A-Z

Since the early days of the internet, libraries have created alphabetical lists, i.e. A-Z lists, of available content. In the mid-nineties most libraries were only just starting to subscribe to online materials, in most cases provided as an add-on to their subscriptions to print materials. Although some libraries were hesitant to add electronic content to their holdings, they wanted to make content visible to their end users. They achieved this through building static html pages, a task that required only basic programming knowledge. As the numbers of electronic resources proliferated, libraries realized that they required a more efficient mechanism to organize and deliver these online resources to their users, rather than having to continually update their static Html pages. In early iterations, databases were developed that allowed for the creation of dynamic webpages. With the launch of electronic resource management systems (ERM) it became possible for librarians to maintain all information on each subscription in one system.