarians already
|
|
possess the more critical skills necessary to make these Internet
|
|
services truly useful, and, while there are some risks involved
|
|
in this effort, these risks are well worth taking.
|
|
|
|
Notes
|
|
|
|
1. Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Initiative (Geneva: CERN,
|
|
1994). (URL: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.)
|
|
|
|
2. For readers with a Web client, the author has also made this
|
|
paper available as an HTML file at the following URL:
|
|
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/morgan/www-and-libraries.html.
|
|
|
|
3. Kris Herbst, "The Master Weaver," Internet World 5 (October
|
|
1994): 78.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 24 +
|
|
|
|
4. Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think," Atlantic Monthly 176 (July
|
|
1945): 101-108.
|
|
|
|
5. Theodor H. Nelson, "As We Will Think," in From Memex to
|
|
Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine, ed. James M.
|
|
Nyce and Paul Kahn (Boston: Academic Press, 1991), 245-260.
|
|
|
|
6. Richard W. Wiggins, "Examining Mosaic: A History and Review,"
|
|
Internet World 5 (October 1994): 48-51.
|
|
|
|
7. Ibid.
|
|
|
|
8. Eric Lease Morgan, WAIS and Gopher Servers: A Guide for
|
|
Internet End-Users (Westport, CT: Mecklermedia, 1994), 1-2.
|
|
|
|
9. See http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/
|
|
Addressing.html.
|
|
|
|
10. See ftp://ftp.einet.net/einet/mac/macweb/
|
|
macweb.latest.sea.hqx or http://galaxy.einet.net/
|
|
EINet/MacWeb/MacWebHome.html.
|
|
|
|
11. MacMosaic is a Macintosh Web browser from NCSA. Read more
|
|
about MacMosaic at http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/
|
|
MacMosaic/MacMosaicHome.html or ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
|
|
Mosaic/Mac/.
|
|
|
|
12. See http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/WinMosaic/
|
|
HomePage.html or ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/PC/.
|
|
|
|
13. The DOS version (DOSLynx) can be found at ftp://
|
|
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/. Similarly, the UNIX and VMS
|
|
versions can be found at ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/lynx/.
|
|
When obtaining the UNIX or VMS version of Lynx, be sure to copy
|
|
the version matching your specific hardware and TCP/IP
|
|
configuration. If you don't know your hardware and TCP/IP
|
|
configuration, then ask for the specification from your systems
|
|
administrator.
|
|
|
|
14. See http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/
|
|
Docs/help-about.html or ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Unix/.
|
|
|
|
15. See http://www.uth.tmc.edu/mac_info/machttp_info.html.
|
|
|
|
16. See http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/Overview.html.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 25 +
|
|
|
|
17. See http://sci.wfeb.edu/dir/216vms.
|
|
|
|
18. See ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/rdenny/ or
|
|
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/httpd/Unix/ncsa_httpd/contrib/
|
|
winhttpd/.
|
|
|
|
19. See http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html.
|
|
|
|
20. See http://oneworld.wa.com/htmldev/devpage/dev-page1.html.
|
|
|
|
21. John Price-Wilkin, "Using the World-Wide Web to Deliver
|
|
Complex Electronic Documents: Implications for Libraries," The
|
|
Public-Access Computer Systems Review 5, no. 3 (1994): 5-21. (To
|
|
retrieve this article, send the following e-mail message to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu: GET PRICEWIL PRV5N3 F=MAIL.)
|
|
|
|
22. Jeff Barry, "The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and the
|
|
World-Wide Web: Raising ASCII Text to a New Level of Usability,"
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 5, no. 5 (1994): 5-62.
|
|
(To retrieve this article, send the following e-mail message to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu: GET BARRY PRV5N5 F=MAIL.)
|
|
|
|
23. See http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/morgan/simple.html.
|
|
|
|
24. See http://cs.dal.ca/ftp/htmlasst/htmlafaq.html.
|
|
|
|
25. See http://oneworld.wa.com/htmldev/devpage/dev-page2.html.
|
|
|
|
26. Bohdan S. Wynar, Introduction to Cataloging and
|
|
Classification (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1980), 394.
|
|
|
|
|
|
About the Author
|
|
|
|
Eric Lease Morgan, Systems Librarian, NCSU Libraries, Box 7111,
|
|
Room 2316-B, Raleigh, NC 27695-7111. Internet:
|
|
eric_morgan@ncsu.edu.
|
|
|
|
+ Page 26 +
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
|
|
journal that is distributed on the Internet and on other computer
|
|
networks. There is no subscription fee.
|
|
To subscribe, send an e-mail message to
|
|
listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name
|
|
Last Name.
|
|
This article is Copyright (C) 1994 by Eric Lease Morgan.
|
|
All Rights Reserved.
|
|
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C)
|
|
1994 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All
|
|
Rights Reserved.
|
|
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic
|
|
computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and
|
|
libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
|
|
collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. This
|
|
message must appear on all copied material. All commercial use
|
|
requires permission.
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|