[Sigia-l] Web-based manuals

[Arjun Sabharwal]

Hello,

I have only joined up recently, and the topics you have been discussing are 
very important to what Library students are learning in school.  I am 
surprised that there is little awareness of ASIS&T among many librarians 
even though there is a heavy emphasis on librarians reinventing themselves 
in the face of emerging technologies.  So much for the prologue, thanks :-).

Back to Manuals:

I have seen manuals that are rich in hyperlinks, connecting you to various 
other websites and other pages within the document.  The question arises 
whether there is a need to issue future editions of such manuals each time 
a URL disappears from cyberspace.  If so, how often should a new edition be 
released on the internet?  Would it be practical to keep some of the 
previous editions online at the same time.

In agreement with some of you who have suggested that such manuals should 
be meant for users who need quick reference information while working on 
projects using the internet, it is also important to recognize the extent 
to which these manuals rely on the internet.  The typology would then 
include a type of manual that is heavily reliant on the Web; one that is a 
print manual with some reliance on the Web; and one that merely lists URL's.

The second group is interesting because many textbooks have adopted the 
format.  I have been teaching Humanities, and one of the textbooks feature 
barcodes that can be read by a scanner for instant access to the site with 
the story, image or sound file one needs to hear, view or read.  This, of 
course, requires nonstop access to the Web during lectures and is only 
meaningful if all the students have their own scanners and are seated 
behind a computer.  The advantage I see in this design is the reduced cost, 
as the copyright costs will not be as high as compared to those textbooks 
(or manuals) that publish an entire image, or story, or musical 
composition.  For those who want to print the document, there is often an 
option to print a "printer-friendly" manual in PDF/text/html/rtf format.

Best,

--Arjun