CONSTRUCTING A WEB RESOURCE DIRECTORY FOR MARINE INFO & DECONSTRUCTING THE WEB
FOR A DIRECTORY OF LOCAL MARINE INFO
Finding information on the Web is critically important at times and often
problematic.
Directories that one sees on the Web are usually helpful but timeliness and
comprehensiveness are commonly seen problems.
I maintain several well-used directories of oceanographic resources on the Web
and through experience and browsing I understand the value and deficiences in
Web resource directories.
=====================================
Here are my directories to give some context to my remarks.
The first is an overall guide to oceanographic resources on the Internet and it
is subdivided into several widely-used and lesser-used directories. I see these
pointed to from all over the Web and the traffic received is high outside my
UCSD domain:
* Oceanography on the Net
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/
800 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: Oceanographic & Earth Science Institutions
Directory (listed as index in Yahoo's "oceanography - institutes")
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/inst/
500 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: Oceanographic & Earth Science Data Services Directory
(in Yahoo's "oceanography - indices")
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/dataserv/index.html
560 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: San Diego's Ocean (in Yahoo's "oceanography")
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/ocean/index.html
1000 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: Electronic Periodicals & Texts
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/guide/publns.html
150 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: Scientific Community
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/guide/society.html
100 accesses in one week in May
* Oceanography on the Net: Internet Guides
http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/guide/guides.html
100 accesses in one week in May
Purpose of "selective for SIO's information needs" statement:
need to be able to screen out sites I determine to be insufficient or marginal
need to be able to avoid effort in time-consuming areas without payback to users
e.g. state agencies for states outside my own, community college marine
programs, marine-oriented companies
one year after starting these directories, the need to be selective became apparent
Find broken and redirected links with MOMspider
Find new links on other directories with Monitor
Rome wasn't built in a day; I work on these directories infrequently and in
batch-mode long sessions when time is available and I'm bored with business as
usual.
As a resource directory webmaster, I really get a hand when someone flags me for
errors and suggests additions.
Purpose of "Internet Guides" Web page:
I cannot list or find all nor do I have the desire or time.
Users have to realize that there is no one-stop service for finding Web
resources and they have to browse around.
Many of my directories have links to other of my directories in order to
facilitate browsing.
For example, my institutional directory links to my data services and my
Internet Guides directory; my dataserver directory links to my institutional
directory and my Internet Guides directory.
Users have to use Web indexes in conjunction with directories.
=======================================
In addition to an expected link to SIO Library's home page from SIO's site, my
directories are well-integrated into SIO's Web site.
Being deeply involved with Web resource directories and maintaining an extensive
guide to resources has integrated me (and the library) more closely with my
surrounding institution.
The SIO webmasters know me and I know them. The staff in the Scripps Director's
Office know me better particularly the public relations and editorial staff.
The staff maintaining the primary home pages for Scripps Institution of
Oceanography are very interested in integration with the Scripps Library's Web
efforts. Scripps links to the Library's various Web pages and the Library links
to them.
In some cases, they picked it up and in others, I suggested the integration:
* SIO's "Gateways" page links to my directories on institutions, scientific
community, and Internet Guides
* In addition to the obvious link to SIO Library's home page, SIO's "Library,
Collections & Local Data Servers" page links to my data servers directory as
well as a page detailing my libraries' data CD-ROM collection
I am on a short email list of people that respond to emails received through
Scripps Institution's Web page. Approx half are library oriented questions and
I usually email out citations with abstracts or type in a factoid from a
reference book.
I take Scripps-produced copy for a research activity printed publication and
WAIS index and make it available on the Web.
The Scripps Development Office is very appreciative of historically oriented Web
work I did for the Scripps Archives which is part of the Library. They love the
historical photo gallery and other historical efforts. Archival collections in
Scripps Archives have seen increased usage by historians as a result of the
presence of their archival guides and other archival directories on the Web.
=======================================
Given time constraints and the impossibility of doing a broad, comprehensive
directory, what are contributions needed by others for Web resource directories?
** Tightly-Focused subject-oriented directories
** State or regional directories of subject-oriented resources
Perhaps your effort can be justified by linking an effort to your institution's
location or research interests. Some excellent models include the El Nino site,
several sites covering animal groups thoroughly like salmon, squid, etc.
Choose what you do carefully and selectively since you are stepping up to a time
commitment and building an expectation of service. Don't assume anything is
authoritative (including my directories). No one has part of their job
dedicated to maintaining such Web directories so don't expect anything near
perfection.
=======================================
TWO TYPES OF FORM SUBMISSION ON WEB
differ slightly in the way that they are processed
POST method:
* passes data using environment variables
* commonly used
* byproduct is that it hides the URL that
takes you to the data requested
GET method:
* passes data on the command line
* shows you the URL to get to the data requested
CHANGE FORM FROM
METHOD="POST" to METHOD="GET"
=======================================
FOR KNOWN INPUT ITEMS IN A FORM,
** Change INPUT's TYPE= from "TEXT" to "HIDDEN"
** Remove INPUT's SIZE= and MAXLENGTH=
** Remove onscreen text associated with that INPUT
** Replace SELECT with INPUT when OPTION is given a
prespecified VALUE (input is thus hidden)
** Remove the OPTIONs and code
** Fill in INPUT's VALUE= with the text/numbers
=======================================
BEFORE:
Year:
State:
Place Name:
AFTER:
=======================================
Today's Tide - Charleston, Oregon
http://www.tides.com/cgi-bin/tcweb.exe?
Day=Today&TideCurrent=t&Region=Oregon+%28NOAA%29&
Location=Charleston+Oregon&Doit=1&a_submit=+SEARCH+
Tomorrow's Tide - Charleston, Oregon
http://www.tides.com/cgi-bin/tcweb.exe?
Day=Tomorrow&TideCurrent=t&Region=Oregon+%28NOAA%29&
Location=Charleston+Oregon&Doit=1&a_submit=+SEARCH+
Today's Tide - Brookings, Chetco Cove, Oregon
http://www.tides.com/cgi-bin/tcweb.exe?
Day=Today&TideCurrent=t&Region=Oregon+%28NOAA%29&
Location=Brookings%2C+Chetco+Cove&Doit=1&a_submit=+SEARCH+
Today's Tidal Current - Coos Bay Entrance, Oregon
http://www.tides.com/cgi-bin/tcweb.exe?
Day=Today&TideCurrent=c&Region=Oregon+%28NOAA%29&
Location=Coos+Bay+entrance&Doit=1&a_submit=+SEARCH+
=======================================
HANDOUT
CONSTRUCTING A WEB RESOURCE DIRECTORY FOR MARINE INFO & DECONSTRUCTING THE WEB FOR A DIRECTORY OF LOCAL MARINE INFO : Peter Brueggeman, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library, pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu
I. ADAPTING A FORM FOR LOCAL INFO
1) Step down to the form to be appropriated for your local info page
2) Get HTML file (Netscape: View Document Source)
3) Make sure URLs are complete since some sites use relative URLs.
BEFORE: