Standards for Web resources

[Winter, Ken (by way of Alan Baragona <baragonasa@vax.vmi.edu>)]

I passed on the message from  Eric Hoffma by way of Alan Metcalf to one of
our libraries webmasters, Ken Winter, for comment and got this reply (sorry
it's late in coming).

Alan B.
===============

Interesting indeed!  God yes we have a role in reviewing sites for beginners!
Experts reviewing web sites for their field is a big help.  I'm looking at a new
batch of Choice cards (Choice is a key review service we use to evaluate new
materials we think we might like to buy) right now and a number of them are for
web sites.  This I find fascinating, along with the fact that academic libraries
are beginning to catalog some of the better web sites just like they catalog
books.

When that happens, students might look in their online catalog and find three
great books, a magazine on their topic and even a link to a resource (like the
Parasitic Plant Connection www.science.siu.edu/parasitic-plants/index.html
--who'd a thunk it!).  All of these items are reviewed and "collected" by the
library as relevant to what that library's users need.

-Ken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: baragonasa at vax.vmi.edu [SMTP:baragonasa at vax.vmi.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 1999 4:04 PM
> To:   winterka at mail.vmi.edu
> Subject:      Standards for Web resources
>
> FROM too long. Original FROM is
> "Allan Metcalf" <AAllan at AOL.COM> "by way of Alan Baragona
> <baragonasa at vax.vmi.edu> )"
>
>
>
> ----------------------  Original Message Follows  ----------------------
> Ken,
>
> Thought you'd find this interesting.
>
> Alan
> ===================
>
> The following is an interesting question from the administrator of one of our
> fellow societies in the American Council of Learned Societies. I wonder what
> experiences members of ADS-L have had in using websites and discerning their
> quality. Me, I've had mostly excellent findings on matters linguistic. But
> before I reply to him, I'd like to know what others think. - Allan Metcalf
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> A question has been raised concerning the amazing amount of material in
> philosophy that is now on the web and the difficulty that any inexperienced
> person, particularly undergraduates, would have in discerning the quality of
> the material presented.  This raises the question whether we, as the
> disciplinary society have some role to play in assisting people to
> distinguish among web sites and material offered on the web.  Our Computer
> Newsletter has begun to do reviews of web sites, but we could certainly do
> more (perhaps with considerable additional resources).  My question is
> whether you folks have, to any extent and in any way, waded into these
> waters.
>
> Eric Hoffman, Executive Director
> American Philosophical Association
>