ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ A p r il 1 9 9 9 / 323 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Sara Amato, editor S y m b o l s . c o m . A ccess: h ttp :/ / w w w . symbols.com . Sym bols.com is the Internet version o f Thought Signs (I.O .S. Press, 1994) by Carl Liungman. The b o o k was well received in its original form D ictionary o f Symbols (ABC-Clio, 1991), and the online version should b e as well. T he site has entries for 2,500 non-picto- rial ideograms spanning the history o f West­ ern civilization. The types o f symbols used are vast and can b e categorized only with difficulty into broad groups: cultural, “sub”-cultural, historic, s c ie n t ifi c , m a th ­ ematical, and reli­ g io u s . S o m e e x ­ a m p le s in c lu d e : C e lt ic , G y p s y , h o b o , and h ippie signs; cartographic and musical notations; astronomical and chemis­ try ideograms; and mystic and prehistoric sym­ bols. Coverage varies in length, but entries include a definition for each distinct use o f the image and hyperlinks to related images. Occasionally there will b e a notation o f where and how the symbol appears in non-Western use. B ecau se there are graphic characteristics that typify symbols, access to the contents is through a word index and a graphic index. The word index is a straightforward search for a symbol that has a particular meaning. This is accomplished through an alphabetical and numeric list o f terms. The graphic index will retrieve groups o f symbols based on their graphic characteristics, rather than meaning. There are 54 groups in all. Users may choose from a variety o f pull-down menu options or from the “advanced graphic search” grid. The graphic naαire o f the content is well suited for the Internet medium, and the site certainly fills a void in Internet reference col­ lections. Unfortunately, there is no bibliogra­ phy for the work or individual entries, and som e o f the nam es o f symbols were not trans­ lated from the Swedish (e.g. “om ” is spelled “aum”). The user requiring detailed informa­ tion would b e wise to start here for names o f symbols and simple facts, but follow up with an authoritative subject-specific resource.— Kristina L. Anderson, University o f A labam a, kan derso@ bam a. u a.ed u JU R IS T . Access: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu. Although subtitled “T he Law Professors’ Network,” JURIST has a multitude o f services to offer anyone from high school students to library patrons looking for the answer to a legal question. The site has w on numerous awards for quality including Lycos Top 5%, Infoseek Select Site, and a 5-Star rating from Legal.online. These awards are well warranted. JURIST is a com prehensive site in terms o f content and its layout, design, and utility are outstanding. On the front page o f the site a search inter­ face resides at the top, a navigation table at the left, and links for legal news and a data­ base search are immediately noticeable. For a user looking for a current news story or a quick reference question, this layout is ideal. News and access to databases are only the beginning for this site as the next category of links on the navigation table under “Start" is “Academic Pages.” This set o f links provides access to course syllabi, papers written for courses in legal education, and legal databases such as FindLaw, LEXIS-NEXIS (provided you have a password), and FedLaw. The “Presen­ tations” link will take you to a list o f tran­ scripts or audiovideo recordings o f recent con­ ference presentations (the audiovideo record­ ings ru n on RealPlayer). “Examinations” has cou rse exam s, institutions’ com prehensive examinations, and information on the bar. If you are interested in what’s going on in legal ed u cation in o th er cou ntries, the “JU RIST Worldwide” link provides a list o f professors’ pages from Ireland to China. Sara A m a to is e lectronic services and W eb d e ve lo pm e n t librarian a t Bowdoin College, e-mail:samato@bowdoin.edu http://www http://jurist.law.pitt.edu mailto:samato@bowdoin.edu 324 / C&RL News ■ A p r il 1999 W here JURIST really excels is in the “Ser­ vices” set o f pages. Books-on-Law offers re­ views o f recently published legal literature. T he Media Center is a collection o f all video and audio recordings throughout the JURIST site. T he Reference D esk gathers directories, dictionaries, and links to major legal research sites with an online reference librarian, whose queries and answers are posted in a bulletin board format. Professors can find all the latest legal news at hom e and abroad through the Faculty Lounge, a bulletin board for announce­ m ents and req u ests, and JU RISTC hat— an “online interactive conversation and collabo­ ration tool.” Law students can find informa­ tion from preparation for law school to job advertisements in the Student Lounge. It is difficult to imagine the information n eed not met by these services. Navigation through the site is exceedingly easy as the navigation table is present on all pages except, o f course, those not actually on the JU­ RIST site but linked to as a resource. Only the few resources, such as the LEXIS-NEXIS data­ base, are restricted to users with accounts. The vast majority o f information collected by JURIST is free and open to everyone. The JURIST site is well organized and e x ­ ceptionally useful for anyone with questions about or an interest in the law, the legal pro­ fession, or legal education. Librarians will find it an excellent site for reference service or collection development in law or for just keep­ ing up with current events.— Kirsten Tozer, Central Washington University, Tozerk® tahoma.cwu.edu Hispanic/Latino N ew s Service. Access: http://www.latinowww.com/. The Hispanic/Latino News Service is a well- organized clearinghouse and free abstracting service that points to Latino-related news ar­ ticles published on the Web. In existence since May 1998, it has fast becom e on e o f the lead­ ers in collecting and presenting current U.S. Latino n ew s o n th e In tern et. W ebm aster Markos Alberto Moulitsas Zuniga, a third-year law student at Boston University School o f Law, updates the site each w eekday by browsing major online English-language news sites (such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the L.A. Times) and a large num ber o f regional online newspapers looking for U.S. Latino-ori- ented news stories to abstract and link. In January 1999, a Spanish-language sec­ tion was introduced to the Web site, covering original Spanish-language news articles from online sources such as Miami’s El Nuevo Her­ ald ( http://www.elherald.com/) and Chicago’s La Raza (http://www.laraza.com/), an excel­ lent online new spaper that covers many dif­ ferent U.S. Latino and Latin American groups. T he Spanish-language section o f the Hispanic/ Latino News Service is current but not updated daily, due to the fact that online U.S. Latino newspapers in Spanish tend to b e weeklies. Thus, the site’s current news in English covers the present w eek, while the Spanish current news section includes about three w eeks o f material. Archives are new to the site and date b ack only to mid-January 1999, with links no longer active; full bibliographic citations are also missing, making it necessary for schol­ arly users or librarians to do a few minutes o f minor Web sleuthing to verify such things as dates, authors, and URLs. Besides individual newspapers, other note­ worthy electronic sources o f U.S. Latino news include the Latino O n-line News Network ( http://www.latnn.com/), which provides its ow n original news articles in Spanish or En­ glish, and the subscription database Ethnic NewsWatch, the unsurpassed leader that pro­ vides original full-text (and mostly Spanish language) articles from over 20 Latino publi­ cations. O f these three sources, the Hispanic/ Latino News Service may have the broadest appeal for those lacking library access to Eth­ nic NewsWatch, and particularly for those w ho do not read Spanish. Overall, the currency and o n lin e accessibility o f th e Hispanic/Latino News Service m ake it a vital and attractive re­ source for all libraries interested in U.S. Latino viewpoints and issues.— Susan A. Vega Garcia, Iowa State University, savega@iastate.edu ■ R evie w e rs so u g ht If you are interested in becom ing a re­ view er for the “Internet Reviews” column, please contact Sara Amato, e-mail: samato@ bowdoin.edu for more information. http://www.latinowww.com/ http://www.elherald.com/ http://www.laraza.com/ http://www.latnn.com/ mailto:savega@iastate.edu