Only a few minutes ..

[Jie Tian]

I did a similar presentation not too long ago and used about 10 minutes 
to cover what the WWW computer networks offer to libraries.  I know it can
be so challenging and how it would leave us of feeling of inadequacy talking
about the web in just 5-10 minutes!

In a nutshell, I tried to highlight two essentials.  One, the very feature
of WWW that perfects resource sharing in networked environment -- hypertext
links & "see"/"see also" references; support for multimedia format 
whether text, images, sounds, or others; multiprotocol support that 
bridges the gap of distributed information systems in one interface, 
i.e. one can use telnet, gopher, ftp, news and such on a web page.  

Two, emphasis on types of resources supported by web technology 
that exponentially expand any library's local resources. 1) 
telnet-supported catalogs around the world; 2) open access databases like 
Uncover; 3) locally deveoped databases like the ABSEE; 4) virtual 
libraries and the wealth of information brought about by web publishing 
using HTML.
         
I'd love to hear what others have done in 10 minutes or so.


Jie Tian
tian at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu