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

Peterson’s Education Center. Access:http:// www.petersons.com.

In offering excerpts from its respected series of education directories, Peterson’s Guides has created a useful Web site. Designed for prospective students and potential buyers of its print and CD-ROM guidebooks, Peterson’s Education Center covers private secondary schools, twoand four-year colleges, graduate and professional schools, and summer, study abroad, and language programs. In the job section, the listing of summer camp jobs is currently expanding to include a much wider range of employers. As an added bonus, there is advice to prospective students and their parents and results of annual surveys of colleges and prep schools are presented.

While Peterson’s offers a sophisticated search engine that allows for truncation, boolean logic (and, or, not), proximity operators (near, phrase, sentence, paragraph), and features designed to take advantage of its relevance ranking engine (accrue, many), it is limited in its usefulness because it is searching narratives taken from Peterson’s various print publications rather than data elements like those found in a formal database. Users might be better served using the alphabetical and geographical listings, or in the case of the college section, searching one of the Web sites listed below and coming back to Peterson’s to read the descriptions.

Several Web sites offer search engines that complement Peterson’s Education Center. College View (http://www.collegeview.com/) offers the most comprehensive college database, allowing searches by field of study, location, student body size, coed vs single sex, ethnic mix, religious affiliation, athletic programs, special programs, service to the disabled, and type of college. The CollegeNET (http:// www.collegenet.com/) engine search criteria include region, size of student body, tuition, majors, sports, and type of college. U.S. News & World Reports Colleges and Careers Center (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/ home.htm) search engine criteria include school name, region, campus setting, school size, selectivity, majors offered, and cost for the colleges they rank.

The information about individual institutions varies at each site and might include anything from a simple address and contact name to an in-depth description. All of these sites offer the opportunity to ask for more information or to apply for admittance. Students would be well advised to search more than one site.

Peterson’s Education Center is one of the premier educational directories on the Web. In conjunction with the databases listed above and a visit to a college’s official Web site (Christina DeMello provides a good list of colleges and universities with Web sites at http://www.mit. edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html), there is little need to refer to print resources. For those who want still more information, Peterson’s makes it possible to order its print publications online in its “bookstore.” Peterson’s full database is also available electronically on a SilverPlatter CD-ROM or on Dialog and will soon be licensed as GradSearch on the GaleNet Web site.—Mark Emmons, Occidental College Library; mee@oxy.edu

Water Resources of the United States.

Access:http://h2o.usgs.gov/.

Provided and maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), this site provides a streamlined, impressive array of hydrologic data and information aimed primarily at the scientist, scholar, or librarian, but also accessible to the layperson interested in such topics as water quality and conditions. A team of six at the USGS Headquarters manages this site, with assistance from some 40 other Webmasters at distributed USGS regional and state locations.

A monthly “Featured Water Resources Pages” section usually leads off the homepage, though one might first see late-breaking news, perhaps including real-time data, relating to flooding or other current hydrologic events. A clickable U.S. imagemap for USGS personnel contact information follows. Subsequent subject categories include data, publications, national and international programs for water resources, and information. The data section provides real-time (“from the stream to your screen”) stream flow conditions by state, as well as data from the National Water Use Program, among other nuggets. The publications section is rich with information, including fact sheets by state or special topic and searchable resource abstracts. K-12 educators can order posters on various topics for use in the classroom. A variety of national research projects and initiatives is described under programs. The information section includes additional contact information, press releases, and, of particular usefulness to the average citizen, a link to the Water Information Center, where an “800” number and e-mail address are listed for queries.

Most striking about this site is that, unlike some others, it is both content-rich and well-designed. The homepage is of moderate length and almost deceptively simple in relation to the amount of valuable information it gateways to, and its use of a white background and simple graphics lends clarity. Secondary pages are also of reasonable length and, while some use patterned backgrounds, they are subtle and do not interfere with the readability of text and links. Links are presented in logical subject groupings with some guiding annotations. Links to non-USGS resources are selective and kept to a minimum.

During examinations of this site response did seem somewhat slow, but this may have been due to sluggish intervening network links rather than a slow server. This reviewer’s only suggestion for improvement would be to provide brief annotation for all links, rather than only selected ones. On the whole, this Web site deserves kudos for its navigability and solid content.—Judy Matthews, Michigan State University, matthews@pa.msu.edu

American Society of Indexers. Access:http://www.well.com/user/asi/.

The American Society of Indexers (ASI) has created a Web site that is interesting on a number of levels. It provides information about the organization, its purpose and objectives, and a means of contacting the national office and individual chapters. It contains a wealth of resources for indexers, many of which are of interest to librarians as well. Also, the site provides a fascinating glimpse into a field closely related to librarianship but relatively unknown to those outside the publishing industry.

ASI is a national organization that aims to promote excellence in indexing and increase awareness of the value of high-quality indexes. It serves indexers, librarians, publishers, database producers, and others concerned with indexing and information retrieval. Most indexers are freelancers working from home, and ASI provides its members with many ways of communication.

Portions of the site are devoted to announcements of continuing education and development opportunities related to indexing, publishing, and the “information industry.” One of the primary objectives of the site is to provide access to information that indexers can use in their work.

“Indexers’ Online Resources” includes a substantial collection of ready-reference links, such as specialized dictionaries and glossaries, organized by discipline. A section on business reference sources includes a number of links related to freelancing and running a small business.

The highlight of the site for nonindexers is the “Information about Indexing” section. Indexing, like cataloging, is invisible to most end users yet essential to effective retrieval of information. An excellent FAQ on indexing provides an overview of how it is done and by whom, outlines the advantages and drawbacks of freelance work, and addresses the role of computers in indexing. The relationship between cataloging and indexing is considered in a fascinating article by Glenda Browne. An extensive bibliography is included as well as a list of specialized indexing software. Anyone compiling even a single index would find a wealth of useful information here.

The ASI site is geared toward back-of-the-book indexing but addresses database indexing as well. The site is well organized and contains an index (how could we resist, the editors note). Plans for the future include a search engine for the “Indexer Locator” database and a clickable map of local ASI chapters.—Lori Robare, University of Oregon, lrobare@oregon.uoregon.edu ■