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The Last Word: An Interview with Nick Tomaiuolo

In the spring semester 2003, Nicholas Tomaiuolo, one of the Burritt Library's very own, was granted a sabbatical leave to author a comprehensive survey of no-cost Internet resources. His research culminated in the publication of the book The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources (ISBN 0-910965-67-6) in February 2004.   

Q. In the digital age, the scourge of info glut is a matter of grave concern particularly for educators, librarians and researchers. Could you tell me a little bit about how the idea for this book came about?

A. My first librarian position required that I search hundreds of proprietary databases for information that facilitated the work of researchers, inventors, and health professions. I was amazed at the amount of money that database producers and vendors could charge, and that researchers were willing to pay those charges. Things began to change, however, and databases began to offer free searching (but withheld the article content) along with free alert services. At that point I began to try to observe how many resources were migrating from fee to free, and what motivation was behind that phenomenon. But, because everything continually changes we see that what was once free turns back to fee and vice versa. But I never considered an information glut as an issue. I’m simply trying to ascertain what is free on the web, what’s the impetus for putting it there, and if the free information is usable.
 

Q. I was doing a little background research for this interview on Amazon.com. Five stars… very impressive. It seems as though you’ve appealed to a particularly wide audience; everyone from college-bound students to businessmen. Were you surprised by this breadth of audience?

A. Actually, several of the reviews on Amazon are interesting; but I am not surprised that it has a broad appeal. That’s the direction in which the publisher steered me, so that’s the direction I took. Information Today, the publisher, produces many titles for searchers, webmasters, and librarians. This is a more overt effort to reach a wider audience – public end-users. There’s even a review on Barnes & Noble.com from a retiree in Florida. That’s a part of the market that I’ll bet the publisher was happy to broach.
 

Q. For the past decade, there has been much talk in and around the library profession about the marginalization of librarianship in the digital age. Perhaps this is a consequence of the close association of the profession with the physical structure of the library, but the success of your book indicates an ever-pressing need for the library profession to assert and apply its expertise in the identification, selection and collocation of digital resources. I think the general public is slowly gaining awareness of the role of librarians in bringing order to the chaos of the web, but do you think we as a profession have succumbed to our meek and mild stereotype? In other words, have we not been proactive enough in the digital arena?

A. There are many forward thinking librarians, and there are many who simply reinforce the stereotype. But I’m sure that the former will outnumber the latter in the not so distant future. I read a rather insightful remark on the WEB4LIB discussion list awhile back. A retired librarian stated that if all we can do, when asked a reference question, is turn around and start searching Google, we aren’t demonstrating much expertise to the public.

My initial reaction was to agree, but as I think about it, it’s not that the public can access the same information that librarians access, but it’s the way that librarians access and interact with the information that makes the distinction. A knowledge of information structure as well as a sophisticated orientation toward information gathering and evaluation is what distinguishes most librarians from end-users. I don’t think that there is necessarily a need to be proactive, because the truth is ineluctable.

Q. We are all aware (sometimes painfully so) of the ephemeral nature of the open internet. Most of us have certainly had the unfortunate experience of finding the “perfect” information source on Google only to discover it disappeared. This obviously posed some problems for you in the writing of this book. Could you tell us about the process of selecting and organizing the resources for inclusion? Is there a 2nd edition planned?

A. Yes, how in the world could anyone dare to write up a list of websites and endure the trials of getting it published while realizing that many of the sites would probably evaporate? As an aside, let’s acknowledge that many writers have done it.

I did, of course, want to find sites that are durable. I found that using information provided by the Alexa Toolbar (http://www.alexa.com) was a possible solution. Alexa provides information that tells, theoretically, when a site went online, how many sites link into it, and several other variables that may be used to extrapolate site longevity. I also monitored rankings provided by Google and Alexa. Sites that are quackery or short-term don’t tend to garner a great deal of popularity. Nonetheless, there are a few clunkers in the book including an excellent musical instrument museum and encyclopedia that was hosted at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center. As I began to construct the book’s companion webpage, I couldn’t get back to the site, and phone calls and e-mails to the ostensible power-that-be at Lehigh were never returned. So it’s listed in the book, but it’s not on the ‘net. But for most types of sites, a musical instrument museum in this case, I found a few approximations. So the end-user usually has a couple of sites to pick from, though I will admit, the best one, at least in this case, has disappeared.

Incidentally, a user can still browse many of the pages at the Zoellner Encyclopedia I just mentioned by going to the Alexa Toolbar’s “Wayback Machine,” which is an archive of pages on the web. So even though the site no longer exists, it can still be used to an extent. I talk about this in the book also; hopefully some readers will be able to connect the dots.

A second edition? Yes, I’m already working on it. It’s called Son of the Web Library.
 

Q. Are there any people or things that were particularly influential in the writing of this book?

A. There are many brilliant pioneers who contribute to the credible content of the web and who, for whatever reason, make a significant portion of that content free to use. The book contains quite a few interviews with some of these people including webmasters from Time.com and the Atlantic Monthly, librarians from the Smithsonian Institution and the Internet Public Library, an online curator from MoMA, noted reference librarian and professor Bill Katz, and the granddaddy of free Internet texts – Michael Hart from Project Gutenberg. Speaking with them (and in some cases e-mailing) got an old guy like me motivated.