ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Internet Reviews

Sara Amato, editor

Sara Amato is automated systems librarian at Central Washington University; samato@tahoma.cwu.edu

The Catholic Encyclopedia. Access:http:// www.knight.org/advent/ cathen/.

The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church,edited by Charles G. Herbermann et al.‚ was published in 15 volumes plus index between 1907 and 1912. This monumental work contains 11,568 articles, from Aachen to Zwirner, written by leading Catholic scholars of the day. It is aimed at high-school aged students and up. Though showing its age in some respects, the Catholic Encyclopedia is still a worthy starting point for research on matters related to Catholicism. It is most useful for theology and religious studies, but is also surprisingly strong in philosophy and very helpful for medieval history.

The online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia is a volunteer project, coordinated by Kevin Knight. As of September 1997, volunteers had typed or scanned in 3,159 (27 percent) of the articles. These contributions are then converted into a handsome, Lynx-friendly HTML format and linked from the alphabetical table of contents. The online Catholic Encyclopedia also contains numerous papal and conciliar documents that were not included in the original. Where possible, encyclopedia articles are linked to other referenced articles, to relevant church documents, or to the Summa Theologica (which is also hosted at this site).— Elizabeth T. Knuth, College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University; eknuth@tiny.computing. csbsju.edu

U.S. EPA Index of Watershed Indicators.

Access:http://www.epa.gov/surf/iwi.

As American society moves toward understanding environmental issues in a more holistic manner, and with scientists, regulatory agencies, and corporate interests attempting to gain a more comprehensive ecosystem or “big picture” view of pollution issues, the U.S. EPA’s Index of Watershed Indicators can provide a wealth of invaluable data to a variety of audiences. The index consists of 15 individual databases combined into one metaindex that contains water quality assessments for over 2,000 watersheds in the contiguous 48 states.

The Web site is logically constructed and information is easy to locate. Users can quickly retrieve pertinent watershed data via a large number of entry points and do searches by using clickable state maps that lead to maps, text, and statistical data for nearly all watersheds within each state. Searches can also be made by two letter state codes, zip codes, stream names, county or city names, name of Indian tribe, or by numerous other criteria. Links to and from the USGS Geographic Information System Database Query Form allow users to search by additional unique features such as elevation above sea level or by USGS 7.5 minute map name.

Individual pages returned to the user include a map of the watershed; a geography section, which includes population, land characteristics— such as total square miles of watershed area, and landscape indicators such as percentages of total watershed area classed by urban, forest, agricultural, and other designations; and a section called Environmental Uses and Discharges.

This last section contains a veritable treasure of information. First, a table lists, in millions of gallons per day, how much water is allocated to domestic, commercial, industrial, mining, livestock, irrigation, wastewater, and reservoir uses. There are links to water discharge permit information granted to individual municipal and business facilities within the watershed. Also available are lists of hazardous waste sites, toxic release sites, and Superfund sites within the watershed. When available, there are even lists of specific chemical pollutants permitted for discharge by these facilities (with CAS Registry Numbers included) along with links to chemical fact sheets and material safety data sheets for each chemical.

There are links to pages providing historical and recent data from wetlands losses to environmental Web sites, to state and regional environmental organizations to relevant state and Federal agencies and to the full text of government and private sector technical reports. The EPA Index of Watershed Indicators is highly recommended to a wide range of students and faculty, including those in the sciences, in geography and land use planning, in environmental policy, and in education.—John Creech, Central Washington University; jcreech@www.lib.cwu.edu

Encyclopaedia of the Orient

Access:http://i-cias.com/e.o/index.htm

Audience:General; college students, particularly those beginning study of North African culture, history, or language.

Author:Tore Kjeilen, Centre d’ĭnformation Arabe Scandinave. Kjeilen is a Norwegian citizen who, following postgraduate studies in North Africa, lived and traveled in the region, worked on the foreign news desk at TV2 Norway, and now manages CIAS and its Web site full-time. The site is active and sample entries, checked for accuracy against print sources, contained valid information.

Idiosyncrasies:The site uses frames but works well within them. The interface is appealing and intuitive, and graphical help is available. Clicking certain pages launches another browser session. Applets serve a surprisingly useful function, providing commercials for the site itself, demonstrating help instructions, or supporting the content of the articles. A few broken links exist, and some entries are under construction. An audio feature on some of the articles launches a player that pronounces the defined term in Arabic.

General review:Most users are likely to misinterpret the name of this resource, which deals with North Africa and its culture. This resource is particularly useful for its definitions of religious terms, which are likely to be unfamiliar to the college student learning about North African culture or religions. Besides the solid coverage of Muslim and Zoroastrian terms, there are entries dealing with Babism and even with the Mandean religion. A sizable number of entries cover geographic features, and many are enlivened with pictures and other technology.

The applet under the entiy for Andalucia, for example, which demonstrates the Moorish conquest of Spain, is not to be missed. Many of the remaining entries deal with recent history, current events, and famous figures.

Perhaps because of its non-American origin or the author’s interest in the region, issues are presented in a light more sympathetic to Arab interests than the average American expects. The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is useful on its own but is intended by the author to be used in conjunction with another resource available on the site: Miftah Shamali, a graphically presented geographical overview or “virtual tour” of North Africa.—Clare B. Dunkle, Trinity University; cdunkle@trinity.edu. ■