ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 202 / C&RL News ■ March 2003 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost, editors Legends. Access: h ttp ://w w w .le g e n d s .d m . n e t/. Legends offers “a personal journey thro u g h th e w o r ld s o f R o b in H o o d , K ing A rth u r, D ’A rtagnan, a n d o th e r sw ashbuckling ch arac­ te rs o f b a lla d ry , fictio n , a n d film , fro m th e sh o res o f A valon to th e d u n g e o n s o f Z e n d a .” T h e site p ro m ise s “g u id e d acc e ss to p rim ary source material an d up-to-date scholarship, per­ sonal essays an d extended reviews, and histori­ c al su rv e y s a n d th o u g h tfu l c o m m e n ta r y .” A v ie w o f th e lin k s u n d e r th e g e n e ra l h e a d in g “King A rthur a n d th e M atter o f B ritain” sh o w s that L egends delivers o n this prom ise. O n th e K ing A rth u r p a g e , th e re s e a rc h e r w ill find a link to TEAMS (C onsortium for th e T eaching o f th e M iddle Ages) M iddle English te x ts, c o n ta in in g m a n y p rim a ry A rth u ria n sources. “History & A rchaeology” n o t only p ro ­ vides a n overview o f E ngland during th e D ark Ages, b u t also includes th e article “T he H isto­ ricity a n d H isto ricisatio n o f A rth u r,” a sc h o l­ arly su m m a tio n o f th e c u rre n t d e b a te o n th e historical A rth u r b y T h o m as G re e n o f E xeter C o lleg e in O x fo rd , E n g lan d . F u rth e r lin k s— “A rthur,” “G a w a in ,” “G u e n e v e re ,” “Percival,” “M e rlin ,” “T ris ta n & I s e u lt,” a n d “E la in e o f A stolat”— offer lengthy, scholarly articles, each w ith h e lp fu l b ib lio g ra p h ie s o f p rin t so u rces. Sir T h o m a s M alory’s Le M ort D A rth u r is th e s o u r c e o f th e A rth u ria n sa g a s , as w e k n o w th e m to d ay . M ore in fo rm a tio n a b o u t M alory an d the redactional history of his w orks w o u ld have b e e n helpful. Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r public services and collection de velopm ent at W illa m e tte University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian fo r technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu Legends is n o t co n fin ed strictly to English- lan g u ag e so u rce m aterial. T he link “Sagas a n d Sea-Kings” from the h om epage contains a trans­ la tio n o f “T h e S tory o f th e V o lsu n g s” fro m th e 1 3 th -cen tu ry Ic e la n d ic E dda. U n d e r this g e n e r a l h e a d i n g w e a l s o f i n d “T h e N ibelungenlied” a n d o th e r links a n d synopses to W agner’s Ring Cycle. From th e h o m e p a g e , “Paladins a n d Princes” will link th e researcher to “C h a n so n d e R o la n d ” in b o th O ld F re n c h a n d English translation. “O rlando F urioso” an d “T h e C id” are also fo u n d u n d e r this link. Also o n th e h o m e p a g e , “Erin a n d A lba” p ro v id es a co rp u s o f early Irish tales in various m edieval com pilations. A nyone interested in E uropean an d English fo lk lo re a n d m y th o lo g y w ill fin d a tr e a s u re trove o f fascinating an d scholarly inform ation in L egends. T h e site is e a sy to nav ig ate, w ith o b v io u s links a n d h e lp fu l a n n o ta tio n s , b u t a fe w o f th e su b lin k s a re b ro k e n . Finally, th e L egends site offers “ro m an ce, a d v en tu re, a n d p a n a c h e .” L e g e n d s is th a t ra re site, o fferin g scholarly inform ation to th e undergraduate stu­ d en t, and, at th e sam e tim e, e n te rta in in g a n d useful b ack g ro u n d inform ation for the general user.— Wendell johnson, Wαubonsee Community College, wjohnson@wαιιbonsβe.edu. A Celebration of Women Writers. A c­ cess: h t t p : / / d i g i t a l . l i b r a r y . u p e n n . e d u / w o m e n /. D e v e lo p e d in c o lla b o ra tio n w ith th e O n ­ line B ooks Page, a C elebration of W om en Writ­ ers is b o th a d atab a se a n d a portal o f materials b y a n d a b o u t w o m e n authors. T he p u rp o s e of th e site is to p ro m o te a w aren ess o f th e variety o f w o m e n w riters a n d th e d e p th o f th eir w rit­ ings. This is d o n e by developing an d providing free “on-line editions o f older, o ften rare, o u t- of-copyright w o rk s” an d links to specialty co l­ lections. Also available are links to b io g ra p h i­ cal an d bibliographical inform ation. In 2001, C e le b ra tio n c o n ta i n e d 10,347 w o m e n w rite rs , lin k s to 5,320 p a g e s a b o u t w o m e n a u th o rs, a n d 2,983 o n lin e b o o k s. O f th o s e o n lin e b o o k s (all o f w h ic h a re in th e public dom ain o r for w hich perm ission has been given by th e copyright holders), 170 w ere tran- http://www.legends.dm http://digital.library.upenn.edu/ mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu C&RL News ■ March 2003 / 203 A Celebration o f Women Writers scrib ed a n d p ro o fre a d by C elebration v o lu n ­ teers. T h e re m a in in g 2,813 av ailab le w o rk s com e from sources such as Project Gutenberg, M aking o f A m erica, V ictorian W om en Writers P ro je c t, A m e ric a n M e m o ry , a n d D ig ita l Schomburg. C elebration’s usability is relatively straight­ forward. B row sing by author, country, century, a n d eth n ic ity is available. In “W h at’s L ocal,” o n e can also brow se the online books that have b e e n transcribed by Celebration volunteers and listed b y a u th o r o r category. U sing th e s ite ’s search en g in e is an o th er option. N ot only can o n e search by nam e, birth and death dates, and country, b u t also by a time period in w hich the w rite r lived. This is especially useful for th at p a tro n w h o n e e d s to find a n a u th o r from th e 60s. A b o u t h a lf o f th e e n trie s a re th a t, o n ly e n trie s . T h e re is n o in fo rm a tio n o r lin k s to o n lin e reso u rces, just nam es a n d dates. M ore co m p lete, bio g rap h ical inform ation c o u ld b e fo u n d in re f e re n c e s o u r c e s s u c h as The Bloomsbury Guide to Women ’s Literature. The site is m o st useful for its full-text editions o f older, out-of-copyright materials. C elebration is co n ­ tinually p utting these boo k s online, so th e site is still grow ing. T he lo o k o f th e site is plain b u t easy to use, a lth o u g h several links to o u tsid e so u rces did n o t w o rk . It is a good, seco n d ary reso u rce of o n lin e in fo rm a tio n . W hile th e site d o e s n o t re p la c e co n v en tio n al p rin t reso u rces, it d o e s contain valuable information, a n ever-expand­ ing c o lle c tio n , a n d so m e v ery u se fu l se a rc h functions.— Cassandra E. Osterloh, University o f New Mexico, osterioh@imm.edu Agriculture Network Information Cen­ ter. Access: http://w w w .central.agnic.org/. A g ricu ltu re N e tw o rk In fo rm a tio n C en ter (AgNIC) is h o s te d b y a p a rtn e rsh ip b e tw e e n th e N ational A gricultural Library a n d various universities, governm ent agencies, and organiza­ tions w ith in th e agricultural com m unity. T he AgNIC partnership was formed in 1998 to act as a portal for agricultural information. Each partner is responsible for accumulating an d maintaining information in designated subject areas. T his site offers th r e e m a in se a rc h stra te ­ gies: key w o rd (sim ple an d advanced), thesau­ ru s , o r b y s u b je c t. A k e y w o r d s e a r c h w ill y ie ld th e title o f a W eb p a g e , a b r i e f d e ­ s c r ip ti o n o f th e s ite , s u b j e c t d e s c r ip to r s , k e y w o rd s , a n d a URL a d d re s s . T h e re s u lts o f a s e a r c h m a y b e s o r te d b y r e le v a n c y o r title, a n d th e n d is p la y e d e ith e r b y h e a d lin e o n ly o r fu ll d e s c r ip tio n . T h e th e s a u r u s o f­ fers a lte rn a tiv e s e a r c h te rm s (o r g a n iz e d as b ro a d e r , n a rr o w e r, a n d re la te d te rm s) th a t c a n b e c o m b in e d a n d search ed . Brow sable subjects, located below the key­ w o rd box, are o rg an ized into 15 gen eral to p ­ ics, such as “Farms an d Farm ing Systems,” “In ­ sects a n d Entom ology,” a n d “Plant Science and P la n t P r o d u c ts .” T h e s e su b je c ts a re fu rth e r su bdivided into narro w er terms. Standard site inform ation (site history, part­ n e r s /s p o n s o r s , a n d c o n ta c t in fo rm a tio n ) is a v a ila b le th r o u g h th e navigation bar at th e to p o f th e p ag e, alo n g w ith a c a le n d a r o p tio n . T h e c a le n d a r lists a g ric u l­ tural conferences, m eet­ ings, a n d sem inars. It is organized by date as well as by subject, includes an archive, an d lists o f m o re th an 300 additional agricultural calendars. T h ere is also a “Search T ips” feature, located in the search box, w hich provides a very brief d escription o f w h at each fu n ctio n is a n d h o w it w orks. O ne w eakness o f AgNIC is it relies o n each p a rtn e r to s u p p o rt d e sig n a te d subjects; som e co n trib u te m o re th a n o th ers. Also, this site is u p d ated infrequently, m ost recently in Septem ­ b e r 2002. Six re d ir e c te d lin k s a n d tw o “n o server resp o n ses” w ere discovered during this review. Most o f th e inform ation available th ro u g h AgNIC re s id e s o n o th e r W eb sites. O n e can find the sam e information through most search engines. H ow ever, the partners o f AgNIC d o a g o o d job o f collaborating, organizing, an d dis­ sem inating inform ation in o n e location. In ad­ ditio n , th e in terfa ce is cle a n a n d fairly in tu i­ tive to use. This site is geared to w ard th e general audi­ ence, as w ell as th e academ ic comm unity, par­ ticularly those involved in agricultural research. U n d e rg ra d u a te stu d e n ts in th e sc ie n c e s w ill probably use AgNIC the most .—John Repplinger, W illam ette University, jrepplin@ willamette. edu mailto:osterioh@imm.edu http://www.central.agnic.org/ 204 / C&RL News ■ March 2003 Visit the American Economic Association at The ACRL Conference Booth 326! Learn about... Electronic access to the AEA journals for libraries, institutions, and firms! The 2002 issues o f the American Economic Review, Journal o f Economic Literature, and Journal o f Economic Perspectives are now online! Site license access includes reference links (updated daily) to fu ll-te x t articles through CrossRef, links to fu ll-te xt articles citing AEA articles, table o f contents alerts, and searchable full-text. Site licenses w ill include all years from 2002 forw ard so long as a subscription is active! 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April 10-12, 2003___________ The American Economic Association 4615 F ifth A v e n u e P itts b u rg h , PA 15213-3661, USA in fo @ e c o n lit.o rg http://www.aeaweb.orglsubscribe.html mailto:info@econlit.org C&RL News ■ March 2003 / 205