Matrix, Subject Catalogs: Internet Public Library

The Internet Public Library (IPL)

With this in mind, why is the IPL included in the Matrix? At a certain level, the service collects a significant number of resources into a broad index and organizational structure. The following evaluation looks at how well the Library's Ready Reference fufills a catalog or indexing function like YAHOO or Lycos... but not the overall usefulness or success of the IPL.

Key Links

Organization

• The reference area is organized into 14 subject categories, which are divided into a few related subsections. Each category contains 5 to 20 hand-selected and rich resources.
• The server supports basic searching across only entries in the reference area.
  • Currently the searches are performed by a Perl script, but the area is marked to be updated soon.
  • Features and Limitations
    • The engine supports multiple keywords joined by Boolean AND.
    • Reference sources are identified by particular keywords, many from a controled vocabulary -- which is not online.
    • There are no other keyword management controls.
  • Returned entries are not sorted or identified by match quality.
  • Searches can be restricted to subject area, by document author, or document URL.
• Searching is only available for browsers with HTML Forms support.
• Entries are not restricted by content, but must pass the evaluation criteria established by the IPL staff for resource richness and usability.

Administration

• Resources are hand-picked and catalogued by IPL staff, but users are encouraged to recommend new documents.
• Due to the small size of the collection, the ready reference and search interfaces respond fairly quickly; however, the graphic front pages are quite large and download with delays.
• Although not large, the contents of the collection are quite focused and useful. Links are added and updated fairly quickly by the staff. There are about 1,000 linked resources in a well-organized tree of categories and sub-sections.
• Additional Services
  • The IPL reference section is extensively commented with descriptive text and navigational aids, and each page is well labeled.
  • There are no general help resources beyond the FAQ page and IPL policies pages.
  • IPL maintains a timely "What's New?" page for each week.
  • Documents and services provided by the IPL are evaluated and maintained by the staff. Reference entries included a descriptive paragraph, document author, and associated keywords.
  • A valuable service provided by the IPL is the Ask a Question forum, which is an online reference desk staffed by experienced net users. It's an effective place to get pointers or URLs to solve specific problems, or to ask about that elusive resource you can't find on YAHOO.