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National Library News |
by David Murrell-Wright,
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
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The development and international expansion of the World Wide Web has provided the Web user with an immense amount of information. In fact, the mountain of available information is so vast that information specifically about Canada is often lost or so well hidden that the searcher must spend an inordinate amount of time sorting and sifting to find the desired information.
To assist the Web user in his quest for information on Canada, the National Library of Canada has developed a Web service, Canadian Information by Subject (CIBS). This service brings order to all of this information by selecting, organizing, and providing links to information resources about Canada or Canadian topics found on Internet sites from anywhere in the world. The service facilitates access to Canadian information and promotes Canadian content on the information highway.
Canadian Information by Subject provides the user with a comprehensive subject arrangement of all the linked Internet sites in a manner that can be browsed in subject order in the form of an inverted "subject tree" or in alphabetical order. The "subject tree" provides an organized hierarchy for browsing based on the structure of the Dewey decimal classification system. The hierarchy and headers are easy to use, even for those unfamiliar with Dewey. Like Dewey, the tree is made up of 10 main branches numbered 0 to 9, each representing a broad discipline or field of study:
0 General Subjects, General Works
1 Philosophy, Psychology
2 Religion
3 Social Sciences
4 Language and Languages
5 Science, Mathematics
6 Applied Sciences, Technology
7 Arts, Recreation
8 Literature
9 Geography, History
Each of these main branches is divided into smaller and more specific branches represented by longer numbers. For example:
7 Arts, Recreation
79 Recreation, Performing Arts
791.45 Television
In addition to the "subject tree", the searcher can choose to search topics in an index listing currently accessible subjects in alphabetical order, e.g., the list under "E" includes: Earth Sciences, Economic Assistance, Economic Development, Economics, Education, Education and State, Education-Research, Elections, Emblems, Emigration and Immigration, Engineering, English Language, Environmental Protection, and Ethics. Whenever possible, index terms have been taken from standard subject heading lists: LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) and CSH (Canadian Subject Headings) for English terminology, and RVM (Répertoire de vedettes-matière) for French. For ease of use, all pages contain navigational links within the page, as well as links at the top and bottom of the screen.
Canadian Information by Subject also includes the capability to carry out a title search to help the user find sites more quickly. By inputting a keyword, the system will provide a list of sites that have the key word in their title.
The National Library of Canada makes every effort to ensure the links are accurate and current. All links to remote sites are checked on a regular basis. Some of these sites may be temporarily overloaded or unavailable for short periods of time. Sites may also move or disappear completely.
The initial version of Canadian Information by Subject was launched with the National Library’s Web service in 1995. Since that time, it has grown to include more than 3200 sites, with new ones being added each week. The popularity of the service also continues to grow: CIBS was accessed about 435 000 times last year alone.
Canadian Information by Subject is available in both official languages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can find it on the National Library’s home page, under Sources of Canadian Information. Its URL is <www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/ecaninfo.htm> for the English version and <www.nlc-bnc.ca/caninfo/fcaninfo.htm> for the French version.
We welcome your comments on features that would be useful, and your suggestions for links to other sites providing information about Canada. If you find a link that has been relocated or has disappeared, please let us know.
Please send comments to canada@nlc-bnc.ca