American Council on Science and Health. Access: http://www.acsh.org.

John Repplinger, Willamette University, jrepplin@willamette.edu

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) Web site is a collection of publications by ACSH staff and external publications/media reports on public and environmental health issues. The majority of the content comes from external sources, such as journals and news broadcasts. The site is structured around six sections that are organized by tabs at the top of the screen: “Home,” “Health Issues,” “News Center,” “Publications,” “Events,” and “FactsAndFears.” However, the site is confusingly split between ACSH-related content and non-ACSH content.

The posts on the homepage inconsistently display dates and authorship, which makes it difficult to gauge the currency of the information. Surprisingly, there are relatively few publications added each month, roughly three to four new posts, to the homepage.

“FactsAndFears” has the newest and most abundant content; four to six new posts are added daily and are exclusively based on external sources (e.g., “Are Breastfed Babies Better Behaved?” from the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood). “FactsAndFears” content is excluded from the homepage and the site archive. The posts, however, can be found through the Quick Search box on most of the pages, and this section also has its own separate archive.

“Health Issues” is designed to browse posts from the homepage by topic, author, title, and date (publication date and date posted). There are nine main subject areas for browsing: “Activists/Hype,” “Chemicals/Environment,” “Children/Infants,” “Diseases,” “Food Safety,” “Nutrition/Lifestyle,” “Pharmaceuticals,” “Terrorism,” and “Tobacco.”

“News Center,” “Publications,” and “Events” list ACSH activities: news media that cite the ACSH, ACSH publications, and recent events in which the ACSH were involved. Most include links to newspapers and magazines excerpts, and audio/video clips from major television networks and radio programs.

Overall, the “FactsAndFears” section will probably be the most useful feature to academic libraries with ties to the health sciences, especially those in which students may need inspiration for researching health topics. Subject librarians may also consider including the “FactsAndFears” RSS feed in their subject guides; the daily e-mail alerts may be of interest to health researchers.

MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online. Access: http://www2.MATRIX.msu.edu.

Debbi Renfrow, Moreno Valley College, debbi.renfrow@mvc.edu

Upon first accessing the MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online Web site, visitors are greeted with the launch of their latest site, Everyday Islam in Kumasi: Devout Lay Men and Women in Daily Life. This is one of many examples of how this center advances the interdisciplinary study of humanities and computer science. Hosted by Michigan State University (MSU), the center’s mission is to create and maintain online resources. They also provide training in computing and new technologies for the purpose of teaching and research. Using computer science applications, MATRIX collaborates with numerous museums, libraries, and archives to assist in digitizing and preserving collections in the humanities so the collections are widely available to students and researchers.

The site is easily navigated using its consistent menu and design. Visitors can read about the center’s research, projects, repositories, education, and services available. Three such research projects include KORA: The Multimedia Repository, Serious Games, and Social Networking. Each of these projects uses “humanities technology” to increase their availability and educational use. The KORA project is particularly unique in that it is open source software that “allows institutions to ingest, manage, and deliver digital objects and their corresponding metadata.” In addition to the research, visitors can learn about the center’s current projects, such as the African Activist Archive, Black Churches in Detroit, Civics Online, and many others.

Institutions that would like to learn more about exploring partnerships between computer science and academic disciplines can take advantage of MSU’s online classes or arrange for specialized workshops.

Thanks to grant funding and contract work, MATRIX is also able to offer competitive rates for design and programming of digital collections, making them available through user-friendly interfaces. With experience converting a wide array of formats to modern technology, this center can assist with entire digitization projects or simply act as consultants.

Researchers can stop by and enjoy such virtual exhibits as The Alliance for American Quilts. Libraries or institutions needing assistance with digitization projects will find this site particularly interesting.

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Access: http://nccam.nih.gov/.

Jennifer McKinnell, McMaster University, mckinn@mcmaster.ca

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is one of 26 agencies comprising the National Institutes of Health. Their Web site provides access to a whole host of resources aimed at health care consumers and practitioners, and individuals engaged in research. NCCAM research focuses on diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are generally not considered part of conventional medicine. The site does an excellent job upholding the NCCAM’s four primary areas of focus: 1) “advancing scientific research” by pointing to current research findings and providing access to research funding opportunities; 2) “training Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) researchers” by providing online courses and information about funding and learning opportunities for advanced training; 3) “sharing news and information” by summarizing current information, pointing to original studies and clinical trials, and providing access to FDA alerts and clinical advisories; and finally 4) “supporting integration to proven CAM therapies” through the integration of a portal designed to lead health care providers to evidence-based resources.

Despite the comprehensiveness and complexity of the site, this resource can be used easily by health consumers. The A-Z Health Topics portion of the site interfiles health conditions and a variety of CAM topics and treatments, making it easy to browse through a vast amount of information in a short period of time. The consumer health topic pages are based on research and include references.

The site also provides easy access to information about research and training grants for researchers at all stages of their careers (undergraduate through senior investigators as well as practitioners). The “Grants” and “Training” portions of the sites are well organized, easy to navigate, and up-to-date.

In April of this year, NCCAM launched its Resources for Health Care Providers portal. The portal has been designed to deliver evidence-based CAM resources aimed at health care professionals. The portal links to relevant clinical practice guidelines and systematic reviews (including those from the Cochrane Collaboration), and patient safety and effectiveness information. The portal also provides links to PubMed literature searches.

The site appears to be well-maintained. There is evidence that portions of the site are updated weekly or even daily. Although the search features appear to work, the site is so easy to browse it is likely that novice users would be able to navigate easily without using the search box. All of the information provided within the site is available in English and Spanish.