Nigel Ford is a retired Professor of Information Science at Sheffield University, and former Director of Research and Head of the Educational Informatics Research Group. Introduction to Information...

It was not that many years ago one could walk into a library and see a display of handouts about library resources and services. For several decades librarians could easily compile, print, and distribute their guides with the use of word processing and photocopying technology. The growth of the Internet has changed all that, and just converting old pathfinders from text to static digital format is not enough. Today’s library users expect sites that incorporate Web 2.0 features like RSS feeds, blogs, and wikis. They probably expect the library to have its own Facebook page. Librarians are quick adopters of new technologies. Often there is someone on staff who is into the latest online tool or social networking site. One of the early challenges for libraries was getting their administrators or institutions to buy into the need for the library to have control over their own site. A library may have to work within a content management system (CMS) controlled by a communication, marketing, or IT department. These departments may not appreciate the specific needs of libraries, such as the importance of librarians to regularly publish guides and keep in touch with users via social networking. This is why Springshare developed a cloud-based CMS geared specifically for the needs of libraries. It is an out-of-the-box solution that allows librarians to create professional looking guides without web programming experience. Using LibGuides to Enhance Library Services was written to be a simple user guide for LibGuides that covers the initial decision making behind using it through to getting LibGuides up and running in your library. There are five sections to the guide. Part one is a short history of library guides from the time pathfinders started being used to today’s open source options and LibGuides. Some librarians have spent a great deal of time and effort into general subject guides, while others feel time is better spent designing user interfaces to eliminate the need for guides. A 2004 study is referenced showing that guides should directly relate to students’ point of need because students are more likely to learn how to use something at the point they most need it. Rather than creating general subject guides many favor more course-specific guides.

This is the third edition of The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook by Randolph Hock. Dr. Hock’s organization, Online Strategies, provides courses on various aspects of Web searching to clients. These clients include libraries, government agencies, companies, schools, etc. According to the Online Strategies website at http://onstrat.com/instructor.html Dr. Hock has trained more than 14,000 online users in 13 countries. Hock’s years of online searching expertise are apparent in this work, which is organized into ten easy-to-read chapters. Much of the information and websites discussed will be known to librarians and Internet searchers. However, Hock goes to extremes to provide detailed information on search engine features, so even experienced online searchers will likely learn something new. Working in an academic library environment, mostly interacting with undergraduate students, I often find myself just showing basic search strategies because students only want to type in a search phrase and “get stuff” back for their paper. They do not want to be extreme searchers as long as they get enough to do the assignment. Google’s simplicity is largely why it became the dominant search engine. Those who do want to go the extra step and become extreme searchers will find Hock’s handbook an invaluable tool. If they only want to read one chapter it should be the chapter on search engine specifics. It is 60-pages long and provides detailed profiles of the top search engines Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com. Searchers may never fully utilize all the search features and databases in theses search engines, but Hock has provided them an exceptional aid if they want to explore advanced search capabilities. The chapters that do not deal with search engines specifically are going to be useful to varying degrees based on the reader’s existing search experience. For example, the chapter on basics for the serious searcher covers topics like developing a search strategy, criteria for evaluating websites, copyright, and citing material. For librarians, this information will not be new, but for those just starting out as searchers this information is important. Likewise, the chapter titled “An Internet Reference Shelf” is a wonderful

Libraries around the world, whether they be public, academic, or special, are struggling to deal with the transformation that is taking place as a result of the Internet. Libraries have always had to deal with change, but for decades these changes were in a print-dominated world. Even when computerization began in libraries, efforts largely focused on converting card catalogues and other print-finding tools into electronic databases. The impact of the Internet, especially the growth of electronic resources, has created a situation in libraries whereby those trying to manage the volume of electronic resources available to their users are feeling overwhelmed. Peter Webster has been a systems librarian at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, since 1993. He has been actively involved in provincial and regional library consortium activities. Do not expect to read his book and discover a panacea for electronic resource management. However, if you are trying to deal with electronic resources in your library, feeling overwhelmed, thinking that you must be doing something wrong while others are succeeding, then you will get some solace from this book. He has taken his years of experience working with electronic resources and written an excellent book that outlines the challenges we all face, and it confirms that there is no “easy fix” yet. Those relatively new to the issues surrounding the management of electronic resources will benefit the most from this book. Those who have been dealing with systems and electronic resource management issue in depth for some time may find that the book does not tell them anything new. There are several themes that run through the book. For instance, the silos libraries and our vendors have created over time need to be eliminated. They are no longer serving the needs of our users, and they are largely responsible for the failure of libraries to create a seamless search experience, which is another theme of the book. For years, libraries and vendors have been creating proprietary systems and holding onto their own repositories of metadata. The rapid growth of full-text electronic resources from various

The author, Eli Neiburger, is a self-described geek and Nintendo fanboy who has a tattoo of Nintendo intellectual property images. He manages the technology department at the Ann Arbor District Lib...