ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


5 4 4 /C&RL News ■ M a y 2001

Joni Robertsand 
I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s Carol Drost, editors

C y b e rA tla s. Access: h t t p : / / c y b e r a t l a s .
internet.com .
Internet technology permeates almost every 

area of daily life. Researchers want data, statistics, 
and survey information about this booming in­
dustry. Established in 1996, CyberAtlas pulls to­
gether information about the Internet from a va­
riety of Web-based resources.

Rather than conducting its ow n research, 
CyberAtlas gathers Internet-related surveys and 
data from governmental, educational, commer­
cial, and independent organizations and pre­
sents this information in two major groups: 
“Big Picture” and “Markets.” “Big Picture” in­
cludes the subcategories o f statistics toolbox, 
dem ographics, geographies, hardw are, and 
traffic patterns. “Markets” covers advertising, 
B-to-B (business-to-business communications), 
broadband, education, finance, healthcare, 
professional, retailing, small business, travel, 
and wireless.

New articles are added daily, and older ar­
ticles are archived (dating back to October 1998). 
Examples o f article 
to p ic s in c lu d e  th e 
m ost highly visited 
sites on  the Web, dot 
com  c areer trends, 
n u m b e rs  o f w ire d  
c la s s ro o m s  in th e  
United States, and the 
la te s t in  w ir e le s s  
technology. A free 
text search with Boolean operators allows the 
user to search the entire CyberAtlas site. Each 
article summarizes the original study or sur­
vey presented and provides a link to the source 
o f the information. Articles can be e-mailed or 
reformatted for printing.

Although CyberAtlas does have guidelines 
for the types of information it will present on 
the site, it does not com m ent on the validity 
or thoroughness of the survey m ethods used 
by the original producer of the information. 
Users o f the site may w ant to visit the original 
source o f the information to find out w hat 
m ethods of data collection and analysis were 
u se d  to p ro d u c e  the results p re se n te d  by 
CyberAtlas.

While this resource comes from the com ­
mercial sector, all of the information presented 
is free. The site is not commercial-free, though; 
ads for software and hardware appear through­
o u t C y b e rA tla s, w h ic h  is o w n e d  b y  
internet.com . CyberAtlas does not include in­
formation on  specific products and services.

This site will prove to b e helpful for any­
one doing research on the Internet, its use, 
and future Internet technologies. It w ould be 
particularly useful to students in business, mar­
keting, education, com puter science, journal­
ism, political science, and the health sciences.— 
Dorαlyn H. Edwards, University o f  Wyoming, 
doralyn@uuryo. edi i

IF IC : I n t e r n a t io n a l Fo o d  In f o r ­
mation Council Foundation. Access: 
http://ificinfo.health.org.
The International Food Information Coun­

cil Foundation (IFIC) is a nonprofit organiza­
tion founded in 1985 to make scientific re­
search reports in the field of food safety and 

h e alth  m ore easily 
understood by edu­
ca to rs, jo u rn a lists, 
and others w ho pro­
vide inform ation to 
consumers. Its focus 
is primarily on  U.S. 
issu es, b u t it also 
works with indepen­
dent food organiza­

tions in other countries. The food, beverage, 
and agricultural industries support IFIC.

The site is organized into sections such as 
“W hat’s N ew ,” “Food Safety an d  Nutrition 
Information,” “Information for Reporters,” and 
“Inform ation for Educators.” There is also a 
link to IFIC’s bim onthly publication, Food 
Insight. The site is easily searchable using 
Boolean operators an d  presents information 
from  1993 to 2001, b ut som e of the inform a­
tion o n  timely topics seem s to b e dated.

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r public 
services and collection developm ent a t W illa m e tte  
University, e-mail:jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. 
Drost is associate university librarian fo r technical services 
at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu

http://cyberatlas
internet.com
internet.com
http://ificinfo.health.org
mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu
mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu


C&RL News ■ M ay 2001 / 545

The strength of the site is the suggested 
guidelines for critically evaluating information 
about food and health. These guidelines ap­
pear throughout the site, but are covered in­
depth in “Information for Reporters.” O ne in­
formative article offers a guide to understand­
ing and interpreting scientific papers and in­
cludes a description of the methodologies and 
key definitions. Journalism and communica­
tion students, or others concerned with evalu­
ating information may find these pages useful.

The inform ation provided for educators 
is limited, including a small num ber of sample 
lesson plans and articles. The rest of the page 
lists Food Insight reprints and other materials 
that m ay b e purchased from IFIC.

“Food Safety and Nutrition Inform ation” 
is bro k en  dow n into subjects ranging from 
biotechnology and food to health tips. The 
m any articles in this section tend to vary in 
depth and quality; som e have authors and 
references and others do not. Most are too 
shallow  for an undergraduate research p a ­
per, b ut the general public may find them 
useful. All the articles support the use of bio­
technology in agriculture. No m ention is made 
of the opposing arguments.

With the exception of the evaluation in­
formation, the site is perhaps too superficial 
to b e of m uch use to college students. By 
trying to m ake the information m ore u n d er­
standable for the general public, IFIC has 
w atered do w n  its usefulness for academic 
papers. Nevertheless, the site m ay provide 
students w ith a starting point for research. 
— CarolMcCulley, Linfield College, cmccull@ 
linfield.edu

Editors’ note: IFIC informs us that they will 
soon b e releasing a revised version of their 
site at http://ific.org.

o p e n s e c r e t s . o r g . Access.- h ttp ://w w w .
opensecrets.org.
This site is maintained by the Center for 

Responsive Politics, which describes itself as 
“a non-partisan, nonprofit research group . . . 
that tracks m oney in politics,” mostly at the 
federal level. It accepts no  money from busi­
nesses or labor unions. Its aim is “creating a 
more educated voter, an involved citizenry, 
and a more responsive government.”

The site offers a tour, quickly introducing a 
user to the kinds of information available and 
giving examples of how  to analyze the data. 
Nearly all the data originates from the Federal 
Election Commission (FEC) and is clearly pre­
sented in easy-to-read tables, graphs, and logi­
cally organized links. The fundamental prob­
lem with any site relying on FEC data is that 
m uch cam paign financing is controlled by 
groups using legal loopholes, such as issue 
advertising, to avoid putting any information 
on the public record.

The site’s information is arranged in four 
broad categories: “W ho’s Giving," “W ho’s Get­
ting,” “Get Local,” and “News and Issues.” 
“W ho’s Giving” profiles 121 industries, labor 
unions, and single-issue groups. Each profile 
contains a summary of donations going back 
to 1990, a list of top contributors, and a list of 
all recipients. It is also possible to look up 
individual donors, companies, PACs, and soft- 
money contributors. The database includes all 
donations of $200 or more reported to FEC.

“Who’s Getting” covers the presidential race, 
congressional races, Congress itself, congres­
sional committees, and political parties. Pro­
files o f individual politicians list contributions 
by geographical area, sector, industries or in­
terest groups, PACs, and individuals. Each 
m em ber o f Congress has a link to descriptions 
o f legislation he or she sponsored. Each con­
gressional committee’s jurisdiction, member­
ship, and the top contributors to each mem­
ber are provided. “Get Local” provides access 
to data aπanged geographically. Again, the data 
describes w ho gives and w ho gets at the fed­
eral level. O ne can look at the data from a 
statewide perspective dow n to contributions 
listed by zip code. Many of the state profiles 
contain links to other sites with state-level in­
formation on campaign finance. “News and 
Issues” includes descriptions of current hot 
topics, such as prescription drugs, with lists of 
contributions made by interested parties, for 
example the pharmaceutical industry.

Professors, upper-level undergraduates and 
graduate students in such fields as political sci­
ence, journalism, and law w ould find the in­
formation at opensecrets.com valuable.

An earlier version of this site was previ­
ously re v ie w e d  by D oralyn H. Edw ards, 
“Internet Reviews,” C&RL News 59 (1998): 
709-— Sarah Cogan, Eastern Michigan Univer­
sity Library, sarah.cogan@online.emich.edu ■

linfield.edu
http://ific.org
opensecrets.org
opensecrets.org
opensecrets.com
mailto:sarah.cogan@online.emich.edu