ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Internet Reviews

Current Contents of Computing and LIS Jour- nals. Access:Accessible via the Bulletin Board for Librar- ies (BUBL), maintained jointly by the University of Strathclyde and the Univer- sity of Glasgow on behalf of the JANET User Group for Libraries (JUGL). The re- source is gopher-based, ac- cessible as follows: gopher: //ukoln.bath.ac.uk:7070/ll/ BUBL_Main_Menu/E; go- pher ukoln.bath.ac.uk 7070; #4 BUBL Information Service; #2 Library & In- formation Science on and via BUBL; #5 05-E- Current Contents of Computing and LIS Jour- nals. Telnet://bubl.bath.ac.uk (138.38.32.45). Login: bubl. Choose option 2, then choose option 4.

This resource is partially mirrored at the University of Michigan, accessible as follows: gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/ll/toc.

The Current Contents of Computing and LIS Journals provides tables of contents for a wide range of library and information science publications and includes a small number of computing publications as well. Abstracts are sometimes available. The project is designed to be a cooperative venture of library and information science employees around the world, with contents transcribed and submitted by volunteers.

The coverage is international, with the bulk of the publications being either British or American. Most major library and information science publications are represented. Coverage is especially good in areas relating to academic libraries and technology in libraries. Because a broad range of publications is included, this resource would be of interest to librarians of all types, as well as students, faculty, and researchers in library and information science.

The familiar gopher interface makes this resource particularly easy to use. The tables of contents are plain ascii files, usable by a variety of systems. In addition, the tables of contents are searchable with the gopher search facility, allowing the user to search the entire text of the tables of contents, including abstracts when available, with keywords and boolean operators.

Currency is sometimes a problem, as not all entries are for the most current is- sue. According to the pro- ducers, the time lag is due to several factors, including an inadequate number of volunteers and delay in re- ceipt of publications. To im- prove timeliness the produc- ers are working with editors of selected titles to provide pre-publication contents.

The future of this re- source depends greatly upon increasing the number of volunteers to provide tables of contents. With more volun- teers, abstracts would be more likely to be in- cluded, contents could be added for missing and back issues. The producers mentioned Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technol- ogy as a possible solution to reduce the need for transcription by volunteers, but implemen- tation will depend upon funding—Janet A. Crum, Dalton College

THE SCIENTIST. Access: gopher://gopher. internic.net:70/ll/pub/the-scientist; gopher gopher.internic.net; #4 InterNIC directory and Database Services (AT&T); #4 InterNIC Database Services (Public Databases); #6 The Sci- entist-Newsletter.

This gopher is also accessible via telnet:// gopher.intemic.net, login: gopher. Anonymous ftp access is available, file://gopher.internic.net/ pub/the-scientist.

Originally available only in paper form, THE SCIENTISTis published biweekly and is directed at an international field of professionals in the life sciences. Though it is heavily weighted with articles about biotechnology, it attempts to include coverage of all the sciences.

It does not report current research but claims to deliver “information on the workplace itself—the issues and events conditioning the professional environment in which researchers conduct their professional lives.”

Each issue contains these sections: News, Opinion, Research, Tools & Technology, and Profession. The News section’s mission is to present insights about the latest news to administrators, managers, and researchers. The edition I reviewed (April 4, 1994) contained articles on health care legislation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the February meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This last piece contained the splendid quote, “The things we know we do not know are much more obvious than the things we think we know but do not.”

The Opinion section contained a commentary by the president of a biotechnology firm warning scientists that they are taking the government’s health plan “too casually.”

A complete list of the top ten articles of 1993 was reported in the Research section along with the bibliographic citation, rank, and the number of articles that cited them. This ranking was based on the findings by the Institute for Scientific Information’s citation analysis of research journals for that year.

The Tools & Technology section is devoted to announcing and reviewing new laboratory equipment and computer software. Two articles on DOE (Design-Of-Experiment) software were in the issue I reviewed. The section probably comes closest to giving the active scientist useful information related to his or her research.

A report of an undergraduate women’s science study program was the feature article in the Profession section. This section also contained short profiles of two Alzheimer’s researchers and an obituary.

THE SCIENTISTis truly a bargain to those on the Internet. Paper subscriptions cost $58 per year. You don’t get the cartoons or crossword puzzle but all of the substance is there. While this is a resource that is obviously designed for the life sciences researcher who wants to be “in the know,” it is also of value to science undergraduates who sometimes labor under the impression that their chosen field is all facts and figures. For them, I believe, reading THE SCIENTIST will bring a more human and honest picture of their future workplace. —Jim Rible, Southern Oregon State College

EDUCOM Gopher. Access:gopher://gopher.educom.edu.

EDUCOM, an organization which assists higher education institutions in implementing and managing technology, maintains a gopher server of resources related to its mission.

This gopher will be of primary interest to college- and university-level librarians, faculty, and administrators, whether or not their institution maintains a membership in EDUCOM. All of EDUCOM’s major publications, including the EDUCOM Review Magazine, EDUPAGE, and The Update, are available electronically through this gopher. Information on EDUCOM’s special programs, such as the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, is included. In addition, conferences and other events are announced here. Elementary and secondary teachers and education majors could also benefit from some of the information.

Maintained by staff at EDUCOM who update it at least biweekly, the gopher is a source of up-to-date information. On the Internet for slightly over one year, EDUCOM Gopher plans no major changes, but future development plans include moving toward integrating the resources currently located in the gopher into the World Wide Web (WWW).

EDUCOM Gopherprovides links to the CAUSE and CREN gopher services. CAUSE and CREN are other organizations which are also interested in information technology in higher education.

This gopher is well-organized and user- friendly. While there is no directory or map of the gopher, the menu choices are well- worded and point the user in the proper direction. The ease of retrieving the full text of articles in EDUCOM publications is a good feature, since the information is posted to the gopher as soon as the publication is issued. One informative publication for busy professionals is EDUPAGE, a weekly digest of technology issues as they relate to education. The events calendar includes complete contact information. Through this gopher, much information on educational technology can be quickly and easily obtained.—Ann M. Tenglund, St. Bonaventure University