Bibliographies, Print Magazines, Book Searching, and Other Reference Sources. At the least, archivists and records managers need to reconsider how they publish in their professional literature since how information is disseminated is changing rapidly in the digital age. The World Wide Web has revolutionalized how any individual with access to a computer and a modem can build up reference sources for their own professional work. Records professionals can use the Web to gain access to online versions of major print journals. Atlantic Unbound (http://www.theatlantic.com/index.htm) is “both The Atlantic Monthly's home on the Internet and an evolving online publication. Each month Atlantic Unbound offers the complete contents of The Atlantic's print edition -- augmented with links to related articles, audio, other Web sites, and more -- alongside a weekly assortment of original Web-only columns and interactive features.” The importance of using the Web to browse such sources is that they feature regularly articles on records and archives and these writings are significant in the shaping of public opinion about records work (see my essay on this, Cox 2000a). Drawing on these materials for teaching, using them for advocacy, and just using them for generally promoting within institutions the work with records can be very important. This is especially doable with World Wide Web resources such as online versions of journals and newspapers, since an institutional archivist or records manager can distribute news stories, articles, and other documents with poignant records lessons to institutional co-workers and managers via internal Web newsletters, electronic mail, and other sources. Records professionals can certainly draw on existing Web-based bibliographic sources for such purposes.

Many individuals have put up bibliographies and other resources concerning their scholarly and research interests, and there are many concerning aspects of archives and records management topics. Bernard J. Hibbitts, an Associate Dean at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, has a Web site on “Orality and Literacy” with “links to books, book reviews, papers, projects, courses, resources and other sites helpful in understanding the varieties and cultural implications of oral and written communication from the beginnings of human history to the present computer age” (http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/or-lit.htm). This site reflects Hibbitts’ legal research interests, indicated by his “Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality, and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse,” Cardozo Law Review 229 (1994) available at http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/meta_int.htm. Another similar example is Gadi Algazi, Department of History, Tel Aviv University, “Medieval Orality & Literacy, Reading and Writing: A nonselective research bibliography” at http://spinoza.tau.ac.il/~algazi/bibs/litera.htm. Again, it would be useful if archivists and records managers had a convenient single Web site where all these bibliographies could be linked, described, and used.

There are also some regularly issued bibliographies, such as “Current Cites: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Articles, Books, and Digital Documents on Information Technology” (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/). This monthly bibliography features information technology literature in both print and digital forms, highlighting ten to twenty annotated citations of current literature. The Web site also enables searching for customized bibliographies and of the full texts. A bit more directly related to records work is Preservation of Electronic Information: A Bibliography, maintained by Michael Day of UKOLN: The UK Office for Library and Information Networking at the University of Bath (http://homes.ukoln.ac.uk/%7Elismd/preservation.html). What if some professional association, such as ARMA or SAA, could support a monthly online bibliography of Web-published articles, reports, and other similar materials? Such a source could substantially assist all records professionals keep track of at least the most seminal writings on records matters available on the World Wide Web.

One of the strengths of the World Wide Web is its making available reviews of books and other publications. H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/) is an “online scholarly review journal. Each H-Net discussion network has its own review editor. Once posted to individual H-Net networks, reviews are posted to H-Review and archived on this site.” Visitors to the site can do keyword searching of the reviews. Major print review sources, such as the New York Review of Books (http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/) and the Boston Book Review (http://www.bookwire.com/bbr/bbr-home.html) provide Web sites with selective full text reviews and lots of information on recent publications. Such sources enable records professionals to stay abreast of current writings beyond their more narrow professional sources, and this is key since records are constantly in the news and the chief administrative officers and other bosses of records managers and archivists are often aware of important publications with implications for records work.

Tracking stories about records in the daily news has never been easier due to the World Wide Web. Individuals can readily access national newspapers on a daily basis, such as the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/) and the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/), where it used to take laborious bibliographic searching, word of mouth, and other techniques to find daily news about archives and records management topics. Weekly news magazines, such as the US News and World Report, also maintain online Web sites (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm) where more in-depth news stories can be found. Some of our work has been made easier by the regular postings on the archives and records management listservs by Peter A. Kurilecz of abstracts and Web links to current news stories featuring or possessing importance for records professionals.

Individuals can also use the Web to search for books, both new and used, on any topic such as through BookPricer (http://www.BookPricer.com/), a convenient search site for both new and used books in the United States and the United Kingdom, or through the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America site (http://abaa.org/). There are also the better-known commercial sites, such as http://www.Amazon.com, where individuals can find both new books and reviews and other detailed descriptions. For the more adventurous, an individual can go to BookCloseOuts.com (http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?rid=nlis), the “online division of one of the largest closeout/remainder bookstores in North America.”

All of these sources are widely dispersed on the World Wide Web, and it would be useful if one group or individual took leadership to build a better single clearinghouse with information about such resources. The various professional listservs partly fill this role, although they are unreliable because they follow discussion threads often built upon very individual or institutional needs or concerns. Long discussions can occur with no one posting relevant Web or print sources, minimizing the long-term or broader value of these lists. The listservs remain more important for building a sense of professional community than in developing substantial parts of the knowledge base for archivists and records managers. Meanwhile, the World Wide Web remains the medium whereby important reports, case studies, and other writings can be made readily available.