ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 7 18/C&RL News internet Reviews S a ra A m ato, editor P a r l i a m e n t a r y a n d Presidential Elections aro u n d the W orld. A C C E S S : h t t p : / / w w w . g e o c i t i e s . c o m / -d e rk s e n / e le c tio n .h tm . Parliamentary and Presiden­ tial E le c tio n s a ro u n d the World, edited by Dutch jour­ nalist Wilfried D erksen, pro­ vides current election infor­ m a tio n in c lu d i n g th e political com position o f the re p r e s e n ta tiv e a s s e m b lie s th ro u g h o u t th e world. P arliam entary and P resid en tial E lectio n s around the World appears in both frame and nonfram e versions. T he main page contains links to the election databases, a listing o f W eb sites for political parties and parliaments, and an international election calendar. Also avail­ able is a lexicon o f liberal ideas and terms, a bibliography o f liberal materials, and a list of liberal W eb sites. The election database contains links to coun­ try information plus introductory and supple­ mentary information. Entries contain basic p o ­ litica l d ata fo r all in d e p e n d e n t c o u n trie s, political entities recognized by international or­ ganizations as holding political status but not presently recognized by other countries (Pal­ estine and Sahara are exam ples), autonom ous o v ersea s d e p e n d e n ­ c ie s , and th e E u ro ­ p ean Union. Also in­ cluded are links to a detailed election cal­ endar listing elections from 1990 into 1998, an election index cov­ ering the same period, u p -to -d a te e l e c t i o n new s, and links to re­ lated W eb political da­ tabases. Election infoim ation for individual countries appears by geographical area and in alphabeti­ cal order by nam e o f political unit. Indepen­ dent countries are identified by bold print links; d ep en den cies have lighter print links. Entries for individual political units contains the offi­ cial nam e o f the country, geog rap hical size, pop u la­ tion, and the capital. Recent political results appear for both executive branches and legislative bodies. Informa­ tion for the e x e c u tiv e in­ clu d es nam e o f the office holder and terms o f office. For the parliaments, the re­ sults for the m ost cu rren t election , listing o f parties, and num ber o f seats held by ea ch party appear. Entries close with links to W eb pages to the political parties, executives, and parliam ents. Links to o th er W eb -b ased sources, such as the CIA World Fact B ook , also appear. Those countries with m onarchies, dic­ tatorships, or single-party governments are iden­ tified as such. Also included is detailed infor­ m ation on the m akeup o f the European Union. P arliam en tary and P resid en tial E lectio n s around the World com plem ents and updates standard print sou rces such as Europa Year B ook and Statesm an’s Year-Book. Patrons will find this site invaluable for research and re­ m aining current on political structures in other countries. All academ ic libraries will benefit from this sou rce.— Stephen L. Hupp, Univer­ sity o f P ittsb u rg h o f J o h n s t o w n ; sh upp+@pitt. edu N ational Center for Education Statis­ tics—Data an d Su rveys. ACCESS: http: / / w w w . e d . g o v / N C E S / s u r v e y s / datasurv.html. National Center for Education Statistics Data and Surveys W eb site provides data from the follow ing seven areas o f study: Elementary/ Seco n d ary Surveys; P ostseco n d ary Surveys; Longitudinal Surveys; Education Assessments; Libraries; International Comparisons; and infor­ m ation from the School District Data Book. Links to ea ch o f th ese areas provide the reader with a synopsis o f the study and a c o n ­ tact person from w hom interested individuals may receive m ore inform ation about the re­ search. Seven o f the surveys can b e used with Sara Amato is autom ated systems librarian a t Central W ashington University; sam ato@ tabom a.civu.edu http://www.geocities.com/ http://www.ed.gov/NCES/surveys/ mailto:samato@taboma.civu.edu November 1 9 9 7 / 719 the Data Analysis System (DAS), a W indow s softw are tool that allow s a ccess to D epartm ent o f Education survey data. T h e DAS gen erates tables sp ecified by users w ho “tag” row and colu m n variables o f interest to them . T h e DAS is available at the follow ing W eb site: http:// w w w . p ed ar-d as. org/htm/about. htm . This site is archival, with data dating as far b ack as 1972; the bulk o f inform ation o n this site, how ever, dates from the m id -1980s for­ ward. T h is site is usefu l fo r lib rarian s servin g sch ools w ith undergraduate and graduate pro­ grams in ed u cation and for research ers w hose focus is education. T h o se interested in research covering financial aid will also find this site u s e f u l f o r its c o v e r a g e o f t h e N a tio n a l P ostseco n d a ry Students Aid Study (N PSAS), w hich contains data for academ ic years 1986-87, 1 9 8 9 -9 0 , and 1 9 9 2 -9 3 . T h e Libraries section presents data on academ ic, public, sch o o l, and state library agen cies. Attempts to con tact this site’s W ebm aster to determ ine future plans for the site w ere un su c­ cessful.— Timothy E. McMahon, Metrowest Mas­ s a c h u s e tt s R e g io n a l L ib r a r y System ; tm cm ahon@ sim m ons.edu The M edieval Fem inist In d e x : Sch o lar­ ship on W o m en , S e x u a lity , an d G e n ­ der. ACCESS: http://www.haverford.edu/ library/reference/mschaus/mfi/mfi.html. This in d ex c o n cen trates o n articles, and e s ­ says in b o o k s , as w ell as b o o k review s. T h e tim e p eriod inclu ded covers the years 4 5 0 C.E. to 1500 C.E. T h e in d ex is com p iled by a c o m ­ b in ation o f v o lu n teers, in clu d in g librarian s, sch o lars, an d a stud en t assistan t. S in ce th e p ro ject b eg an only w ithin th e past year, they are con cen tratin g on ind exing curren t m ateri­ als b e fo re m oving to b a c k issues. T h e pur­ p o s e is to provide a c c e s s for w o m e n ’s studies sch olars to the exp o n en tially increasing v ol­ um e o f m aterials that are b e co m in g available. T h e review ed journals co m e from various dis­ c ip lin e s, in c lu d in g “Art H istory , L iteratu re, M usic, History o f S cie n c e and M edicine, and R elig ion .” T h e g eo g rap h ic area o f study is Eu­ ro p e, the Middle East, and North Africa. T h e sea rch form is very clea r and allow s for m ultiple search com bin ation s: author, title, su b ject head in g, o r sou rce, as w ell as by ar­ ticle type and langu age. P u blication s in En­ glish, Fren ch , and G erm an are currently in­ cluded. O n e c a n n o t c o m b in e m ultiple su b ject term s, n or u se w ord variations. A su b ject h ead ­ ings list and a broad to p ics list are available from the search form p ag e. H ow ever, if o n e c h o o se s n o t to con su lt th e su b jec t list, if the term is not used a bu tton to link to holdings w ith the co rre ct term will ap p ear in the search results. T h e m ain page includes a link to the list o f 328 journal titles that are bein g indexed, as well as a link to the list o f essay collections. T h e journal list in­ cludes the dates and volum e num bers for issues that have b e e n indexed. B ec a u se the index d oes not in­ clu de individual w orks, th e com p ilers point users to selected library catalogs that have sig­ nificant collection s in m edieval studies. An ad­ ditional feature is the identification o f primary sources. O verall, the d atab ase is w ell laid out. O ne lim itation is that b o o k review s d o n o t include s u b je c t fields. If o n e d o es a s u b je c t search , o n e m ust do a sep arate key w ord title search as w ell to co m e up with possibly relevant b o o k review s in ad dition to the re fe re n c e s to ar­ ticles in the current database. O n e additional feature o f th e d atabase is that it d o es provide lin ks to o th e r W e b re s o u rc e s fo r m ed ieval w om en . In con clu sion, Margaret Schaus, coordina­ tor o f th e M edieval Fem inist Ind ex, and her volunteers should b e com m end ed for a w ell- d ev elop ed site. It should becom e an outstanding resource for feminist scholars and medieval schol­ ars, as well as an example o f how a well-devel- oped database should b e done. Commercial ven­ dors should take note!— Teresa Fishel, Macalester College; fishel@macalester.edu mailto:tmcmahon@simmons.edu http://www.haverford.edu/ mailto:fishel@macalester.edu 7 2 0 / C&RL News