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Grading the Library Portals

Mick O'Leary

ONLINE, November 2000
Copyright © 2000 Information Today, Inc.

The ideal library portal will have the most thorough coverage possible in several areas of the library profession for all types of libraries.

One of today's biggest Web trends is the portal. Whether it's the battle for the top consumer portal, the portal as the medium of B2B ecommerce, or the proliferation of vertical market portals (or vortals), there is constant buzz about portals and portal strategies. The current craze arises from frantic efforts to develop functioning, profitable business models on the Web. The Web has attracted so many users (over 100 million in the U.S. alone) that businesses are desperate for ways to attract them and hold them as customers.

At the same time, the explosive growth of the Web has made it that much harder for any individual site to be seen, or for any individual consumer to make sense of it. Hence, the portal–an organizing principle that brings like-minded businesses and customers together, to their mutual benefit. Information is obtained, ads are seen, products are purchased, and everyone's happy.

PORTALS PAST

The fastest growth is occurring in vertical portals, which can more efficiently match topic-oriented users and information than can general portals like Yahoo!. Thus, there are thousands of portals serving industry sectors, personal interests, and professions, including librarians.

WHAT IS A LIBRARY PORTAL?

The differences among these sites demonstrates the continuing elusiveness of a definition of "portal." Nevertheless, there are traits that they share, including those that distinguish them from other vertical market portals. In the latter category, library portals are noteworthy for what they need not provide. Because their visitors are already electronic information experts and Web veterans, library portals don't bother with common portal elements like email, stock quotes, weather reports, bulletin boards, etc.

Conversely, library portals should be comprehensive in covering their subject. Many portals are selective, in order to provide information novices with a manageable plateful; librarians, on the other hand, have no problem dealing with information overload, and want the most complete set of links possible on every library-related topic or subtopic.

The ideal library portal, then, will have the most thorough coverage possible in several areas of the library profession, for all types of libraries:

• Professional resources, such as practice manuals, standards, model programs, reports, and studies

• Organizations, from the large national associations to local and special interest groups

• Publications, both print and electronic

• Conferences and other events

• Library Web sites, including Web catalogs

• Communications channels, like discussion lists

• Job announcements

• The library marketplace, i.e., vendors of library-related products and services

Some of the portals discussed here, like the Internet Library for Librarians, are also "reference" portals, that provide links to reference resources, from ready reference sites like encyclopedias, addresses, etc., to very specialized information. The Internet Public Library and Yahoo!, in fact, are general portals that contain noteworthy library sections. I've graded the portals on their value for library information alone.

VENDOR PORTALS

LibraryHQ
(www.libraryhq.com)
This new portal is sponsored by SIRSI, the library automation company. SIRSI's promotional presence is modest, but then so is the entire site. It does cover most of the requisite topics, but very thinly, and far below the standard set by the top portals. Its "Site Source" is a searchable catalog of so-called "useful" Web sites, but it misses top sites in several subjects, and selection criteria are absent–ignore it without risk. Some links are annotated and there is no search capability.

GRADE: C
HIGH POINTS: Disability resources, full-text automation RFP, library organizations.

Webforia Research Community
(www.webforia.com)
Webforia is a new company that produces management and reporting software tools for Web documents. Its Web site provides complementary services, including "Communities" in Science and Engineering, Research, Insurance, Small Business, Law, and Entrepreneurship. The communities have an eclectic set of topic-related Web links and message areas. The "Research" community is intended for electronic researchers of all kinds. It has a "Research Directory," which consists mainly of links to pages in the Internet Public Library. There is also a small, sporadic set of links to other research and reference sites. As a generic researchers' site, it has few library-related pointers.

GRADE: C-
HIGH POINTS: Helpful Web complement for users of Webforia products.

Dialog InfoPro
(www.dialog.com/Infopro)
Dialog's new InfoPro is a good portal to Dialog information, and an undistinguished one to library resources. It is also slanted toward the interests of online searchers (its list of publications includes ONLINE, but not Library Journal.) It is satisfactory at linking to the most prominent sites in a few topics, but otherwise is thin. It has a small ready reference section.

GRADE: C+
HIGH POINTS: Good mix of access to Dialog data and key library-related sites.

EBSCO Library Reference Center
(www.epnet.com/lrc.shtml)
This portal from EBSCO, the serials jobber and database producer, gets an "Incomplete" because it is not a full-fledged portal, but nevertheless has a few features worth noting. It offers a searchable index to 30 library periodicals. The list (available on the Web site) includes ONLINE and key titles in other library topics. It is a free alternative if you don't have access to full-size library/information science indexes, such as Library Literature or Information Science Abstracts. It also offers helpful links to resources on information literacy and Internet use for librarians. The organization of the site is confusing.

GRADE: i
HIGH POINTS: Free index to leading library periodicals.

COMMERCIAL PORTALS

LibrarySpot
(www.libraryspot.com)
LibrarySpot is one in a series of vertical portals developed by StartSpot Mediaworks, a portal publisher. The others cover books, cooking, government, employment, shopping, and travel. Each has links to principal Web sites in its respective topic and some feature material. LibrarySpot covers both library topics and general reference. For the latter, it has a good set of links to ready reference sites for the usual topics. As a library portal, it covers all the main topics and has most of the key sites in each, but is otherwise thin. It is strongest in links to libraries by type, and weakest in library practice. It is easy to use, with intuitive browsing and annotated entries, but is not searchable. Most pages have ads.

GRADE: B-
HIGH POINTS: Links to image collections, easy access to key sites.

Yahoo!–Libraries
(dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries)
The Web's best subject directory has a separate Library category with a large link collection. Like the rest of Yahoo!, it is thorough, full of unexpected items, but not complete in any one topic. It covers all library topics, and hits many key sites in each, but usually falls below the standard of comprehensiveness set by the best library portals. It is strong in its "libraries by type" collection; where else can you find links to dance, masonic, and philatelic libraries? Links under the "Digital Library" category are very good. It is browsed and searched in typical Yahoo! fashion.

GRADE: B
HIGH POINTS: Wide ranging coverage of all library-related topics.

About.com–Librarians and Library Science
(librarians.about.com)
This is one of 700 subject-related sections in the About.com consumer portal. About.com calls itself "The Human Internet," based on providing link collections developed by subject experts. If its "Librarians and Library Science" is an example, let's think about machine methods (or better yet, turn to a good portal). It is deficient both in content and organization. It misses many essential sites, and its subject categories are inconsistent and often obscure. Links are annotated and there is a site search option. Ads occupy a very large portion of each screen.

GRADE: D
HIGH POINTS: Library clip art section.

Internet Library for Librarians
(www.itcompany.com/inforetriever)
This excellent portal originated as a library service, but is now sponsored by the InfoWorks Technology Company, which makes productivity and quality control software. It has an unobtrusive ad presence from library-related companies. It is one of the oldest and best library portals. It is extremely thorough at containing the key sites, and many others, in all areas. Its detailed hierarchical classification provides quick access to the most specific branches of library practice. Its entries have good annotations and the site is searchable. It is also a reference portal, with a good set of links to ready reference sites.

GRADE: A
HIGH POINTS: Exceptional thoroughness and a very specific classification system.

LIBRARY DEVELOPED PORTALS

Librarians' Resources
(www.coalliance.org/libsearc.html)
This list from the Colorado Alliance for Research Libraries suffers from a bad case of neglect. It overlooks several topics, those that it has are sparse, and it is not well maintained. It lacks annotations and is not searchable. It's time to put a lot of effort into it or take it down.

GRADE: D-
HIGH POINTS: None

Library Resources on the Internet
(www.library.nwu.edu/resources/library)
Another site that should be upgraded or taken down–this one is from the Northwestern University Library. It has neither a complete range of topics, nor depth in those it does cover. Entries are annotated, but no searching.

GRADE: C-
HIGH POINTS: None

Professional Resources for Librarians on the WWW
(library.scsu.cstateu.edu/liblib.html)
Created by the Buley Library at Southern Connecticut State University, this list covers most topics, but unevenly; some are reasonably thorough, while others are quite incomplete. Some of its categories are too large for good browsing. Only a few of its entries are annotated, and it is not searchable.

GRADE: B-
HIGH POINTS: Numerous sites dealing with library Web applications.

Library Resource List
(www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dltcl/pld/lib_res.html)
This is a good, all-around library and reference portal, with a few strong areas. It has good coverage of all library topics, and is particularly strong in library technology. It has numerous links to topics that others neglect or omit, including library and information technology news, new Web sites, the National Information Infrastructure, and others. It is also a dependable ready reference portal. Its annotations are very good, but it is not searchable. It is produced by the Public Library Development office of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

GRADE: B+
HIGH POINTS: Library and information technology coverage.

Internet Public Library Services for Librarians
(www.ipl.org/svcs)
The Internet Public Library is one of the oldest, most comprehensive, and best reference portals. As a reference portal, it ranges widely and deeply across many subjects, well beyond the usual ready reference links found on some of the other library portals. It also has separate sections for teens and kids. Its library section covers all topics, with deep link collections in each. Its annotations are very good, but it is not searchable. The Internet Public Library is produced by the University of Michigan School of Library and Information Studies, with support from grants and Bell & Howell.

GRADE: A-
HIGH POINTS: Sections on the image of librarians, library advocacy, and library Web applications.

LibraryLand
(sunsite.berkeley.edu/LibraryLand)
Tied with Internet Library for Librarians as the best library portal. For profession-wide areas of interest–administration, reference, cataloging, etc.–it has created a thorough link collection, with an emphasis on public libraries. For specialized areas, on the other hand, it links to vertical sector library portals that concentrate on the topic: for Web management–the Library Web Managers Reference Center; for support staff–the Library Support Staff Resource Center, etc. This method is highly effective because it leverages the portal-building expertise of expert librarians in each separate area. There are 24 such vertical portals, including those for electronic reserves, library architecture, digital imaging, and archives. LibraryLand has annotations and is searchable. It is produced by The Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, which is sponsored by The Library, UC Berkeley, and Sun Microsystems, Inc.

GRADE: A
HIGH POINTS: Links to valuable portals covering many individual library topics.

USING THE LIBRARY PORTALS

1. Scan the table of contents of the Internet Library for Librarians, which has the most elaborate classification system, and is excellent for quickly focusing on specific information.

2. Scan the index to LibraryLand, looking particularly for portals devoted to your interest.

3. For esoteric things that everyone else misses, browse through Yahoo!.

4. Don't overlook that library associations themselves are often portals to topic-related resources. Examine the association lists in LibraryHQ (the one thing it does well) and the Internet Library for Librarians, for subject- and geographically-oriented associations.

5. Organizations also thrive virtually in the form of electronic discussion groups. Look to LibraryLand for these, or click on "Library-Oriented Lists and Electronic Serials" (www.wrlc.org/liblists/liblists.htm), a Web site devoted to maintaining links to listservs and newsgroups.

This strategy concentrates on using a few of the best portals and ignoring the rest. So unless you want to make a hobby of library portal surfing, go for quality rather than quantity.

Mick O'Leary (71735.2041@compuserve.com) is Library Director at Frederick Community College in Myersville, MD.

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