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ELECTRONICJOURNALS 207catalogs from anywhere in the world accelerated the de-
velopment of interlibrary loan, or the ability to borrow
materials from other libraries. Access was suddenly on
equal footing with ownership. Electronic access in con-
cert with interlibrary loan expanded the concept of the
library far beyond its physical space.
Online Computer Library Center, Research Libraries
Information Network, and other similar services provide
Internet networks that share copy cataloging, allowing
catalog updates instantly on a global scale, and global ac-
cess to collections, thus greatly accelerating the speed and
precision of interlibrary loan.
Current access to databases, directories, full-text books
and journals, and other digital collections has continued
to expand the concept of the library without walls.Librarians and the Internet
It is safe to say that librarians continue to perceive the In-
ternet as a double-edged sword. The primary complaints
are a lack of content quality and quality control, a lack of
organization, and the labile nature of much Internet ma-
terial, which frustrates attempts to catalog and retrieve
it. Another fear, often unstated, is that the overwhelming
popularity of the Internet could, at least partially, replace
libraries and librarians. On the other hand, libraries em-
brace the Internet as a medium for hosting collections
and databases; for exchanging books and other materials;
for creating authoritative directories and portals; for do-
ing reference; and for a host of other uses. Librarians are
also key teachers of Internet literacy. Rather than dimi-
nishing the need, the Internet has in reality created an
increased need for librarians and other information
professionals.Internet Reference Service
The ability to answer reference queries at a distance has
always been an important component of library service
and has proved invaluable to research. Distance refer-
ence queries were initially communicated by letter, tele-
phone, and fax. E-mail gives librarians a tool for answer-
ing queries and/or sending research strategies without
constraints of time and locale. This service has become
instrumental for distance learning.
A new development in e-mail reference service is the
development of consortia that share and disseminate re-
quests, often automatically. Internet users submit a re-
quest form whose databased fields are linked to another
database of subject experts. Based on the topic, the re-
quest is sent to a librarian (who may reside in an entirely
different locale) with expertise in that field. The most com-
prehensive example of this service at this time is the Col-
laborative Digital Reference Service hosted by the Library
of Congress and piloted in the year 2000. This service is
global and provides professional reference service to re-
searchers 24 hours a day, via an international digital net-
work of libraries and related institutions.
Some libraries have experimented with real-time inter-
active video reference over the WWW. Dependent upon
compatible systems and webcams, this technology has
not developed quickly, but there is optimism for future
applications.Cataloging the WWW
Librarians and professional researchers, as well as com-
mercial enterprises, have been struggling with methods of
cataloging the Internet. In many ways the task is fruitless,
since millions of pages of information are added daily,
and a significant fraction of those disappear or change
location. Still, this has not curtailed efforts.
There are two primary approaches in the library world.
The first is selective cataloging, and this is commonly
practiced by libraries of all type. It consists of cataloging
Internet information that fits selection criteria, such as
quality, authority, longevity, uniqueness, and so forth. In-
formation of this type is identified by individual bibliogra-
phers and selectors, as well as cooperatively. The second
approach is to somehow identify Internet resources by
subject headings or other authority languages.
Online Cooperative Library Center (OCLC) is explor-
ing both of these approaches. The Dublin Core/Metadata
Initiative calls for the development of interoperable on-
line metadata standards, analogous to Library of Congress
subject headings that support a broad range of purposes
and business models. The resulting descriptors would be
inserted into the metatag field of a Web document, hope-
fully yielding a much higher degree of search precision.
While the Dublin Core project addresses code-based
content, OCLC is also mainstreaming a project called
CORC. CORC is an attempt to create a shared database
of librarian-selected and cataloged Internet sites. CORC
uses an on-the-fly cataloging process, pulling data auto-
matically from HTML fields. Membership in the CORC
collaborative enables the member libraries to access all
CORC Internet records. CORC members will have access
to an ever-increasing number of stable, superior Web doc-
uments and information. Users of these libraries will reap
the benefits.ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
The linchpin of academic research has, and continues to
be, academic journals, although there are signs this foun-
dation is eroding slightly due to economic concerns. In
addition, traditional academic journals are losing their
current awareness function to mailing lists, electronic
journals, electronic alert services, and other Internet-
based services.
What we currently know as electronic journals evolved
out of projects such as ADONIS, which replicated text-
based journals by placing article images on CD-ROM.
Full-text databases on CD-ROM were also precursors. The
first electronic journals on the Internet began appearing
in the late 1980s, and soon after several directories ap-
peared. The largest of these was sponsored by the Associ-
ation of Research Libraries and featured the LISTSERV
NEWJOUR-L as an alert for new additions. Dubbed the
Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Aca-
demic Discussion Lists, the directory contained 440 en-
tries by April 1994. These early journals were accessed in
a variety of ways including e-mail /USENET, Gopher, FTP,
WAIS, and WWW, with ASCII being the primary format
(Roes, 1995).
The increasing popularity of the WWW as a medium
for accessing and disseminating information has created