From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-This expanded edition of Christos J. P. Moschovitis-™s
History of the Internet (ABC-CLIO, 1999) contains revised and updated biographical profiles, essays on issues and controversies involving today-™s Internet, and a chronology, in separate volumes. The biographical entries cover cyber pioneers and technical innovators, hackers, science-fiction writers, and online businesspeople. Each one focuses on the person-™s role in the development of the Internet, with brief personal accounts, which may not be sufficient for students writing extensive reports. Volume two,
Issues, is the most useful of the three. The essays include the background, a brief history, trends, and controversies and responses to the topics being examined, which range from Activism and the Internet and Cookies to Open Source and Privacy. Technical terms are well defined, and many entries offer tables, statistics, and/or supporting documents. The final volume details the chronology of the Internet with lengthy entries by year, beginning in 1843 with Ada Lovelace-™s account of Charles Babbage-™s design for a programmable computing machine and ending in 2004 with the Internet-™s role in the U.S. presidential campaign. Sidebars discuss the historical, biographical, and cultural and ethical aspects of events, providing additional context. The black-and-white illustrations are sparse and generally uninformative. This well-organized and clearly written work is an excellent resource to begin research on the topic, but buyers beware: due to the nature of the topic, the set will need frequent updating.
-Jane Cronkhite, Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This work presents a volume containing biographies, another with a chronology, and a third with discussions of important issues surrounding the Internet. It is uncommon to have a historical look at events that are so recent, especially in a second edition (the chronology volume is the second edition of
History of the Internet,published in 1999).
Most of the 44 biographees are still living and continuing to make their mark in the field. The choices for entries include some industry standards, such as Sergin Brin and Larry Page of Google and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Other choices include Anita Burg, the founder of Systers, a women's forum for issues in computing, and the hacker known as Cap'n Crunch. Entries include quotations, photos, and bibliographies, which list books, journals, and, of course, Web sites. The Chronology volume covers the Internet from its prehistory (1843-1956) through the end of 2004. Entries focus on a single event; for example, 1995: Amazon.com and eBay are founded. Each chapter has a bibliography, and appendixes provide statistics and a list of online Internet-related resources. The Issues volume has 35 entries on topics such as Activism and the Internet, Games and the Internet,^P and Privacy. Each entry includes a substantial bibliography divided by resource type. Sidebars provide information on ancillary topics, such as how e-mail works. Each volume concludes with the same list of acronyms and glossary, but indexing is volume specific.
With the maturation of the Internet in the last several years, and the encyclopedia's expanded format, libraries that own History of the Internet should still consider purchasing this title. The attractive layout makes it inviting. The reading level is appropriate for the high-school level and up. Recommended for high-school, public, and academic libraries of all sizes. Jack O'Gorman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
