ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Internet Reviews

Sara Amato is systems librarian at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon; e-mail: samato@willamette.edu

U.S. House Gopher. Access: gopher://gopher. house. gov:70/lgopher gopher.house.gov.

The U.S. House of Rep- resentatives has constructed a gopher site that serves as a directory of its organiza- tional structure, a reporting service of House and Sen- ate actions, a visitor’s guide, and an educational resource for political and governmen- tal study.

The U.S. House Gopher, under Congressional Information, contains a wealth of information regarding the operations of the House. Included are an instructive report of how laws are made, the FY 1995 budget as proposed by the president, and e-mail addresses of participating members and committees.

Access to other gophers focusing on governmental and public policy information is offered through a pointer to Sunsite UNC. This completes the package nicely as this site has an excellent menu of presidential and judicial branch information including White House papers, photographs, Gore’s Reinventing Government project, Supreme Court decisions, and a directory of U.S. federal Judges.

By far the richest folder under Congressional Information is Legislative Resources. A pointer to the House WAIS server and its full text of House Bills leads to four university gopher sites with bill texts of the 103rd Congress. The alternative to the House Bills folder for access to the full text of bills is to go to the House WAIS server directly (if you have a WAIS client) via diamond.house.gov, port 210, to the source file USHOUSE_house_bill_text_103rd.src.

House committee schedules are maintained on an hourly basis and there are daily updates of the weekly House floor schedule. The House floor and committee actions are listed for the last three legislative days. The drawback is that committee actions taken during recess are excluded since it is updated only when Congress is in session. Senate committee actions are included as well, but the Senate floor actions folder is empty at this time. The House Committee Infor- mation pointer is incomplete as only five committees have established folders. The En- ergy and Commerce Com- mittee has a comprehensive offering of its history, mem- bership, jurisdiction, and re- cent actions.

The House Directories list committees and House members by state and list district, party, office, and phone. House Member Information offers more in-depth information, but few members are represented.

The U.S. House Gopher is rounded out with a pointer to standard Internet resources and with visitor information complete with maps and weather information.

The House Internet Working Group has done a superior job in building and maintaining this resource to serve both House staff and constituents. The structure of the House Gopher is friendly and concise. The initial “about” text files offer clear and thorough explanations about each main menu item. These are particularly helpful for those who wish to explore the resources more fully.—Inga H. Bamello, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York; barnello@maple.lemoyne.edu

E-MATH. Access: gopher: e-math.ams. org; WWW: http://e-math.ams.org/web/ index.html; telnet: e-math.ams.org (username and password are both e-math). System requirements: an Internet host connection, VT100 connectivity, tabs set at 8 column. Help: e-mail address provided (support@e-math.ams.org). Services provided: ability to search American Mathematical Society (AMS) membership list registry of employment and postdoctoral opportunities. Access to AMS’ document-delivery service. Access to AMS supported Tex software available by ftp. Access to the author list in Mathematical Reviews electronic journals full- text AMS’ publications catalog.

E-math is a gopher partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and maintained by the AMS. The initial screen is on a single page allowing for a quick scan of the whole system at one glance, always a plus for any gopher. The choice of heading terminology is clear and concise.

The menu items move from specific limited interest items to general broad interest items at the bottom of the list. Access also is provided to the gophers of the NSF, other scholarly societies, and other math-related gophers (mostly math departments at universities and colleges around the world). Professional, general, and specialized information is grouped separately.

Full-text AMS publications appearing in this gopher are all peer-reviewed. Retrieving documents was easy and reasonably fast. Even after several layers of menus the item titles remained clear and concise with no lapses into filenames and computer coded file titles. Access to several electronic journals is provided such as the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics. These are large files written in either TEX or POSTSCRIPT. Retrieval via Mosaic is recommended to maintain integrity of the symbols and graphic images used in these publications. Retrieval was slow, so be patient.

Sections are provided for announcements of upcoming math meetings and conferences, bulletin boards/discussion lists, general and professional information for mathematicians, and preprint publications (not peer-reviewed). A section is set aside for AMS publications which can be ordered by mail, e-mail, or fax.

The gopher seems to be well-maintained; files are revised and updated regularly. Experience with TEX or POST-SCRIPT file retrieval and translation is required in order to read most of the mathematical full-text material.

This gopher is an asset for upper-level students, teaching faculty, and researchers. With the section on MathMagic for kindergarten- grade 12, there is something here for everyone.-—Brian McNally, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick

Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Access: gopher: tvnews.vanderbilt.edu. Producer: Vanderbilt University. Contact: e-mail: tvnews@tvnews.vanderbilt.edu. Print version: Television News Index and Abstracts.

Journal Graphics. Access: telnet: database.carl.org CARL Database Services/In- formation Databases/Journal Graphics (path may differ because CARL has more than one user interface) (also available as TRANSCRIPT through CompuServe). Producer: Journal Graphics. Contact: phone: (800) 825-5746. Print version: Transcript/Video Index.

Students interested in locating specific television news stories or visuals, and media scholars studying news selection, content, agenda setting, or news bias will find the Vanderbilt Television News Archive and Journal Graphics databases fascinating.

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive began recording television news in 1968. The Archive indexes and abstracts every story shown on the ABC, CBS, and NBC national news. A typical abstract includes the name of the network, time and date the segment aired, key words and names, names of reporters and people interviewed, and one sentence per scene describing the content and action shown on the screen. The Archive lists commercials by product or program name. Currently, Internet surfers may search 1983-84 and 1991-present (abstracting runs about one week behind) by date and/or by keyword(s). The Archive plans to make more years available in the future. In addition to the “Evening News Abstracts,” the Archive also covers “Special Reports and Periodic News Broadcasts” like conventions and elections by expanding their scope to include news from CNN and programs like Nightline. They do the same for their “Specialized News Collections,” which currently cover the Persian Gulf War and the 1991 U.S.S.R. coup attempt. Vanderbilt lends copies of programs under the fair use provisions of copyright laws. They charge $60 per hour to copy and $180 per hour to compile tapes.

Journal Graphics began transcribing television and radio news programs for its clients in 1968. Their more than 80 programs range from national network news and news magazines to syndicated talk shows. They transcribe all news and information programs for ABC, CNN, PBS, CBS Radio, and NPR. A typical abstract includes reporters’ names, a headline, the name of the program and the network, a one- or two- sentence summary, topical key words, names of guests, and the time and date the segment aired. Journal Graphics does not list commercials. Abstracts are available on CARL from 1981-present (abstracting runs a day or two behind) and may be searched by name of the correspondent or any key word in the abstract except air time and date. Journal Graphics provides no online help and virtually no database description. It charges $20 for a fax, $15 for overnight mail, and $10 for U.S. mail delivery of transcripts.—Mark Emmons, Occidental College; mee@oxy.edu ■