Original URL: ftp://ftp.lib.ncsu.edu/pub/stacks/libres/libres-v3n06-muns

LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal
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ISSN 1058-6768             October 30, 1993 Volume 3 Issue 6
Quarterly                                   LIBRE3N6 MUNS

GENERIC NETWORK RESOURCE REVIEWS

Number 1
October 25, 1993

by Raleigh C. Muns, MLS, University of Missouri - St. Louis Libraries

Resources abound on the Internet and in print which assist users in WHAT
information sources are available, HOW to access them, and WHERE to find
them. For example, Michael Strangelove's and Diane Kovacs' DIRECTORY OF
ELECTRONIC JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS AND ACADEMIC DISCUSSION LISTS, a
subject organized compilation of electronic lists (among other items),
points to a kaleidoscope of unique Internet resources, explains how to
access them, and supplies their e-mail addresses when appropriate (ARL:
Washington, DC, 3rd ed., 1993; ISSN 1057-1337). What is lacking in such
resources, or as adjuncts to them, are third-party analyses which would
aid a searcher in answering WHY they would ever access a listed Internet
resource in the first place.

Books, journals, video productions, software, and CD-ROMs are all
reviewed on a regular basis by a number of publications. Internet
resources, such as gophers, file transfer protocol (ftp) sites, Usenet
discussion groups, listservs, etc., tend to escape the subjective
analyses of reviewers. The only means of determining a resource's value
is to spend time accessing and exploring it. In future columns I will be
supplying just such analyses of selected Internet resources ranging from
gophers to United States Government bulletin boards. These reviews should
be of immediate use, as well as stimulants to the creation of similar
formal analytic activities by my Internet colleagues. These GENERIC
NETWORK RESOURCE REVIEWS will overlap with and supplement the author's
already existing LIST REVIEW SERVICE (LRS) discussed below.

Motivated by what I saw as an obvious need to analyze Internet
resources, and presented with the opportunity to easily broadcast such
analyses, or reviews, via electronic mail on the Internet, I commenced
the LIST REVIEW SERVICE (ISSN: 1060-8192) in November, 1991. These
electronic-only published reviews of e-mail discussion groups (often
called listservs) attempt to give the prospective subscriber
quantitative and qualitative information about a discussion group of
possible interest as an aid to its selection.

The quantitative information part of the review consists of such things
as number of messages, average message size, and classification of
posted messages as "queries" or "non-queries." This latter is an attempt
to define to what extent a list is expository. Qualitative information
consists of a prose review, unabashedly subjective in nature, somewhat
like a restaurant review. Suggested uses for each resource reviewed
(e.g., "Develop instructional materials for high school students") are
appended at the end of the prose review. Finally, information necessary
to subscribe to the (mostly e-mail) resource reviewed is listed.

The LRS is distributed on the bitnet listserv list LIBREF-L via KENTVM.
To subscribe, send a single line e-mail message with no subject line to
e-mail address:
                        LISTSERV@KENTVM.BITNET

consisting only of:     SUBSCRIBE LIBREF-L your_name

LIBREF-L is a fairly busy discussion list, primarily for practicing
reference librarians. With that in mind, the LRS can also be received
directly by subscribing to the University of Missouri-St. Louis bitnet
listserv LSTREV-L. To subscribe, send a single line e-mail message with
no subject line to e-mail address:

                        LISTSERV@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU

consisting only of:     SUBSCRIBE LSTREV-L your_name

If you know how to search listserv archives, all twenty-seven existing
reviews can be found by using the UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU listserv software.

Several gopher sites also carry the LRS with my favorite being North
Carolina State University's "Library Without Walls." To access the LRS
at NCSU, point your gopher at gopher address DEWEY.LIB.NCSU.EDU (or
traverse gopher space as you best know how until you get to North
Carolina State University's "Library" gopher) and select the following
gopher menu choices in the order listed:

NCSU's "Library Without Walls"
  Reference Desk
    Guides (to subject literature, to Internet resources, etc.)
      List Review Service

My reason for preferring this gopher is because a WAIS search engine at
the menu level of "List Review Service" allows those interested to do
keyword searching of what should be a growing body of reviews. This
would allow one to simply ask, for example, "Are there any reviews on
gay studies?" (Answer: Not yet.)

Online discussion groups reviewed from November, 1991 through October,
1993, in order, are: FEDTAX-L (Federal Taxation); PACS-L (Public Access
- Libraries); CDROMLAN/CDROM-L (dual review of CD-ROM discussion
groups); GOVDOC-L (Government Documents - Libraries); NMBRTHY (Number
Theory); WMST-L (Women's Studies); DTS-L (Dead Teacher's Society - K-12
Educators); GUTNBERG (Project Gutenberg); ANTHRO-L (Anthropology); VPIEJ
(Electronic Journals); IPCT-L (Interpersonal Communications); WEIRD-L
(Weird Creative Writing); SCREEN-L (Cinema); EQUINE-L (Horses); COMSERVE
(Communication Studies); L-HCAP (Disabilities); EDPOLYAN (Educational
Policy); FWAKE (Finnegan's Wake); SLOVAK-L (Slovakian Republic); DERRIDA
(Deconstructionism and Derrida); CSEMLIST (Computer Science in
Economics); AFROAM-L (African American Studies); HIT (High Technology);
PSYCGRAD (Graduate Studies in Psychology); GRMNHIST (German History);
CLINTON (Bill Clinton).

Raleigh C. Muns / Reference Librarian / Thomas Jefferson Library
University of Missouri - St. Louis / SRCMUNS@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU

Opinions published are exclusive to the author and do not represent, nor
intend to represent, opinions and stances of the University of Missouri.

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Science Research Electronic Journal_ may be retrieved via anonymous ftp
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Diane K. Kovacs- Editor-in-Chief, _LIBRES: Library and Information
Science Research Electronic Journal, EDITORS@KENTVM.KENT.EDU
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