The Internet Public Library

The Internet Public Library or IPL began in 1995 as a project at the University of Michigan, School of Information. In January 2007, the project moved to Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology and is now contributed to by a consortium of colleges and universities with information science programs.

This project attempts to apply best practices for providing library services via the Internet. The goal is to select and maintain a balanced representative collection of Web sites for information, reference and research. The content must be freely available and the source trustworthy.

The IPL site includes special focused sections designed for teens and kids. All sections answer e-mailed questions. The site is visually appealing and the search engine is terrific. Not only is it quick, but categorizes results by format, i.e. Web sites, magazines, newspapers, associations, Kidspace or Teenspace. Another feature I really like is the extensive list of online newspapers from around the world.

Check it out!

Change to fees for "The New York Times"

Yesterday, The New York Times dropped its TimesSelect. Customers paid $49.95 a year or $7.95 a month for "... access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. ... In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free." ("Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site" by Richard Perez-Pena)

What effect will this move have on your use of content from The New York Times?

Who do you trust?

Some people think that if they can google maybe they don’t need libraries anymore. Everything is on the internet: truth and personal opinion.

How to know which is which? Many googlers think that the first thing that comes up should be the answer. Sorting out the source can be accomplished sometimes by reading down the urls. Another way to find trustworthy information is by using the Librarians’ Internet Index. This is a publicly funded Web site which lists and describes high-quality Web sites which have been carefully selected and organized by librarians. The site is organized into 14 main topics and hundreds of subtopics. Funding for this project comes from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

How else do you determine whether information is valid?