may09c.indd


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

Council on Foreign Relations. Access: http:// 
www.cfr.org/. 
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) 

Web site provides information about the 
88­year­old American nonpartisan “think 
tank,” assembling a comprehensive array of 
in­house publications, as well as external 
material focusing on international affairs 
and American foreign policy. 

The vast amount of information on 
the site is organized and cross­referenced 
by region, issue, and publication type. 
Included are materials created by CFR, 
such as on­the­record meeting transcripts; 
audio recordings and streaming videos; 
summaries of global news and analysis; 
Congressional testimony; articles from 
CFR’s Foreign Affairs magazine; blogs; 
policy briefs; journal articles by the CFR’s 
fellows; and other useful internal sources. 
The site also incorporates materials from 
external sources, such as newspaper edito­
rials from around the nation and world, pri­
mary source documents, and authoritative 
Internet sources focusing on international 
relations and foreign policy. 

In the section “Need to Know,” CFR staff 
compiled a helpful guide to resources of 
“what international affairs policy­makers, 
academics, and journalists are saying, 
writing, and reading in newspapers, 
blogs, books, television talks shows, and 
elsewhere.” 

In the section “For Educators,” the CFR 
staff has developed teaching and learning 
materials for educators and students, and 
opportunities for them to have discussions 
with CFR fellows and experts. 

Of particular note, the advanced search 
options for the site’s search engine are 

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 

first­rate. Users can limit their search by 
publication type, region, or issue. This is 
an essential feature because of the sub­
stantial and diverse amount of information 
accessible to users. It is easy to get over­
whelmed by the headings, images, and op­
tions available on the homepage. Another 
stellar feature is the “Experts’ Page” where 
the user can view CFR experts and their 
areas of expertise by topic, region, issue, 
or alphabetically. 

The CFR Web site is an authoritative 
resource and highly recommended for 
students, educators, journalists, policy­
makers, and anyone who wants to learn 
more about foreign affairs. It is a splendid 
site to explore and to bookmark for every­
day reading.—Colleen Lougen, SUNY at New 
Paltz, lougenc@newpaltz.edu 

Office of Minority Health. Access: http:// 
www.omhrc.gov. 
The Office of Minority Health (OMH) 

was established by the U.S. Department 
of Health and Human Services in 1986. 
Its mission is “to improve and protect the 
health of racial and ethnic minority popu­
lations through the development of health 
policies and programs that will eliminate 
health disparities.” 

Users with varying levels of health infor­
mation needs, especially as they relate to 
racial and minority health, will fi nd much 
of this Web site to be of value. While some 
of the information, such as the overview 
of federal data on race and ethnicity or 
various health­related data, may be ap­
plicable to several user groups (e.g., high 
school or first­year college students), other 
content is targeted towards a specifi c audi­
ence. For example, the site contains health 
professional materials as well as consumer 
publications. 

The OMH Web site appears to serve two 
purposes. First, it educates users about the 
activities of OMH, which includes several 

310C&RL News May 2009

http:www.omhrc.gov
mailto:lougenc@newpaltz.edu
mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu
http:www.cfr.org


services and initiatives. Second, it educates 
users about health disparities by making ac­
cessible health­related information, with a 
focus on minority populations. The “Data/ 
Statistics” section of the Web site provides 
quick facts and statistical reports produced 
by OMH on various minority groups. In 
addition, this section includes a summary 
of and links to census data. 

While some of the content is authored 
by OMH, such as the daily Health News 
articles, additional content is accessible 
through external links. While most of these 
links are to related government agencies, 
such as the Department of Health and 
Human Services, other sources include 
nonprofit organizations and academic 
institutions. 

The content authored by OMH, for the 
most part, has been modified or published 
within the past few years. However, the 
currency of the content from external 
sources varies. The astounding volume 
and variety of information that is acces­
sible from the OMH homepage could be 
overwhelming to its users. 

All levels of users will appreciate the 
toolbar, search box, and site map to help 
navigate through the site and locate specifi c 
content.—Jo-Anne Petropoulos, McMaster 
University, petroja@mcmaster.ca 

UNESCO. Access: http://www.unesco.org. 
Created and maintained by the United 

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 
Organization (UNESCO), this Web site is 
a treasure of great information, and, un­
like its parent organization’s Web site, the 
UNESCO site is extremely well organized 
and easy to navigate. The main themes 
include “Education,” “Natural Sciences,” 
“Social and Human Sciences,” “Culture,” 
and “Communication and Information.” 

Each of these themes has numerous 
subthemes. The site also has a “Special 
Themes” section, which reflects a “transdis­
ciplinary approach.” The content is equally 
useful for students, teachers, researchers, 
and the general public. 

The basic structure of the site is almost 
uniformly consistent throughout all the 
pages; “Themes,” “Worldwide” (geographic 
regions), and “Communities” are clearly 
outlined in the left navigation. The right 
navigation includes information about the 
organization and its subsidiaries as well 
as the “Services” provided for each of the 
subsidiaries. The top navigation provides 
several language options (English, French, 
Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese) as 
well as a site map and search box. The bot­
tom navigation links to “Online Bookshop,” 
“Newsletter,” and a fabulous “Photobank,” 
as well as contact information, terms of 
use, and update information. The center 
of the homepage is used to highlight cur­
rent issues, news, and recent publications. 

For college research purposes the 
“Services” section is extremely useful. It 
provides, among others, links to reports, 
journals, and official documents. Though 
the various “Themes” do not use a uniform 
interface, they are generally very easy to 
use. 

For example, the “Natural Sciences” sec­
tion has more than 15 subsections, includ­
ing topics such as “Freshwater,” “Oceans,” 
“Earth Sciences,” “Science Policy and 
Sustainable Development,” and “Women 
and Science.” 

Within “Freshwater” you can find a 
glossary of hydrology terms, case stud­
ies, a portal to other Web sites on very 
specific water environments, a searchable 
database of all International Hydrological 
Programme publications, information on 
the World Water Day 2009, and, though 
for this topic somewhat limited, a great 
photo library on water themes from around 
the world. 

The UNESCO Web portal is well worth 
the time to explore. Its easy interface 
means it does not take much time to be­
come familiar with its wealth of resourc­
es—something that students and research­
ers alike may find very useful.—Susanne 
Clement, Utah State University, susanne. 
clement@usu.edu 

May 2009  311 C&RL News 

mailto:clement@usu.edu
http:http://www.unesco.org
mailto:petroja@mcmaster.ca