Filters and collection development

[Gilbert, Richard A]

>----------
>From: 	Joe Schallan[SMTP:jschall at glenpub.lib.az.us]
>Sent: 	Friday, April 25, 1997 5:06 PM
>To: 	Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: 	Re: Filters and collection development

>In this debate, I still see confusion over whether the web
>consitutes a resource we select, or a medium to which
>we provide access in a telco-like way.  If we decide it
>is the latter, then we had better *not* filter, especially
>in light of court decisions such as the one in the Prodigy
>case.


I do feel that the way a person perceives the web, influences how they
feel about filtering.  I am not sure that either paradigm is an accurate
way of viewing the web, but here are my views anyway.

I lean towards the view that a library provides access.   The web is
constantly changing and loosely organized.  What is on the web today and
what will be there tomorrow, is completely out of the hands of any one
library.  The web is not like a book, an encyclopedia, or even an
electronic periodical database.  A library does not choose to provide
access to the web to view only a certain web page, or for coverage of a
specific topic.  Access is provided in the hope that the web's
information might meet customer needs that the library's collection can
not.  

I feel that thinking of the web as a resource that we have selected is
inaccurate.  Selection implies that the librarian has examined the item
in question, judged it's authority, currency, accuracy, etc.  The size
and nature of the web seems to prevent this activity from taking place.
I also think that there is some confusion between selecting the web
itself, and selecting the information found on the web.  The latter is a
bit more like indexing a resource to me.

Richard Gilbert
ragilbert at ems.jsc.nasa.gov

*All opinions expressed are my own*