Information gateways provide targeted discovery services for their users, giving access to Web resources selected according to quality and subject coverage criteria. Information gateways recognise that they must collaborate on a wide range of issues relating to content to ensure continued...

This article gives an overview of the design and organisation of DutchESS, a Dutch information gateway created as a national collaborative effort of the National Library and a number of academic libraries. The combined centralised and distributed model of DutchESS is discussed, as well as its...

Describes the development of the Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library (EEVL) ( http://eevl.ac.uk ) and outlines the services offered. The potential market for EEVL is discussed, and a case study of promotional activities is presented.

Project SSG‐FI at the Lower Saxony State and University Library, Göttingen (Germany) provides special subject gateways to international high quality Internet resources for scientific users. Internet sites are selected by subject specialists and described using an extension of qualified Dublin...

Charts the history and development of the UK’s Resource Discovery Network, which brings together under a common business, technical and service framework a range of subject gateways and other services for the academic and research community. Considers its future relationship to other services,...

This paper reports on an investigation comparing searcher experiences with Web and non‐Web interfaces to online databases. The study was designed to address the following questions: what is the nature of searcher preferences for Web versus non‐Web interfaces to online databases and, more...

The interrelation between Web publishing and information retrieval technologies is explored. The different elements of the Web have implications for indexing and searching Web pages. There are two main platforms used for searching the Web – directories and search engines – which later became...

Although the Internet is already a valuable information resource in medicine, there are important challenges to be faced before physicians and general users will have extensive access to this information. As a result of a research effort to compile a health‐related Internet directory, new...

This paper discusses the introduction of cookies into Web technology and their role as a user‐tracking device. While cookies contribute to the user‐friendliness of Web sites, their placement on client‐side computers is a cause for concern. The authors look at both sides of the technology,...

This article provides an overview of recent developments relating to the application of thesauri in information organisation and retrieval on the World Wide Web. It describes some recent thesaurus projects undertaken to facilitate resource description and discovery and access to wide‐ranging...