STRAIT to the future

8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference

Internet portals, what they are and how to build a niche internet portal to enhance the delivery of information services

Sarah Warner
Collaborative Health Informatics Centre

Keywords: Internet Portal; Information Service; Health Informatics

Abstract

Internet portal is the term given to a website that provides an entry point to the internet with value-added services such as directories, searching, information news, and links to related web sites. As the internet has grown dramatically over the last few years people are increasingly requiring direction on searching the internet and internet portals answer this need by providing user-friendly sites for guiding people around the internet. For a site to become a successful portal on the internet, it must include the four essential characteristics of a portal, which are content, communication, community and commerce.

Whilst traditional portals are considered to be the major internet sites of organisations such as Microsoft, Oze-mail, Yahoo and Ninemsn, websites are now being developed to address the specific information needs of specialist groups of internet users and these are referred to as vertical or niche portals. One such industry group is the health industry, and more specifically within that sector the health informatics industry. Health informatics is defined as the collection, storage and retrieval of health information (either clinical or administrative) using technology, and is a new and dynamic industry sector which combines two industry sectors the health industry, and the information technology and telecommunications industries.

The Collaborative Health Informatics Centre (CHIC) Ltd was established in 1998 as an industry association to facilitate the collaboration between healthcare providers and the information technology and telecommunications (IT&T) suppliers. One of the primary functions of CHIC is to collate and disseminate information about the health informatics market on a national basis. Due to the high level of computer literacy in this sector it was obvious that an information service based around the internet portal model would be the most effective means of providing clients with access to the information that they require. This has led to an investigation of the use of internet portals to delivery information services especially vertical or niche portals, and the recent development of intranet portals especially in healthcare. The issues surrounding the development of internet and intranet portals in healthcare are considered.

Introduction

The opportunity to develop and establish an information service for a new organisation does not happen very often during the working life of a special librarian. This research into internet portals has resulted out of a need for the Collaborative Health Informatics Centre to develop a national information service for a highly computer literate group of clients in an industry that is very dynamic. The development of a web site does not happen overnight and as the internet is and will continue to be the major communication tool between CHIC and its clients it has been necessary to build the website alongside the development of CHIC's research and information service. The objective being to become the internet portal for health informatics in Australia and therefore service our clients' information needs.

This paper considers the development of internet portals during the last year and the characteristics required for a web site to achieve portal status. The growth of vertical portals are then considered and the opportunity for special libraries to expand their information services via a vertical or niche portal. Intranet portals are the next development phase for corporation or organisational intranets and they can be developed using the same portal characteristics to assist the organisations in knowledge management. Health portals exist primarily in the United States but there are opportunities for Australian health portals to be developed and maybe these need only be an extension of some of the comprehensive intranet sites that have recently been developed in the health sector in Australia.

Development of internet portals

Do you use the phone to communicate with friends or turn on the television for entertainment or news? What would life be like without electricity? The few powercuts that we all experience from time to time demonstrates how dependent we are on an "electricity lifestyle". This lifestyle is now changing and we are increasingly "adopting the web lifestyle" (Gates, B. (1999), Business at the speed of thought. Using a digital nervous system. Viking, 1999 p114). The internet and the world wide web is and will continue to have a major social impact on society during the next few decades. It will become a reflex action for people to turn to the web for their news and entertainment, to do their shopping or pay their bills, communicate with their doctor or friends, and to conduct business. For many people they are already living the "web lifestyle" and it is impacting on all areas of our lives especially the media, for example the Starr Report on President Clinton used the internet to disseminate the 445 page report around the world in seconds. Businesses are providing an increasing number of internet-based services such as stock quotes and banking facilities. You can buy anything from paintings to groceries on the internet. You can travel anywhere without leaving home and you can contact anyone from your lounge room or office. The web is building its own communities of people and facilitating those communities that already exist onto the web. The need to simply have a presence on the web is now progressing towards the need to develop a community on the web and has given birth to the internet portal.

The word portal is not new and conjures up visions of roman pillars and doorways, just as its true definition is "a door, gate or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as in a palace" (Macquarie Concise Dictionary). Add the term portal to the internet and you have a whole new concept, a "gateway or launching point to a wide variety of internet content or services" (Komorski, M. (1998) On-Line Marketing, Leveraging Portals for Profit Conference, Sydney, IBC Conferences.). An internet portal is a comprehensive value added website which acts as the "reference librarian of the internet, directing web surfers to desired destinations." (Meehan, P. (1998) Internet Portals! The Door or the Store?, KA-04-09103 Gartner Group Research). The whole essence of an internet portal is to attract people and build a community on your web site so that it becomes instinctively the first site that people start with and repeatedly return to for access to a wide variety of information. The whole emergence of the concept of an internet portal has been driven by the internet industry. This industry comprises of the service providers, major content providers and search engines. This is not a consumer term but it has interesting similarities to the concept of a library or information service acting as the gateway to information. The library catalogue directs users to a variety of sources of information, the library itself encourages groups and communities to collect and share information, and the library directs and informs users about publications, or products and services which they then purchase. The internet portal aims to be the virtual reference library.

Characteristics of an internet portal

As stated above the term internet portal has arisen from the internet industries need to expand beyond the role of merely providing a presence on the web. The internet is now progressing towards developing a "web lifestyle" for consumers by expanding the content of websites to attract traffic to the site and in turn increase the advertising revenue. It has been the commercial development of the internet from its origins as a research tool towards attracting a consumer market that has driven the development of the internet portals. The major internet portals today are often the starting point for people when they enter the internet, that is for example the access sites of Oze-mail, and Big Pond. Internet portals can also be the navigation or search engine sites such as Yahoo, Excite, Altavista, and Looksmart or the major media or entertainment sites such as Ninesmn. These sites are all aiming to attract the general consumer and it could be said that many of these sites have become portals by default, as they are often the homepage for the consumer. Consumers use these sites as a springboard to where they want to go to on the Net. However to keep the consumer at the site or to encourage them to return to the site, the site has to have some compelling elements to attract them. These core elements are content, communication, community and commerce. These are the four C's required for an effective internet portal.

Technology applications can generate interest and facilitate movement around a website but if the content isn't current, detailed and reliable then users will never visit the site in the first place and adopt the site for future visits. The number of different sites visited on a regular basis by internet users is small, an average of six. (McKellar, J. (1998) What makes a great portal- On-line marketing. Leveraging portals for profit conference papers. Sydney, IBC Conferences.) The drive to expand the content of a website has driven the major internet portals into partnering arrangements with information providers so that they can become the hubs for topics of interest to the consumer. Visit any of these internet portals and you will see that they all have categories such as finance, sport, travel, games, music, health and fitness. In many cases they have teamed up with other sites to obtain the content for example travel companies, financial institutions or music retailers. Yahoo, for example has in excess of 200 content partners.

The development of web content has greatly benefited the consumer by providing them with the information that they require, but these sites can also introduce or direct the consumer to new information or websites that they previously have never visited. It is this aspect of the internet that is of great interest to the advertising industry. It has the potential for them to direct consumers towards their products and services often without the consumer being aware that they have been led down this path. However if the consumer is to keep returning to a website then they need to know that they can easily find or be directed towards the information that they are seeking. A robust search engine therefore must support an internet portal. Obviously the sites of Yahoo, Excite and Altavista had a head start in this area but others such as Oze-mail have caught up by adding their own search engine and in this case a local Australian search engine called Anzwers to their site. These large portal sites have also assisted the customer by grouping the information available on the home page into directories that allows the consumer to browse in their area of interest e.g. travel or music. This also allows the portal to pitch its advertising more directly at the consumers interest. Developments in this content area are now allowing the consumer to personalise the portal to show only the directories of personal interest. Excite is among the first portal to offer users the ability to create a site that is personalised for their own individual interests. In the future, technology will record the information path that the consumer has followed and build a personal profile. The consumer then will have the option to build this profile and develop his or her own personalised portal. The portals are not being totally benevolent as this has the potential of also been able to direct advertising in a more targeted way to the consumer and thus increasing the advertising revenue. To summarise the content of a portal has to be compelling and detailed and must be supported both by directories to allow for browsing and by a good search engine to allow the user to obtain the information that they require.

There are many sites with good content on the internet but they do not necessarily qualify for portal status if they do not contain the elements of communication, community and commerce. Content is the basis of any portal and certainly the first building block but the other three elements are crucial to keep the consumer coming back. Communication tools provide the interactivity that makes the internet so different from any other medium. These tools include e-mail, message boards, forums, chat lines and newsgroups and they assist the user to find and interact with other users. e-mail is the universal activity for the vast majority of internet users and free e-mail systems like hotmail are making e-mail the most pervasive activity on the internet. A site that offers an e-mail services ensures that users of this service are committed to that site for collection of their e-mail therefore ensuring repeat visits. E-mail builds a relationship on this site with the consumer, so even if their e-mail is not generated directly from this portal a mechanism to register e-mail addresses on the site will capture valuable consumer information for the portal. Then a relationship can be maintained between the site and the consumer. Information can be targeted at the consumer via e-mail and the consumer can exchange information and chat with other portal users via their e-mail, chat lines, forums or discussion groups.

These communication tools therefore form the basis for building a community on the portal site. Communication is the essential tool to encourage users to interact and exchange information and ideas. It is then possible for the portal to group these users into community groups so that they can discuss particular topics and exchange information in specialist subject areas. These online communities will be the major driving forces on the internet in the future and sites, which build the most relevant and interesting communities, will be the sites that win the race for portalhood. A race for portal space it certainly is amongst the major internet portals that are chasing the largest share of the advertising dollar. These major internet portals target two groups, the subscriber or internet user, and the advertisers. Who is winning this portal war? The major portals are still positioning themselves and if share prices are anything to go on Yahoo must be out in front with American Online a close contender.

The final element required for an internet portal is commerce and this is the component that is only slowly emerging on the internet due primarily to concerns about security of payment over a public network. These issues are being resolved and a number of electronic commerce options are now becoming available. The major internet portals have had online shopping facilities available for some time and although not a large amount is being purchased directly on the internet consumers are certainly using these facilities to browse and compare prices so that when they do purchase they are making an informed decision. According to eStats (http://www.indianer.com/eCommerce) between 15-23% of internet users in the US actually purchased items via the internet but more than 73% of users stated that they shop around to get details about products and services. By 2000 it has been predicted that up to 90% of internet users will be making some purchases online and whilst this prediction maybe high, it is certain that commerce is developing fast on the internet. As the major portals are driven by the advertising dollars that they can attract then internet commerce will be an area that will grow fast in the next few years. The portals that make it quick and simple for us to find what we want to purchase and offer the most secure payment methods will win the race for portal space.

Vertical internet portals

Vertical portals (which can are also referred to as sub portals, subject portals, industry portals, niche portals, category portals or internet hubs of interest) are industry or subject specific sites that specialise in one area only such as telecommunications, finance, law, travel or health. To be effective they should contain all the main elements (i.e. content, communication, community and commerce) that form the basis of the major internet portals, but these elements are targeted at specific audiences or communities. A vertical portal can be a commercial operation that links or is referenced directly from a major portal web site such as many of the travel or finance vertical portals or they can be completely independent such as many of the industry or community associations. Consumers are lured to these vertical sites because they have powered search engines, provide comprehensive specialist information, reviews, services and pricing. They should also be able to process requests and purchases through secure transactions. The objective is still to provide the consumer with a central access point for all the information they require within an industry, subject or topic area. A virtual special library?

Whilst planning to establish a special library and information service for a new industry association (the Collaborative Health Informatics Centre (CHIC) Ltd) the vertical portal model became a crucial component of our business plan. This still may not be a model that all organisations can incorporate if their clients are not amongst the early adopters of the "web lifestyle" but CHIC has a client base of people with high technology skills, who are effective users of internet related technologies. An analysis of our client information needs also revealed that they required the information as and when they needed it with facilities to search and browse. Our surveys also revealed that communication with their peers and other related groups was an essential component of their information requirements.

An investigation of other industry associations on the internet has revealed a varied picture from organisations with a basic web presence to those who are adopting the "web lifestyle" and actively developing an industry specific portal. It has to be said that the more sophisticated vertical portals are in the technology related industries obviously reflecting the technology related and access skill of their client base. A good portal site that attempts to target more than one industry sector is (http://www.verticalnet.com/) This has many of the elements required for a portal but the depth of content for each industry sector varies considerably. In contrast the Information Technology Association of America (http://www.itaa.org/) for example provides detailed specific industry related content supported by a search engine allowing the user search or browse facilities through the site. The organisations divisions and sister groups provide the community so important to keep the users returning to the site and provide an interactive component for the exchange of information and ideas through participation through surveys and questions and answers or forums. The news service provides current industry related information around the latest industry issues and the membership registration, events and publications provide potential ecommerce activities for the organisation. They have even started developing related information content partners by providing members with insurance services.

There are numerous sites that could be selected as examples of vertical portals and they are not exclusive to the industry association sector. Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) the bookseller is the most famous and successful of the vertical portals. Also many of the sports sites are leading the way in the vertical portal market (see the Australian Football League http://www.afl.com.au or the Soccer website Soccernet http://www.soccernet.com).

The ecommerce facilities of these more commercial website is very sophisticated. The financial services sector has an excellent vertical portal in http://www.mymoney.com.au which primarily for the consumer sector, acts as a guide to banking, insurance, taxation and investment also provides facilities to purchase and sell stocks and links directly to specific financial services. Other vertical portals are just developing such as Greennet (http://www.greennet.com.au/) which is a horticultural industry website that links plant growers with the nursery retailers. The list is endless and everyone will have their own favourites and it is interesting as you use these sites to assess if they have all the elements to make them a vertical portal in that subject or industry area.

http://www.chic.org.au

The Collaborative Health Informatics Centre has been established through support from the IT&T industry and the Federal and State Governments to facilitate the better use of technology in healthcare. CHIC has identified that there is a need for a central clearing-house for health informatics information in Australia, and is currently developing a Health Information Technology Information Service (HITS).

The health informatics industry in Australia is a rapidly growing and dynamic industry sector. Health Informatics is defined as "The collection and management of health data and information by means of electronic technology". (The recommended definition by the Standing Committee on Family Community Affairs in "Health on Line: A report on Health Information Management and Telemedicine, October 1997 p.8.) Those involved with the healthcare industry are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of the appropriate use and implementation of technology. Despite the growth in this market sector there is currently very little collective information available in Australia. It is important for the effective planning and benchmarking of technology implementations in healthcare that this information is collected and easily available. It is also important to the suppliers and developers of technology for the health sector that they have access to accurate information for their product development and marketing activities.

CHIC's HITS information service will collect, store and disseminate information in the following areas:

Healthcare organisation IT&T expenditure, staffing and IT&T strategic plans
Healthcare organisation IT&T infrastructure (hardware, software in use)
Healthcare IT&T project information
Healthcare IT&T tender information
Information on IT&T companies in healthcare
Information on IT&T products/services for healthcare (including reference sites)

The CHIC web site is more than simply an information product, it forms the most important means by which the CHIC information products will be delivered, and as such is one of the major mediums through which CHIC will communicate with the industry. To become a portal for health informatics information in Australia the CHIC web site will provide the four basic characteristics required for a web site portal; content, communication, community, and commerce.

Content

The website content will provide easily accessible relevant and current information about health informatics in Australia including market statistics and case studies. It will include a comprehensive set of organised industry links (that are regularly checked and updated) so that anyone requiring health informatics information will always be directed to the appropriate source of information from the CHIC web site. The web site will use a state of the art search engine. The Health IT&T Products and Services Catalogue, will be a free searchable database, which will provide industry with the ability to input and update their own company information directly via the web, (information will be verified by CHIC prior to uploading the information into the catalogue). There will be direct links to company web sites for additional information and in the future access to demonstration sites for these products. This area of the web site could be supported by sponsorship from companies in exchange for including their company logo and direct click link to their website.

Communication Health Informatics e-mail lists and bulletin boards will facilitate industry discussions around current topics such as electronic patient records, billing systems, telehealth, smartcards etc. A Health Informatics News Service (HINS) will provide a current awareness service, which abstracts articles and news stories from either CHIC generated articles/case studies or the news from health informatics journals in a searchable keyword database. A news bulletin will be published to summarise the leading stories, articles etc which will be developed into a fee based news service. Full text copies of the articles or more information will be available for a fee from CHIC.

Community The website will have a comprehensive list of events (seminars, workshops, meetings etc) for industry gatherings and networking covering both Australian and international events. There will be facilities for groups of users (e.g. ANZ Health CIO Forum, telehealth sector) to communicate with each other via our web site through either a password-protected area or via listserv, bulletin board or chat lines. It is planned in future to incorporate internet based videoconferencing facilities so that workshops can be delivered via the internet. Visitors to the site will be encouraged to register their contact details and areas of interest when they click to view the news service (HINS). This will provide CHIC with information about the users so that information can be more specifically targeted to them.

Commerce

Access to CHIC's information service will be on a subscription basis although adhoc inquiries will be supported. In the future this website will support payment for requests for purchase of CHIC reports, request for copies of journal articles or research requests, and registration and payment for events. Subscribers will have password access to CHIC's database for information on health and IT&T organisations etc, and Healthcare IT projects and tender information.

CHIC's website is being developed in a series of stages and will become more comprehensive and sophisticated as CHIC's collection of information increases. CHIC is also negotiating with key health technology information providers to be able to provide access to their information resources for subscribers via the CHIC website. A website does not become a portal overnight nor does a library either physical or virtual become effective once it has established its catalogue. However the blueprint has been established and the CHIC website will be built in a phased approach using the portal concept building blocks as a guide.

Health portals

The health industry is made up of different interest groups or communities ranging from the patients and their families, to the clinicians or health providers, to the administrators and health industry suppliers. The portal concept is applicable to this sector and will be the next phase of website development for health organisations. Most organisations now have a web presence but if they are to fully participate in the web lifestyle, (which they must if they are to serve their community) then they have to expand these websites to incorporate some portal characteristics. Merely providing static information about the hospital or even detailed content on a topic or set of web links will not be sufficient in the future to attract the more sophisticated internet user.

Most major health portals have been developed by a group of interested parties through information partnerships and are directly linked from the directories of the major portal sites (e.g. Altavista or Yahoo or Oze-mail). Currently most of the major health portals have been developed in the United States. Some good health portals include Intelihealth (http://www.intelihealth.com) that was developed with the John Hopkins Hospital, and the Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayohealth.org) website. And the US Department of Health and Human Services site Healthfinder (http://www.healthfinder.gov). Other consumer related health portals such as Medexplorer (http://www.medexplorer.com), Health On the Net (http://www.hon.ch/) and Onhealth (http://www.onhealth.com) are all worth a visit to view their portal characteristics.

These health portals service a number of different community groups from patients to practitioners with all the specialties and interests that this vast group of people represent. Whilst predominantly concentrating on consumer information they do provide access to the major medical journal databases, drug information databases and many other related professional information services. These portals support free e-mail, and news services specifically targeting this sector. These sites represent a general reference library or encyclopaedia for health information in a virtual environment making health information accessible to all. The debate on the quality and authenticity of the content found on these websites is justified as the standards vary considerably but this issue shouldn't be restricting the development of health information online. The web has the potential of transforming the delivery of health information and for enhancing the patient doctor relationship. It can encourage communication between these groups and other medical support groups. It has the potential for extending the hospital library services out of the physical library building into the ward, operating theatre, doctor's surgery and patient's home.

Although there are a few sites that claim to be Australian health portals such as Medicine Australia (http://www.medicineau.net.au/), and AustraliaHealth (http://www.australiahealth.com.au/) neither of these I consider have sufficient content to achieve portal status at the moment. It is hoped that the Federal Health Departments HealthInsite Project (http://www.healthinsite.gov.au) may address this and expand its horizons beyond the provision of authoritative content, however important that maybe and encourage the formation of community groups incorporating useful communication tools. If this site achieves portal status in Australia then it has the potential to also drive electronic commerce applications within the health industry.

There will undoubtedly be a shakeout in the health portal market in the next decade just as there will be amongst the major portal sites. It will be interesting to see during the next decade, which websites become major health portals, and which ones become special interest sites or niche portals for the healthcare sector. Currently there are a number of health websites that provide specialist content for either the consumer or the health practitioner, or both. These sites could easily be described as virtual special libraries. A good example of a niche health portals is the Association of Cancer Online Resources site (http://www.acor.org) which not only provides quality up-to date information about cancer but also supports over 75 electronic support groups for patients, their families and their carers. This site promotes communication between patients, health professionals and research scientists. A more local example is the Australian Lung Foundation website LungNet (http://www.lungnet.org.au) supports both the patient and the professional with detailed information, but also promotes research activities through the sale of publications and other merchandise directly from the website. This provides the site with a commerce component, which in the future will become an important revenue generating activity for many health organisations.

Intranet portals

The vertical portal concept is also relevant to corporate or organisation intranets, but few have labeled or considered them as such. Some organisations have been using "internal home pages" and intranet browsers for a few years and these now have the potential to be easily developed into vertical portals or intranet portals. These portals require the same elements as their big brother counterparts in the commercial sector but can become the main knowledge management tool within an organisation. By providing a relevant site structure and efficient search mechanisms to their intranet site corporations will find that it will be more efficient for staff to use the intranet portal for access to information than to start their search on the external internet.

An intranet portal will contain the same functionality as an internet portal (i.e. search capabilities, organised directory based content, news, links to related websites) but it will also be inwardly focused and need to be simple and efficient, not necessarily requiring the gimmicky graphics of the commercial websites. It should support a good search tool so that the organisations internal content is indexed and accessible via the site. The links to sites will direct staff to related internal business units or departments or specific projects and programs that will be hyperlinked. The intranet portal will require a menu driven system to access the corporate applications traditionally available on an intranet system. There will be relevant organised links to related organisations, competitors, trade links which will provide staff with easy access to the information that they require on the external internet reducing their searching time and making their internet use more efficient. A news section will support the general news of the organisation for employees but also support customer information and may support external news feeds. The intranet portal will become a critical tool for knowledge management within an organisation. The sheer volume of information that is contained now on intranet web sites is beginning to overwhelm an organisation. An intranet portal will provide structure and organisation to this data "turning data into information and information into knowledge". (Phifer, G. (1998) Portals: Not Just for the Internet, Gartner Research Note, SPA-05-3943, 8/09/98)

Organisations that are striving to manage their knowledge have to define who they share information with, what information needs to be shared and how they will share this information in the future. The intranet is the obvious mechanism to deliver the information and to facilitate the knowledge management process. By also including portal elements such as community and communication to the intranet, organisations will be adding value to the information process and encouraging the sharing of knowledge. As intranet sites increase their level of sophistication various client or community groups will develop and can then be targeted with specific information. These groups may in some cases extend to external client groups on an extranet.
"An extranet is a private network that uses the Internet protocols and the public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company." (Definition of extranet from Whatis?com http://whatis.com/extranet.htm 11/05/99). Extranets are being used to extend some parts of intranet sites in health to the consumer or patient. For example a group of hospitals in Boston, USA (http://www.partners.org/bwh) have established a part public, part limited access extranet that offers information about doctors, medical procedures, treatments guidelines and participating hospitals. The public has access to medical information and research and the ability to request appointments online. Other information is for the members of the hospital group network. Another example is the US healthfund Kaiser Permanente's website (http://www.kp.org) which has three main objectives

1. to provide health information,
2. to facilitate communication
3. to provide information about Kaiser Permanente.

The site is only available to Kaiser Permanente members. Members can ask advice online from nurses or pharmacists or request an appointment, or use the discussion section which is supported with advice from professional staff and discusses anything form cancer to fitness to parenting.

So how will this effect the health library? Libraries are the central source and store of information within the organisation. The librarian interacts with all the organisations client groups and therefore has an understanding of the information flows within the organisation. Many of the large health organisations or State Departments of Health in Australia have built intranet sites. Whilst the library catalogue and a guide to library services is an important component of these intranets, the library must now have an active role in defining their organisations client groups and develop online services that will support the growth of these intranet based communities. The elements of a portal provide a formula on which to base the extension of the intranet site from a static provider of information content to an interactive mechanism to assist the sharing and management of the organisations' knowledge. Once this intranet environment has been successfully established then the next stage is to support the external communities with access to selected information via an extranet.

Conclusion

An internet portal is a gateway to the internet that provides the internet user with access to good quality information or content. A portal will assist the user to communicate in a web environment with other users, and enable the user to find and participate in related online communities. A portal may also assist the user by providing facilities to purchase products or services.

Libraries are traditionally viewed as the gateway or provider of information for an organisation. Libraries, especially in the health sector are promoting their information services via their internet or intranet sites. In the traditional library environment particularly in special libraries client information needs are analysed to ensure that their information requirements are supported. Librarians have been analysing information flows and client communities for years. Librarians have an understanding about the information that is required by each group and are skilled in organising that information.

As the participation of the clients of libraries increasingly moves towards the "web lifestyle" so will the demands that the library clients make on the websites or intranet sites that they use. As the web continues to expand, it will become increasingly difficult and time consuming to search, and users will become selective about which sites they choose to regularly visit. Internet portals will be the first contact point for most users and if an organisation wants to have an effective web presence then it has to be involved directly or indirectly with these portals. It is no longer good enough simply to have a web presence. If your organisation wants to maintain a competitive edge and for its website to receive a high usage then it has to have a point of difference with other websites to attract the internet user. This point of difference can be by providing the content and a gateway to the specialist information that a user requires. CHIC has a unique opportunity as a new industry association to provide it's largely internet based client community with this gateway and access to a virtual information service and it is our objective to achieve portal status for health informatics.

This portal concept can be extended to intranet sites. If intranet sites are to become the tool for knowledge management within an organisation then there has to be compelling reasons why staff will regularly use them. These compelling reasons will be the depth and organisation of the content, the ease of communication, the facilitation of community groups, and access to commerce, all the elements required for a good portal. These elements are not new to librarians, we just have to transport them out of the physical library and into the virtual library.

Bibliography

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Example internet portals
This list of internet portals does not attempt to be comprehensive but merely to provide details about the web sites referenced in the paper and examples of internet portals

Major internet portals
Altavista http://www.altavista.com/
Big Pond http://www.bigpond.com
Oze-mail http://www.oze-mail.com.au
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com
Looksmart http://www.looksmart.com.au
Netscape Netcenter http://www.netscape.com
Microsoft Network http://home.microsoft.com
Excite http://www.excite.com
Infoseek http://infoseek.go.com
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
Cnet http://www.cnet.com
Ninemsn http://www.ninemsn.com.au
CNN http://www.cnn.com

Vertical internet portals
Getaway travel http://www.getaway.com.au
Travel.com http://www.travel.com
Australian Football League http://www.afl.com.au
SoccerNet http://www.soccernet.com
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com
Mymoney http://www.mymoney.com.au
VerticalNet http://www.verticalnet.com
Information Technology Association of America http://www.itaa.org

Health portals
AustraliaHealth http://www.australiahealth.com.au
HealthInsite http://www.healthinsite.gov.au
Health On the Net Foundation http://www.hon.com
HealthFinder http://www.healthfinder.gov
Health World Online http://www.healthy.net
Intelihealth http://www.intelihealth.com
Kaiser Permanente http://www.kp.org
Mayo Clinic Health http://www.mayohealth.org
Medexplorer http://www.medexplorer.com
Medicine Australia http://www.medicineau.net.au/
OnHealth http://www.onhealth.com
The Virtual Hospital http://www.vh.org
Women and Brigham Hospital, Boston http://www.partners.org/bwh

Health niche/sub-portals
Association of Cancer Online Resources http://www.acor.org
Australian Lung Foundation http://www.lungnet.org.au
Collaborative Health Informatics Centre http://www.chic.org.au

Health intranet/extranet sites
Partners Health Care System Inc Brigham and Women's Hospital Web Site http://www.partners.org/bwh
Kaiser Permanente Online http://www.kp.org

Author

Sarah Warner - Manager, Information Services, Collaborative Health Informatics Centre
Telephone 07 3238 0558; Fax 07 3211 3711

Sarah Warner is Manager of the Health IT Information Service for the Collaborative Health Informatics Centre (CHIC) Pty Ltd. She is a qualified Librarian and Information Specialist with over 15 year's experience in providing business information services to professional and corporate organisations, which have included Chartered Accountants/Management Consultants Ernst and Young in the UK, and the Law Firm Phillips Fox in Brisbane. Prior to joining the Collaborative Health Informatics Centre, Sarah established and managed the Research and Information Service for the Information Industries Branch (IIB), the information technology and telecommunications industry development division of the Queensland State Government. At CHIC Sarah has primary responsibility for the establishment of the Health IT information service which involves the development of a health informatics database, project management of industry surveys, and dissemination of information via an interactive CHIC web site.