Net Journal Directory: Spring 1997

Each entry for the more than 7000 serials covered here?encompassing consumer, business, and trade magazines as well as newsletters and scholarly journals but not newspapers?contains one or more citations to sources for the full text of articles available via the web. Each citation in turn provides indications of the format (e.g., text only, text and graphics) , the time span, and, frequently, the per-article price. Entries are limited to those available to the general public via a standard web browser, perhaps in an attempt to appeal to individuals and small public libraries needing just an occasional article. However, the majority of citations point to what the editor calls "aggregators," 13 information companies ranging from BioMedNet to FirstSearch to Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, making this useful to larger libraries that wish to compare various services in deciding from which service to pull any given article. In the extensive introductory sections, the editor wisely points out that few truly free sites exist and that there is a great variation in what information providers define as "full" text. Moreover, he admits that the frequently changing landscape of web publishing renders the information imperfect, a condition he promise to mitigate with semiannual editions. All in all, this unique resource will be useful to librarians, especially at corporate, academic, and large public libraries.?Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.