feb09c.indd I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost Arctic Circle. Access: http://arcticcircle.uconn. edu/index.html. Created and maintained by Norman Chance, head of anthropology at the Uni­ versity of Connecticut, this site is an index of links that aims to highlight the history, present and future of the Arctic, including the subarctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Siberia, and Russia. The site focuses on natural re­ sources, history, culture, social equity, and environmental justice. Some of the scholarly content is created by Chance based on his research (hosted on the “arcticcircle” domain) and some is linked to Web pages outside of the site. The Arctic Circle homepage is com­ prised of five main headings. Each section consists of a collection of links, which are comprised of photographs, maps, articles, and Web pages. The main headings include natural resources, history, and culture, plus a virtual museum and classroom. The virtual museum contains links to art, photography, and anthropology exhibits online. The vir­ tual classroom contains case studies written with help from Native northerners and other researchers as a means of distance learn­ ing for college, university, and high school students who wish to learn more about the Arctic. A lefthand menu on the homepage provides links to an introduction to the site, as well as a welcome message from Chance, maps and GIS images, and a link to other resources on the Circumpolar North. A handy feature of the site is the “Search” link in the lefthand navigation menu. This allows the user to search the site for key­ words through a Google custom search box. This makes the site much more functional, 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 since the homepage contains such a vast array of information and resources. The sheer volume of information con­ tained on Arctic Circle may make it a little daunting to the layperson. However, for someone interested in Arctic research or learning more about the political history of the lands, or the environmental issues facing the North, this site is a wealth of information. As an index of links, it acts as a fi nding aid and a guide to online information about the Arctic, as well as provides researchers and students with important contacts in the fi eld. —Allison Bell, University of Toronto, allison.bell@utoronto.ca Diplomacy Monitor. Access: http://www. diplomacymonitor.com. In this current age of global information, so­called “e­diplomacy,” or “Internet­based diplomacy,” has become an increasingly important means of intergovernmental communication. Diplomacy Monitor, maintained by the St. Thomas University School of Law, gathers and organizes information from hundreds of international relations and di­ plomacy­related Web sites from around the globe. With near real­time updates, users can easily monitor the progression of world diplomatic affairs on a day­to­day basis. The site includes a number of helpful analytical tools that allow for simple brows­ ing­style searches such as: “Documents By Region,” “Documents By Issue,” “By Nation (Source),” “By Nation (Affected),” “Nation To Nation,” and “Nation To Issue.” The “Documents By Issue” section is divided into two main parts: Current Issues (e.g., “Iran Nuclear,” “Piracy,” “Sudan”) and Standing Issues (e.g., “Climate Change,” “Landmines,” “Water”). The Quick Links along the top of the homepage and down the lefthand side of all other pages include: “Major Documents,” C&RL News February 2009 126 http:diplomacymonitor.com http://www mailto:allison.bell@utoronto.ca mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu http://arcticcircle.uconn “All Documents,” “Dialogue,” “Human Rights,” and “Commerce/Trade.” However, there is no explanation of what constitutes a “major document.” This is something that might be helpful for someone seeking to understand how or why documents are chosen. Additional information about the emer­ gence and importance of Internet­based di­ plomacy is provided via an excellent “Inter­ net and Diplomacy Bibliography,” complete with full­text links for each entry. One drawback of the site is its lack of any advanced search options; however ,the single search box on the homepage does al­ low Boolean searching and a “Sort By Date” option on the results screen (the default be­ ing “Sort By Relevance”). There is also a link explaining full­text searching using Boolean logic and how relevance is determined. Overall, Diplomacy Monitor is user­ friendly and easy to navigate. In an academic context, it would be especially recommended for teachers and professors, scholars, or students of political science, particularly in the areas of international studies, global politics, and economic or political foreign relations. It is also important to note that Diplo­ macy Monitor would really only be useful for researchers of very current diplomatic news and interactions, as the archive of documents monitored only goes back 90 days.—Todd J. Wiebe, Hope College Librar­ ies, wiebe@hope.edu The Royal Historical Society Bibliography. Access: http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/. Britain’s Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, has created an extensive bibliography of British and Irish history (in conjunction with the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research, Irish History Online, and London’s Past Online). Schol­ ars (and amateur historians as well) will fi nd a wealth of British and Irish historical, bibliographic information here, dating from the Roman conquest of Britain in 55 B.C. to the present. The online bibliography is extensive (nearly 446,000 entries, with more than 600 journals represented), current (updated three times per year), and open to all users. Searching can be accomplished in the usual basic or advanced methods, as well as by keyword, title, author, and subject. However, researchers can search by us­ ing unique thematic guides—in this case, for material dealing with English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh countries, as well as 20th­century British Prime Ministers. Another useful way to search the RHS bibliography is via the subject classifi ca­ tion scheme link, found on the homepage. Clicking this link opens a new window containing various subject listings (includ­ ing military affairs, economics, religion, and technology), which can be added into a search term builder with the click of a mouse. Given all the information available on this Web site, the researcher may be over­ whelmed. A good starting place for any first­time visitor would be the “Tutorials” page; an introduction and overview of the site, as well as helpful searching strategies, are available in Word and PDF. Researchers can also search or browse the latest added material to the RHS bibliography. The Web site’s ease of navigation is ex­ cellent—only one click is needed to arrive at the search page. One drawback of the site, however, is that some of the pages contain too much information, creating an unattractive and hard­to­read page. Perhaps adding some historical graph­ ics or other illustrations could break the monotony of the text and enliven the Web site a bit more. Nevertheless, the Royal Historical Soci­ ety has performed a singular service to the worldwide historical community with the creation of this extensive and unique online bibliography. Highly recommended as a research Web site for scholars and amateur historians.—Larry Cooperman, Everglades University, lcooperman@evergladesuniver­ sity.edu February 2009 127 C&RL News http:sity.edu http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl mailto:wiebe@hope.edu