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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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The Internet is truly an open book

Dennis Fredrickson Director, Spokane Public Library www.spokanelibrary.org

WORK

As a librarian I am constantly using the Internet in my work. Twenty-five years ago when I first started out as a librarian, using a computer to find information was both expensive and required learning special search commands and strategies. Now everybody searches using sites like Google or Yahoo.

Like many other librarians, I have a love-hate relationship with Google and its competitors. I hate it because people seem too likely to take whatever it retrieves as “good enough” in lieu of better, more authoritative sources. I love it because used correctly it is a powerful tool to find information quickly.

To help people sort through the masses of information out there and find more accurate information, many libraries have posted lists of recommended sites by subject on their Web sites. Spokane Public Library’s can be found at http://www.spokane library.org/research while the Spokane County Library District has a list at http://www.scld.org/ Web_picks.asp?id=49

DIVERSIONS

Outside of work, the site I have been visiting the longest on a regular basis is Arts and Letters Daily at www.aldaily.com. It’s a wonderful compilation of links to notable articles, book reviews and essay or opinion articles. Six days a week, the editors scour the Internet to find these links so it stays very current. I don’t have the time to visit the hundreds of sites they do and I can tell from the sites I do check regularly that the editors’ opinions match mine as far as what is worth reading.

Another site I have enjoyed for a long time is the online magazine Slate at www.slate.com. Originally founded by Microsoft but now owned by the Washington Post, Slate distinguishes itself by having excellent writers who express themselves in a manner suitable to the medium of the net as opposed to print journalism. Their style is more informal and personal and they interact nicely with their community of readers. I also like that you are not sure what you might find on a particular visit to Slate. There may be a new article on politics, a book discussion, someone blogging the Bible book by book, or an advice column.

For humor I check The Borowitz Report at www.borowitzreport.com each weekday. Andy Borowitz crafts a fake news story that puts the current headlines in perspective: “Condi Upgrades Iraq From Quagmire to Morass: Situation Disastrous But Not Catastrophic, Rice Says.”

I visit the Internet Movie Database — www.imdb.com — for both work and personal purposes. At work it is helpful in selecting films for the Library’s monthly film program and to answer reference questions for customers. At home, with its links to professional reviews and the site’s own reader reviews, it helps me decide what movie to rent or borrow from the library.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

Another site I use for both work and personal interests is the communally written Wikipedia, at www.wikipedia.org. I would not recommend it for school reports or other research where accuracy is important. It would be wiser to use an established volume such as the Encyclopedia Americana, which is accessible from home through the Spokane Public Library. However, Wikipedia does win out in certain instances over the traditional. When looking for in-depth articles on subcultures or popular topics, then Wikipedia is the place to go.

If I come across a book the library does not own and it is no longer in print, I use AbeBooks at www.abebooks.com or Alibris at www.alibris.com to compare the price and condition among the bookstores that have a copy for sale.