sept06c.indd


I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s  Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost 

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Access: 
http://www.bts.gov. 
Produced by the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics (BTS), this site is intended to supply 
facts and data to Congress, the Department 
of Transportation, federal and state agencies, 
metropolitan planning organizations, and the 
public. With a clear set of objectives cen­
tered on developing and disseminating data 
and information to users, this site provides 
a practical entry point to a wide range of 
statistical content. 

Among the strengths of the site: a promi­
nent link to TranStats, a portal to scores of da­
tabases; the National Transportation Library, 
with search and browse tools and access to a 
digital repository of technical, research, and 
policy documents; and the BTS bookstore, 
offering free downloads of new releases, and 
text box searching for older items, back to 
publication dates in the mid­1990s. 

Because of the somewhat crowded full­
page layout of the site, BTS would seem to fa­
vor the experienced user, and lower division 
undergraduates will require some orientation 
to both the content and the interface. Users 
with a known item in mind will fare best, 
given the search options offered on every 
page, and prominent left and top navigation 
directs users to the site’s main resources. 

While the site features ready­made graph­
ics and some interactivity in data display, it 
offers an additional convenience by pro­
viding data for download in a spreadsheet 
format. Users of statistical packages and GIS 
software will find the Excel format for most 

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for 
public ser vices and collec tion development at 
Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette. 
edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian 
for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: 
cdrost@willamette.edu 

sets convenient, and the scope of data on 
the site addresses a wide variety of informa­
tion needs. 

For example, if a patron is seeking data 
on passenger counts for domestic airline 
carriers, he or she could click on “Data and 
Statistics,” then select “Aviation” from the 
“Data Finder” by mode menu, and then 
select “Summary Tables,” filter by subject, 
then browse a list of results. From there, the 
patron could download the output or choose 
to query databases directly, with the option 
to create a custom table by selecting fi elds 
for analysis, and again download data in a 
spreadsheet format. 

Though navigating the site presents the 
biggest challenge to new users, the site 
map, left menus, and site search tools are a 
welcome aid. Also helpful are the links to ap­
plication plug­ins offered at the bottom of the 
page. The site is updated daily with helpful 
information about pending data and publica­
tion releases. Recommended for librarians, 
faculty, and students somewhat familiar with 
transportation data and experience querying 
databases.—Jeremy Donald, Trinity Univer­
sity, jdonald@trinity.edu 

NOAA/ESRL Global Monitoring Division. Ac­
cess: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov. 
If Al Gore’s fi lm, An Inconvenient Truth, 

has brought global warming even a little 
bit more into our collective consciousness, 
here is one of the many U.S. government 
Web sites that helps explain the science 
behind it. The Global Monitoring Division 
(GMD) is part of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Earth 
System Research Laboratory, which was cre­
ated by combining units after a reorganization 
of NOAA in 2005. 

GMD’s mission is to “observe and under­
stand, through accurate, long­term records 
of atmospheric gases, aerosol particles, 
and solar radiation, the Earth’s atmospheric 
system controlling climate forcing, ozone 

C&RL News September 2006  516 

http:http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov
mailto:jdonald@trinity.edu
mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu
http:http://www.bts.gov


depletion and baseline air quality, in order 
to develop products that will advance global 
and regional environmental information and 
services.” 

GMD has three major areas of focus: 
“Climate Forcing,” “Ozone Depletion,” and 
“Baseline Air Quality.” The site also pro­
vides data and information on six research 
groups: “Aerosols,” “Radiation,” “Carbon 
Cycle Gases,” “Trace Gases,” “Observatory 
Operations,” and “Ozone & Water Vapor.” The 
site describes how climate is being changed 
not just through natural processes but also 
by such mechanisms as “climate forcing” or 
“man­made pollution, through emissions of 
greenhouse gases and aerosols. By altering 
the global energy balance, such mechanisms 
‘force’ the climate to change.” 

GMD is headquartered in Boulder, Colo­
rado, but maintains five observatories in 
northern Alaska, Hawaii, northern Califor­
nia, American Samoa, and the South Pole. 
At these stations, scientists take long­term 
baseline samples of key elements. The current 
and historical data is available and can be 
obtained by FTP directly from the Web site. 
Users will find data sets on carbon monoxide, 
carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons, 
aerosols, radiation, methane, water vapor, 
ozone, and more. 

The site itself is well designed and easy 
to navigate, with many useful charts and 
graphs that discuss the long­term measure­
ments that demonstrate the changes in our 
climate. There are links to related agencies, 
data centers and programs. Users can search 
the GMD site for content or images using a 
search engine powered by Google or search 
an extensive list of GMD publications back 
to 1992. 

For scientists or students studying climate 
change, the GMD site is a useful tool with 
clear explanations and long­term data on this 
vital topic.—Kate Peterson, St. Cloud State 
University, jcpeterson@stcloudstate.edu 

State of the News Media 2006: An Annual 
Report on American Journalism. Access: 
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2006 
/index.asp. 
The Roman satirist Juvenal famously asked 

the question “But who watches the watch­
men?” To twist the phrase a bit, if the news 
media are viewed as the watchers or the 
watchdogs of our democracy, who watches 
over them? This site provides one answer. 

Produced by the Project for Excellence in 
Journalism, an affiliate of the Pew Research 
Center, this site provides a detailed report on 
the effectiveness of all aspects of the news 
media over the past year. This is the third year 
the report has been issued, and reports from 
the previous two years are also available. 

At more than 178,000 words, the report 
is divided into 12 chapters. Included are an 
overview of the report; “A Day in the Life of 
the Media”; chapters on each form of media 
(newspapers, online, network television, 
cable television, local television, magazines, 
radio, and ethnic and alternative media); a 
survey of the attitudes and opinions journal­
ists hold regarding their profession; and, 
finally, a chapter explaining the methodol­
ogy of the study, information on the authors 
and collaborators, and a bibliography of the 
sources used to create the study. 

Within each chapter are sections focus­
ing on areas specific to that chapter. As an 
example, the chapter “A Day in the Life of 
the Media” selects one day’s worth of news 
coverage—May 11, 2005—to examine in 
depth. This section is further broken down 
by news media type (newspaper, online, 
etc.), which allows a concentrated view of 
how that specific medium dealt with the news 
events of that day. Stories covered, strengths 
in reportage, and bias of reporting are among 
topics examined. 

The chapters dealing with individual 
media include separate introductions and 
sections on content analysis, audience, eco­
nomics, ownership, news investment, public 
attitude, and charts and tables. All charts and 
tables, which illustrate the statistical data 

(continued on page 524) 

September 2006  517 C&RL News 

http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2006
mailto:jcpeterson@stcloudstate.edu


to 1983 he served as head of reference at 
DePauw University. From 1983 to 1995 
he served as director of library services at 
Eckerd College, and from 1995 to 2004 he 
served as college librarian at Austin College. 
He returned to the University of Nebraska­
Kearney in 2004 to serve his alma mater 
as the dean of the library. Long active in 
ACRL, Hardesty has served in numerous of­
fices, including on the ACRL Board of Di­
rectors (1987–91), chair of the College Li­
braries Section (1995–96), president of ACRL 
(1999–2000), and chair of the 11th ACRL 
National Conference (2003)—which set a 
record for attendance. As ACRL president, 

he initiated the Excel­
lence in Academic Li­
braries Award. He re­
cently ended terms as 
councilor­at­large on 
the ALA Council, chair 
of the ALA Council 
Resolutions Commit­
tee, and chair of the 
ACRL Task Force on 
Awards. While at Eck­
erd College, Hardesty 

organized five Earlham College­Eckerd Col­
lege Bibliographic Instruction Conferences 
held from 1984 to 1992, which resulted in 
the publication, Bibliographic Instruction 
in Practice (Pierian Press 1992). His other 
monographs include Faculty and the Li­
brary (Ablex 1991), and Books, Bytes and 
Bridges (ALA 2001). His article “Faculty At­
titudes towards the Library” was published 
in Library Trends and received ACRL’s In­
struction Section’s Publication of the Year 
Award in 1995. Hardesty received ACRL’s 
Academic/Research Librarian of the Year 
Award in 2001. Hardesty is currently edit­
ing a book on the library and the fi rst­year 
experience to be published by the National 
Center for the First­Year Experience and 
Students in Transition and to be jointly dis­
tributed by the center and ACRL. Hardesty 
will continue to serve as the founding di­
rector the College Library Directors’ Mentor 
program (during the past 14 years he has 

Larry Hardesty 

matched more than 200 fi rst­year college 
library directors with mentors). 

D e a t h s  

Alan Clark, member of the Woodruff Li­
brary staff at Emory University, passed in 
February 2006 after a long illness. He began 
his career at Emory in 1972 in a circulation 
staff position, while working on a Ph.D. in 
religion. In 1977 he accepted a position as 
reference librarian. Clark served as acting 
head of the reference department from the 
fall of 1994 through the summer of 1995, 
leaving the library in 1997. For many years 
Clark literally served as the voice of the li­
brary; his speaking voice was used to record 
the library’s offi cial messages. 

(“The China Mission” cont. from page 507) 

between academic librarians from the People’s 
Republic of China and the United States was 
accomplished with great enthusiasm by both 
delegations. The opportunity for a true world 
wide web of information was created by the 
open discussion of academic library issues 
and ideas, thereby permanently transfi guring 
the path of Chinese librarianship (in accepting 
other perspectives on information) and inform­
ing American librarians of worldwide advance­
ments in information technologies. 

(“Internet Reviews” continued from page 517) 

from the study, are available together in a 
separate section in addition to their inclusion 
separately in appropriate chapters. 

“Roundtable” is a virtual discussion with 
industry leaders. Most roundtables are not 
available, but users may request an e­mail 
notification when that section is completed. 

The site is easy to navigate, with chapter 
and sections links on each page. It is simple 
in layout, with an attractive balance of text 
and image. Recommended for journalism stu­
dents and others with an interest in “watching 
the watchdogs.”—Ford Schmidt, Willamette 
University, fschmidt@willamette.edu 

C&RL News September 2006  524 

mailto:fschmidt@willamette.edu