ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Internet Reviews

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

Vote Smart Web (Project Vote Smart). Access: http://www. vote-smart.org

Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan, nonprofit voter education organization, maintains the Vote Smart Web to help journalists, scholars, and citizens obtain objective information on elections, federal and state governments, political and social issues, and related information. This resource combines links to existing Web sites with the project’s original information on candidates and current office holders. This mix provides individuals with data to better understand government and make more informed decisions come election time.

Information gathered for this site appears in eight sections, including a National Political Awareness Test (NPAT). This test is a questionnaire sent to presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates to determine their positions on eighteen important issues. This information is then accessible via the links in the “Your Government” section along with various Web and Internet sources providing data on the executive, congressional, and judiciary branches of federal and state governments.

Data for representatives and senators appear by state, with individual entries containing name, district (for representative), party, committee memberships, addresses, biographical information, sources of campaign funding, response to the NPAT, performance evaluations by special interest groups, and a voting record abstract. The levels of information for state governments vary, but can include governor’s speeches and press releases, a directory of state legislatures, bills, election laws, state constitutions, government agencies, state facts and statistics, and other information.

Of timely value for the upcoming presidential election is the “1996 Presidential Campaign” link to information on Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian Parties’ candidates. Included are official and unofficial WWW homepages, a calendar of primary caucus dates, and Vote Smart candidate information. Also useful is the “Issue Information” section (under construction at time of this review) for resources on different sides of important political and social issues.

The site ends with “Organizations Related to Politics,” a directory of WWW resources from across the political spectrum; “Education and Reference Resources”; “Miscellaneous Political Resources,” covering political humor and audio and video clips; and other WWW political information accessible via various Web indices such as Yahoo, WWW Virtual Library, and other resources.

Overall homepage design is quite simple and uncluttered with a single graphic on the main page. Though indices like Yahoo provide access to much of the Web’s political information, it is the combination of access to existing data with original candidate and research information that makes the Vote Smart Web unique among print and electronic information. All librarians, scholars, students, and the general public will benefit from this valuable resource.—Stephen L. Hupp, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; shupp@vms.cis.pitt.edu

The National Museum of American Art. Access: http://www.nmaa.si.edu.

The initial effort by the National Museum of American Art (NMAA) includes images and explanatory text relating to more than 500 artworks. Additionally, the site offers two online exhibitions—“The White House Collection of American Crafts” and “Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype”— as well as information about museum departments, ranging from the library to the education, publications, and other departments. The library section of the site offers telnet access to the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) catalog. Information on fellowships and internships is also available. But the crown jewel of the NMAA Web site is the “Galleries” section, which includes captions with essential information about each work of art. It is searchable by artist, title, date, medium, and by a range of “themes,” which includes such categories as Landscape Paintings, Contemporary Landscape Photography, Works by African American Artists, Works by Women Artists, Works by Hispanic Artists, Folk Art, and Pueblo Indian Watercolors. A search will pull up results that include a thumbnail reproduction of the work, which can then be “clicked on” to pull up a larger version of the image. For example, a search on artist “Cornell” brings up a brief list of four works by Joseph Cornell. Following any of these to the entry for the work will bring up information on the artist, the title of the work, its date, provenance, its medium, and size. The image in this display, in turn, will lead to an even larger reproduction of the work. A search on “Lawrence” brings up a work by Jacob Lawrence called “The Library,” and a photograph of the artist. The entry for “The Library” includes an explanatory essay, in addition to the basic registration information.

This site is a model for museum sites. It offers a variety of ways to explore the collections, from preset guided tours to searchable indexes. Scholars and browsers alike will find much of value here, with a promise of more to come on an ongoing basis.—David Dodd, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; ddodd@serf.uccs.edu

Tribal Voice/PowWow. Access: http:// www.tribal.com.

This site seems to do everything that the Web stands for: empowering the individual and small group, providing a voice and a forum for what they want said, and making optimum use of this burgeoning information/communications medium. Tribal Voice is, in the words of “Red Dog,” a Tribal Voice employee, the result of “... some of us Indians deciding to put some stuff up on the Web.” In reality it is much more than that. Indeed, Tribal Voice serves well as a Native American resources clearinghouse, with links to 19 Native American homepages on languages, arts, crafts, culture, spiritualism, annual powwow schedules, health services, scholarships, government agencies, and educational sites. If anything is lacking, it is a link to the National Indian Policy Center gopher site (reviewed in the September 1994 C&RL News*) whose archives, bibliographies, census data, job listings, and other information are apropos to a resource such as Tribal Voice.

Tribal Voice is funded by the Native American Trust as “an uncensored, blunt and direct outlet for the Native American heart.” Interwoven among its Internet/WWW utilities are strong and heartfelt Native American teachings, as it employs and involves Native Americans at its Woodland Park, Colorado, home.

Arguably the gem of Tribal Voice is PowWow, which can be downloaded from Tribal Voice and allows up to seven people to chat, transfer files, play .WAV sounds, and cruise WWW sites as a group. As a teaching and demonstration tool it has no equal, as it is freeware for all nonprofit or educational purposes. Tribal Voice supports PowWow with a help page and access to additional help via e-mail.

Perhaps the most evocative feature of PowWow is the “White Pages,” a Tribal Voice Web site. Here one may enter his or her own profile, or search for PowWow users by name, location, or interests. These White Pages also let you see the current and recent PowWow logins. Since the inception of Tribal Voice in May 1995, there have been about 60,000 downloads of PowWow and 3,000 entries into the White Pages. There are now people PowWowing all over the U.S. and from Italy to Iceland, Canada to Kuwait, Peru, Hong Kong, Europe, and Australia. In short, PowWow fosters what the Internet and Web are all about: global information exchange and communication.—Kurt W. Wagner; the William Paterson College of New Jersey; wagner_k@ivpc.wilpaterson.edu

*Ed. note:The URL for the National Indian Policy Center has changed to: gopher://gwis. circ.gwu.edu. :70/11/ Centers%2C%20Institutes %2C%20and%20Research%20at%20GWU/ Centers%20and%20Institutes/National%20 Indian%20Policy%20Center.