ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries March 1997 / 197 Internet Reviews S a ra Am ato, editor P e te rso n ’ s Ed u catio n Center. Access: http:// www.petersons.com . In offering excerpts from its respected series o f education d ir e c to r ie s , P e te r s o n ’s Guides has created a useful Web site. Designed for pro­ spective students and poten­ tial buyers o f its print and CD-ROM guidebooks, Peter­ son’s Education Center cov­ ers p r iv a te s e c o n d a ry schools, two- and four-year colleges, graduate and pro­ fessional schools, and summer, study abroad, and language programs. In the job section, the listing o f summer camp jobs is currently ex­ panding to include a much wider range o f em­ ployers. As an added bonus, there is advice to prospective students and their parents and re­ sults o f annual surveys o f colleges and prep schools are presented. While Peterson’s offers a sophisticated search engine that allows for truncation, boolean logic (and, or, not), proximity operators (near, phrase, sentence, paragraph), and features designed to take advantage o f its relevance ranking engine (accrue, many), it is limited in its usefulness because it is searching narratives taken from Peterson’s various print publications rather than data elements like those found in a formal da­ tabase. Users might be better served using the alphabetical and geographical listings, or in the case o f the college section, searching one o f the W eb sites listed b elow and coming back to Peterson’s to read the descriptions. Several W eb sites offer search engines that com plem ent Peterson ’s Education Center. College V iew (http://w w w .collegev ie w .com/) offers the most comprehensive college data­ base, allowing searches by field o f study, loca­ tion, student body size, coed vs single sex, eth­ nic mix, religious affiliation, athletic programs, special programs, service to the disabled, and type o f c o lle g e . T h e C o lleg eN E T (http:// www.collegenet.com/) engine search criteria include region, size o f student body, tuition, majors, sports, and type o f college. U.S. News & World Reports Colleges and Careers Center ( h ttp :/ / w w w .u s n e w s .c o m / u s n e w s / e d u / home.htm) search engine criteria include school name, region, campus setting, school size, se­ lectivity, majors offered, and cost for the colleges they rank. The inform ation about individual institutions varies at each site and might in­ clude anything from a simple address and contact name to an in-depth description. All o f these sites offer the op ­ portunity to ask for more in­ formation or to apply for ad­ mittance. Students would be well advised to search more than one site. Peterson’s Education Center is one o f the premier educational directories on the Web. In conjunction with the databases listed above and a visit to a college’s official W eb site (Christina DeMello provides a good list o f colleges and universities with W eb sites at http://www.mit. edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html), there is little need to refer to print resources. For those w ho want still more information, Peterson’s makes it possible to order its print publications online in its “bookstore.” Peterson’s full data­ base is also available electron ically on a SilverPlatter CD-ROM or on Dialog and will soon be licensed as GradSearch on the GaleNet W eb site.— Mark Emmons, Occidental College Library; mee@oxy.edu W ater Resources of the United States. Access: http://h2o.usgs.gov/. Provided and maintained by the U.S. G eologi­ cal Survey (USGS), this site provides a stream lined, impressive array o f hydrologic data and information aimed primarily at the scientist, scholar, or librarian, but also accessible to the layperson interested in such topics as water quality and conditions. A team o f six at the USGS Headquarters manages this site, with as­ sistance from some 40 other Webmasters at dis­ tributed USGS regional and state locations. A monthly “Featured Water Resources Pages” section usually leads o ff the homepage, though one might first see late-breaking news, perhaps including real-time data, relating to flooding or other current hydrologic events. A clickable U.S. imagemap for USGS personnel contact infor- Sara Amato is automated systems librarian at Central Washington University; samato@tahoma.cwu.edu http://www.petersons.com http://www.collegenet.com/ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/ http://www.mit mailto:mee@oxy.edu http://h2o.usgs.gov/ mailto:samato@tahoma.cwu.edu 198 / C&RL News mation follows. Subsequent subject categories include data, publications, national and inter­ national programs for water resources, and in­ formation. The data section provides real-time ( “from the stream to your screen”) stream flow conditions by state, as well as data from the National Water Use Program, among other nug­ gets. The publications section is rich with in­ formation, including fact sheets by state or spe­ cial topic and searchable resource abstracts. K-12 educators can order posters on various topics for use in the classroom. A variety o f national research projects and initiatives is de­ scribed under programs. The information sec­ tion includes additional contact information, press releases, and, o f particular usefulness to the average citizen, a link to the Water Infor­ mation Center, where an “800” number and e- mail address are listed for queries. Most striking about this site is that, unlike some others, it is both content-rich and w ell- designed. The homepage is o f moderate length and almost deceptively simple in relation to the amount o f valuable information it gateways to, and its use o f a white background and simple graphics lends clarity. Secondary pages are also o f reasonable length and, while some use pat­ terned backgrounds, they are subtle and do not interfere with the readability o f text and links. Links are presented in logical subject group­ ings with some guiding annotations. Links to non-USGS resources are selective and kept to a minimum. During examinations o f this site response did seem somewhat slow, but this may have been due to sluggish intervening network links rather than a slow server. This reviewer’s only suggestion for improvement would be to pro­ vide brief annotation for all links, rather than only selected ones. On the whole, this W eb site deserves kudos for its navigability and solid content.—Judy Matthews, Michigan State Uni­ versity, matthews@pa.msu.edu Am erican Society of Indexers. Access: http://www.well.com/user/asi/. The American Society o f Indexers (ASI) has cre­ ated a W eb site that is interesting on a number o f levels. It provides information about the orga­ nization, its purpose and ob­ jectives, and a means of con­ tacting the national office and individual chapters. It contains a wealth o f re­ sources for indexers, many o f which are o f inter­ est to librarians as well. Also, the site provides a fascinating glimpse into a field closely related to librarianship but relatively unknown to those outside the publishing industry. ASI is a national organization that aims to promote excellence in indexing and increase awareness o f the value o f high-quality indexes. It serves indexers, librarians, publishers, data­ base producers, and others concerned with in­ dexing and information retrieval. Most index­ ers are freelancers working from home, and ASI provides its members with many ways o f com­ munication. Portions o f the site are devoted to announce­ ments o f continuing education and development opportunities related to indexing, publishing, and the “information industry.” One o f the primary objectives o f the site is to provide access to in­ formation that indexers can use in their work. “Indexers’ Online Resources” includes a sub­ stantial collection o f ready-reference links, such as specialized dictionaries and glossaries, orga­ nized by discipline. A section on business refer­ ence sources includes a number o f links related to freelancing and running a small business. The highlight o f the site for nonindexers is the “Information about Indexing” section. In­ dexing, like cataloging, is invisible to most end users yet essential to effective retrieval o f infor­ mation. An excellent FAQ on indexing provides an overview o f how it is done and by whom, outlines the advantages and drawbacks o f freelance work, and addresses the role o f com­ puters in indexing. The relationship between cataloging and indexing is considered in a fas­ cinating article by Glenda Browne. An exten­ sive bibliography is included as well as a list o f specialized indexing software. Anyone compil­ ing even a single index would find a wealth of useful information here. The ASI site is geared toward back-of-the-book indexing but addresses database indexing as well. The site is well organized and contains an index (how could w e resist, the editors note). Plans for the future include a search engine for the “In­ dexer Locator” database and a clickable map o f local ASI chapters.— Lori Robare, University o f Oregon, lrobare@oregon.uoregon.edu ■ mailto:matthews@pa.msu.edu http://www.well.com/user/asi/ mailto:lrobare@oregon.uoregon.edu March 1997 / 199 200 / C&RL News