Cataloging the Internet

[Paul Neff, Internet Librarian]

> So how should folks doing the cataloging deal with the fact that the real 
> content of the internet is not a book or a url or an image but actually a 
> _person_ ??? Has anyone started cataloging to people on the internet? The
> difference between this environment and an opac seems to be that I can 
> actually find the author and ask them what they meant ... just like I am 
> doing now.


I don't understand this.  The sort of Internet cataloging I'm talking about
refers to the cataloging of files and directories as presented by gophers, 
FTP sites, World Wide Web sites, etc... these files and directories correspond 
well to the resources in other media that we already catalog, and I'd venture
that they also contain most of the content most libraries would be interested 
in (as opposed to e-mail, chat, network news... though archives of these 
services may of course be very good resources as well).  There are people
behind every publication, no matter what format... it's just that the
mechanisms for discovering and establishing sources of authority differ. 
For a book, you look at the publisher, the author (or what's been written 
about the author), reviews, etc... whereas on the Internet access to an author 
is either more direct (as in this case) or nonexistent.  But I don't see 
why this situation motivates "cataloging people" any more than it would for any
other materials format, and the broader question I must ask again is why 
Internet materials represent a whole new paradigm for librarians.


Paul Neff
Internet Librarian, Kansas City Public Library
paul at kcpl.lib.mo.us