ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Internet Reviews

Sara Amato is systems librarian at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon; e-mail: samato@willamette.edu

ALEX: A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet. Access: gopher:// rsl.ox.ac.uk:70/ll/lib-corn/ hunter, gopher to rsl.ox. ac.uk, 11. Librarian’s Corner,

5. ALEX.

You’ve seen directories of electronic texts before, so what makes Alex different?

It’s the first directory to tie several collections of e-texts together and actually look like an OPAC. This ambi- tious project allows users to retrieve the full text of over 900 titles (but not serials) from Project Gutenberg, Wiretap, the On-line Book Initiative, the Eris system at Vir- ginia Tech, the English Server at Carnegie Mellon, the online portion of the Oxford Text Archive, Project Bartleby at Columbia, and Project Runeberg in Sweden. Note that not all of the texts are actually available to the searcher; I tried to retrieve the Constitution of the United States and was presented with “Sorry Dude, we don’t allow off-site access to this server.”

Alex was created by Hunter Monroe, an economist with some prior experience working with library catalogs. Since its inception, several additional “helpers” have signed on. The database will be updated weekly.

When you first access Alex (bom July 1994) you’ll be presented with four menu items:

1) electronic texts alphabetized by author,

2) by title, 3) cataloguing Internet resources, and 4) an index. The screens are slightly cluttered because author’s names conform to LC authority headings, including dates (though you’re not looking at actual MARC records).

Some headers give a clue as to the size of the file (ex. 507K), but most do not. The README contains the warning that “many of the files referenced here are large—greater than half a Megabyte—and may take you a long time to retrieve.” Believe it.

The cataloging menu option is interesting in that it contains a list of documents/reports that discuss (what else?) cataloging the Internet. This is an idea catalogers (and others) have been discussing ever since they found the chaotic Internet, and this is a great place to get up to speed on their discus- sions.—Paul R. Pival, Chris- topher Newport University; e- mail: ppival@cc.cnu.edu

CERRO. Access: go- pher://olymp.wu-wien.ac. at:70/ll/.cerro.ind, gopher to olymp.wu-wien.ac.at, 8. Forschung an der WU/, 5. CERRO: Central European Regional Research Organiza- tion/.

CERRO, the Central European Regional Research Organization, is sponsored jointly by the University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria; the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Those most likely to access this site would be business-oriented academics. The avowed intention of CERRO is to “stimulate and support regional research” in the area of Central Europe.

CERRO is located, via gopher, at olymp.wu- wien.ac.at, and additionally at CERRO-L (subscription to listserv@aearn or aearn.edvz.univie. ac.at).

CERRO makes information available in a number of fashions and formats, but a major limitation for the American librarian is that much of the statistical information is only available in German (and a very scientific/mathematical German at that) though the information itself is of great use to scholars in this field. Additionally, there are archives of scholarly publications offered under various subheadings as: Papers, Organizations, Individuals and Conferences, but most of these submenus are arranged so that they pull information from the same files. There is also information on Hungarian Electronic Stocks and Commodities (naturally enough, in Hungarian, though most people interested in this type of information could translate the important bits like prices and share volumes easily enough), apparently updated weekly. CERRO also contains a number of news sources (Radio Free Europe-Daily News) aimed at the Central European market. The most innovative resource on the CERRO gopher is a listing of individuals interested in Central European economics, business, and life offering to share their expertise or looking for contacts to further their research aims. This listing (complete with institutional information and e-mail addresses) should go a long way toward making the CERRO gopher a prime source for Central European business research activities.—John Small, Central Missouri State University; e-mail: small@cmsuvmb.cmsu.edu

ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation. Access: gopher://vmsgopher.cua. edu:70/llgopher_root_eric_ae%3a%5b000000 %5d, Gopher: gopher.cua.edu / Special Resources / ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation /Search ERIC. Contact: Larry Rudman, (800) go4-eric or eric ae@cua.edu.

This gopher server from Catholic University of America provides exciting and useful sites for anyone connected with education. College and university faculty, librarians, administrators, graduate and undergraduate students in the field of education will find this extremely helpful.

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is an information network designed to provide users with ready access to educational literature. It is the largest education database in the world and contains nearly one million records of indexed and abstracted documents and journal articles.

Search ERIC is available on the menu of ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation gopher server. It contains options for information on ERIC and the ERIC Clearinghouses; explanation of ERIC abstracts from RIE and CIJE; information on ERIC Digests and the digests themselves; and sites available for searching ERIC and additional databases. These sites include Syracuse Library; University of Illinois at Champaign; California State University at Hayward; University of Saskatchewan; CARL; Auburn University; Florida State University; and Harvard University. The multiple sites allow users to switch sites conveniently when one is busy or unavailable. There are plans to add more sites as they become available.

Libraries without ERIC on CD, tape, or online will greatly appreciate the availability of these sites. Each of the search sites offers its own menu containing the ERIC database and, in some cases, electronic library catalogs, campus directories and information, and other bibliographic databases. For example, the site at Saskatchewan includes the Canadian Education Index. Each of the sites has its own format of search options and strategies. Most allow author, title, and subject searching with various other options such as descriptors, identifiers, or dates. All include help screens and some even have tutorials. None of them are difficult to master although some are more user friendly than others. The coordinator of the server has designated the Syracuse Library site as the “best” and I agree.

The menu also includes options for information on ERIC digests which are reports that synthesize information on educational issues. The full texts of these digests are available here as well. Educational researchers will appreciate the time saved by the availability of these digests.

Search ERIC is well-organized and useful to all those involved in education. The ERIC database and digests serve to keep educators up- to-date with new trends and developments in the field of education.—Emily S. Chasse, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain; e-mail: Chasse@ccsua.ctstateu.edu. ■