[WEB4LIB] How to describe a site?

[Watts, Richard]

If this were a MARC record, you could have a wide variety of alternative
titles, in 246 fields, and cataloging rules allow cataloger-supplied titles
as long as they are in square brackets and with an accompanying note stating
that they are created by the cataloger.
However, I assume this is not a MARC record.  

If the purpose of your database is to describe the contents of the sites
indexed to benefit your patrons, then you need to include all the keywords
and descriptions that help them find what they are looking for. 

Of course, there are formal guides to proper scholarly citations of Web
sites, such as "A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and
the Humanities" (http://www.hivolda.no/asf/kkf/citation.html), "Citing
Online Sources" (http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/citation.htm),
"ONLINE! Citation Styles: Index"
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html, and "Web Extension to
American Psychological Association Style"
(http://www.beadsland.com/weapas/), but this may not be what you're looking
for, either. 

Richard Watts
Coordinator of Technical Services
San Bernardino County Library
104 W. Fourth St.
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0035
909-387-5733 voice
909-387-5880 fax
rwatts at lib.co.san-bernardino.ca.us


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hanan Cohen [SMTP:hanan at qglibrary.org.il]
> Sent:	Thursday, May 11, 2000 3:22 AM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	[WEB4LIB] How to describe a site?
> 
> Disclaimer : I am not a librarian.
> 
> While adding sites to my "sites database for libraries" I had a feeling
> that I am doing something wrong. In the database, each site has a title,
> description and keywords. 
> 
> In the sites' title I didn't enter the exact title of the site but a
> title that I thought best described the information available on the
> site. 
> 
> For example, there is a site called "Parents in the dark". Those parents
> are "in the dark" about their childrens' eating disorders. Is it
> important to write "Parents in the dark" in the title and "A site about
> eating disorders" in the description? Is it OK to write "Eating
> disorders" in the title and "A site of the "parents in the dark"
> organisation" in the sites' description? 
> 
> Am I doing injustice to the sites' creators by not using the title they
> have chosen for their site? Is a sites' title like a books' title?
> 
> Oh, mighty librarians, please enlighten me! I am in the dark...;-)
> 
> -- 
> Hanan Cohen - http://www.info.org.il
> ***Love and Peace***