ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries May 1997 / 347 Internet Reviews S a ra A m ato , editor Editor’s Note: With the ever increasing number o f Inter­ net-accessible services tar­ geted toward libraries, this month’s column, for the first time, is including for-fee da­ tabases. C o m m u n ica tio n In sti­ tute for O nline Schol­ arsh ip . Access: http:// www.cios.org. Com m unication scholars w ill be pleased to know about the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship (CIOS) and its Comserve Web service. As a nonprofit organi­ zation, Comserve has been online since 1986. CIOS, its parent organization since 1990, also produces the ComIndex CD-ROM database. Both services have been awarded the Prize for Excellence in Information Services from the International Communication Association’s Council o f Communication Libraries. Designed to enhance scholarly activity among its com­ munity, the W W W site provides a conduit to its online conferences, bibliographies, syllabi, events calendar, position announcements and an index to its 60+ journals; it also provides an electronic white pages for its members. The online conferences are called Hotlines, and they include such specialized lists as CommGrads for graduate students, Edutel for computer-mediated communication research, and lists for pro forma topics including gender, intercultural communication, and mass commu­ nication. Broad-based lists include CommJobs, NewBooks, and Preview, which broadcasts announcements o f new scholarly work. Another feature o f CIOS is its Syllabus col­ lection, organized by date, which covers such diverse topics as Magazines in American Life and Computer, Ethics, and Society. However, the majority o f these are from 1994 and earlier, with only two from 1996; one wishes more were available. The Bibliographies collection and the Description o f Graduate Programs are also in dire need o f updating. Many journals are indexed from their initial issue; the earliest is The Free Speech Yearbook from 1962. Others include CIOS’ refereed, full text Electronic Journal o f Communication; the Asian Journal o f Communication; Communi­ cation Yearbook; Journal o f Broadcasting and Electronic Media; Media, Culture and Society; and Women’s Stud­ ies in Communication. Cur­ rently, most journals are com pleted through 1995; som e are also in d e x e d through 1996. Journal cita­ tions can include abstracts, affiliation o f the first author, and k ey w o rd s in d exed . There is also an option to search by table o f contents for selected journals. Perhaps the most valuable feature is the abil­ ity to do a full-text search o f all o f Comserve’s databases. However, a search for the word “men­ tor” yielded almost too many hits, including not only a transcript o f a speech o f the Dalai Lama, but also an analysis o f Nixon’s “Checkers” speech; more worthwhile was a survey about online mentoring. More efficient ways to search are the keyword and context searching options, which result in a display o f several lines before and after the word searched. Boolean search­ ing is also available through the operators AND OR NOT XOR and EXCEPT; “near,” wild card, and truncation are also options. This ability to search specifically in the Com­ munication discipline outweighs the cost when compared to comparable paper indexes such as Communication Abstracts, which allows only single subject indexing and no cross- referencing. Per annum cost for individuals is $45; the student rate is $25 with limited ser­ vices. Institutional memberships range from $200 for the basic service to $500 for the ad­ vanced, multi-user service, all o f which include discounts for purchase o f the ComIndex CD- ROM database. Currently, there are 75 institutional affiliates worldwide; libraries may want to check to see if their communications faculty have signed up Sara Amato is automated systems librarian at Central Washington University;; samato@tahoma.cum.edu http://www.cios.org mailto:samato@tahoma.cum.edu 3 4 8 / C&RL News for the service. If they have, it is worthw hile to publicize it and m ake it available in-house for their users. If not, libraries that have a Communications Department as their constitu­ ency should strongly consider providing ac­ cess to CIOS in collaboration with their fac­ ulty.— M a rie M o n teag u d o, V irginia B e a c h , Virginia; oa sisn et@ con cen tric.n et P ro je c t M u s e . A ccess: http://m use.jhu. edu/. If an Internet site can b e said to b e at the crest o f the wave that is the World W ide W eb, it is certainly Project Muse, a full-text journal database o f 40+ titles offered to subscribers by Jo h n s Hopkins University Press (JHUP) and the Milton S. E isenhow er Library. Prototyped in the fall o f 1993, Project Muse was on e o f the first ventures o f its kind, and was designed to exploit the possibilities o f NSCA’s Mosaic client software, then in Beta release. In a very real way, Project Muse is a high exem plar o f the “text-hypertext” fundamental principal that is the W eb. M As u Project gopher-based resources s b ecam e e popu­ lar in 1993, Susan Lewis o f JHUP and Todd Kelley o f the Eisenhow er Library b egan to devise a system for offering the tables o f co n ­ tents o f the JHUP journals online. From its inception, Muse included subject indexing for each article, searching by single journal or multiple journals, and graphics options. It has kept p ace with the explosion o f W eb tech­ nology and is offered to the user in a clean, sim ple format that will never b e out o f style, yet has no need for every HTML innovation, splashy graphics, or frenetic animation. Its look and functionality are in harm ony with the scholarly nature o f its content. The journals that are the content o f Project Muse are indeed high-caliber, research-qual ity representatives o f the humanities, litera­ ture, and mathematics. As o f the end o f 1996, 40 titles w ere available with tw o slated for debut in early 1997. Offerings include: A m eri­ c a n Im a g o : Studies in P sy ch o a n a ly s is a n d Culture, A m erica n Jew ish History, A m erican J o u r n a l o f M a th em atics, C a lla lo o , D iacritics, Eighteenth-Century Life, J o u rna l o f Early Chris­ tian Studies, M odern F iction Studies, Philosophy a n d Literature, P ostm odern Culture, and Reviews in A m erican History. Using the Project Muse online journals is the apotheosis o f the World W ide W eb experien ce. A very intuitive WAIS searching utility called SWISH (Sim ple W eb Indexing System for Hu­ m ans) allows B o o lean searching in single issues, volum es, or across all 40+ titles. W here footnotes e x is t in a r tic le s , th e fo o tn o te n u m b e r is a hyperlink to the article’s bibliography o r notes section. T he subject o f pagination in e-journals is handled in a straightforward m anner by in­ serting [End Page xx] at the proper place. Muse is a pleasure to use. Project Muse is taking a leadership role in addressing som e issues at the forefront o f dis­ cussion on electronic resources for libraries. Sub­ scription to Muse includes unlimited personal access and use including printing and saving to disk and multiple users at a single institution. Muse administrators also offer advice o n cata­ loging their electronic “holdings” and linking to them via the subscriber’s online catalog. O bvi­ ously, the online availability o f journals has col­ lection d evelopm ent implications. T h e print ver­ sions are still considered to b e the “edition o f record ” although the online edition’s contents are the sam e. Muse administrators advise not to can cel print equivalents o f the JH U P titles, as the subscription rate structure offers an incen­ tive to retain b oth formats. Muse’s subscription rates are tailored to dif­ ferent institutions and levels o f use, ranging from an annual $2,500 for unlimited university library use (any num ber o f sim ultaneous users) to the $ 3 0 0 -$ 4 0 0 range for sm aller schoo l or public li­ brary subscriptions with a limited nu m ber o f users. Individual (person al) subscriptions are not yet available. Single titles from P roject Muse are available at 10% o ff the print subscription price, w hile the com plete print and electronic subscrip­ tion cost is only 30% m ore than the print price alone. Although the Project Muse W eb site is still consid ered an experim ent by many, with 350 subscribers it is full o f prom ise and potential for the future. In the search for Internet resources o f quality, scholarly content, reputation, and stable provenance, the Muse database must not b e over­ lo o k e d .— K u rt W. W agner, W illiam P a terso n College o f New Jersey; kurt@ frontier.w ilpaterson. ed u ■ mailto:oasisnet@concentric.net http://muse.jhu