Librarians and Link Rot: A Comparative Analysis with Some Methodological Considerations

Abstract

The longevity of printed guides to resources on the web is a topic of some concern to all librarians. This paper attempts to determine whether guides created by specialist librarians perform better than randomly assembled lists of resources (assembled solely for the purpose of web studies), commercially created guides ('Best of the web'-type publications), and guides prepared by specialists in library science and other fields. The paper also attempts to determine whether the characteristics of included web resources have an impact on guides' longevity. Lastly, the paper addresses methodological issues of concern to this and similar studies.