Pluralism Project. Access: http://pluralism.org.

Joshua Lupkin, Southern Methodist University, jlupkin@mail.smu.edu

The Pluralism Project Web site is an interdisciplinary religious studies portal that promotes the research and outreach mission of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. The site was designed to “document the contours of our multi-religious society, explore new forms of interfaith engagement, and study the impact of religious diversity in civic life.”

While based at a research university, this portal offers resources that will perhaps be of greatest use to practitioners in nonprofit and civic organizations, as well as K–12 educators and foundations. The site’s greatest strength is in the connections that have been nurtured with minority religious communities across the United States (particularly New England), and in providing access to local institutions and organizations that may not be as accessible or as well described in other free Internet resources.

Researchers visiting the portal will find administrative information relating to the Pluralism Project in addition to sections for online resources, locations, and profiles of religious centers in Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Afro-Caribbean, and other traditions. Capsule descriptions and some statistics for each tradition are provided. Most distinctive to the site are research reports and summaries by scholars and others who are affiliated with the Pluralism Project. Navigation for browsing through different states and groups is serviceable, and a link at lower left brings users to a familiar Google-powered search of the site’s resources.

Subject selectors and liaisons may be especially interested in the feature entitled “Religious Diversity News.” This contains vetted news stories since 1997 that are centered on Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, and Sikh communities in the United States with some significant coverage of other religious traditions as well. Entries can be searched through a simplified Boolean interface or browsed in categories such as interfaith, women, and environment. While useful in its selectivity and small sample size, this information is far less comprehensive than that offered by a well-designed feed of articles from EBSCO or Lexis-Nexis; an RSS option would make this more valuable.

The Pluralism Project site enjoys the current support of its parent institution, with numerous links and research reports added in 2009. As in many similar project-supported sites there is some tendency towards link rot and potential obsolescence of research data. It is best consulted in tandem with more comprehensive references sources in religious studies.

Encyclopedia of Life. Access: http://www.eol.org/.

John Repplinger, Willamette University, jrepplin@willamette.edu

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a major project that aims to classify all living organisms, and provide a vast amount of information about each species to the general public for free. Should EOL accomplish its goals, this resource will become an international standard for finding credible information about plants, animals, microorganisms, or any living species.

Stunning images are displayed from the homepage, which encourage visitors to explore the site and learn about life on Earth. One can search the site for specific species by common or scientific name.

There is also an option to search by social tags or by full text.

Searches for specific organisms generally link to a specific species page, but if a search yields more than one species, such as a query for “grizzly bear,” a list will appear. Each species page has a table of contents that allows users to peruse all of the available content.

Another way to navigate from organism to organism is through the tree of life hierarchy that is present on all species pages.

Similar to Wikipedia is the public involvement to help populate EOL. Text, video, images, data, and other information can be submitted by anyone, but is later authenticated by science specialists. Another thing to note is that much of the information in EOL resides on external Web sites. The text and graphics that one sees is pulled from external Web sites, aggregated and displayed by special technology. Should an original source be updated from an external Web page, the changes will be flagged and then verified by subject specialists.

While EOL officially launched in February 2008, it may take three-to-five years to reach its full potential, and even then it will continue to be a work in progress indefinitely. In its current “building” state, some species pages have more detail than others. For example, the page for Hemerocallis Thunbergii Barr (Barr Daylilies) only has two external links. The page for Ursus Maritimus Phipps (Polar Bears) includes the following sections: Overview, Description, Ecology and Distribution, Conservation, Relevance, and References and More Information.

The site is supported by a variety of partnerships: Harvard, the Smithsonian, Field Museum, Marine Biological Laboratory, Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the MacArthur and Sloan Foundations. EOL has a broad appeal to those interested in the life sciences: the general public, biologists, teachers, students, the media, librarians, policy makers, artists, etc.

Energy Information Administration: Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government. Access: http://www.eia.doe.gov.

Jennifer McKinnell, Mc-Master University, mckinn@mcmaster.ca

Established in 1977, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) serves as the statistical agency for the U.S. Department of Energy. They describe themselves as “the Nation’s premier source of unbiased energy data, analysis and forecasting.” By law, EIA is required to gather and report information independent of administration policy considerations.

The EIA Web site outlines a simple yet thorough history of the agency’s priorities and mission, but more important to students and educators is the extensive access to data and statistics it provides. Energy source data is divided into six categories: Petroleum, Natural Gas, Electricity, Coal, Renewable and Alternative Fuels, and Nuclear.

In each of these categories, industry data focusing on prices, usage, production, storage, consumption and much more is provided in both HTML tables and downloadable Excel spreadsheets. The information is exceptionally current and an indication of when the next data release date is provided. In many cases, the information is presented as a time-series, dating back to the mid-1970s.

In addition to the industry data, both short- and long-term energy forecasts provide an overview of expected prices, consumption, and supply and demand for each energy source category. Another section of the site looks at both commercial and residential energy consumption. Somewhat disappointing is the environment section of the site as the scope here is quite narrow, focusing primarily on domestic and international emissions reporting.

Overall, the data presented throughout the site is impressive. It is easily retrieved, interpreted, and downloaded. There is a strong American focus in the content, but extensive international data is also available.

Also impressive are the wide array of EIA reports and publications made available through the site, all of which are full text and include access to both current and back issues.

The site is easy to navigate by topic. A search feature is provided, but there is little reason to use it, as the information presented lends itself to browsing by general topic or energy source. Although it is fairly clear that the site is targeting government and industry analysts as their main audience, the information would be useful for both undergraduate and graduate social sciences students, particularly those working in the areas of environmental studies, public policy, business, or current affairs.