The British Library. Access: http://www.bl.uk.

Larry Cooperman, University of Central Florida-Orlando

The British Library is the national depository for every book printed in the United Kingdom. The British Library’s total holdings number over 150 million items, with 3 million new items added every year. The original copy of the Magna Carta, Da Vinci’s notebooks, and the world’s oldest printed book (the Diamond Sutra) are a part of its vast and varied collection. And vast is the number of patrons who use the British Library’s resources—400,000 yearly visitors to its venerated London Reading Rooms, 6 million catalog searches, and 100 million items borrowed by users from all over the world.

How does a British Library user successfully search 14 million books and 3 million sound recordings, to name a few of the library’s enormous holdings? The British Library’s Web site, aims to guide the user through its holdings easily and effectively. The first place researchers should start is the main catalog, with nearly 57 million items to search, or to one of the 20 more specialized catalogs on such topics as photography, recordings, and manuscripts. These specialized catalogs, including the British National Bibliography, are easily found from the library’s homepage.

Additional British Library’s services consist of worldwide document supply, and the Business and IP Centre (offering business research, planning, and marketing assistance). Also unique to the site are the library’s online collections and various blogs dealing with numerous subjects.

The online collections also include virtual views of the Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeare’s Quartos, as well as offering information about the background, translations, and texts. In the “Discover” section, users can learn about everything from accents and dialects in the United Kingdom to playground games.

The British Library’s Web site byline is “Explore the World’s Knowledge.” Researchers, as well as anyone interested in visiting the library or using its remarkable resources worldwide, will find a world of knowledge for every type of subject and user that is straightforward and easy to navigate. Highly recommended for all users.

TreeHugger. Access: http://www.treehugger.com/

Carol McCulley, Linfield College, cmccull@linfield.edu

TreeHugger is a digital media site designed to bring sustainability issues and solutions into the mainstream. This site has the latest news and lots of social media options. The writers use newsletters, blogs, interview transcripts and podcasts, Twitter, and Facebook to communicate how sustainability can and should be a part of most every aspect of our lives. They do it through stories, slideshows, and videos on a huge range of topics from sustainable surfing to putting GPS collars on African (Cape) Buffalo and more mainstream topics such as fuel efficiency in cars and eating locally.

The very busy homepage features news articles on timely sustainability issues surrounded by links to other sites and advertisements, including many about green products. At the top of the page are three portals, which focus on getting informed about specific issues; interacting in forums, games, or pop quizzes; and taking action to go green. Some of these links seem slow to load.

The informational topics are meant to appeal to almost everyone, from “Science + Technology” to “Culture + Celebrity.” Most of the original content for these short articles comes from individual writers and journalists passionate about sustainability, many of whom have their own blogs or write for other sustainability sources. The quizzes, such as Who Owns Your Food, can be humbling, but informative. Contribute to TreeHuggers’ Flickr photo pool and your photos might be used in their stories.

TreeHugger and the television presence for sustainability, Planet Green, are Discovery Companies, the company that brings you the Discovery Channel. TreeHugger and Planet Green have many of the same stories, quizzes, and some of the same writers. TreeHugger is definitely for the general public not for academic research. There are occasional links to academic journal articles and government reports at the end of articles, but most links go to news stories and popular content. It could be used as a source of sustainability topics for undergraduate research papers, however. Despite the fact that TreeHugger has breadth not depth, I found myself getting drawn in by many of their compelling topics.

United States Courts. Access: http://www.uscourts.gov/Home.aspx.

Gerri Foudy, University of Maryland College Park, gfoudy@umd.edu

Maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the Federal Judiciary, the stated mission of the United States Courts Web site is “to provide information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government.” The site is organized in such a way that there are multiple points of entry to finding information, including a prominent sidebar with links to resources depending on type of user: “Teachers & Students,” “Media,” “Jurors,” “Researchers,” “Legal Professionals,” and “Government.”

Also featured prominently on the homepage are an introduction to the federal courts, a searchable court locator, and court services (“Bankruptcy,” “Court Records,” “Appointment of Counsel,” “Probation and Pretrial Services,” “Jury Service,” and “Federal Rulemaking”).

The site also has multimedia resources, including videos (“Bankruptcy Basics” and “Court Shorts”), podcasts (Supreme Court landmark cases, such as Mapp v. Ohio), and photos.

Under “Teachers & Students,” the site provides interactive court simulation scenarios based on recent Supreme Court cases, with instructions on how to conduct the scenario as well as handouts, including witness stand scripts. “Federal Court Basics” offers federal-state court comparisons, fast facts, and homework help. There is a nice table that compares the federal and state court systems.

“Researchers” offers links to a glossary of legal terms, a primer on understanding the federal courts, federal judicial caseload statistics, federal court management statistics, bankruptcy statistics, judicial business, wiretap reports, and statistical tables for the federal judiciary. Most of the statistics are online beginning in 2001. There also are links to the history of judgeships, a federal judges biographical database, and a list of judicial vacancies. “The Third Branch,” the federal judiciary newsletter, is also available in full text on the site.

Links to forms, including bankruptcy forms, are available on the site, as well as court fee schedules. The “Court Records” link leads to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database that allows users to obtain case and docket information from the federal courts. The fee to use PACER is 8¢ per page, with a total cost per document cap of $2.40.

Overall, the site is a very comprehensive introduction for anyone starting to learn about the federal judiciary, and the statistics will be invaluable to more advanced researchers.