Spanish Reference on the Web

Every time I stand in front of the reference desk I dread the familiar request: "Where can I find information about subject X on the Internet and in Spanish?" I am a librarian in a small academic library in Puerto Rico, where I work mostly with graduate students in the areas of education, business administration, and counseling. The information era, with all its technological complexities and uncertainties, unquestionably has made my job much more demanding. However, I have come to realize that there is a particular situation that complicates my work on a daily basis. Students have many misconceptions about the value of the Internet as a research tool, and therefore they have high expectations of the information resources available. Many view the Internet in a very simplistic way. The Internet seems like a sort of gigantic multimedia and multilingual encyclopedia, in which every aspect of human knowledge is equally represented. Everything is freely accessible and there are no obstacles to finding the information that they need. Probably all reference librarians anywhere could say the same about their patrons. However, what really complicates matters for a librarian dealing with a Spanish-speaking public is that many of this public have not realized that the Internet is mainly an English-speaking medium of mass communication. The Language of the Net According to a June 1997 survey from Babel Team (www.isoc.org:8080/ index.en.html), a joint initiative from Alis Technologies and the Internet Society, English is the dominant language of the World Wide Web, representing 84 percent of all content. German was the second most popular language with 4.5 percent, followed by Japanese (3.1 percent), French (1.8 percent), and Spanish (1.2 percent).(1) The Altavista Magallanes (www. magallanes.net) recent study of its own database did not indicate any major changes in this situation; Spanish represented about 1.52 percent while English represented 70.5 percent.(2) The reasons for the low percentage of Web pages in Spanish are many and complex, including the technological backwardness of Spain and Latin America and their late entry into the Internet community. In the case of Latin America, major obstacles also include a poor telecommunication infrastructure, the high cost of Internet access, and a lack of local content.(3) Everett contended, "One of the most significant barriers to Internet communication throughout Latin America, as well as other regions, is the American origins and English-language bias of much of the information technology."(4) In 1997 the Cervantes Institute's Joaquin Soler asserted that the major producers of Spanish-language Web pages were academic and private R&D networks. He described the Spanish Internet users as importers of content rather than producers.(5) The demand for resources in Spanish is growing. According to a recent survey by Global Reach (www.euromktg.com/globstats/), a company specializing in international online marketing, the fastest growing linguistic groups on the Internet are Japanese-speaking (17.4 percent), followed closely by Spanish-speaking (17.1 percent) and German-speaking (16.8 percent).(6) Companies on the Internet have realized the potential of this market. America Online and Prodigy have launched services for the Spanish-speaking population in Latin America and the United States. Spanish versions of popular Web sites have flourished, including a CNN Spanish version (cnnenespanol.com), and the Cato Institute Spanish Web site (www. elcato.org). Recently the Wall Street Journal launched its Spanish online edition (interactivo.wsj.com) and Bloomberg announced a new personal finance site for U.S. Hispanics (www.bloomberg.com/ negocios). Popular search engines have "regionalized," trying to attract the traffic from international users. Now, we can look for Web pages in Spanish through Altavista Magallanes (www. altavista.magallanes.net/), Yahoo! …