ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


June 1 9 9 4 /3 7 5

C u r r e n t  C o n t e n t s  o f  
C om puting a n d  LIS J o u r ­
nals. Access: Accessible via 
the Bulletin Board for Librar­
ies (B U B L ), m a in ta in e d  
jointly by the University of 
Strathclyde and the Univer­
sity of Glasgow on behalf of 
the JANET User Group for 
Libraries (JUGL). T he re ­
source is gopher-based, ac­
cessible as follows: gopher: 
//u koln .b ath .ac.u k:7070/ll/ 
BU BL_M ain_M enu/E; g o ­

Internet
Reviews

S a ra  A m ato, editor

pher ukoln.bath.ac.uk 7070;
#4 BUBL Information Service; #2 Library & In­
formation Science on and via BUBL; #5 05-E- 
Current Contents of Computing and LIS Jour­
nals. T eln et://bu bl.bath.ac.uk (138.38.32.45). 
Login: bubl. Choose option 2, then choose 
option 4.

This resource is partially mirrored at the 
University o f Michigan, accessible as follows: 
g op her://u n a.hh.lib.u m ich.ed u :70/ll/toc.

The C u rren t C o nten ts o f  C o m p u tin g  a n d  
LIS J o u rn a ls  provides tables o f contents for a 
wide range o f library and information science 
publications and includes a small number of 
computing publications as well. Abstracts are 
sometimes available. The project is designed 
to b e a cooperative venture o f library and in­
fo rm ation  s c ie n c e  em p lo y e es around the 
world, with contents transcribed and submit­
ted by volunteers.

The coverage is international, with the bulk 
of the publications being either British or Ameri­
can. Most major library and information science 
publications are represented. Coverage is es­
pecially good in areas relating to academic li­
braries and technology in libraries. Because a 
broad range o f publications is included, this 
resource would be o f interest to librarians of 
all types, as well as students, faculty, and re­
searchers in library and information science.

The familiar gopher interface makes this re­
source particularly easy to use. The tables of 
contents are plain ascii files, usable by a vari­
ety o f systems. In addition, the tables o f con­
tents are searchable with the gopher search fa­
cility, allowing the user to search the entire 
text of the tables of contents, including abstracts 
when available, with keywords and boolean 
operators.

Currency is sometimes a 
problem, as not all entries 
are for the most current is­
sue. According to the pro­
ducers, the time lag is due 
to several factors, including 
an inadequate num ber o f 
volunteers and delay in re­
ceipt of publications. To im­
prove timeliness the produc­
ers are working with editors 
o f selected titles to provide 
pre-publication contents.

The future o f this re ­
s o u r c e  d e p e n d s  g re a tly  

upon increasing the number o f volunteers to 
provide tables o f contents. With more volun­
teers, abstracts would be more likely to be in­
cluded, contents could be added for missing 
and back issues. The producers mentioned 
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technol­
ogy as a possible solution to reduce the need 
for transcription by volunteers, but implemen­
tation will depend upon funding—J a n e t A. 
Crum, D a lto n  College

T H E  SCIENTIST. Access: gopher://gopher. 
in te rn ic .n e t:7 0 /ll/p u b /th e -sc ie n tist; gopher 
gopher.internic.net; #4 InterNIC directory and 
Database Services (AT&T); #4 InterNIC Data­
base Services (Public Databases); *6 The Sci- 
entist-Newsletter.

This gopher is also accessible via telnet:// 
gopher.intemic.net, login: gopher. Anonymous 
ftp access is available, file://gopher.intemic.net/ 
pub/the-scientist.

Originally available only in paper form, THE 
SCIENTISTS published biweekly and is directed 
at an international field o f professionals in the 
life sciences. Though it is heavily weighted with 
articles about biotechnology, it attempts to in­
clude coverage o f all the sciences.

It does not report current research but claims 
to deliver “information on the workplace it­
self— the issues and events conditioning the 
professional environment in which researchers 
conduct their professional lives.”

Each issue contains these sections: News, 
Opinion, Research, Tools & Technology, and 
Profession. The News section’s mission is to 
present insights about the latest news to ad­
ministrators, managers, and researchers. The 
edition I reviewed (April 4, 1994) contained

gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/ll/toc
gopher://gopher
file://gopher.internic.net/


376/C&RL News

articles on health care legislation, the Howard 
Hughes Medical Institute, and the February 
meeting o f the American Association for the 
Advancement o f Science. This last piece con­
tained the splendid quote, “The things w e know 
w e do not know are much more obvious than 
the things w e think w e know but do not.”

The Opinion section contained a commen­
tary by the president o f a biotechnology firm 
warning scientists that they are taking the 
government’s health plan “too casually.”

A  complete list o f the top ten articles o f 1993 
was reported in the Research section along with 
the bibliographic citation, rank, and the num­
ber o f articles that cited them. This ranking was 
based on the findings by the Institute for Sci­
entific Information’s citation analysis o f research 
journals for that year.

The Tools & Technology section is devoted 
to announcing and reviewing new laboratory 
equipment and computer software. Tw o articles 
on DOE (Design-Of-Experiment) software were 
in the issue I reviewed. The section probably 
comes closest to giving the active scientist use­
ful information related to his or her research.

A  report o f an undergraduate wom en’s sci­
ence study program was the feature article in 
the Profession section. This section also con­
tained short profiles o f two Alzheimer’s re­
searchers and an obituary.

THE SCIENTIST is truly a bargain to those 
on the Internet. Paper subscriptions cost $58 
per year. You don’t get the cartoons or cross­
w ord puzzle but all o f the substance is there. 
While this is a resource that is obviously de­
signed for the life sciences researcher who 
wants to be “in the know,” it is also o f value to 
science undergraduates who sometimes labor

(Washington cont. fro m p age 373) 
look more like the Internet than like the mul­
tichannel, video-on-demand model. He indi­
cated the need for safeguards against monopoly 
control o f the NII, and repeated the admini­
stration’s commitment to connecting educational 
institutions, libraries, and hospitals.

Panels included administration officials to­
gether with representatives o f the nonprofit, 
education, and library communities. One panel 
included Jean Armour Polly, director o f user 
services for NYSERNET in N ew  York State, and 
a public library Internet pioneer. Other panel­
ists mentioned libraries as information provid­
ers and access points repeatedly. ■

under the impression that their chosen field is 
all facts and figures. For them, I believe, read­
ing THE SCIENTIST will bring a more human 
and honest picture o f their future workplace. 
—Jim Rible, Southern Oregon State College

E D U C O M  G o p h er. Access: gopher:// 
gopher.educom.edu.

EDUCOM, an organization which assists 
higher education institutions in implementing 
and managing technology, maintains a gopher 
server o f resources related to its mission.

This gopher will be o f primary interest to 
college- and university-level librarians, faculty, 
and administrators, whether or not their insti­
tution maintains a membership in EDUCOM. 
All o f EDUCOM’s major publications, includ­
ing the EDUCOM Review Magazine, EDUPAGE, 
and The Update, are available electronically 
through this gopher. Information on EDUCOM’s 
special programs, such as the National Learn­
ing Infrastructure Initiative, is included. In ad­
dition, conferences and other events are an­
nounced here. Elementary and secondary 
teachers and education majors could also ben­
efit from some o f the information.

Maintained by staff at EDUCOM who up­
date it at least biweekly, the gopher is a source 
o f up-to-date information. On the Internet for 
slightly over one year, EDUCOM Gopher plans 
no major changes, but future development plans 
include m oving toward integrating the re­
sources currently located in the gopher into 
the World Wide W eb (W W W ).

EDUCOM Gopher provides links to the 
CAUSE and CREN gopher services. CAUSE and 
CREN are other organizations which are also 
interested in information technology in higher 
education.

This gopher is well-organized and user- 
friendly. While there is no directory or map 
o f the gopher, the menu choices are well- 
worded and point the user in the proper di­
rection. The ease o f retrieving the full text o f 
articles in EDUCOM publications is a good 
feature, since the information is posted to the 
gopher as soon as the publication is issued. 
One informative publication for busy profes­
sionals is EDUPAGE, a w eekly digest o f tech­
nology issues as they relate to education. The 
events calendar includes complete contact in­
formation. Through this gopher, much infor­
mation on educational technology can be 
quickly and easily obtained.— A nn M. Tenglund, 
St. Bonaventure University ■