We knew we would have to devote time and telephone bills to continuous maintenance if we were to make the page as comprehensive and reliable as we wanted it to be. But keeping up with developments has not proved all that difficult. Sometimes that included the public library service. The Library Association Record was a good source for web page announcements and particularly for suppliers with web pages. We think of the maintenance process as gardening - weeding the old, planting the new, watching sites bloom, wither or get transplanted.
Every link is checked on average once a month.
We prefer to do it by hand because we like to see how sites are developing. Now the page is fairly well known around the world, site owners usually tell us if they would like a link from our page or if their URL has changed. We do most of our systematic gardening at the weekend when the telephone is cheaper and we take full advantage of British Telecom's discount schemes. While we're on the subject of BT, here's a tip for anyone like us with a single telephone line for voice calls and dial-up Internet access. Try BT's Call Minder service.