The Library and Information Professional’s Guide to Plug‐ins and Other Web Browser Tools: Selection, Installation, Troubleshooting

Citation

Bradley, P. (2003), "The Library and Information Professional’s Guide to Plug‐ins and Other Web Browser Tools: Selection, Installation, Troubleshooting", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 135-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2003.37.2.135.9

When HTML and browsers were first designed back in the early 1990s they were intended to be used just in a textual format. Everything else that we take for granted today, such as images, sound files, moving images and the like are really afterthoughts. In order to make use of them properly the savvy Web user needs to employ a whole army of “plug‐ins” – separate programs that the browser can call upon to display moving images, Shockwave files and so on. We all need to make use of them (otherwise browsing the Internet becomes a very flat one‐dimensional experience), but very few of us have much knowledge or understanding of how these creatures actually work, or how they can be used to best effectiveness.

This guide attempts to overcome that problem for us. The book is organised into eight chapters (with three appendices) covering everything you need to know about the dizzying array of plug‐ins that can be used. Chapter 1, “Essential background of browser‐extending tools”, provides us with an overview of the subject and clearly explains the differences between plug‐ins, ActiveX, helper applications and browser companions. Utility tools such as the Adobe Acrobat reader and Microsoft Office viewers are covered in the second chapter, while the next two chapters cover image and multimedia tools. Those searchers with an interest in mathematics and science will find useful information about such plug‐ins as Chime, RasMol, Cn3D and LiveMath. Accessibility tools like Adobe Access, Lens Magnifying Glass and ReadPlease are covered in Chapter 6, “Accessibility tools”. Tools for librarians are covered in the penultimate chapter and include utilities such as the Yahoo! Companion, Google Toolbar, Mousetool and a very useful Pop‐up Stopper. The last chapter, “Strategies for managing plug‐ins”, guides readers through the use of various other utilities designed to keep all the rest in order. The three appendices cover file extensions, troubleshooting tips and Webliography. The book finishes with a short four page index.

The authors are both American information professionals; Benjes‐Small is currently reference and instruction librarian at Radford University in Virginia and Just is an information specialist at the University of Southern California. Oddly there is no biographical detail for Cooper, who (we only learn from the back cover) is the Web Manager at CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals) and was responsible for preparing the companion Web site. The nationality of both authors is unfortunately apparent throughout the entire book, since all of the examples given of Web sites that utilise the various plug‐ins are American. This is something of a shame, for while it does not reduce the effectiveness of the title, it does little to involve a British readership. This disadvantage is, however, addressed on the companion Web site at Facet Publishing, which does provide readers with some British examples, so this is not as much of a problem as may first appear.

The book is written in a very easy to read style, and is easy on the eye. Unlike many computer titles, with their huge paragraphs of dense text, this makes good use of fonts and formatting, allowing the reader to quickly locate something of interest. There are many illustrations which are mainly of the various plug‐ins in operation on different Web sites, and they are crisp and clear. It is of course impossible to clearly show a reader how a utility that displays multimedia actually works in a printed form, but this would be an unfair criticism to make (and readers can of course see them in operation by clicking on the various links on the companion Web site).

So far, so good. One does, however, have to ask the question “Is this book of any value?” and that’s a rather more difficult question to answer. Browsers and utility programs have now advanced to such a stage that if a searcher actually needs one of these tools they will be made aware of this by the browser itself and will be transported to the appropriate site to download it, the utility can install itself with very little intervention by the actual user and can then be used without further thought. If you fall into this category then I would have to say that you will gain very little from the book. However, if you are a rather more curious soul and wish to have a better understanding of what is actually happening when you browse the Web, this is a title that will answer many questions for you about how your browser interacts with Web sites. If you are responsible for a network, or are a Web author, this book will be of definite value to you. It explains very clearly why and how plug‐in utilities do their jobs, and gives some good working examples of how they can improve not only a Web site, but the provision of information from that Web site.

I do, however, have one particular criticism, which is that only a fairly small number of plug‐ins are covered. This is quite a slim book, and I would have thought it could easily have been expanded to cover more tools – there is only one “pop‐up killer” mentioned for example, and there are a great many more available. Rather than a straightforward discussion of how one example works, I would have found it more useful to have been given information on a variety of them, together with some indication of which would be the best one to use in a particular situation.

Overall however, this is a useful addition to a system manager’s shelf, or for anyone who has an interest in how these things actually work. At £24.95 it is not too expensive and readers will recoup this cost in spending less staff time scratching their heads trying to work out how to view a Web site effectively.