Web terminology

[karen hartman]

This is a very good question, because I don't see much consensus
among librarians and others about what to call the different types of
resources on the Web.  The following terms are what I use:

I call selective and annotated directories that cover many subjects (for
example,  the Librarian's Index to the Internet, the IPL, or the Argus
Clearinghouse) virtual libraries. I took this term from the book The
Internet Searcher's Handbook by Morville, Rosenfeld, and Janes.  The
authors call virtual libraries "value added collections of Internet
resources."  I like the term virtual libraries to describe these very
specialized and extremely useful resources, because to me, they
resemble  libraries in that the included resources are evaluated and
chosen by a qualified person,  much like a  librarian chooses resources
for a traditional library .   Sites that contain  links to other sites on a
particular subject I call subject guides.  Sites that are self-contained
databases of information (with no hyperlinks to outside information) for
example,  PubMed's Medline, or ChemFinder WebServer, or the IBM
Patent Server,  are specialized databases.  Sites that provide reference
information, for example, the Web versions of the  Statistical Abstract of
the United States, or Webster's Dictionary, or the Zip Code Directory, I
call reference works.

Karen Hartman
Reference Librarian 
Mary Washington College
Fredericksburg, VA  

I have a (probably dumb) question about terminology.....

What do you call those sites that basically consist of
links to other useful sites? They can be annotated (like
the Librarians' Index to the Internet), or simply lists of
unannotated links.

I tend to think of them as meta sites, but I was wondering
if there is another term that's commonly used........

Thanks!

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone: (217) 333-4895  
Fax: (217) 333-6355
Email: bernies at uillinois.edu