ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 552 / C&RL News ■ September 2003 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni R. R oberts an d C arol A . D rost, e d ito rs Center fo r Biologies Evaluation and Re­ search. Access: http://www.fda.gov/cber/. This Web site is the place to go to see how the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates biological products. The Center for Biologies Evaluation and Research (CBER) oversees the production of vaccines, blood prod­ ucts, and cellular and tissue-based products. Manu­ facturers of biologies, health professionals, and consumers will find helpful information on the CBER site, such as topics on blood, therapeutics, vaccines, cellular and gene therapy, allergenics, and tissues. H ie information about each topic is com­ prehensive and includes background, approval, and safety information. There are links to other rel­ evant sites for more information. The pages have been updated within the last two years; most within the last year. The site offers a search engine powered by Google. The CBER site map is the most useful link for finding out what is available on these pages. Clicking on one o f the headings on the site map or the homepage brings you to an over­ view o f the general top ic and a sidebar o f specific topics. Many o f the consumer and health profes­ sional information links lead to the same docu­ ments such as “Safety Inform ation,” “FDA Patient Safety News,” or “Recalls.” At the con­ sum er link, however, you will find an FAQ section for background information and defi­ nitions of terms such as biologies which would be good for undergraduate students doing gen­ eral research. The health professional section contains links to “Clinical Investigator Infor­ mation” and “Healthcare Letters,” which con­ tains letters sent by the FDA to scientists, healthcare professionals and the biologies in­ dustry. These letters provide evidence of how the FDA’s CBER arm works to regulate these products. Links to relevant regulations are in­ cluded in the letters. Researchers at all levels needing specific U.S. legal and regulatory information about biologi­ cal products will find these pages essential. From the “Reading Room,” for exam ple, you can find links to all the documents on the CBER Web site that are available through the Free­ dom o f Inform ation Act. They are listed by document type, such as warning letters, recalls, guides, or safety information. Undergraduate and graduate students interested in the U.S. policy concerning biologies, which often in­ clude timely topics such as vaccines and gene therapy, can find useful historical and current information here.— C arol McCulley, L in field College, cm ccu ll@ lin field.edu EUROPARL: The European Parliam ent On-Line. A ccess: http://www.europarl. eu.int/home/default_en.htm/. The European Parliament is the legislative as­ sembly of the European Union (EU) and traces its origin to 1958, when it began as the Common Assembly. At first only a consultative body, its powers have grown and it now passes laws in partnership with the EU Council of Ministers. It consists of 626 representatives elected by direct universal suf­ frage, and its Web site is avail­ able in 20 different languages. Users who want to browse the site can easily start with ei­ ther the subject index or the site map, both o f which can be selected from a drop-down menu. Part of the site is devoted to the organization of the Parliament itself, with information on its mem­ bers, activities, sessions, and hearings, as well as a “Citizens’ Portal” to facilitate communication be­ tween EU citizens/residents and Parliament. The most useful portion for students and faculty, how­ ever, should be the many primary documents that are available. To search for documents, use the “Search Guide” from the drop-down menu. Using the Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r public services and collection d eve lo pm e n t 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 a t W illamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu http://www.fda.gov/cber/ mailto:cmccull@linfield.edu http://www.europarl C&RL News ■ September 2003 ! 553 “Search Guide,” one can search by words or by specific categories o f documents, such as parlia­ mentary debates, committee reports, minutes of proceedings, and texts adopted, each o f which has different searching features. Some categories allow full-text searching, while others can only be retrieved by date. Although some documents are directly accessible, others can be retrieved only by special request, in which case the user must fill out a request form and wait for the document to be transmitted to him or her. Some documents may be restricted. Other useful information on the Europarl site is a page on human rights (both within and out­ side EU), as well as documents relating to the STOA Programme (Scientific and Technological Options Assessment). T he Europarl W eb site should b e o f particular interest to political sci­ ence, government, and law school faculty and students. A com prehensive site search feature would be a w elcom e improvement.—Jo h n A. D robn icki, York College/CUNY, d robn icki@ y o rk .cu n y .ed u P o y n t e r o n l i n e . A ccess: http://www.poynter. org/. The Poynter Institute is a nonprofit teach­ ing and research institution founded by Nelson Poynter, longtime publisher o f the St. P e tersburg Tim es and the founder and chair­ m an o f C o n g ressio n a l Q u arterly A lm a ­ n a c. Poynter’s vision for the institute was to ad van ce the valu es o f e ditorial in d e­ pendence and quality journalism by creat­ ing an organization that offers the journalism profession educational programs unavailable elsewhere. T he Poynteronline Web site exists to support the mission of the institute by giving the reader “everything you need to be a better jour­ nalist.” O ne o f the outstanding features o f the site is a s u b j e c t - s p e c i f i c s e a r c h e n g i n e , N elso n Search , that is “d esig n ed to tailor searches to those sites that are m ost likely to b e useful to journalists.” The engine crawls 221 newspaper and related sites, and searches can b e custom ized to return results from specific beats, media types, or geographic regions. Jour­ nalism and media organization pages are also searchable, as are journalism schools, interna­ tion al and nation al new s sites or telev isio n news sites. T here are a num ber o f other resources on P oy nteronline that w ould b e useful to both professional journalists and journalism students. “Colum ns” includes media industry news; is­ sues and commentary; w eblogs; question and answ er colum ns; design tech niques; writing tips; “converged” journalism topics, and jour­ nalism ethics discussion. There is also a listing o f eight m ajor topic areas relevant to journal­ ism that includes ethics, leadership, diversity, online news, television/radio, photojournalism, writing/editing, and design/graphics. One o f the things the site accomplishes very effectively is making a connection between the various diverse resources available on a spe­ cific topic. For exam ple, the diversity link in­ cludes a section o f “Related R eso u rces” that includes tip sheets, a diversity bibliography, sem inar information, the P oy n ter E thicsJ o u r ­ n al, and previous stories that have dealt with ethics issues. O ne o f the real jew els o f Poynteronline is the “Resource Center,” which includes exten­ sive bibliographies o n a num ber o f journalism and m edia topics, a “Links to the N ew s” c o l­ umn that com piles diverse resources on vari­ ous subjects, and an extensive list o f journal­ ism W eb links organized into a subject direc­ tory format. Unfortunately, the resource center link is not very visible on the homepage and could easily be overlooked. The site is well maintained and, d ue to the natu re o f the con ten t, c o n ­ tinuously updated. T he colum ns, as w ell as m uch o f the other information, are archived. A site map and site searching options are avail­ able. There are also opportunities for creating a personalized version o f the page and for sub­ scribing to e-mail newsletters. Poynteronline, w hile generally fairly user friendly, tries to include too m uch information on the homepage, which results in a somewhat cluttered look. First-time users o f the site might have to spend som e time getting oriented b e ­ fore being able to navigate effectively through the w ealth o f inform ation available. Poynteronline is one o f the m ore practical and useful sites on the Web for working jour­ nalists, student journalists, and journalism educa­ tors.— P a trick R eakes, U niversity o f F lorid a, p jr@ m ati.uf lib .u fl.ed u ■ http://www.poynter