ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 118 / C&RL News ■ February 2003 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost, editors National Center fo r Health Statistics. Access: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a com ponent o f the Center for Disease Con­ trol and Prevention (CDC), functions as the federal agency responsible for the collection and dissemination o f America’s vital and health statistics. This site supports the NCHS’s mis­ sion to “pro vide statistical inform ation that w ill guide actions and policies to improve the health o f the American people.” National Center for Health Statistics Users can browse publications and statisti­ cal tables, download files, access survey data collection systems, conduct searches in NCHS W eb Search, track NCHS initiatives, and sign up for NCHS electronic lists. “W h at’s N e w ” and “T op 10 Links” are areas on the site that list new releases o f data and the most popular pages. “Information Showcase” highlights the agency’s major activities and findings. “Micro­ data Access” provides links to various data­ bases and statistical systems, such as Statistical Export and Tabulation System (SETS). The SETS link is useful for public health research­ ers because large data files can be downloaded on personal computers. Another useful link in this section is the “CDC Wonder.” By using the database, a wide variety o f CDC reports, guide­ lines, and numeric public health data can be accessed. The “Tabulated State Data” section provides pretabulated tables on each state’s birth and death statistics. In this section, users can download software that w ill allow tables to be custom ized or manipulated for use in other databases or spreadsheet packages. A column dow n the left-hand side o f the site offers links to different sections as well. “About NCHS” gives an o verview o f the Na­ tional Center for Health Statistics and infor­ mation about the Web site. For quick statistics on a variety o f com mon health topics, users can click on “FASTATS A to Z .” A topical listing o f information that can be accessed on the W eb site is included in the “Site Index.” There are also links to all NCHS surveys and data collections systems. Information on spe­ cial programs that NCHS is involved with such as Aging, Disease Classification, Healthy People, and SETS can be accessed from “Ini­ tiatives.” A lso included are links to NCHS’s research and development, news releases, fact sheets, publications, and electronic lists. The site is a reliable and timely resource for public health researchers, faculty, and students. The general public will find useful information here as well.— Nancy M. Allen, University o f South Florida atSa rasota-Manatec/New College o f Florida, nallen@bx nsh e e .sar.usf .edu Center fo r History and N e w Media. Access: http://chnm.gmu.edu. Hosted by G eorge Mason University, the Center for History and N ew Media (C H N M ) com bines electronic multimedia, digital ar­ chives, and new technologies with historical scholarship to advance research, instruction, and public awareness. A recipient o f several national awards and major grants, the CHNM site contains numerous features that students, teachers, and scholars w ill find worthwhile. The center’s list o f current W eb-based projects covers a w ide range o f subjects, inter­ ests, and time periods. “History Matters” and “W orld History Matters” provide high school students and teachers with curricular materi­ als, primary source documents, and threaded discussion groups. “Liberty, Equality, Frater­ nity: Exploring the French Revolution” is com­ prised o f essays, images, documents, songs, maps and explanatory articles, including a short chapter on how to develop and use visual lit­ eracy skills. “T h e S eptem ber 11 D igital Archive” and “The Blackout History Project” chronicle e-mail, audiovisual files, photos, leaf­ lets and other ephemera, w h ile providing a m odel for using n ew technologies to record Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection developm ent at W illam ette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian fo r technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu http://www.cdc.gov/nchs http://chnm.gmu.edu mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu C&RL News ■ F ebruary 2003 / 7 79 and preserve current history. “The Lost Mu­ seum,” based on P. T. Barnum’s American Mu­ seum, and “ECHO-Exploring and Collecting the History o f Science and Technology Online” are additional examples o f the center’s activi­ ties. More than a virtual library or memory bank, the site serves as a gateway to academic direc­ tories, journal articles, databases, and anno­ tated hyperlinks o f related resources. In keep­ ing with the center’s goal to encourage the use o f technology in the study and use o f history, the site provides access to several free soft­ ware tools to assist historians and instructors in individual efforts. The entire site is well designed and orga­ nized, visually appealing, and easy to navigate, as are the individual project sites. Given the center’s focus on the use o f electronic media within the discipline o f history, it is not sur­ prising that full access to the riches o f this site requires a robust computer and high-speed Internet connection that can handle Flash-gen erated movies and fairly large audio files. While it would be interesting to have a little more information on how the individual projects w ere chosen for developm ent, the finished product is informative, interesting, and unique. Serving as a prototype for other electronic his­ tory projects and, at the same time, providing tools and resources that other teachers, stu­ dents and researchers can use, the Center for History and N ew Media is a dynamic example o f ways that theory and application can be used to e n liv e n the d is c ip lin e .— Linda Frederiksen, Washington State University, Vancouver, fredeiik@tancouver.wsu.edu C ivilrig h ts .o rg : The Progressive Coa­ litio n fo r Equal O p p o rtu n ity . A c­ cess: http://www.civilrights.org. Civilrights.org was founded by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), an organi­ zation recogn ized for supporting major U.S. civil rights legislation over the last 50 years. Civilrights.org is a social justice network that works to support “the struggle against discrimi­ nation in all its forms, but also to build public understanding.” LCCR, the “nation’s premier civil rights coalition,” is made up o f more than 180 national organizations and seeks to repre­ sent the diversity o f our country. Civilrights.org covers important civil rights is­ sues under the broad headings o f equal oppor­ tunity, civic engagement, communities and fami­ lies, criminal justice reform, the judiciary, and human rights. In each o f these areas there is information available in text and audiovisual formats. Use the “Issues” menu on the home­ page to select a specific issue and you will be directed to a page that offers current reports along with “W h y You Should Care,” a “Status Report,” a link to the “Daily Buzz,” and more valuable resources such as testimony, reports, court decisions, and speeches relevant to that issue. The “Action Center” offers background on each issue and allows the searcher to get in e-mail contact with federal and state officials on the issue o f choice. The “Action Center” also o f­ fers a brief introduction to the legislative pro­ cess that could be useful for those unfamiliar with lawmakers and lawmaking. The “Press Room" serves up the who, what, when, where, why, and how o f the Web site as w ell as archives o f press releases and contact inform ation for those in charge o f the site. The “Research Center” includes a glossary, a searchable A to Z subject index, an outline o f major civil rights Supreme Court cases, a “For Kids” section and a handy, but limited, timeline. Several online publications are available sim­ ply by registering your e-mail address, including “The Daily Buzz,” the “Breaking News Flash” alert system, and “This Week in Civil Rights,” a newsletter. “The Civil Rights M onitor” is a searchable quarterly online publication with accessible archives back to 1985- There are also easily accessed reports and curricula. Overall, this is a well-designed and informa­ tive Web site for students o f civil rights w ho are interested in keeping abreast o f and acting on the daily news o f civil rights issues in the United States.— Mary C . MacDonald, University o f Rhode Island, marymac@ιιri.edιu mailto:fredeiik@tancouver.wsu.edu http://www.civilrights.org