The Cybrarian's Web

Citation

Freeman, M. (2013), "The Cybrarian's Web", New Library World, Vol. 114 No. 1/2, pp. 89-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801311292018

The title says it all – since when has the ancient and noble craft of “Librarian” been transmuted into “Cybrarian”? I thought we were all headed ineluctably towards becoming “Information Managers”, not some robotic creature called a “cybrarian” – shades of Dr Who! Still, enough whingeing from an ageing grump dinosaur …

This book is, of course, American with all that earnest “can do” informality and whizzy pace beloved of American writers. Its value – and it is a work of merit despite my carping – lies in its comprehensiveness and relevance and, of course, in its up to dateness. This is useful for any library battling with Web 2.0 and associated problems in Internet use. The work concentrates on “free” Web 2.0 resources such as Wikipedia and Youtube. The range of sources and sites the author has collected is astonishing, and each entry is carefully and clearly annotated and arranged alphabetically. A useful and innovative feature is the “How cybrarians can use this resource” section of each entry, giving ideas and examples of libraries using this particular resource in practice. Each entry contains a good short introduction along with the site's main features, its usage applications in libraries and a useful Endnotes section.

I started this review off in a bilious Luddite mood (perhaps the title grated on my English sensibilities!), but I came to see how useful and timely this work could be to a harassed LIS practitioner. So a handy and well‐produced reference work which should prove of value in the future.