Message-Id: <199602072335.RAA01188@library.wustl.edu> Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 10:29:48 +1100 From: Tony Barry <mailto:tony@INFO.ANU.EDU.AU> Subject: Re[2]: URLs To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
At 02:12 96/02/08, M. Jessie Barczak wrote: > worth the cataloging labor to try to maintain URLs? At this embryonic
> stage of electronic records and sites, it is impossible to maintain
> permanent cataloging records in static places (such as academic
> libraries, public libraries, even special libraries) unless there is a
For static web sites there are link checkers such as http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/cgi-bin/admin/webtest/verify_links but these won't work on databases. What is needed is for the ILMS vendor to build a link validation into the system. It would scan the database to find records with URLs, attempt to connect to them and then email a report of failed links which could the be investigated.
All this can be avoided to some extent if the entries in the catalogue were selected (as they should be) on the basis of stability of the catalogued document eg the America Mathematical Societies server will not disappear in the foreseeable future.
The alternative, and this is a viable option, is to abandon the OPAC as the prime search mechanism and arrange a trickle feed from the OPAC into one of the Web robot indexing systems such as harvest. Rather than trying to put the internet into the OPAC put the OPAC into the internet. I would certainly see this as a valid option for national libraries with respect to the publications produced in their own country.
The need to integrate the world of print and the electronic is being addressed by the IDA project in Australia at http://www.ida.unisa.edu.au/
Tony
__________________________________________________________________________ Tony Barry URL:http://snazzy.anu.edu.au/People/TonyB.html Centre for Networked Information and Publishing & also Centre for Networked Access to Scholarly Information fone +61 6 249 4632 Australian National University Library phax +61 6 279 8120 Canberra A.C.T. 0200, AUSTRALIA mailto:Tony.Barry@library.anu.edu.au