ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


1016 / C&RL News ■ November 2001

Joni Robertsand 
I n t e r n e t  R e v i e w s Carol Drost, editors

EPA O ffice o f W ater. A c c e s s : http://www. 
epa.gov/ow/.
The EPA Office of Water Web site springs 

from its massive parent site, the Environmen­
tal Protection Agency. Like its parent, it of­
fers a wealth o f information to a wide audi­
ence, including school children and consum­
ers wondering about water quality, business 
and industries seeking regulatory information, 

and individuals and organizations seeking 
grant or funding information.

As one would expect from a government 
agency site, much is offered in the way of 
laws and regulations, reports, and newslet­
ters. The full text of the Clean Water and Safe

Drinking Water Acts is available here, for ex­
ample, as well as Office of Water Federal 
Register Notices. One can also order publica­
tions and videotapes relating to the Office of 
Water and related EPA offices, such as the 

Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. 
A calendar provides links to press releases, 
conference proceedings, and other Web sites. 
The main page provides six broad category 
selections, links to National Water Programs, 
and a drop-down menu offering a variety of 
specific water topics. Other buttons below 
lead to such reference tools as Office of Wa­
ter documents, databases, and software.

But this site also offers a phenomenal 
amount o f information for the average citi­
zen. The main page provides a “Concerned 
Citizens” button that gateways to additional 
topics, such as “About Water,” leading to “Wa­
ter On Tap: A Consum er’s Guide to the 
Nation’s Drinking Water,” and other reports. 
Additional choices include “Geographic In­
formation,” “Human Health Concerns,” and 
more. From the main page one can search a 
map for water information by state. An “En­
vironmental Websites” database offers a col­
lection of hundreds of Web sites, searchable 
by state, full text, information type, and key­
words. The interactive “Watershed Informa­
tion Network” allows users to add informa­
tion to the database, join discussion lists, or

add calendar information. Children and teach­
ers will enjoy the “Kids’ Page” offerings of 
fun facts about water, environmental projects 
and programs, and educational materials and 
learning aids.

The site’s overall design is excellent. Con­
tent rich, it is thoughtfully designed and eas­
ily navigated. Graphics are used judiciously 
and effectively, and backgrounds and fonts 
are easy on the eyes. Standard menu buttons 
and links are consistently placed and intui­

tive. In addition to the expected help paths 
for users to communicate questions, com­
ments or problems to the site administrators, 
a new customer satisfaction questionnaire has 

been added to

Office of Water
fo r  im p ro v e ­

ments from  readers.—J u d i t h  A. M a t t h e w s , 
M i c h i g a n  S t a t e  U n i v e r s i t y ,  m a t t h e 2 0 @  
m a i l .  lib . m s u

Europa: th e  European Union On-Line.
A c c e s s : http://europa.eu.int/.
Europa is administered by the European 

Commission and other European institutions, 
and contains roughly 1.5 million documents. 
As the portal site of the European Union (EU), 

it “. . . provides up-to-date coverage of Euro­
pean Union affairs and essential information 
on European integration.” An extensive FAQ 
page located under “About Europa” answers 
scores o f questions about the Web site and 
its contents, and is the place to start after se­
lecting one o f eleven European languages on 
the initial page.

Internal links include: “News” (press re­
leases, calendar of events, key issues); “Ac­
tivities” (listed alphabetically from agriculture 
to transport); “Institutions” (Parliament, Coun­
cil, Court of Justice); “Abe” (history of EU, 
symbols, glossaries); “Official Documents”

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r public 
services and c o lle ctio n  d e v e 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 fortechnical services 
at W illamette University, e-maii: cdrost@willamette.edu

epa.gov/ow/
http://europa.eu.int/
mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu
mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu


C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 2001 /  1017

(law, bulletins, general report); and “Infor­

mation Sources” (publications, statistics). The 
feature article at the top o f the main site is 
changed frequently; at the time o f this re­

view  the special feature was “Terrorist at­
tacks on 11 September 2001 in the United 
States.”

Current conversion tables for the Euro, 
as well as dates o f implementation, are fea­
tured in the “News” section. The “New s” sec­
tion also contains other interesting informa­
tion, such as “The Future o f Europe Debate,” 
which features speeches by key commission­
ers on this topic, as well as press releases, 
documents and official texts, points o f view, 

and more. One will discover links to such 
things as an analysis o f the Irish no vote on 
the Nice Treaty, a news release from the Scot­

tish Parliament, a report from the Stockholm 
International Peace Research Institute, a 
young people’s congress, and a European 
students’ debate. A calendar o f public na­

tional and European level events is also pro­
vided.

In the “A ctivities” section, under each 
topic is listed “European Union law,” “Imple­
mentation o f policies,” and “Sources o f in­
form ation” that apply to that particular area. 
Under “Abe” the “History o f the EU ,” an ex­
tensive year-by-year chronology back to 1946 
is given.

One of the strengths o f this resource is its 
currency; the “What’s New” section . pro­
vides a selection o f news and the most recent 
additions to the Europa site and the sites of 
the other European institutions (launch of new 
sites, agenda o f the institutions, official docu­

ments, etc.).” Possibly a bit overwhelming for 
the novice to EU, this Web site is a godsend 
for researchers and faculty in this area. This 

is a very comprehensive source of informa­
tion on all things EU. Highly recommended.—  
L isa  K a r e n  M iller , P a r a d i s e  V a lley C o m m u ­
n i t y  C o l l e g e  L ib r a ry , lis a k a r e n .m i ll e r @ p v m a i l. 
m a r i c o p a . e d u

VUomenVUatch: The UN In te rn e t G ate­
w a y  on th e  A d van ce m en t and Em­
pow erm ent o f Women. A c ce ss : http // 
www.un.org/womenwatch/.
WomenWatch brings together Web sites 

containing important United Nations (UN) 
documents and publications, country reports, 
statistics, and news on global w om en’s is­

sues. It was founded in 1997 to monitor the 
results o f the Fourth World Conference on 
Women, Beijing, 1995, and to continue the 
m o m en tu m  an d v is ib ility  o f th e issu es 
brought about by the conference. The three 

agencies forming the original partnership are 
the Division for the Advancement o f Women 
(DAW), the U nited Nations D evelopm ent 

Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Inter­
national Research and Training Institute for 
the Advancement o f Women (INSTRAW). Six 
additional contributing partners are now also 
involved and are listed on the Web site.

The home page provides access to inter­
national information on w om en’s rights, cur­

rent news articles, and UN radio programs 

on topics such as violence against women 
and H IV/AID S and gender. Statistics are 
found under the heading, “Documents and 
D a ta b a se s.” T h ese in clu d e sta tistics on 
women in parliam ent and in the executive 
branch o f governm ent and social indicators 
(population, education, literacy, employment, 
and income). There is a link to the full text 
o f T h e W o r ld ’s  W o m e n  2 0 0 0 : T r e n d s  a n d  S t a ­
t is t ic s . A  list o f conferences provides access 
to the documentation o f the three UN con­
ferences on women and to other related UN 
conferences, including the World Summit for 
Social Development.

The section “Women o f the World” links 
to countiy reports on national strategies for 
follow-up to the Fourth World Conference 

on Women and to reports to Committee on 
the Elim ination o f D iscrim ination against 
Women (CEDAW). The DAW Web site, in 

addition to covering the CEDAW reports, 

provides country responses to a question­
naire on Beijing platform  implementation, a 
country compliance table on international 

legal instruments, and reports o f the Com­
mission on the Status o f Women.

The links to the partner Web sites pro­
vide a host of relevant information, such as 
the full text o f the new economic report, 
P r o g r e s s  o f  t h e  W o r ld ’s  W o m e n  2 0 0 0 , avail­
able on the UNIFEM site. The lists o f publi­
cations on all o f these sites serve as excel­
lent selection tools for collection managers. 

The WomenWatch site would be particularly 
useful to political science, anthropology, 
sociology, and women’s studies students and fac­

ulty.—M a r ia n  S h a a b a n , I n d i a n a  U n iv ers ity  Li­
b r a r ie s , B lo o m i n g t o n ,  s h a a b a n @ in d i a n a .e d u  

maricopa.edu
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
mailto:shaaban@indiana.edu