STAYING CURRENT IN CYBERSPACE

Tools that librarians can use to keep
their knowledge
of Internet resources up to date.  

E-MAIL LISTS

There are thousands of e-mail lists on every subject imaginable. Subscribing to an e-mail list that focuses on a particular area of interest can be very helpful in keeping your knowledge of Web resources up to date.

Wei Wu maintains the Library-Oriented Lists and Electronic Serials site, which is a directory of library-oriented mailing lists. This directory has both title and subject indexes.

Topica has a directory of over 100,000 e-mail lists, which can be searched and browsed.

Meta-List is the largest directory of  multilingual newsletters and mailing lists .
 

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CONTINUING EDUCATION AND DISTANCE LEARNING

The Internet provides access to a wide variety of continuing education resources and distance learning programs.

The Washington Library Association is maintaining a Web page on continuing education resources.

Web-based training (WBT) sites deliver online training on using various Internet services and resources. When you register for  courses, you receive specific instructions about logins and passwords, and how to access the e-mail lists, MOOs, or chat rooms that are used to facilitate interaction between participants and instructors. Many of these are offered through college distance learning programs.

In addition to college distance learning programs, there are commercial sites, such as Kovacs Consulting, that provide online courses on Internet resources.

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"WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEB" SITES AND "BLOGS"

A number of Web directories regularly review sites that are new to the Web or new to that directory. Here are some of the "What's New" sites that you could add to your Bookmarks or Favorites to check occasionally. If there is a Web site that you depend on, but don't visit on a regular basis, you may want to be alerted to any changes to that site. Go to Mind-It and sign up to receive free e-mail notification of changes to any site that you designate.

You can also set up a free Search Alert through Northern Light.  You'll be notified via e-mail whenever there are new Web pages or Special Collection documents covering the topic that you choose.

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PRINT AND ONLINE SERIALS

Yahoo! Internet Life is available in both print and online versions. The print edition of YIL is published monthly and is a wonderful glimpse at pop culture in cyberspace.

Online is available in both print and online versions. The online version provides a complete table of contents and selected full-text articles and columns from the print edition.

Computers in Libraries, Searcher, and MultiMedia Schools are published in both print and online editions by Information Today, Inc. The Web versions provide complete tables of contents and selected full text articles.

"The Internet Librarian" column by Karen G. Schneider appears monthly in American Libraries. Schneider writes about a variety of Internet issues in libraries, as well as reviewing Web sites.

College and Research Libraries News has a column that provides expert reviews of Internet resources on specific topics.

The Technology section of The New York Times is an excellent resource for Internet and other technology related news.

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E-MAIL REPORTS

Published by the Internet Scout Project at the University of Wisconsin, the Scout Report lists new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers, educators and librarians. The Internet Scout Project also publishes a weblog.

Danny Sullivan maintains an excellent Web site called Search Engine Watch. To keep up to date on changes in search engines, you can subscribe to Sullivan's monthly e-mail report, or to SearchDay, a daily newsletter written by Chris Sherman.

Greg Notess provides "What's New From the Search Engines" and the Search Engine Showdown newsletter.

You can receive e-mail notification of the new Internet resources added to the Librarians' Index to the Internet each week.

Tara Calishain maintains a Web site called ResearchBuzz. You can subscribe to weekly updates delivered via e-mail.

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STRIKE A BALANCE BETWEEN KEEPING AFLOAT AND 
DROWNING IN TOO MUCH INFORMATION!

Created and maintained by Mary B. Ross.
Expanding Your Resources: Using the Web in Library Reference Services
Last revised January 26, 2002.