Growing Pains at REESWeb

Abstract REESWeb: Russian and East European Studies Internet Resources is an annotated, subject-specific link site, part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library, begun in late'1993. In its four years it has become a huge site and difficult to use. A reorganization last year using Frames and shortened pages helped, but its structure still causes problems for users. There are four basic reasons why the site is difficult to use in its present form: no search engine, split categories, idiosyncratic terminology and idiosyncratic subcatego-rization. The search engine problem will be solved soon, after the site moves to a new server. Another simple improvement will be to create a map of the site. These two changes by themselves are not enough, because the site needs increased browsability. The author explores various considerations involved in reorganizing REESWeb, taken from other Web sites, from subject cataloging and from indexing.