ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


December 1996/ 777

Reference Reviews Eu- 
rope/IFB Abstracts.
Access: h t t p : / / w w w . 
library.upenn.edu/ifb a/. 

Reference Reviews E urope/ 
IFB Abstracts is a quarterly 
c o m pilation o f review s of 
reference w orks an d  bibli­
ographies selected from the 
G e r m a n  r e v i e w  jo u r n a l 
I n fo r m a tio n s m itte l f ü r  
Bibliotheken ( Inform ation 
Sources fo r  Libraries). The 
r e v ie w s  a re  E n g lish -la n - 
guage sum maries of the Ger­
m an originals an d  are addressed primarily to 
academ ic librarians w ho w ish to acquire Euro­
pean reference sources for their collections. The 
reviewers are a team  of North American and 
British librarians. Sources include w orks in bib­
liography, th e humanities, the social sciences, 
history and area studies, an d  a few  in the sci­
ences. Although m ost o f the original w orks are 
in G erman, som e are in o ther E uropean lan­
guages. T he online files b eg in  w ith a 1994 
“backfile” an d  have ap p eared  quarterly since 
then. T here are nearly 90 reviews in the latest 
compilation. Each review, according to the edi­
tors, attem pts to convey the scope o f the work, 
a sum m ary o f its strengths and w eaknesses, a 
bottom -line evaluation, and, w h en  relevant, an 
assessm ent of related titles. T he reviews in each 
issue are arranged by broad subject area.

The W orld Wide W eb presentation o f this 
very substantial w ork is both attractive and utili­
tarian. The site is enhanced by a carefully writ­
ten introduction entitled “Learn m ore about Ref­
erence Reviews Europe/IFB Abstracts,” a search 
engine w hich perm its searching o f the entire 
database by keyw ord, good navigational links, 
and the use o f diacritics. Reference librarians, 
acquisitions librarians, and serious students of 
E uropean culture will w ant to visit this site of­
ten.—  W. Thomas Nichol, College o f St. Benedict 
& S t.Jo h n ’s University; tnichol@csbsju.edu

M y  Virtual Reference Desk. Access: http: 
/ / w w w .refdesk.com .

W inner of m ore than three dozen W orld Wide 
W eb-based aw ards, this one m an show  and la­
bor of love from social w orker and son o f a 
librarian Robert D rudge provides a trem endous 
service to  the academ ic comm unity. Librarians

can safely sen d  nearly any 
patron to these pages, from 
freshm an Net neophytes to 
scholars an d  subject special­
ists. D rudge’s m ission state­
m ent for My Virtual Refer­
ence Desk (MVRD) defines 
th r e e  g o a ls  fo r th e  site: 
quick access, intuitive and 
easy navigation, and com ­
prehensive an d  logically in­
dexed content. MVRD suc­
ceeds at each turn.

T h e te x t-b a s e d  d e fa u lt 
opening page loads quickly, 

w hile offering the choice o f a som ew hat more 
graphics-rich hom epage. The rem aining pages 
are simply designed and bare o f cum bersom e 
graphics, well organized and executed, and easy 
to navigate. A thorough table of contents page 
maps the site nicely and links to a treasure trove 
of Net resources o n  the prim ary pages. For 
quick information, the “First Things First” page 
includes links to w ire and new s services an d  to 
current stock quotes, and includes a “Features” 
section devoted to everything from NASA’s as­
tronom y photograph o f the day to  the USA To­
day crossw ord puzzle. “Virtual Facts o n  File” 
functions as an alm anac o f the Web, w ith links 
to everything from m apping sites to dictionar­
ies of scientific quotations, an d  includes doz­
ens o f links targeted for librarians— from in­
dexes of library W eb pages an d  online catalogs 
to lists of library vendors.

“My Daily Almanac” also provides valuable 
links and more quick answers to reference ques­
tions, an d  leads patrons to a num ber of excel­
lent sites devoted to “this day in history” to p ­
ics. The “My Virtual N ew spaper” page opens 
w ith a variety o f links to w eather sites around 
the w orld, follows w ith links to AP, UPI, and 
Reuters w ire services, then points u p  new spa­
p e r sites by regions w orldw ide. In th e “Latin & 
South American N ew spapers” section, for in­
stance, there are links to 14 Mexican new spa­
pers alone.

From th e “My Virtual E ncyclopedia” page 
one may discover, via three dozen topical head ­
ings, a w ealth o f content-based Internet sites. 
“Books an d  Literature,” for exam ple, links to

Sara Amato is automated systems librarian at Central 
Washington University; samato@tahoma.cwu.edu

Internet 
Reviews

Sαrα Amαto, editor

http://www
mailto:tnichol@csbsju.edu
http://www.refdesk.com
mailto:samato@tahoma.civu.edu


778/C&RL News

nearly 200 sites ranging from  th e  full text of 
A u ste n ’s Sense a n d  Sensibility to  C olum bia 
University’s Complete Poetical Works o f William 
Wordsworth. T he history links range from  the 
general, including a succinct essay from  Indi­
ana University’s D ep artm en t o f Classical Stud­
ies entitled “T he A ncient City o f A then,” to  sites 
for th e scholar o r specialist, including an  ex­
cellent directory o f W eb-based sites for histori­
ans.

C om prehensive en o u g h  to  link u n d erg rad u ­
ates to  a universe o f inform ation, yet n o t nearly 
as overw helm ing as Y ahoo or Internet search 
en g in e retrieval sets, MVRD could w ell prove 
v a lu a b le  in  in tro d u c to ry  lib rary  in s tru c tio n  
classes. Reference librarians, too, sho u ld  sp en d  
the tim e to fam iliarize them selves w ith these 
rich pages. If you d o  no t have a bo o k m ark  for 
MVRD, m ake o n e  im m ediately.—John Creech, 
California State University, Monterey Bay

The N ational Clearinghouse for Bilin­
gual Education (NCBE). Access: h ttp :// 
w w w .n c b e .g w u .e d u /.

T he National C learinghouse for Bilingual E du­
cation is fu n d e d  by the Office o f Bilingual E du­
c a t i o n  a n d  M in o r ity  L a n g u a g e s  A ffa irs 
(OBEMLA), u n d e r th e auspices o f th e  U.S. D e­
p artm en t o f E ducation. L aunched in D ecem ber 
1995, th e  NCBE W eb site resides at G eorge 
W ashington University an d  is m aintained by its 
G raduate School o f E ducation an d  H um an D e­
v elopm ent. Partners include th e ERIC Clearing­
h o u se o n  U rban E ducation a n d  th e Linguistic 
M inority Research Institute o f UC-Santa B arbara 
an d  UCLA.

NCBE is a m ajor electronic clearinghouse 
providing access to a treasu re trove o f research 
reports, full-text journal articles, softw are re­
view s, electronic databases a n d  directories, an d  
a m yriad o f W eb sites an d  o th er Internet re­
sources related to  th e th eo ry  an d  practice of 
bilingual education. Related areas such as im ­
m igration an d  lan g u ag e policy issues in th e 
U nited States, educational technology, linguis­
tics, TESOL/ESL, an d  cultural diversity an d  e th ­

nic studies are also w ell represented. An effi­
cient search en g in e is featured prom inently on 
th e m ain m e n u  a n d  elsew here (a w elcom e n e ­
cessity in a research-oriented site o f this size), 
a n d  a w ell-designed, text-only version is avail­
able for users w ith o u t graphics-capable brow s­
ers.

T he m ain m en u  o f NCBE organizes infor­
m ation in nine concise m ajor areas. O f special 
interest to librarians will b e  th e “O nline Library” 
w hich provides easy access to full-text journal 
articles, reports, recen t bibliographies, a n d  ex­
ternal resources such as the ERIC Digests an d  
th e m assive TESOL Library. Elsew here, a “T ech­
nical A ssistance N etw ork” functions as a n  elec­
tronic directory, providing an n o tated  links to 
W eb sites a n d  resources such as th e U.S. D e­
p artm en t o f E ducation, OBEMLA, state ed u c a ­
tion resources a n d  o ther online education clear­
inghouses, laboratories, dev elo p m en t centers, 
an d  netw orks. NCBE users can also co n n ect to 
a variety o f u n iq u e  databases such as th e  T ech­
nology in the Curriculum  (TIC) Evaluations D a­
tabase from  th e  California Instructional T ech­
n o lo g y  C learin g h o u se, a n d  to  NCBE’s o w n  
bibliographic database. The “Language an d  Edu­
cation” section points to highly useful W eb sites 
o n  the general topics o f education, bilingual 
ed u catio n  a n d  ESL, language a n d  culture, tech ­
nology, a n d  publishers a n d  distributors o f vari­
ous educational products. Many languages an d  
cultures are covered, b u t particular em phasis 
is given to  th e tw elve languages sp o k en  by most 
Limited English Proficient students in th e U.S., 
these b ein g  Spanish, V ietnam ese, H m ong, vari­
ous C hinese languages a n d  dialects, C am bo­
dian, K orean, Lao, various Native Am erican lan­
guages, Tagalog, Russian, Haitian, an d  Arabic.

NCBE will b e  a valuable site for faculty an d  
students from  a variety o f disciplines. For ex ­
am ple, th e ethnic studies stu d en t looking for 
inform ation o n  preserving Native A m erican lan­
guages, the Rhetoric 101 stu d en t looking for 
b o th  sides o f th e  arg u m en t o n  th e  “English 
O nly” debate, th e  ESL teac h er looking for lan­
guage softw are review s o r professional devel­
o p m e n t o p p o rtu n ities, a n d  academ ic faculty 
seeking articles o n  th e  m ulticultural classroom  
will all find inform ation o n  th eir topics here. In 
sum , th e  NCBE W eb site is an authoritative an d  
highly reco m m en d ed  resource for an y o n e in­
terested  in th e  intersection o f languages, cul­
tural diversity, an d  education.— Susan A. Vega 
G arcia, Io w a  S ta te  U n ive rsity Library; 
savega@iastate.edu ■

http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/
mailto:savega@iastate.edu