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

HighWire Press: Internet Imprint of the Stanford University Libraries. Access:http:/ /www. highwire.org/. HighWire Press may be a solution to the time-honored problem faced by libraries and other information centers of high subscription rates of science, technical, and medical (STM) journals. HighWire’s mission is to

“providle] a more direct linkage between the writers and readers of scholarly materials … to affect the economics of provision of scholarly information … [and] to build new technological, economic and programmatic partnerships” with other interested parties. Add to this the hope to “ensure that the nascent marketplace … does not develop along the semimonopolistic lines of current STM publishing” and you’ve got good use of server space.

The meat of the project is full-text and/or abstract access to 15 STM journals through HighWire’s page. The titles of currently available journals appear with buttons for browsing the current issue, future content, and the archive, as well as a button for searching articles published in that journal in the last year or as far back as 1987, depending on the journal. At this point there is no searching across multiple journals simultaneously, but a search on one journal can be carried over to another by using the “Try this search in . . pull-down menu on the search results page.

The journal titles listed on Highwire’s page are links to the journals’ homepages, which are designed similarly and offer browsing and searching, subscription information and online forms, author instructions, and miscellaneous information. An important note is that some journals are currently offering free trials that will end between this fall and January of 1998. From then on, it’s subscribers only. The rates for print subscriptions are given (with one exception), and most include online access in the print rate while others have separate subscriptions for online access only. The Journal of Neuroscience Online, Science Online, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry offer table of contents, abstracts, and searching without paying for a subscription.

Librarians and other information professionals with medical or science programs to support will also be impressed with Highwire’s MEDLINE access (available with any of Highwire’s journal subscriptions), which includes PubMed citations. Other STM journals, including Blood and the Journal of Neurophysiology, are on the “Future Sites” list, so access to more journals (hopefully, with free trial periods) is in the future. The site has a notification sign-up for those desiring to be informed of additions to the active list.

Another interesting offering of the site is the “Tips for Better Browsing.” Here you can find the answers to such burning questions as “How do I eliminate screen clutter?” and “How can I make my browser go faster?” Seriously, though, these are all helpful tips that may make using the Net more enjoyable.

As for the operation of the HighWire site, it performs beautifully. This reviewer experienced no incidences of downtime or slow response to search queries. The design of the entire site is clean and presents itself clearly, allowing easy navigation. The search buttons next to each title link to identical search forms, and the beginning date of each journal’s archive is given prominently, reducing the uncertainty that can arise when dealing with multiple journals. It is hoped that sites such as this will show traditional publishers that online is where they should be, possibly with lower rates for even wider access.—Kirsten Tozer, Central Washington University; tozerz@tahoma.cwu.edu

PubMed.Access.-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/PubMed/.

PubMed is a free, Web-based search service that provides access to MEDLINE, a database of more than nine million citations to articles in more than 5,000 biomedical journals, in many instances dating back to 1965. Many records include abstracts. MEDLINE and PubMed are created and sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. MEDLINE has long been one of the major resources for searching the health and life sciences literature, and the PubMed interface provides a simple interface to harness this powerful tool. The site’s designers encourage searching in a basic free text style through a blank box for term entry. Authors’ last names, journal titles, and subject headings are among the fields included in the basic search. Because of this approach, searches using common terms can retrieve thousands of records. A simple search on cancer retrieved more than 880,000 records. However, mixed with the simple search term input is a certain amount of intelligent support. For instance, the cancer search was automatically expanded to include the official thesaurus term for cancer, neoplasms. Assistance in developing more sophisticated search strategies is available with site documentation indicating that truncation is supported, phrase searching can be imposed, and Boolean and field searching are also possible. A journal browser also assists in expanding cryptically abbreviated journal titles. Another important feature is that of search expansion; each citation offers a link to related articles.

Although providing MEDLINE access could be considered PubMed’s main function, access to additional information is incorporated into the system. A special prepublication process means that PubMed includes in-process citations that are not yet available in MEDLINE and additional citations to some journals that are normally only partially indexed by MEDLINE. PubMed also supports searching of several genetic databases, including Genbank’s DNA and protein sequences, a database of 3-D biomolecule structures, and a complete genomes database. Numerous hyperlinks between sequence records, MEDLINE records, and even some full-text electronic journals are incorporated into the system, resulting in a singular knowledge resource for genetic information.

While PubMed is a singular resource for health care professionals and biomedical researchers and a significant resource for the general public, it should be borne in mind that the information provided is mainly citations to technical literature and research data that are useful only to experts. None of the journals included in the system is written for the general reader, and consumer health information and literature other than journals are not covered. What the general reader can expect to find here is cutting-edge information about new breakthroughs in medical and basic research from the same sources that are available to doctors and researchers.—Karla L. Hahn, University of Maryland

The Wars for Viet Nam, 1945-1975.

Access:http://www.vassar.edu/vietnam/ index.html.

This site was developed as course material for Professor Robert K. Brigham’s senior seminar given at Vassar College on the wars in Vietnam. The main “overview” essay begins with the Geneva Peace Accords signed by France and Vietnam in 1954 and continues with the growing involvement of the United States and up to the fall of Saigon in 1975. The essay is objective and informatively written in a style accessible to high school or college students. The overview section contains hypertext links to full-text documents, presidential archives, and other related sites. Included are pertinent documents such as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Paris Accords, as well as several Vietnamese documents translated into English by Brigham. The hypertext links have been chosen carefully and used judiciously to provide a documentary history of this tumultuous period for Vietnam and the United States. Small graphics are included, but there are no audio or video clips. Additional sections include a list of the 20 full-text documents available and a comprehensive list of additional Vietnam-related links, including military maps, Vietnam veteran Web sites, and Vietnamese cultural Web sites. This site is part of Vassar College’s Cool School project that highlights “outstanding” educational Web sites for high school students and teachers. However, many of the sites, such as The Wars for Viet Nam, are also appropriate as supplemental material at the college level. The main Cool School can be accessed at: http:// vassar.coolschool.edu.—Robert L. Battenfeld, Long Island University ■