ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


288 / C&RL. News ■  April 1998

I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s Sara Amato, editor

L if e  M a g a z in e  H o m e  P a g e . A ccess: 
http://www.pathfinder.com/Life/essay/ 
photoessay.html.
Among other publications’ Web pages on 

the Pathfinder site is Life magazine. W ired s 
Louis Rosetto found it to be the best Web site 
of 1995 for its “really simple, visually appeal­
ing, really elegant” design. The site continues 
to have this minimalist style, allowing the 
photographs to be the focus of the site, as 
they should be.

This is truly a site for and about photogra­
phers and photography. The text associated 
with the pictures is there, but as anyone who 
has looked at the magazine in its physical form 
will know, L ifeis about photographs. The site 
primarily uses a slide-show technique for its 

photo essays, 
u sin g  o n e  
page for each 
p h o t o g r a p h  
and its caption 

or text. Possibly the best-looking example of 
this is the “A Mother’s Life” photo essay, which 
uses a quote about motherhood or childhood 
with a photograph of some parental interac­
tion and accompanying text. The fonts and 
background colors with the black-and-white 
photos are stunning.

Other features o f the site are the “Picture 
of the Day,” “This Day in Life,” (an almanac of 
sorts with birthdays, a quote, and this-day-in 
sports, weather, and history) the current issue’s 
photo essays as well as last month's, a store 
for purchasing coffee table books and dream 
house plans, message boards for discussion 
of topics presented in the magazine’s stories, 
and a “Virtual Gallery.” The Virtual Gallery is 
a list of sites all relating to photojournalism, 
including Life’s tribute to Alfred Eisenstaedt, a 
link to a photo agency, and the Time Life Photo 
Sight (sic), which presents numerous photos 
from Time and Life issues in broad subject cat­
egories, such as popular culture.

Loading time for all o f these photographs 
may be frustrating for low-speed connections, 
but for the most part the images are fairly small. 
The best navigation tool for the site is the 
Quick Index, which lists all available features

by title with some description and is more 
comprehensive than the links on the home 
page. On nearly all pages on the site is a ban­
ner with links to other Pathfinder publications, 
such as P eo p le and Fortune, which can get 
annoying with animated ads running while 
the user tries to read. The banner is left off 
some of the photo essays’ pages, but is nearly 
omnipresent. Generally, the site operates well 
and is very  easy to use.

Anyone interested in photography in gen­
eral, or in Life ' s particular approach to photo­
journalism, will be pleased with this site. It is 
also an interesting tour through parts of our 
world and sides of the news not often pre­
sented by other media sources.— Kirsten Tozer, 
C e n t r a l W a s h in g t o n  U n iv ersity ; t o z e r k @  
t a h o m a .c w u .e d u

M o n th ly  C a t a lo g  o f  U n ite d  S ta te s  
G o v e rn m e n t P u b lic a tio n s  (M O CAT).
Access: http ://www.access.gpo.g(›v/su_clocs/ 
dpos/adpcs400.html .

Undoubtedly, the United States is the larg­
est producer of information in the world. We 
also have one of the most liberal policies con­
cerning access to federally produced informa­
tion. With this quantity of information readily 
available to the public, those searching for 
government information can easily be over­
come by information overflow.

To counter this problem the GPO created 
the online version o f the M onthly Catalog, 
which documents publications produced by 
the government. In June 1994, the GPO imple­
mented this site to provide World Wide Web 
access to the myriad documents created by 
the government. Information at this site aug­
ments materials in the print version o f the 
M onthly Catalog.

GPO reports that “the online catalog con­
sists of bibliographic records published in the 
M onthly C atalog o f  United States G overn m en t 
P u b lic a tio n s  (MOCAT) since January 1994. 
These records describe Government informa­
tion products available through the Federal

Sara Am ato is autom ated systems librarian at Central 
Washington University;samato@tahoma.cwu.edu

http://www.pathfinder.com/Life/essay/
tahoma.cwu.edu
mailto:samato@tahoma.cwu


C&RL News ■  A p ril 1998 / 2 8 9

Depository Library Program. The MOCAT da­
tabase is updated daily with preliminary cata­
loging records that will be edited and pub­
lished in future issues o f MOCAT. The GPO 
Access system provides online access to the 
Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the 
full text o f all published versions o f bills intro­
duced in Congress, the Congressional Record 
Index, the History o f Bills, the Lobby List, the 
Unified Agenda o f Federal Regulations, the 
U.S. Code, Public Laws o f the 104th Congress, 
and, through the Federal Bulletin Board, more 
than 6,000 other files from 25 Federal agencies.”

This site develops its value by allowing 
searchers to gather citations to federally pro­
duced information from an immense database 
o f information providers. By searching the da­
tabase, a user may quickly develop a compre­
hensive set o f citations on almost any topic. 
In some instances the document is available 
in electronic format directly from the site.

Where the document is 
not available online, the 
searcher can determine 
its exact location through 
the use o f a query screen, 
Input o f state and/or area 
code information to this 
screen returns a listing of 

each depository library in the selected state 
that holds this title.

Boolean, proximity operators, and trunca­
tion are all available in the search function. 
Available fielded searches may increase the 
chances o f obtaining meaningful hits in an ex­
pedient manner. The search results present a 
summary record for each publication. This 
includes title, format (i.e., m icrofiche, CD- 
ROM), date o f publication, issuing agency, 
SuDocs Class Number, and Depository Item 
Number, If the publication is for sale by GPO, 
a GPO Stock Number will also be provided. A 
link is available to display the publication’s 
cataloging record. Documents available online 
have a URL to access the appropriate site.

This is an important site for libraries that 
house government documents, and equally 
important to those that do not. Patrons ben­
efit from a quick response as to what docu­
ments are available and their location. This 
site is a win for the government, the patron, 
and the librarian.— T im oth y  E. M cM ah on , 
M etrow est M assachu setts R e g io n a l L ibrary  Sys­
tem ; tm c m a h o n @ sim m o n s .ed u

It was so good to so the eitordtetter Lee an article, such 
as Katherine B ranch’s “The axe for the fro­
zen sea … ”  in the January 1998 C&RL 
News, that extolled the value o f reading. I 
would like to em phasize reading next year 
on our cam pus, but I have been hesitant 
in light o f all the em phasis on tech n o l­
ogy, but your article gives me hope.

T he Arts and S cie n ce s D ivision just 
sponsored a colloquium  on Cold Moun­
tain. Everyone on campus was encouraged 
to read the b o o k  and then discuss it. O ne 
o f the English instructors led a lively dis­
cussion. I would like to work with the 
Arts and S c ie n c e s  D ivision to sp o n so r 
m ore such book discussions.

Thanks for the reference to the Library 
o f Congress site on Building a Nation o f 
Readers. I will go there right after I write 
this message.

I believe in all the new technologies, 
but I really feel as Branch does, that read­
ing still has a vital place in our world. 
Thanks again for your inspiring article.—  
Scott C oh en , h e a d  lib r a r ia n . J a c k s o n  S tate 
C om m u n ity C ollege, s c o b e n @ jscc.c c .t n .u s

mailto:tmcmahon@simmons.edu