ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


114 / C&RL News

Internet 
Reviews

Sa ra A m ato, editor

Vote Smart W e b  (Project 
V ote Smart). Access: 
http://www. vote-smart.
org

Project Vote Smart, a non­
partisan, n on profit vo ter 
ed u ca tio n  o rg a n iza tio n , 
maintains the V ote Smart 
W e b  to h elp journalists, 
scholars, and citizens obtain 
ob jective inform ation on 
elections, federal and state 
governments, political and 
social issues, and related in­
formation. This resource combines links to ex­
isting W eb sites with the project’s original in­
formation on candidates and current office 
holders. This mix provides individuals with data 
to better understand government and make 
more informed decisions come election time.

Information gathered for this site appears in 
eight sections, including a National Political 
Awareness Test (NPAT). This test is a question­
naire sent to presidential, congressional, and 
gubernatorial candidates to determine their 
positions on eighteen important issues. This 
information is then accessible via the links in 
the “Your Government” section along with vari­
ous W eb and Internet sources providing data 
on the executive, congressional, and judiciary 
branches o f federal and state governments.

Data for representatives and senators appear 
by state, with individual entries containing 
name, district (for representative), party, com­
mittee memberships, addresses, biographical 
information, sources o f campaign funding, re­
sponse to the NPAT, performance evaluations 
by special interest groups, and a voting record 
abstract. The levels o f information for state 
governments vary, but can include governor’s 
speeches and press releases, a directory o f state 
legislatures, bills, election laws, state constitu­
tions, government agencies, state facts and sta­
tistics, and other information.

O f timely value for the upcoming presiden­
tial election is the “1996 Presidential Campaign” 
link to information on Democratic, Republican, 
and Libertarian Parties’ candidates. Included are 
official and unofficial W W W  homepages, a cal­

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

endar o f  primary caucus 
ates, and Vote Smart can­
idate information. Also use­
ul is the “Issue Information” 
ection (under construction 
t time o f this review ) for re­
ources on different sides of 
mportant political and social 
ssues.

The site ends with “Or­
anizations Related to Poli
ics,” a directory o f W W W  
esources from across the 
olitical spectrum; “Educa­

d
d
f
s
a
s
i
i

g
t
r
p
tio n  and R e fe re n c e  R e­

sources”; “Miscellaneous Political Resources,” 
covering political humor and audio and video 
clips; and other W W W  political information ac­
cessible via various W eb indices such as Ya­
hoo, W W W  Virtual Library, and other resources.

Overall homepage design is quite simple and 
uncluttered with a single graphic on the main 
page. Though indices like Yahoo provide ac­
cess to much o f the W eb’s political informa­
tion, it is the combination o f access to existing 
data with original candidate and research in­
formation that makes the Vote Smart W eb 
unique among print and electronic information. 
All librarians, scholars, students, and the gen­
eral public will benefit from this valuable re­
source.— Stephen L. Hupp, University o f Pitts­
burgh at Johnstown; shupp@vms.cis.pitt.edu

The National Museum o f American Art. 
Access: http://www.nmaa.si.edu.

The initial effort by the National Museum o f 
American A rt  (N M AA) includes images and ex­
planatory text relating to more than 500 art­
works. Additionally, the site offers two online 
exhibitions— “The White House Collection o f 
American Crafts” and “Secrets o f the Dark Cham­
ber: The Art o f the American Daguerreotype”—  
as well as information about museum depart­
ments, ranging from the library to the education, 
publications, and other departments. The library 
section o f the site offers telnet access to the 
Smithsonian Institution Research Information 
System (SIRIS) catalog. Information on fellow ­
ships and internships is also available. But the 
crown jewel o f the NMAA W eb site is the “Gal­
leries” section, which includes captions with

http://www
mailto:shupp@vms.cis.pitt.edu
http://www.nmaa.si.edu
mailto:samato@tahoma.cwu.edu


November 1995/ 715

essential information about each work o f art. It 
is searchable by artist, title, date, medium, and 
by a range o f “themes,” which includes such 
categories as Landscape Paintings, Contempo­
rary Landscape Photography, Works by Afri­
can American Artists, Works by Women Artists, 
Works by Hispanic Artists, Folk Art, and Pueblo 
Indian Watercolors. A  search will pull up re­
sults that include a thumbnail reproduction of 
the work, which can then be “clicked on” to 
pull up a larger version o f the image. For ex­
ample, a search on artist “Cornell” brings up a 
brief list o f four works by Joseph Cornell. Fol­
lowing any o f these to the entry for the work 
will bring up information on the artist, the title 
of the work, its date, provenance, its medium, 
and size. The image in this display, in turn, 
will lead to an even larger reproduction o f the 
work. A search on “Lawrence” brings up a work 
by Jacob Lawrence called “The Library,” and a 
photograph o f the artist. The entry for “The 
Library” includes an explanatory essay, in ad­
dition to the basic registration information.

This site is a model for museum sites. It of­
fers a variety o f ways to explore the collec­
tions, from preset guided tours to searchable 
indexes. Scholars and browsers alike will find 
much o f value here, with a promise o f more to 
come on an ongoing basis.— David Dodd, Uni­
versity o f  Colorado at Colorado Springs; 
ddodd@serf.uccs.edu

Tribal V o ic e/ P o w W o w . Access: http:// 
www.tribal.com.

This site seems to do everything that the Web 
stands for: empowering the individual and small 
group, providing a voice and a forum for what 
they want said, and making optimum use o f 
this burgeoning information/communications 
medium. Tribal Voice is, in the words o f “Red 
Dog,” a Tribal Voice employee, the result o f 

“. . . some o f us Indians deciding to put some 
stuff up on the W eb.” In reality it is much more 
than that. Indeed, Tribal Voice 
serves well as a Native Ameri­
can resources clearinghouse, 
with links to 19 Native Ameri­
can homepages on languages, 
arts, crafts, culture, spiritualism, 
annual p o w w o w  schedules, 
health services, scholarships, 
government agencies, and edu­
cational sites. If anything is lack­

ing, it is a link to the National Indian Policy Cen­
ter gopher site (reviewed in the September 1994 
C&RL News*) whose archives, bibliographies, 
census data, job listings, and other information 
are apropos to a resource such as Tribal Voice.

Tribal Voice is funded by the Native Ameri­
can Trust as “an uncensored, blunt and direct 
outlet for the Native American heart.” Interwo­
ven among its Internet/WWW utilities are strong 
and heartfelt Native American teachings, as it 
employs and involves Native Americans at its 
Woodland Park, Colorado, home.

A rgu ab ly the gem  o f  T rib al V o ic e  is 
Pow W ow , which can be downloaded from 
Tribal Voice and allows up to seven people to 
chat, transfer files, play .WAV sounds, and cruise 
W W W  sites as a group. As a teaching and dem­
onstration tool it has no equal, as it is freeware 
for all nonprofit or educational purposes. Tribal 
Voice supports Pow W ow  with a help page and 
access to additional help via e-mail.

Perhaps the most evocative feature o f 
Pow W ow  is the “White Pages,” a Tribal Voice 
W eb site. Here one may enter his or her own 
profile, or search for Pow W ow  users by name, 
location, or interests. These White Pages also 
let you see the current and recent Pow W ow  
logins. Since the inception o f Tribal Voice in 
May 1995, there have been about 60,000 down­
loads o f Pow W ow  and 3,000 entries into the 
White Pages. There are now people Pow W ow
ing all over the U.S. and from Italy to Iceland, 
Canada to Kuwait, Peru, Hong Kong, Europe, 
and Australia. In short, Pow W ow  fosters what 
the Internet and W eb are all about: global in­
formation exchange and communication.— Kurt 
W. Wagner; the William Paterson College o f New 

Jersey; wagner_k@ivpc.wilpaterson.edu

*Ed. note: The URL for the National Indian 
Policy Center has changed to: gopher://gwis. 
circ.gwu.edu. :70/11/ Centers%2C%20Institutes 
%2C%20and%20Research%20at%20GWU/ 
Centers%20and%20Institutes/National%20 
Indian%20Policy%20Center.

http://www.tribal.com
mailto:wagner_k@ivpc.wilpaterson.edu
gopher://gwis