BKIMLN4W.RVW   960310
 
"Internet Mailing Lists Navigator", Neou, 1995, 0-13-193988-2, U$39.95/C$53.99
%A   Vivian Neou
%C   One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ   07458
%D   1995
%G   0-13-193988-2
%I   Prentice Hall
%O   U$39.95/C$53.99 416-293-3621, fax: +1-201-236-7131 beth_hespe@prenhall.com
%P   466
%T   "Internet Mailing Lists Navigator: for Windows Users"
 
For the most part, this is a further edition of "Internet: Mailing Lists" (cf.
BKINTMLS.RVW).  There is a section of introductory material, and then an
annotated "list of lists".
 
The introduction is uneven.  The first chapter spends a lot of time on
unrelated Internet applications, and at one point appears to confuse Usenet
newsgroups with mailing lists.  (A different section does provide some
distinction.)  The exhortation to send administrative messages to the
administrative address, rather than the list itself, is very important, but the
identification of those addresses is not completely clear.  The coverage of
administrative commands for the variety of mailing list programs is far better
than anything I've seen in any general Internet guide, but the order of
presentation is quite odd.
 
Trying to maintain a "list of lists" is a good way to drive yourself mad, but
the overall quality seems to be good.  (On the other hand, the very first
listing I checked had a very narrow subject description, an out-of-date
moderator, a long out of date address for the moderator, and subscription and
posting addresses for the list that never *were* valid.)
 
The index has improved very slightly since "Internet: Mailing Lists", but still
needs a lot of work.  In many cases not even the subject descriptions are
listed, let alone keywords for the activities of the list.
 
Since there are at least three freely available list resources on the net, and
they are bound to be more up to date, why do you need to pay for a published
book in regard to mailing lists?  In spite of the shortcomings of the
introduction, listings and index, the importance of mailing lists themselves
boosts the need for this work.  Among individual users, probably only the most
active would need such a reference.  Among trainers, reference desks and
support personnel, however, it would likely be used constantly.
 
(The "for Windows Users" part of the title refers to a CD-ROM included with the
book.  The majority of the files on the disk I received were corrupted or
otherwise inaccessible, and so the entire disk was useless.)
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKIMLN4W.RVW   960310

======================
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