ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Internet Reviews

Joni Roberts and Carol Drost, editors

Imagine the Universe! Access:http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov.

As noted in the welcoming statement on its homepage, the Imagine the Universe! Web site from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics will serve the needs of both the general public and students 14 years old or older. Much of the astronomical information contained on this site may also be appropriate for community college and university student audiences, as well as for 6th- to 12th-grade teachers, college education majors, and higher education faculty. The site is logically organized, and the homepage’s layout and navigation scheme make Imagine easy to navigate. A search engine and lengthy site map add to the ease of use.

The site’s functionality centers around several information-packed main sections, many of which lead to valuable ancillary subsections. The “Science” section contains dozens of introductory articles on a variety of topics, from the electromagnetic spectrum to the solar corona. The “Advanced Science" subsection offers longer, more complex articles on topics such as black holes, white dwarfs, and pulsars.

Many articles and pages contain hypertext links that display a definition of the word or phrase linked from the “Imagine the Universe! Dictionary.” The dictionary consists of approximately 300 clearly defined terms, many of which contain links to high-quality images and further information within the site.

One may post questions to NASA scientists in the “Ask a High Energy Astronomer” section, which includes a considerable archive. “Exhibit Central” showcases a variety of current online exhibits at NASA such as features on scientists, QuickTime videos of star activity, and satellite exhibits.

“Teacher’s Corner” includes links to posters and activity booklets, and to lesson plans with whimsical names such as “Lotto or Life: What Are the Chances” (about the probability of life elsewhere in the universe) and “Detective Digit and the Slap Happy Computer Caper” (about using the binary number system). This section includes a link to the excellent NASA Space Education Resources Directory, from which you can browse and search the Web site by grade level or by topic. The “Satellites and Data” section links to articles on xray, gamma-ray, and cosmic-ray satellites and missions; each contains a historical timeline of events related to these areas.

One of the few annoying details of the site, the visually pleasing but graphics-intensive homepage, weighs in at approximately 240K and can be slow to download. Forgetting this minor detail, Imagine the Universe! will enhance the teaching and learning experience for a variety of teachers and students.—-John Creech, Central Washington University, creechj@mumbly.lib.cwu.edu

Making of America. Access: http://moa. umdl.umich.edu.

Providing full-text access to primary source documents in American history, Making of America (MoA) is a valuable resource for faculty, students, and other researchers. With more than 1 million pages of text and images currently available, MoA is also a significant collection of digitized books and journals dating from the antebellum period through reconstruction (1850-1877).

Since 1995, when MoA began as a collaborative effort between the University of Michigan and Cornell University, the intent of the project has been to use digital technology to preserve and make accessible historical collections held at both institutions. While the collection may eventually grow to include documents from a 100-year period (1850- 1950), MoA at present thematically focuses on the mid-19th century. This period was chosen for its continuing interest to scholars and the general population, the manageable size of the collection, the rapidly deteriorating condition of many of the publications, and its public domain status.

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

After documents are selected for inclusion, they are scanned and SGML encoded. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is then performed on the documents to further improve search capabilities. Given this structure, users may browse journal and book bibliographies, as well as perform simple keyword, Boolean, frequency, proximity, and index searches. Pages may be viewed and printed in either PDF or text versions of the scanned images. The interface is relatively easy to negotiate, with pull-down menu options and help files easy to find.

Despite its relative ease of use, it’s important to remember that MoA is also a sophisticated research tool. Although the collection is currently limited to a relatively short 27-year period in American history, the depth of the collection is extensive. Ranging from single images to journal articles, journal issues, and entire books, MoA is best viewed with frames- capable browsers. Access requires a fairly robust personal computer and modem connection. Users may need to be cautioned that books are downloaded as large text files. These very large files are not formatted by page, may take a long time to download, and can cause Web browsers to crash.

When used in conjunction with other digital library collections, such as the Library of Congress American Memory Project, the Humanities Text Initiative, National Archives and Records Administration Archival Information Locator, and subscription databases such as JSTOR, American history scholars using MoA have access to a growing collection of primary source documents.—Linda Frederiksen, Washington State University Vancouver, frederik@vancouver. ivsu.edu

United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum. Access:http://www.ushmm.org/.

It is no easy task to plumb the depths of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site. In addition to the usual announcements, calendars, contacts, etc., the site features an impressive array of deeply moving multimedia resources. One section entitled “Historical Topics” covers subjects such as pogroms, refugees, and ghettos. In each presentation, the text is enhanced by careful use of links to picture files, sound files, photographs, interviews, film footage, and other text files.

Researchers and librarians will also appreciate the extensive “Collections & Archives” section from which it is possible to search an extensive collection of online photographs, as well as the archives themselves. There are also links to the Museum Library, which has its own online catalog, and to related resources such as the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the Committee on Conscience, each worthy of its own review.

The reviewer was riveted by “Do you remember, when” in the “Online Exhibitions" section of the site. The exhibition centers on a small handmade book created by Manfred Lewin, a young Jew who was active in one of Berlin’s Zionist youth groups until his deportation and murder in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lewin’s illustrated entries in this small book reflect the turbulent times in Berlin and also his affection for his gay companion, Gad Beck. The book was a gift to Beck who now lives in Berlin. The exhibition allows the reader/ viewer/listener to turn the pages of the little book, one at a time, and to view accompanying translations with a simple movement of the mouse. The presentation also includes video and sound files and even film footage from an interview with Beck himself.

The site is beautifully presented against quiet, tasteful backgrounds that stand in stark contrast to the horrifying subject matter. Multimedia are seamlessly integrated throughout and are an integral part of the presentation. A check with the site administrator confirmed that having a 4.0 browser or above and the latest version of RealPlayer installed will ensure optimal use of the site. Java and JavaScript should be enabled. Flash is also used sparingly on the site. Do not miss this remarkable resource.—TomNichol, College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University, tnichol@csbsju.edu