ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


2 7 4  /  C&RL News ■ A p ril 2003

I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost, editors

Education World. Access: h ttp ://w w w . 
educationworld.com/.
Education World is a free portal site devel­

oped to help educators to more easily incorpo­
rate the Web into their classrooms and to share 
information am ong professionals. The site in­
cludes lesson plans, articles on current issues, 
Web site reviews, and a search engine oriented 
to educational sites on the Internet.

On the positive side, Education World con­
tains a num ber o f helpful sections for educa­
tors— lesson plans, school issues, professional 
developm ent, technology in the classroom , 
adm inistrator’s desk, site reviews, an d  class­
room  management. The information is timely 
and useful to teachers and education majors. 
The teacher-subm itted lesson plans provide 
clearly structured tasks and activities. “Tech­
nology in the Classroom ” offers detailed les­
sons using the Internet as a resource. Adver­
tisements, while present, are grouped together 
on  the side and to p  o f the page and provide 
little interference w ith the content.

On the negative side, the hom epage is con­
fusing w ith an overw helm ing am ount o f in­
formation presented in distracting neon blues, 
reds, and greens and no sidebar frame to help 
navigate, so the reader is forced to identify the 
column headings before proceeding. The search 
en g in e, w hile id en tified  as a safe search  of
500,000 Web resources, comes with no  indica­
tion of how  these resources are chosen and it 
searches the entire Web. D espite this, it does 
yield  a p p ro p ria te  results. A trial search for 
“sp an k in g ” yielded only th e results that o n e 
w ould w ant to see on such a site.

The site can ease a teacher’s life. T here is 
financial advice, mailing lists for hu m o r and 
jobs, and templates for nametags. Areas include 
the “Sub Station” (advice for substitute teach­
ers on lessons and difficult children), classroom 
managem ent advice, “Reference Libraiy,” and 
national standards information. There is a great 
deal of useful information, but finding m uch 
of it is time-consuming.

T here is a subject index at the bottom  of 
the hom epage that also appears as a sidebar

once you enter the site. Articles are archived 
and retrieved through these subjects. The ar­
ticles are dated, but som e sections are not as 
current as others.

In general, the site provides excellent in ­
formation for teachers and prospective teach­
ers in grades K-8, offering a plethora of lesson 
plans, handouts, and templates. After using the 
site, experienced users can m anage to locate 
what they need. First timers, however, may find it 
tedious and difficult.—Sheila Beck, Queensborough 
community college sbeck@qcc.cuny.edu

Center for Applied Linguistics. Access:
http://w w w .cal.org/.
F ounded in 1959 in a post-Sputnik plan to 

im prove lan g u ag e instruction in the U nited 
States, the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) 
performs research, analyzes language policy, and 
provides language program developm ent and 
assessment seivices. CAL hosts two Educational 
Resources Inform ation C enter (ERIC) clear­
inghouses: th e ERIC C learinghouse o n  Lan­
guages and Linguistics ancl the National Center 
for English as a Second Language (ESL) Lit­
eracy Education. U nder “Topic A reas” users 
can find access to cu rren t CAL projects, in ­
cluding K-12 and adult ESL literacy; dialects 
and ebonies; refugee and immigrant concerns; 
and bilingual education, two-way immersion, 
and foreign language teaching.

“Links,” the last option on the hom epage’s 
left-h a n d  colum n, offers a b u n d a n t free re ­
sources in largely the sam e subjects as those 
lis te d  u n d e r  “T o p ic A re a s .” T h e “L in k s” 
p a g e s vary in le n g th  b u t ty p ically  in clu d e 
c o n n ectio n s to reso u rce sites, professional 
organizations and e-mail lists, and electronic 
jo u rn a ls. O c c a sio n a lly  lin k s to  b ib lio g r a ­
phies, ERIC Digests, and conferences are also 
included.

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r  public 
services and co lle ctio n  d e ve lo p m 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 
at W illam ette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu

http://www
mailto:sbeck@qcc.cuny.edu
http://www.cal.org/
mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu
mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu


C&RL News ■ A p r il 2003 / 275

Some notable site gem s available at 
“D a t a b a s e s / D i r e c t o r i e s ” i n c l u d e  
W orkW orld, a d a ta b a se  o f v o c a tio n a l 
ESL resources, an d  N anduti, a resource 
supporting K -8 foreign language instruc­
tion. A n o th er in terestin g  so u rce is th e 
Cultural O rientation R esource Center, w hich 
publishes history an d  culture g uidebooks on 
U.S. im m igrant groups, such as Cubans, H ai­
tians, Somalis, and Iraqis (Arabs an d  Kurds).

Site navigation is simple, w h eth er through 
th e site m ap (here called “Table of C ontents”) 
or the site’s search engine. Searching is straight­
forw ard: th e  u s e r selects “a n y ,” “a ll,” or 
“p h rase” searching and can limit the search to 
a specific p art o f a Web docum ent. T he user 
can  also search  th e  h o ld in g s o f a p articu lar 
CAL clearinghouse or research center; b e aware 
th at th e  d ro p -d o w n  list of ch o ice s p re se n ts 
acronyms an d  not full names.

O ther than the hom epage, most o f the CAL 
pag es d o  n o t have “last u p d a te d ” dates, an d  
the u ser will en co u n te r a few  d e a d  links. O n 
the “Foreign Language Education” page (linked 
from  “L inks” a n d  n o t from  “T able o f C on­
te n ts ”), a test o f 13 URLs fo u n d  tw o  in c o r­
rect, a n d  an attem pt to subscribe to a foreign 
language mailing list returned a “n o  such list” 
error from the processor.

G iv en CAL’s b re a d th  an d  d e p th  o f c o n ­
tent, librarians serving educators an d  ed u ca­
tion stu d en ts in foreign languages, ESL, an d  
Teachers of English to Speakers o f O ther Lan­
guages programs should definitely include this 
site in their list o f resources.— H eidi E. K. Se­
nior, University o f Portland, seitior@up.edu

The Pew  Research C en ter f o r  th e
People and the Press. Access: h ttp ://
people-press.org/.
W hether you w ant to track the nation’s cur­

rent political opinions or chart trends in media 
use an d  new s interest, this site is a great place 
to start. Form erly know n as the Times Mirror 
C en ter fo r th e  P e o p le  a n d  th e  P ress (1990— 
95), th e  ce n te r is n o w  o n e  o f m any interests 
fu n d ed  by the P ew  Charitable Trusts an d  is a 
self-described “independent opinion research 
group that studies attitudes tow ard the press, 
politics, and public policy issues.” Directed by 
in d e p e n d e n t pollster A ndrew  Kohut, form er 
president o f the Gallup Organization, this non­
profit organization researches in the following 
principal areas: The People and the Press; The

T H E  P E W  R E S E A R C H  C E N T E R
f o i  T H E  P E O P L E  A N D  T H E  P R E S S

People, The Press an d  Politics; The News In­
dex Interest; America’s Place in the World; and 
Media Use. The center studies public opinion 
b o th  o n  c u rren t events, su c h  as the m ilitary 
action against Iraq or genetic research, and p e ­
rennial interests, such as religion, business, and 
th e  eco n o m y . A sp ecial “G lobal A ttitu d e s” 
project offers an international perspective.

This thoughtfully co n stru cte d  Web site is 
u n c lu tte re d  an d  easy  to  n av ig ate from  the 
homepage, which features the most recent work 
of the center through the well-labeled content 
tab s in th e  h e a d e r. T he h e a rt o f th e  site in ­
cludes the “Survey R eports,” accessible chro­
nologically or grouped by topic or year back to 
1995. Each report presents a clear sum mary of 
findings, details of the methodology used, and 
a c o p y  o f th e  q u e stio n n a ire . “Search Q u e s­
tionnaires” provides simple keyw ord access to 
the site research and includes a helpful toggle 
to sort results by date or relevance. Finally, a 
unique “News Interest Index” lists by percent­
age of re s p o n se s th e  m ost closely fo llo w ed  
new s stories from  1986 to 2002.

Researchers w ho like to w ork with raw  data 
m ay ap p reciate th e availability o f the survey 
data sets, w hich may be dow nloaded from the 
site six m o n th s after th e  re p o rts are issued. 
The center also offers a variety of com m entar­
ies th at p u t th e research  in perspective. The 
“In  T he N ew s” ta b  highlights P ew  re se a rc h  
studies featured by selected media, including 
the New York Times, Washington Post, News Hour 
with Jim. Lehrer, and National Public Radio. Fi­
nally, th e  c e n te r’s site links to  a few  d o z e n  
o th e r recen t m edia polls, such as those c o n ­
ducted by ABC, Gallup, and Newsweek.

Although intended for political leaders, jour­
nalists, scholars, and public interest organiza­
tions, th e P ew  R esearch C enter site will also 
appeal to teachers and students in the fields of 
comm unication, m edia studies, business, and 
political science or anyone interested in survey 
research. In addition, individuals curious about 
American attitudes o n  political, domestic, and 
m edia issues will find the reports them selves 
illuminating.— Barbara Valentine, Linfield Col­
lege, bvalen@linfield.edu ■

mailto:seitior@up.edu
mailto:bvalen@linfield.edu


27 6 / C&RL N ew s ■ A p r il 2003