The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources

We're all aware of the amount of free information that can easily be located on the Internet these days, and perhaps some of us have considered ways in which we could perhaps save money, or add to our resources by utilising these more effectively. This is exactly what this book sets out to do. The emphasis is on providing access to a comprehensive range of digital resources for little or no cost at all.

The book is divided into nine chapters with an accompanying Web site listing all the URLs mentioned in them, which is being kept up to date by the author, so readers can be assured that they will always have access to the most recent and current sites mentioned, which is obviously of paramount importance with a title of this nature. Chapter headings include “Free articles and indexes”, “All the news that fits”, “Reference on the web”, “Books in the web library” and “Final considerations”. There is also a wealth of illustrations that really do make a difference to the text and allow the reader to see exactly to what the author is referring. Also included are illustrations indicating the sample annual savings that a librarian can make by using the resources the author mentions. I'm not always sure these are accurate ($1,000 per year on newspaper subscriptions for example), but they are useful illustrations. As I've just indicated, these savings are based on US dollar prices, so they may in some cases be inappropriate for a British readership, but that's a reasonably minor point, though the book as a whole does take a particularly American viewpoint, and most of the examples are orientated towards the USA.

The Web Library is very easy to read; the author has written in a very engaging manner and has a light touch, with some humorous asides. Of particular interest are the sidebars, where he interviews various professionals in what he calls “insider's viewpoints”. These provide very useful commentaries on the different resources that are available and give an important insight which simply adds to the value of the book. My only gripe here is that all these interviews are from American information professionals or business people; it would have been nice to have been able to obtain a rather more global perspective of the subject matter.

In order to fully illustrate the value of the book, I turned to chapter three, “Ready or not: reference on the Web”. This chapter discusses such things as “what is a reference question?” and “how much does it cost to answer questions?”. He then looks at top reference sources in print and online and compares them with their Web‐based counterparts, paying particular notice to the cost implications of both. Where there isn't a counterpart he identifies surrogates on the Web that will do the job just as well. He also covers notable standalone Web sites for specific subject areas, such as art, book and magazine information, business, health resources, legal information, music, film and other subjects besides. This is then backed up with several of the “insider viewpoint” interviews and finishes with sample annual savings, references, supplementary information and endnotes.

Tomaiuolo also has his finger on the pulse of the Internet community; to check how current a title is I always used to search for references to Google, but more recently I now look to find information about Weblogs, and the author has covered this subject area in reasonable depth, and not only has he described them well, he's also included some of the most recent search engines and directories that cover this new and fast growing phenomena.

I spent some time looking at the companion Web site, and the author is true to his word – it was last updated only five days prior to the date that I looked. The site is clearly laid out and easy to follow. There are also “spotlights” on various free resources and the author is also adding in new links to sites that he has discovered (or which have been created) since the book was published. I've bookmarked the site and it's one that I shall certainly return to on a regular basis to see what new materials he has added to the collection.

The book is clearly laid out and although its 400+ pages are packed with information it is very easy to read due in no small part to the way the text has been formatted. It also has an excellent index as well.

The book is clearly marketed towards the library and information community, particularly those professionals who are responsible for budgets. However, even for those information professionals who are lucky enough not to have to worry about the burden of balancing a budget this book provides many useful tools they can use to answer queries just at the cost of their time, rather than spending money on subscriptions. Tomaiuolo has really found a very interesting niche market, and more importantly he has filled it very well with this particular title. My only reservation, as I've already indicated is its very heavy bias towards the United States and I would have liked to have seen a more global approach, rather than just an occasional nod towards the BBC and other UK (or indeed other European) resources. Other than that, I think it's an excellent book that really focuses on its subject area and certainly worth buying. If you only use one of his examples you will probably find that you've saved on the cost of the title immediately!