College and Research Libraries 394 College & Research Libraries Libraries do need to monitor their own operations and watch their bottom line; being "nonprofit" does not mean that wasting money is acceptable. If Gates fa- vors the general reduction of a business's level of friction (friction understood as time-consuming, unnecessary layers of overhead), libraries would do well to re- duce their own. Gates does not address how librarians can attain excellence. In the early days at Microsoft, Gates instructed his person- nel director to "just keep hiring smart people as fast as you can." If it were that easy, every company would presumably hire "smart people" and attain Micro- soft's level of success. It is not that easy, of course, but libraries need to examine their present hiring practices. How do we educate and attract "smart librarians"? What is the MLS worth, and how much importance should employers invest in whether prospective librarians have one? Is library school really as absolute a world as some would have it-that is, does a job candidate's having the MLS ensure that he or she is best qualified? After all, library patrons do not worry about MLS degrees; they worry about receiving adequate service. In line with the hiring strategy at Mi- crosoft, the most crucial factor for library employment would be the candidate's rightness for the job. Today's "smart li- Index to advertisers Ablex Publishing 310 ACRL 329,383 ARL 338 Blackwell 330 Bowker 309 lSI cover 2 Library Technologies 313 OCLC 350 Readmore 391 Reed Reference cover 3 Todd Enterprises cover 4 H. W. Wilson 384 July 1996 brarians" evince three traits. First, they are critical thinkers. Second, they are, by definition, information junkies, yet their minds are supple enough to differenti- ate and prioritize the information. Third, they combine the natural curiosity of a wide-eyed dilettante with the rigor of a scientist. In simple terms, the best librar- ians of the future will be able to process more and more information via more for- mats more quickly. That outstanding li- brarians already bear these traits is obvi- ous. "Smart librarians" are educated and educable, and it is people with the po- tential to become this whom we should recruit and cultivate.-Michael P. Olson, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- setts. Morville, Peter, Louis Rosenfeld, and Joseph Janes. The Internet Searcher's Handbook: Locating Information, People & Software. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1996. 236p. $35, alk. paper. (ISBN 1- 55570-236-8). LC 95-47670. Internet-based resources, once consid- ered only marginally important, now are taken more seriously and are rapidly be- ing integrated into the information land- scape of many scholarly disciplines. Aca- demic libraries are further legitimizing network resources by selectively catalog- ing them. Although the library OPAC provides a familiar and controlled search- ing structure, it is unlikely that it will ever supplant the need to search the Internet directly. Because a variety of subject di- rectories and search tools are sprouting up all over the Internet, this is a much less absurd proposition today than it would have been until quite recently. Today' s challenge is to understand the nature of these directories and tools, and to learn how to integrate them effectively into reference and instructional services. In his preface, Richard Wiggins, au- thor of The Internet for Everyone, notes that "The Internet Searcher's Handbook will be uniquely useful because its authors are not just toolsmiths, but also scholars in the field of library science." The authors all have library backgrounds and are ac- tive participants in Internet-based projects. We have author Louis Rosenfeld to thank for initiating one of the very first gopher-based subject directories, The Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides, a project he still directs. Peter Morville is managing editor of the Clearinghouse and Joseph Janes is an as- sistant professor in the School of Infor- mation and Library Studies at the Uni- versity of Michigan, and director of the Internet Public Library. The Handbook provides a well-bal- anced approach between the conceptual and the practical in dealing with the in- tegration of Internet resources into our already vast web of print and electronic information resources. Joseph Janes's ini- tial chapter, "Fundamentals of Searching Digital Resources," compares the nature of the networked environment with the familiar digital resources librarians have been using and searching for decades. The lack of standards in the networked environment is one of the most obvious differences, but he also addresses other important issues, such as dynamism, quality, authority, and currency. Janes provides a useful classification scheme that organizes all the current Internet search services into three categories: vir- tual libraries (topical directories of se- lected resources), Internet directories (topical directories of all known re- sources), and search tools (search en- gines), which provide keyword search- ing capability. The three following chapters are "Us- ing the Internet for Reference" by Sara Ryan, reference center coordinator of the Internet Public Library, ''Using the Inter- net for Research" by Peter Morville, and "Online Communities As Tools for Re- search and Reference" by Louis Rosen- feld. The liberal use of screen shots throughout these chapters serves to break up the density of the text. Particularly useful is Morville' s step-by-step walk- Book Reviews 395 through of an exercise in which a librar- ian develops a guide to ecology resources in response to a faculty member's re- quest. This essay is very effective in il- lustrating the systematic use of a variety of tools to identify selected resources for a particular subject. The remaining three chapters focus on the three types of search services: virtual libraries, Internet directories, and search tools. Each chapter begins with an over- view including strengths, weaknesses, and searching tips. At the end of these chapters, specific sites are evaluated us- ing common criteria: scope, volume, searching tips, strengths, weaknesses, and updates. A description, evaluation, and a sample search are provided for each of the forty-four search sites exam- ined in these three chapters. The authors acknowledge the volatility of these sites and refer readers to the Internet Search- ing Center (URL: http:/ I www.lib.umich. edu/ chouse/ searching/ find.html) for the most current information. They encour- age readers to use the center, which they promise will be updated to include new services as they appear, as an Internet companion to the Handbook. The Internet Searcher's Handbook, writ- ten by librarians for librarians, is a most welcome and timely contribution for helping librarians meet the challenge of locating information on the Internet- Barbara A. Burg, Harvard University, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. Information Science: From the Devel- opment of the Discipline to Social Interaction. Eds. J ohan Olaisen, Erland Munch-Petersen, and Patrick Wilson. Oslo, Norway: Scandinavian Univ. Pr., 1995. 281p. $29.90 paper. (ISBN 82-00-03939-0). This volume presents key papers pre- sented at the Nordic Conference on In- formation Authority and User Knowl- edge at the University of Boras in Swe- den,April27-28, 1993. Designed as a trib- ute to Patrick Wilson, the conference