ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Internet Reviews

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu

NameBase: A Cumulative Index of Books and Clippings. Access:http:// www.namebase.org/ or http://www. pir.org/ nbhome.html.

NameBase is an index of people influential in politics, the military, intelligence, crime, business, and the media since WWII. It started in the late 1960s when New Left activist Daniel Brandt began clipping magazine and newspaper articles and collecting investigative books about the power structure. He combed each book and article for the names of individuals, groups, corporations, and countries— developing a name authority file along the way. In the early 1980s, he incorporated Public Information Research to continue the work.

NameBase includes close to 100,000 names from approximately 260,000 citations. The names are drawn from more than 700 books and serials, plus a handful of documents recovered using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

While the index does draw from the mainstream and right wing press, most books and articles come from a leftist perspective. Based on the democratic concept that the people have a right to know, the publications are generally investigative reports designed to uncover secrets or conspiracies in high places.

The simplest search available is the name search. Enter an individual or organizational proper name and NameBase displays a list of publications and the page numbers on which the name appears. Unfortunately, there is no synopsis describing who the people are or why they were mentioned. There is only a brief annotation describing the contents and politics of the publication. Instead, the user will need to track down the original source, either at a library or by ordering the material for a fee from Public Information Research.

Fortunately, NameBase does more than list names, it also uses data mining techniques to list other names that appear on the same pages. This proximity feature, available under each name as well as a separate search, is the most valuable aspect of the database. If names appear on the same page of an investigative report, then logic dictates that the people named have some kind of relationship. The database creates a social network diagram by using cluster analysis to help the user visualize the data. Joseph Lieberman, for example, is most closely associated with Sybase chairman Mitchell Kertzman, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

NameBase offers two other ways to search the index. The country search lists names associated with a non-U.S. country during a specified timeframe. The document scan allows the user to submit a URI. NameBase extracts names from the Web page (English language only) and looks them up in the index. As part of a brief tutorial (http://www.pir.org/ tourl.html), NameBase gives an example of looking up the Web page that lists the Board of Trustees at a university to find out their affiliations.

For those who like to browse, it is useful to Start on the Public Information Research Web page (http://www.pir.org). Browsing collections include FOIA documents, essays, and the source list for the index. Five hundred and fifty of the essays and source materials are also broken down into 20 broad subject categories, such as big business (lobbying, corporations, intelligence) and repression (federal, police). A search engine is hidden within the essays and source list browsing collections.

NaraeBase offers limited access to nonregistered users during peak hours and periods of high load on the Server. During these times, users might retrieve only partial lists of names. Registering by paying $49 for two years, provides unrestricted access and entitles the user to order photocopies or faxes of cited pages. Libraries may purchase library accounts for $199 for two years, which identify users by IP address and eliminate the essays and editorial cartoons.

NameBase is most useful to journalists and students tracking down investigative reports and looking for connections between names. It is also useful to students looking for an alternative perspective on topics like the Kennedy assassination, the overthrow of Allende, the Iran Contra affair, or the CIA’s role in the crack cocaine crisis. NameBase also provides unique access to the intelligence community, boasting “the largest collection of CIA names . . . publicly available anywhere in the world.” NameBase is a fascinating one-of-a-kind index that belongs in every librarian’s repertoire of name resources.

(The telnet Versiono/NameBase was previously reviewed. Larry Schankman, “Internet Reviews, ”C&RL News 57, no. 4, (April 1996): 243)—Mark Emmons, University of New Mexico, emmons@unm.edu

PollingReport.com. Access:http://www. pollingreport.com.

Students, faculty, and Professionals seeking a myriad of polling data in the fields of political Science, journalism, business, and health or social sciences will find relevant research in PollingReport. com. Its print counterpart, the Polling Report, has been published twice monthly since 1985. The Polling Report makes available much of its print Information at the free Web site, PollingReport.com. The banner on the Web site advertises PollingReport.com as “An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion.”

In a well organized, easy-to-use format, the Web site offers polling results on a wide variety of topics from the top pollsters in the United States. This site provides polling data on national, political, economic, and sociocultural topics, such as abortion, the death penalty, gun control, and tobacco industry lawsuits. A sampling of the polling organizations include Gallup, Harris, Yankelovitch, and the Princeton Research Associates, as well as USA Today, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, and CNN/Time.

The site is organized in broad categories, including politics and policy, business/ economy, and the American scene. Each area is broken down into smaller units that guide the user to a more specific topic. For example under politics and policy, the user will find president, Congress, issues, and elections. Two additional navigational tools include a table of contents page and a “search this site” function. Both are easy and efficient. The main body of the homepage has four sections to peruse: In the News, State of the Union, Campaign 2000, and Other Recent Additions. The producers of the site state that “Poll results are added to the site as they are released by the organizations,” and, in fact, the dates are current and updated frequently.

Useful additions to the Web site include a job bank that lists advertisements for jobs, academic posts, and internships in survey research. The National Barometer section is a “gallery of political and economic trends.” Selected articles on public opinion and survey research are posted from the Polling Report.

The site also offers Information on subscribing. Subscribers receive a print subscription to the Polling Report plus they gain access to the password-protected subscribers pages of PollingReport.com. The subscribers pages offer more detailed poll results, including state-by-state presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial polls. The user may also request a free copy of one print issue of the Polling Report. All in all, PollingReport. com is a site that should not be overlooked due to its value to many academics for a variety of research projects.—Mary C. MacDonald, University of Rhode Island, marymac@uri.edu ■