ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 132 / C&RL News ■ February 2002 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni Robertsand Carol Drost, editors Code Talk. Access: h ttp ://w w w .co d etalk . fed.us/. The U.S. Department of Housing and Ur­ ban D evelopm ent’s Office o f Native Ameri­ can Program s (ONAP) hosts this federal in­ teragency Na­ tive American Web site, designed to connect Native American communities to relevant in­ formation and resources available from gov­ ernm ent agencies and other federal organi­ zations. The site is clean, well organized, easy to use, and wonderfully devoid of commer­ cial advertising. Code Talk is an interesting com plem ent to the w ell-established NativeWeb (www. nativew eb.com ), a volunteer-run Web site w ith a g r a s s r o o ts p e r s p e c ti v e . W h ile NativeWeb links to many nonprofit, nongov­ ernmental, and even controversial sites, Code Talk points primarily to agency and organi­ zational links proffering the official govern­ ment line. It even includes a “kid safe” link to agency-sponsored children’s pages. “Key Topic Areas” connects to more than a dozen agencies and related gateways, in­ cluding Community Development, Health, Housing, Tribal Court Clearinghouse, Bureau o f Indian Affairs, Indian Education, Environ­ mental Resources, Urban Indians, and more. “Calendar o f Events” notes relevant national conferences, institutes, meetings, and train­ ing schedules for a full year. “Resources and Tools” provides yet another arrangement of contacts, with some duplication. Although the agency links seem to be well maintained, some aspects of this site are seri­ ously neglected. Under “Current Issues,” for instance, postings are six months to two years old. Only “Indian News Links,” w hich links directly to tribal new spapers, contains cur­ rent news. Even the latest posted issue of ONAP’s newsletter, Dreαmcαtcher, is from D ecember 1999. The search engine also does not work, although functionality has been prom ised “in the near future.” The site map is useful, but no substitute for a good search engine. The strength of Code Talk is its role as a gateway to the federal and state programs and opportunities directly available for Native Americans in the United States. As such, it may be more useful to those working on behalf of Native Americans, or to Native American orga­ nizations and individuals, than it w ould be for researchers, historians, and students. O n the other hand, it contains a wealth of information for anyone researching government programs for Native Americans. In addition, the site includes links to related sites in gene­ alogy, laws and treaties, music, pottery, litera­ ture, spoils, and more. The collection o f Na­ tive American news publications alone is worth investigating. For those seeking one place to find federal grants, programs, assistance, pub­ lications, and events of interest to Native Ameri­ cans in the United States, this site could be a real b o o n.— Barbara Valentine, Linfield Col­ lege, bυalen@linfield.edu lnvasivespecies.gov. Access: h t t p : / / invasivespecies. gov/. Invasive plant species are spreading at the rate o f thousands of acres per day, causing the decline of native species and reducing the potential for survival for many threatened or endangered species. Dangerous invasive ani­ mal species, such as the fire ant and the Africanized honeybee, are invading our back­ yards, driving us—itching and screaming—into the relative safety but boring confinement of our ow n homes. Recognition o f the adverse impact of invasive species has led to the cre­ ation of numerous information resources, a significant number of which are now easily accessed via the invasive species site. In February 1999, President Bill Clinton is­ sued Executive Order 13112, which established the National Invasive Species Council (NISC), w hose duties included the “establishment of a coordinated, up-to-date information-sharing system.” To meet this mandate, an invasive spe- Joni R. Roberts is associate unive rsity lib ra ria n fo r pub lic services a nd c o lle c tio n d e v e lo p m e n t a t W illa m e tte University, e-mail: jrob e rts® w illa m e tte .e d u , and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian fo r technical services a t W illa m e tte University, e-mail: cdrost@ willamette.edu http://www.codetalk mailto:alen@linfield.edu mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu C&RL New s ■ February 2002 / 133 cies Web site was developed and is maintained by the National Agricultural Library (NAL) o f the U.S. D epartm ent o f Agriculture. D ozens o f partners, m ost prom inently the National B io ­ logical Inform ation Infrastructure (N BII), have provided con tent and links to hundreds o f in­ form ation resources, resulting in a site o f e x ­ traordinary com plexity and depth. Invasivespecies.gov is a significant informa­ tion resource, but the dual NAL and NBII navi­ gation tools, w hich have confusing button topic labels, impair its utility. Although the labels may lead o n e to think links and/or resources are duplicated b y NAL and NBII, such is usually not the case; each agen cy’s buttons provide links to unique resources. Using the brow ser’s “b ack ” button to trudge from NBII sites to the invasivespecies.gov hom epage to access NAL links is a tedious exercise indeed. Despite its inherent navigational difficulties, the invasive species site is a useful resource for researchers, college students, educators, and the general public. An alphabetical list o f Web site partners provides links to an extraordinary diversity o f sources for com prehensive infor­ m ation o n a w ide range o f invasive species. T h e adventurous explorer will find sophisti­ cated sp ecies search engines and useful, inter­ esting links to systematics collections and natu­ ral history museum sites, taxonom ic databases, agencies providing invasive species control and eradication information, news alerts, geospatial tech nologies, metadata, regional information, and m uch more. T he invasive species W eb site is a un iqu e resou rce and is highly reco m ­ m ended.— Susan B. Case, University o f K a n ­ sas, scase@ku.edu I n t e r n e t S a c r e d T e x t A r c h i v e . Access: http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm. Internet Sacred Text Archive (or Sacred- Texts) is a nonprofit archive o f religious texts privately maintained by J. B. Hare o f Santa Cruz, California, and is not affiliated with any reli­ gious organization or institution. T h e main in­ dex, w hich offers “a quiet place in cyberspace devoted to religious tolerance and scholarship,” lists three general links: “World Religions,” “Tra­ ditions,” and “Mysteries.” “World Religions” con­ tains the primary text(s) from the m ajor tradi­ tions. There are also links to secondary sources. Scholarship in religious studies divides the w o rld ’s prim ary relig ion s into th ree m ain groups: W estern m onotheism (Christianity, Is­ lam, and Ju d aism ), religions o f South Asia (H induism and Bud dh ism ), and the “third stream” o f Chinese religion (Confucianism and Taoism, and perhaps Shintoism). Sacred-Texts d o es the patron a service b y including all o f these traditions under “World Religions.” Since n o ann otation is provided, som e p erspective is necessary in navigating the site. “Buddhism ” con tain s links to both Zen and T ib etan B u d ­ dhism , but n o m en tion is m ade o f Theraved a Buddhism , the m ore conservative bran ch o f Buddhism . T h e only English B ib le available under “Christianity” is the 17th-century King Ja m e s Version. “Islam ” includes the Koran and a link to Sufism (an ascetic and mystical Mus­ lim sect). H owever, n o distinction is m ade b e tw e e n the tw o m ain bran ch es o f Islam: Sunni and Shi’ite. T h e seco n d link, “Traditions,” leads the research er to “A ustralian” (A boriginal texts), “African Religions” (b ro k en d ow n into Bantu, W est an d Sou th A frican, an d C a rib b ea n ), “E gyptian” (inclu ding the authoritative trans­ lation o f The B o o k o f the D ea d b y Wallis B u d g e ), “L eg en d s an d S a g a s ” (in clu d in g Arthurian, Celtic, and Icelandic materials), and “Native A m erican” (inclu ding Aztec, C h ero­ k ee, H opi, N avajo, and Zuni le g e n d s) re ­ sou rces. In cases w here n o primary texts are available (as in Sham anism or certain African tribal religions), the oral traditions have b een retold and transcribed. T h e third link, “M ysteries,” contains m ate­ rials also foun d in the “World R eligion” s e c ­ tion under the head in g “P aganism .” Material su ch as the pred ictions o f Nostradamus and the tales o f Atlantis are located here. Curi­ ously, the m ystery religions from G reec e and the M editerranean are omitted. T h e m ain p ag e contains a site m ap, w hich lists the links alphabetically . Sacred-Texts, w hile easy to navigate, d oes not lend itself to browsing. At som e point, the Internet searcher is going to n e e d a co n co rd a n c e o r a guide to the primary texts. Many o f the texts are also available to pu rch ase as PDF files or o n CD- ROM. Sacred-Texts is a valu able resou rce for w hat it purports to provide: an archive o f prim ary religiou s texts.— Wendell fo bn so n , Wau bon see Community College, wjohnson@ m ail.w cc.cc.il.us ■ mailto:scase@ku.edu http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm