The Internet Directory: Version 2.0

Electronic News, Jan 13, 1997 by Grace I. Zisk

Eric Braun. The Internet Directory: Version 2.0. Fawcett Columbine Trade Paperback. New York, 1996. pp. 928. $30.

Recently, CNN news anchor Lyn Vaughan described the Internet as "an endless sea of information." And like the sea, the Internet is constantly changing, literally overflowing with opportunities and information. It's hard to know how to get your feet wet, let alone where to plunge into it. Directories in the form of old-fashioned books are almost necessary to help users save time and money in reaching their desired sites.

A confession: aside from using E-mail, before reading these books I was an Internet rookie. Now I'm hooked. I've become acquainted with Gopher, IRC, FAQ, Yahoo, Veronica, and Archie, among other terms. Both of these directories provide introductions into net citizenship as well as tips for the proper "netiquette."

Weighing in at 928 pages (and with 100 index pages alone), is The Internet Directory: Version 2.0. (Version 1.0 was published in the fall of 1993). Compiler Eric Braun partially dedicates the book to "every librarian there ever was, because since I took on the crazy job of trying to categorize the Internet, I have come to regard them and their job with a not insignificant amount of awe."

In his introduction, Braun acknowledges the obvious: that "the Internet changes too quickly and is too large for any guide" to be complete. Nevertheless, there are 10,182 entries, not counting addresses for library catalogs (over 70 pages of them, from the Aarhus School of Business in Denmark to the Zentralbibliothek Zurich library). All the entries have been verified, categorized, indexed, and cross-referenced by "real people, not by computers, so you should be able to find quickly things that you are interested in." Among those "things" are web resources, usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, library catalogs, electronic journals, and much more. The piece de resistance: the purchase price includes a free CD-ROM to help you locate sites by resource type and build bookmark files while off-line. Checking this out, I found that true to what you'd expect, the electronic version, with its unlimited "space," expands quite a bit more on some of the references. For example, if you want to discuss the interface between operations research and computer science, ( 9201 ORCS-L), the CD-ROM has a six-line explanatory paragraph, compared to a one-line description in the book.

Grace I. Zisk is a writer and editor living in Charlottesville, Va.

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