june08b.indd internet resources Kay Collins Terrorism Locating sources of information Stories about terrorism are on the news ev­ery day. Terrorist acts occur in some form in places around the world as a constant re­ minder that the United States and many other places are no longer the safe havens so many assumed they were. During the Cold War, the threats seemed more remote and not on our soil. Today the strategy of the terrorist is to communicate the immediacy of the threat. They use not only the media but the Internet to publicize their intents so that their threats cannot be hidden and ignored. In response to these threats, government agencies and law enforcement services have had to change their operations as counterterrorism becomes a priority for activities and budgets. What is presented in this column is pri­ marily information in the English language, but there is a similar amount of information in foreign languages and publications; espe­ cially languages that do not use the Roman alphabet are more difficult to use in a column such as this. However, translations of some of those sources can be located through the sources presented. Defi nitions/terminology The topic of terrorism is not simple to catego­ rize and discuss. It is very multi­dimensional. That one little word, terrorism, is packed with emotion, history, and politics and has been for years. Almost every book or ency­ clopedic entry on terrorism mentions how complex it is to define. However, it takes just a cursory search for information on the topic before seeing a common thread in almost every discussion. Any serious publication, whether an encyclopedia or scholarly book, all contain some variation of this phrase: One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter/hero/patriot or revolutionary. The ensuing discussion is usually lengthy but important. In general, the discussion then centers around terrorism as a tool, who uses that tool and who is the target of that tool. There can often be many tools, issues, victims and users involved. Doing research on this topic requires not only knowing the definition of the topic but looking at all of the facets involved and breaking down and analyzing the topic of research to insure looking in all the relevant sources available. And they are growing. Whereas just a few years ago the researcher would have searched books and periodi­ cal articles, in this day and age research is moving into the Library 2.0 realm of news sources, RSS feeds, Web pages, wikis, blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. Think of it as Ter­ rorism Research 2.0. Encyclopedias Encyclopedias can be useful not only for definitions, but also as a good place to be­ gin a search. In addition to traditional print encyclopedias, such as Encyclopedia of Ter­ rorism (Thousand Oaks, California, Sage Pub­ lications, 2003), Encyclopedia of Terrorism (New York, New York, Facts on File, 2002), Encyclopedia of World Terrorism, 1996­ 2002 (Amonk, New York, Sharpe Reference, 2003) and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An encyclopedia of worldwide policy, technology Kay Collins is U.S. government information librarian at the University of California-Irvine, e-mail: kcollins@uci. edu © 2008 Kay Collins June 2008 325 C&RL News and history (Santa Barbara, ABC­Clio, 2005), several online encyclopedias provide good entry points to terrorism research. • Encyclopedia Britannica Online. This online version of the classic print source has a special publication on terrorism. Access: http://www.britannica.com/. • Oxford Reference Online and Ox­ ford Reference Online Premium. These titles provide both dictionary and encyclo­ pedia entries. Cross­searching is available, and the results help illustrate the cross­ disciplinary nature of this topic. Access: http:// www.oxfordreference.com/views/GLOBAL. html?authstatuscode=200 Paid subscription. • Reference Universe. This source from Paratext is an online guide to reference re­ sources, including encyclopedias, and can be useful in locating reference sources that dis­ cuss terrorism. Access: http://refuniv.odyssi. com/. (Paid subscription) Government documents Official publications of various government and international government organizations can be especially useful in researching specifi c policies and studies. Listed here are a few samples. • Catalog of U.S. Government Publica­ tions. Cross­disciplinary subject database of U.S. government publica­ tions can be found here, including resources ap­ plicable to terrorism re­ search. Many recent pub­ lications may be available online. Access: http://catalog.gpo.gov/F. • Country Reports on Terrorism. This annual U.S. Department of State report covers developments in countries in which acts of terrorism have occurred, countries that are state sponsors of terrorism, and countries determined by the Secretary of State to be of particular interest in the global war on terror. Access: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/. • Department of Energy (DOE) In­ formation Bridge. This site provides free public access to full­text documents and bibliographic citations of DOE research report literature, including many documents related to terrorism research. Access: http://www. osti.gov/bridge/. • Google U.S. Government Search. Google’s government­specific search tool is a good place to locate U.S. government docu­ ments dealing with specific terrorism topics on the Web. Access: http://www.google. com/ig/usgov. • UN Counter­Terr orism Online Handbook. This site provides current and relevant information on the United Nations and its entities’ work and resources contrib­ uting to countering terrorism. Information is searchable and browsable by theme, entity, or geographic region. Access: http://www. un.org/terrorism/cthandbook/index.html. News articles and news magazines Current newspapers, news magazines, and similar news resources serve a variety of functions in researching terrorism. Often they are sources for finding background informa­ tion on a specific topic or major happening. Historical newspapers are available both in microfilm, and a select (but growing) num­ ber are available online, especially for U.S. papers. ProQuest, for example, provides a number of major news resources in their databases, notably the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tri­ bune. Access World News from Newsbank and LexisNexis Academic also provide full­text access to archives of many newspapers. Many U.S. and international newspapers make their content available online as well. • Aljazzera. English­language version of this well­known Middle Eastern news source. Access: http://english.aljazeera.net/. • Arab News. Arab News provides Eng­ lish translations of news stories from many Middle Eastern sources. Access: http://www. arabnews.com/. • Google News. Google’s news service can help identify many news sources. The articles identified, however, may or may not be freely available. Despite the varying access methods, Google News can be an invaluable search tool to locate both recent and historical 326C&RL News June 2008 http:arabnews.com http://www http:http://english.aljazeera.net http://www http://www.google http://www http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt http://catalog.gpo.gov/F http://refuniv.odyssi www.oxfordreference.com/views/GLOBAL http:http://www.britannica.com news articles and concepts as portrayed in the press. Access: http://news.google.com. • Haaretz Daily. Daily news site that covers many terrorism­related stories from the Israeli perspective. Access: http://www. haaretzdaily.com/. • New York Times. Access to the New York Times is now freely available on the Web, as well as being included in other data­ bases. Access: http://www.nytimes.com/. • The Times (London). The Times of London provides a counterpoint to perspec­ tives of U.S. sources on current terrorism topics. The historical coverage in the archive dates back to the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Access: http://www.timeson­ line.co.uk/tol/news/. (Paid subscription) • Wise News. News from various Asian countries in their native languages. A sub­ scription is required to access content. Access: http://wisenews.wisers.net. Journals • Homeland Defense Journal. Current issue and archives of publication covering homeland defense issues. Text of several special reports on topics such as port safety and cybersecurity are also available. Access: http://homelanddefense.epubxpress.com/. • Homeland Security Affairs. Publica­ tion of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Access: http://www.hsaj.org/. • Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. This journal is devoted to mostly the mili­ tary and strategic aspects of terrorism. It was formed from two previous titles, Confl ict and Terrorism. Abstracts of articles dating back to 1977 are available online, but a subscription is required to view full­text articles. Access: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title ~content=t713742821~db=all. Bibliographic databases The following databases are recommended for their coverage of specific subject areas that can be useful when searching for information on a specific type of terrorism. Many subscrip­ tion databases such as America History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, ATLA Religion Database PAIS, and PAIS Archive can provide citations and full text of articles related to terrorism topics. There are also numerous Web­based subject databases to consider. • Public Science and Technology Infor­ mation Network (STINET). This resource from the Defense Technical Information Cen­ ter searches military reports available to the public. Many reports are available in linked full text. Access: http://stinet.dtic.mil/. • PubMed. This database from the Nation­ al Library of Medicine includes citations and abstracts from articles dealing with medical or health issues related to terrorism. Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed • Web of Science. Despite its name, Web of Science is a very productive tool for searching across all disciplines. In addition to keyword searching, it can limit by docu­ ment type, such as research articles and book reviews. Subscription is required for access. Access: http://apps.isiknowledge.com/UA_ GeneralSearch_input.do?product=UA&search _mode=GeneralSearch&SID=2AcI@3BDN33c p4BhBHp&preferencesSaved=. • WorldCat. This database is extremely good for identifying and locating for books covering terrorism­related topics in librar­ ies around the world. Access: http://www. worldcat.org/. Organizations • Memorial Institute for the Preven­ tion of Terrorism (MIPT). This is the Web site of a nonpartisan, nonprofi t organization operating a training and education center informing the emergency response com­ munity, academia, and the public about terrorism­prevention issues. Access: http:// www.mipt.org/. • RAND Terrorism and Homeland Security. This is the clearinghouse for terrorism research and analysis reports by RAND divisions and centers. As a public service, RAND disseminates all unclassi­ fied research as printed documents or on­ June 2008 327 C&RL News http:www.mipt.org http:worldcat.org http://www http://apps.isiknowledge.com/UA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed http:http://stinet.dtic.mil http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title http:http://www.hsaj.org http:http://homelanddefense.epubxpress.com http:http://wisenews.wisers.net http://www.timeson http:http://www.nytimes.com http:haaretzdaily.com http://www http:http://news.google.com line. Access: http://www.rand.org/research _areas/terrorism. Government agencies • Center for Contemporary Confl ict (CCC). As the research institute of the Na­ val Postgraduate School’s Depart­ ment of National Security Affairs, CCC analyzes c u r r e n t a n d emerging threats to U.S. national security. The agency publishes the e­journal Strategic Insights. Access: http://www.ccc.nps.navy. mil/. • European Union, Fight Against Terrorism. Information on the European Union’s antiterrorism efforts, including action plans, prevention, and protection activities. Access: http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en /s22011.htm. • Financial Action Task Force. This intergovernmental body was formed to counter terrorism through such activities as working to identify money laundering as a source of terrorist fi nancing. The agency site contains standards, trends, links, and other resources dealing with the fi nancial aspects of terrorism. Access: http://www.fatf­gafi . org/pages/0,2987,en_32250379_32235720 _1_1_1_1_1,00.html. • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Terrorism Response. NIOSH provides emergency re­ sponse information covering topics such as building ventilation, anthrax, chemical haz­ ards, infectious disease. Access: http://www. cdc.gov/niosh/topics/emres/terrorresp.html. • United Nations Action to Counter Terrorism. This resource helps track all U.N. actions related to terrorism and coun­ terterrorism efforts. Access: http://www. un.org/terrorism/. • U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute. According to its site, “the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College publishes security and strate­ gic reports and publications which serve to influence policy debate and bridge the gap between Military and Academia.” The institute produces reports on regional and strategic issues related to many aspects of terrorism. All resources are freely available. Access: http://www.StrategicStudiesInstitute. army.mil. • U.S. Department of State, Offi ce of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. The primary mission of this U.S. State De­ partment Offi ce is to forge partnerships with non­state actors, multilateral organizations, and foreign governments to advance the counterterrorism objectives and national se­ curity of the United States. The site provides detailed information about U.S. counterter­ rorism efforts, including lists of state spon­ sors of terrorism. Access: http://www.state. gov/s/ct/. • USA.gov.­Defense and International Relations. Defense and International Rela­ tions is a very good Web site to identify government agencies at local, state, federal, and international levels. The site is an excel­ lent place to begin terrorism research. Access: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Defense. shtml. RSS feeds For those who wish to keep current on hap­ penings in the terrorism realm, there are some RSS feeds that would probably suf­ fice to do that. There are numerous ones to select from, but the ones below may be the most useful. • About.com Terrorism Issues. This Web directory provides links to many RSS feeds on terrorism issues. Access: http:// terrorism.about.com/gi/pages/stay.htm. • U. S. Department of Homeland Secu­ rity. The Department of Homeland. Security Web site has a series of terrorism­related RSS feeds available by agency or type of information. Feeds are currently available for homelands security news, press releases, speeches, testimony, and the Department of Homeland Security Leadership Journal. Access: http://www.dhs.gov/xutil/feeds. shtm. 328C&RL News June 2008 http://www.dhs.gov/xutil/feeds http:About.com http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Defense http://www.state http:army.mil http://www.StrategicStudiesInstitute http://www http://www http://www.fatf-gafi http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en http://www.ccc.nps.navy http://www.rand.org/research