ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ June 2000 / 523 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s S a r a A m a t o , e d i t o r National Library fo r the Environm ent: Congressional Research Service Re ports. Access: http://www.cnie.org/nle/ crs_main.html. At first g la n ce it is c o n fu sin g as to w hat ag en cy is re s p o n s ib le fo r this W eb site, a l thou gh its p u rp o se is clear: “im proving the scien tific basis for m akin g d ecisio n s on e n vironm ental iss u e s .” Fu rth er in v estig ation rev eals that this site is a p rod u ct o f dual efforts. T h e Na tion al C ou n cil for S c ie n c e and th e Envi ro n m en t (N CSE), form erly the C om m ittee fo r th e N ational Institute fo r th e E n v iron m en t (CN IE), is re s p o n s ib le fo r th e site, w h ich also is en titled th e N ational Library for the Environ m ent. T h e c o n te n t o f the site, how ever, is p rovided b y the C o n g res sio n al R esea rch Serv ice (C RS), a division o f th e Library o f C on gress and provid er o f th ese rep o rts fo r C on gress. E xp lain ed o n th e m ain p ag e, NCSE e x am in es CRS rep orts fo r ac cu ra cy and o b jectivity, and sin ce the reports con tain n o n te ch n ica l in form ation , it p rov id es u seful in form ation in the area o f environ m en tal p o licy . Fu rtherm ore, CRS rep o rts are not read ily a v ailab le to the g en eral p u b lic nor are th ey law o r cop y rig h t p ro tected . Thu s, to m ak e vital en v iro n m en tally re lated in fo rm atio n av ailab le to ev ery o n e, th e NCSE ob tain s CRS d o cu m en ts, form ats them fo r th e In tern et, and load s them on th e W eb. T h e W eb site is u p dated o n c e a m on th, althou g h rep orts and reso u rces are ad d ed o r rev ised as th ey b e c o m e avail a b le. In April, th e up date in clu ded 11 new and 6 6 revised reports. A c le a n , w e ll-b a la n c e d m ain p ag e o f fers e a sy p eru sal o f b o th the rep o rt in d ex and the rep o rt sea rch instru ction s. T h e in d ex provid es 27 ca teg o ries in th e areas o f natural re so u rc e s (in clu d in g biod iversity, forestry, and m ining ), environ m en tal q u al ity (in clu d in g clim ate, pesticid es, and w aste m an agem en t), and gen eral inform ation (in clu d in g a g e n cy p ro files, leg isla tio n , and risk assessm en t). Search in g is sim p le with ca p a b ilitie s inclu d ing d irect links b y c a tegory via th e in d ex , by key w ord , by re port title, by CRS c o d e num ber, and by author. Soon free-text searching o f abstracts will b e av ailable. D o cu m en ts o ffered from this site c o v er a w id e array o f tim ely en v iro n m en tal to p ics and issu es, from th e W ireless Com m u n icatio n and P u blic Safety Act o f 1999 and F e d e r a l G ra z in g R e g u la tio n s to S tr a to sp h eric O z o n e D ep letio n and Military B ase C losu res. A ccess to this p leth o ra o f v alu ab le in fo rm atio n sh o u ld p rov e qu ite u sefu l for research and instruction, esp ecially for stu dents, edu cators, research ers, and con su m ers w h o are in terested in su ch to p ics su ch as ren ew able energy, civilian n u clear w aste d isp osal, m eth an e hydrates, and im m igra tion leg islatio n and issues. An ap p rop riate d isclaim er is p rovided to inform visitors o f th e u sual m aterial li abilities and w arranties. Links are provided to m ak e su g g estio n s and ask q u estio n s via e -m a il, an d in fo rm atio n is p rov id ed for c o n ta ct via snail m ail, as w ell as te le p h o n e an d fa x .— Cynthia E. Saylor, University o f North C arolin a at Pem broke, saylor@nat. uncp.edu B la c k C o lle g ia n O n lin e . A ccess: http://www.black-collegian.com/. This vibran t W eb v ersio n o f th e w ell- kn ow n c o lle g e and ca reer m agazine for Af rican A m erican stud ents has a lot to o ffe r fo r all c o lle g e studen ts. S e le c ted articles from re c e n t m on thly issues and archives b a c k to 1 9 9 7 are a v a ila b le to read and search o n lin e, and cov er useful top ics such as p rep arin g fo r jo b interview s, usin g the In tern et e ffe ctiv ely in jo b sea rch es , the d e tails on build ing an ap p rop riate b u sin ess w a r d r o b e , e n h a n c in g stu d y s k ills , an d m u ch m ore. For students o f color, there is u seful and sou nd ad vice o n A frocentric q u estion s that Sara A m a to is electronic services and W eb developm ent librarian a t Bowdoin College, e-mail:samato@bowdoin.edu http://www.cnie.org/nle/ http://www.black-collegian.com/ mailto:samato@bowdoin.edu 524 / C&RL News ■ June 2000 typically are not cov ered in o th er career m agazines. For exam p le, should you w ear your hair braided to a corporate interview? W hat do African Am ericans have to gain from graduate school? and W hat organiza tion s or scholarships exist that can help ensure success? The jo b m arket is covered from many angles, including a search ab le jo b bank , a résum é posting service, an index o f ad vertisers, an In ternet directory, and links to other Web sites with jo b listings and related career inform ation aimed sp ecifi cally at students o f color. A cultural section features b rie f essays on African Am erican history, arts and en tertainm ent features, including b o o k and music review s and profiles o f successfu l African Am ericans in various careers and how they achieved their dreams. T he entire site is w ell-organized, and the ar ticles are written in a clear, no- n on sen se style. From a librarian’s point o f view , the only draw back to the Web ver sion o f B la ck Collegian is that the articles lack citations, m aking it difficult for users to know th e date a particular feature was published. D epend ing on the type o f in form ation bein g sought, this may or may not b e important; however, all jo b postings are dated. A cadem ic libraries, as w ell as o th er li braries, organizations, and university o f fices serving pre-collegiate and college stu dents will definitely want to bookm ark and use this attractive and highly recom m ended site.— S. A. Vega Garcia, Iowa State Univer sity, savega@iastate.edu N e a r c t i c a . c o m . A ccess: http://w w w . nearctica.com/. This plain yet sturdy Web site covers a w ide and wild range o f su bjects related to North A m erican natural history. Nearctica serves equally w ell as an en cy clo p ed ia, textb o o k , alm anac, and su b ject directory. T he Web site covers such a broad ran ge o f s u b je c t m atter that any nu m ber o f u ser groups might find it v a lu a b le , from e d u c a tio n and p olicy m ajors to natural s cie n c es m ajors to faculty and other tea ch ers. T he e c le c tic su bject m atter covers ev erything from v ascular and n onvascu lar plants to con tact inform ation for raptor re habilitation c en ters, from environm ental law and legislation to native plant so c iet ies. O th er interesting data con tain ed within this site include the full text o f those chap ters o f the U.S. Code Title 16 that apply to conservation, links to international con ser vation agreem ents, and further links to top ics as diverse as island biogeograp hy and the w ork and writings o f E. O. W ilson. Also notable are num erous links to Web p ages m aintained by university faculty that include lecture n otes and synopses o f c o l lege cou rses ranging from conservation b i olog y to evolu tion and other topics. T he site is clearly and simply organized and easy to navigate. As the site authors note, “N earctica has a very strict hierar chical structure starting with the m ost g en eral and ranging downward to the specific.” T he Table o f Contents page con sists two parts: A -Z top ical links and a link to the site’s search page. W hile the N earctica is easily search able via the E xcite search en g in e, users may w ant to n o te that there are no o th er links to this internal search en g in e on any o f the s ite ’s o th e r p a g es, e ith e r from the h o m e p a g e o r from any o f th e s u b je c t pages. W hile many o f the pages con tain valu ab le links to further inform ation, a large num ber o f Web d ocu m ents are available directly from the Nearctica Web server, and r e s p o n s e tim e w as h ig h ly s a tis fa c to r y throughout the review.—Jo h n Creech, Cen tral Washington University,creechj@cwu. edu ■ mailto:savega@iastate.edu http://www C&RL News ■ June 2000 / 525 526 / C&RL News ■ June 2000