Cataloguing the Internet

[Leonard Will]

In article <3.0.3.32.19971120195030.00c87554 at panix.com>, "Karen G.
Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com> writes
>
>The idea of cataloging the Internet is only Herculean if you think of the
>entire Internet.  It is not Herculean if you think of cataloging those
>resources you want access through your OPAC today--and more tomorrow--and
>more the following day.  It's not as if there aren't ANY websites
>cataloged; there just aren't nearly ENOUGH.  And that's with very, very
>little attention or resources directed toward Internet cataloging. 
>
Nobody in this thread has yet mentioned the WWW Virtual Library, which
is a project to share out the job of cataloguing (or at least listing)
Internet resources in just this way. It uses the LC Classification to
subdivide subjects, and anyone can volunteer to maintain an area they
are interested in. 

Have a look at http://vlib.stanford.edu/Overview.html and see whether
this is something that more librarians could contribute to - both in
taking on particular areas, alerting the section maintainers of
resources they have missed, or advising on the subject arrangement.

In the UK we used to have national and regional subject specialisation
schemes, where the whole of the Dewey classification was shared out
among a group of libraries, each undertaking to buy as comprehensively
as they could within their allocated section to build a collection that
would be available for loan to all the other participants. The WWW
Virtual Library project seems to be capable of being the international
electronic equivalent.

Leonard Will
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