ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 328 / C&RL News ■ March 2001 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni Roberts and Carol Drost, editors Im agine th e U n iverse! Access: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov. As noted in the welcoming statement on its homepage, the Imagine the Universe! Web site from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics will serve the needs o f both the general public and students 14 years old or older. Much of the astronomical information contained on this site may also be appropriate for community col lege and university student audiences, as well as for 6th- to 12th-grade teachers, college edu cation majors, and higher education faculty. T he site is lo g ically org anized , and the hom epage’s layout and navigation schem e make Imagine easy to navigate. A search engine and lengthy site map add to the ease of use. The site’s functionality centers around sev eral information-packed main sections, many o f which lead to valuable ancillary subsections. The “Science” section contains dozens o f in troductory articles on a variety o f topics, from the electromagnetic spectrum to the solar co rona. The “Advanced Science" subsection of fers longer, more complex articles on topics such as black holes, white dwarfs, and pulsars. Many articles and pages contain hypertext links that display a definition of the word or phrase linked from the “Imagine the Universe! Dictionary.” The dictionary consists o f approxi mately 300 clearly defined terms, many o f which contain links to high-quality images and further information within the site. One may post questions to NASA scientists in the “Ask a High Energy Astronomer” sec tion, which includes a considerable archive. “Exhibit Central” showcases a variety o f cur rent online exhibits at NASA such as features on scientists, QuickTime videos of star activ ity, and satellite exhibits. “Teacher’s Corner” includes links to post ers and activity booklets, and to lesson plans with whimsical names such as “Lotto or Life: What Are the Chances” (about the probability o f life elsewhere in the universe) and “Detec tive Digit and the Slap Happy Computer Ca per” (about using the binary number system). This section includes a link to the excellent NASA Space Education Resources Directory, from which you can browse and search the Web site by grade level or by topic. The “Sat ellites and Data” section links to articles on x ray, gamma-ray, and cosmic-ray satellites and missions; each contains a historical timeline of events related to these areas. One o f the few annoying details o f the site, the visually pleasing but graphics-intensive homepage, weighs in at approximately 240K and can be slow to download. Forgetting this minor detail, Imagine the Universe! will en hance the teaching and learning experience for a variety o f teachers and students.—-John Creech, Central Washington University, creechj@mumbly.lib.cwu.edu Making of America. Access: http://moa. umdl.umich.edu. Providing full-text access to primary source documents in American history, Making of America (MoA) is a valuable resource for fac ulty, students, and other researchers. With more than 1 million pages o f text and images cur rently available, MoA is also a significant col lection o f digitized books and journals dating from the antebellum period through recon struction (1850-1877). Since 1995, when MoA began as a collabo rative effort between the University o f Michi gan and Cornell University, the intent o f the project has been to use digital technology to preserve and make accessible historical col lections held at both institutions. While the collection may eventually grow to include Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov mailto:creechj@mumbly.lib.civu.edu http://moa mailto:jroberts@wlllamette.edu mailto:cdrost@wlllamette.edu C&RL News ■ March 2001 / 329 documents from a 100-year period (1 8 5 0 - 1950), MoA at present thematically focuses on the mid-19th century. This period was chosen for its continuing interest to scholars and the general population, the manageable size o f the collection, the rapidly deteriorating condi tion o f many o f the publications, and its pub lic domain status. After documents are selected for inclusion, they are scanned and SGML encoded. Opti cal Character Recognition (OCR) is then per formed on the documents to further improve search capabilities. Given this structure, us ers may browse journal and b ook bibliogra phies, as well as perform simple keyword, B oolean , frequency, proximity, and index searches. Pages may be viewed and printed in either PDF or text versions o f the scanned images. The interface is relatively easy to negotiate, with pull-down menu options and help files easy to find. Despite its relative ease o f use, it’s impor tant to rem ember that MoA is also a sophisti cated research tool. Although the collection is currently limited to a relatively short 27-year period in American history, the depth o f the collection is extensive. Ranging from single images to journal articles, journal issues, and entire books, MoA is best viewed with frames- capable browsers. Access requires a fairly ro bust personal computer and modem connec tion. Users may need to b e cautioned that books are downloaded as large text files. These very large files are not formatted by page, may take a long time to download, and can cause Web browsers to crash. When used in conjunction with other digi tal library collections, such as the Library o f Congress American Memory Project, the Hu manities Text Initiative, National Archives and Records Administration Archival Information Locator, and subscription databases such as JSTOR, American history scholars using MoA have access to a growing collection o f primary source documents.— Linda Frederiksen, Wash ington State University Vancouver, frederik@ vancouver. ivsu.edu United S ta te s H olocaust M em orial Museum. Access: http://www.ushmm.org/. It is no easy task to plumb the depths of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site. In addition to the usual announce ments, calendars, contacts, etc., the site fea tures an impressive array o f deeply moving multimedia resources. One section entitled “Historical Topics” covers subjects such as po groms, refugees, and ghettos. In each presen tation, the text is enhanced by careful use of links to picture files, sound files, photographs, interviews, film footage, and other text files. Researchers and librarians will also appre ciate the extensive “Collections & Archives” section from which it is possible to search an extensive collection o f online photographs, as well as the archives themselves. There are also links to the Museum Library, which has its own online catalog, and to related resources such as the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the Committee on Conscience, each wor thy o f its own review. The reviewer was riveted by “Do you re member, w hen” in the “Online Exhibitions" section o f the site. The exhibition centers on a small handmade b o o k created by Manfred Lewin, a young Je w w ho was active in one of Berlin’s Zionist youth groups until his depor tation and murder in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lewin’s illustrated entries in this small book reflect the turbulent times in Berlin and also his affection for his gay companion, Gad Beck. The book was a gift to B eck w ho now lives in Berlin. T he exh ibition allow s the reader/ viewer/listener to turn the pages o f the little book, one at a time, and to view accompany ing translations with a simple movement of the mouse. T he presentation also includes video and sound files and even film footage from an interview with B eck himself. T he site is beautifully presented against quiet, tasteful backgrounds that stand in stark contrast to the horrifying subject matter. Multi media are seamlessly integrated throughout and are an integral part o f the presentation. A check with the site administrator confirmed that having a 4.0 browser or above and the latest version o f RealPlayer installed will en sure optimal use o f the site. Java and JavaScript should be enabled. Flash is also used sparingly on the site. Do not miss this remarkable re source.— TomNichol, College o f St. Benedict & St. John’s University, tnichol@csbsju.edu ■ http://www.ushmm.org/ mailto:tnichol@csbsju.edu