12 REFERENCE SOURCES
- Quality, depth, and usefulness of content
- Ready reference
- Uniqueness of content
- Currency of content
- Authority of producer
- Ease of use
- Customer service
- Efficiency
- Appropriate use of the Web as a medium^2
A point-by-point explanation of these criteria as well as a combined index of
the annual lists may be found at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/mars/marspubs/
marsbestindex/. Reviews of web-based resources may also be found in the
standard reference reviewing media, including Choice, Reference Books Bulletin,
Reference and User Services Quarterly, and Library Journal.
The Scout Report (http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Currrent/),
the flagship publication of the Internet Scout Project based at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison, is a weekly dispatch available by e-mail and on the Web
since 1994. Each issue typically groups recommended sites under “research
and education,” “general interest,” and “network tools.” There is also a featured
news article. The Scout Report is a convenient current awareness tool that offers
website annotations prepared by a team of librarians and subject specialists.
It uses the following criteria when evaluating websites:
• content
• authority
• information maintenance
• presentation
• availability
• costFor further discussion of each criterion, go to http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/
selection.php.
In the early 1990s, Carole Leita, a reference librarian in Berkeley, Califor-
nia, began a bookmark file of useful and reliable free websites. The project
grew as volunteer reference librarians from California added their selections,
and the result was a dynamic, database-driven website of more than 20,000
entries known as the Librarians’ Internet Index (LII). It would eventually
receive funding from the Library Services and Technology Act. Its missionhttp://www.ebook3000.com