ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 738 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 Joni Robertsand I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Carol Drost, editors P u b S C I E N C E . Access.- h tt p :/ / p u b s c i.o s t i . gov. With the success o f the National Institute o f H ealth’s effort to provide free access to medical research through PubMed, it was e x ­ pected that other governmental agencies would follow suit. To this end, the Departm ent o f Energy’s (D O E) O ffice o f Scientific and T ech ­ nical Inform ation unveiled PubSCIENCE to m ake the research literature o f the physical sciences, especially eneigy-related information, more accessible to the public. As with PubMed, searching is free, but the content o f the database is less defined. W here PubMed has a w ell-established scop e, c o n ­ trolled vocabulary for indexing, and an au­ thoritative publications list, the con tents o f PubSCIENCE have b e e n largely driven by the direct needs o f the researchers o f the DOE and the agreem ents reached with publishers. This makes for quite an eclectic collection, with m ore than 30 publishers currently participat­ ing and 11 others “com ing so o n .” Although PubSCIENCE claims to include more than 1,300 peer-review ed journal titles (including forth­ com ing titles), only approxim ately 80 0 w ere positively identified for this review. Each jour­ nal is fully indexed, regardless o f the subject matter. T he PubSCIENCE interface was obviously designed for the end user. The B asic Search, w hich is the default search, and the Advanced Search screens include outlines o f the user’s immediate options and direct links to help and the collections, or journal title lists. O ne fea­ ture o f particular interest is the pop-up b o xes with basic instructions for the users for that aspect o f the search. This provides the n eces­ sary information w ithout cluttering the screen. Although both screens are orderly and easy to navigate, future consideration should b e given to the design o f the search screens with the inten­ tions o f fine-tuning some o f the arrangement. O n the B asic Search screen, it is not obvi­ ous to the user w hat part o f the database is being searched (title, author, and bibliographic record) or that B o olea n operators are usable. But both o f these features as w ell as phrase s e a r c h i n g ( c a l l e d “l it e r a l s e a r c h ” in PubSCIENCE), date ranges searching, and wild card searching are covered in the help sec ­ tion. A feature that is negligibly useful is the ability to search PubSCIENCE b y publisher. Ar­ chives (m ore than 10 years) and current (past ten years) collections are also searched sep a­ rately. B ecau se the content is created by c o ­ operation betw een the DOE and com m ercial publishers, PubSCIENCE is also able to allow the user to limit searches to only items that are accessible in full text. T h e ad van ced sea rch allow s a u ser to “build” a search strategy and limit ea ch set o f terms to title, author, keyword, or the entire citation, w hich does include journal title. At this screen, the user can also limit by date, publisher, and full-text availability. O n c e a search has b e e n con d u cted , the u ser c an th en eith er narrow the search using the “Search W ithin T h ese Results” op tion or b row se the search results, w hich are orga­ nized b y journal. T h e full record inclu des the bibliograp hic citation, ISSN, abstract and key­ w ords, and a link to the pu blish er w here the u ser c an a ccess full text if available o r can pay-per-view . T h e diverse collection o f journals included in PubSCIENCE suggests a broad er u se for this database than energy-related research. Looking at individual titles, approxim ately 48 p ercen t o f the journals cov ered can b e clas­ sified as physical s cie n c e (including ch em is­ try, physics, engin eering, and earth scien c es) journals; another 48 p ercen t are life s cien c e journals (biology, m ed icine, agriculture, and environm ental s cie n c es ) that have som e co v ­ erag e o f issues related to physical scien ce. Jo n i R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection d evelopm en t at W illam ette University, e-mail: jroberts@wMlamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu http://pubsci.osti mailto:jroberts@willamette.edu mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu C&RL News ■ July!A ug ust 2001 / 739 The remaining 4 percent are non-science titles from fringe disciples. Since there is little unique coverage in PubSCIENCE (approximately 90 percent of the journals are indexed in at least one other major research database), librarians and cli­ entele o f research libraries with access to d a t a b a s e s , s u c h as W eb o f S c ie n c e , Compendex, Inspec, Embase, o r Chemical Abstracts, may only find this resource useful if the research topic is energy-related. O n the other hand, university and college librarians, and possibly even public librarians, w ith r e s tr ic te d b u d g e ts w ill fin d th a t PubSCIENCE will supplement their collections quite well by providing access to peer-re­ viewed research and technical literature that may not be readily accessible. A title by title comparison with the Applied Science & Tech­ nology Abstracts, Biological and Agricultural Abstracts, and General Science Index revealed that only 10 percent of the PubSCIENCE jour­ nals w ere also indexed in the Wilson data­ bases. If the journal title lists from Chemical Abstracts Student Edition and BasicBIOSIS are included in this comparison, the percentage only increases to 16 percent. The strengths of PubSCIENCE lie in areas w here the costs of databases are often prohibitive, e.g., chemis­ try and physics. This database is an excellent resource for smaller academic libraries where need does not often justify expenditure. With database costs rising, it is encourag­ ing to see this effort by DOE. As the resource develops, adding more journal coverage and search enhancem ents, PubSCIENCE will be held with the same regard as PubMed.— Linda Maddux, Willamette University, Imaddux@ willamette.edu Yad Vashem: The Holocaust M artyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance A u thor­ ity . Access: h ttp ://w w w .y a d -v a s h e m . org.il/. Yad Vashem, a 45-acre memorial to the H olocaust located outside of Jerusalem, is Israel’s tribute to the millions w ho perished in the Shoah or Holocaust. Established in 1953 by an act of the Israeli Knesset, this m em o­ rial has becom e the leading repository in the world for Holocaust information: including films, more than 100,000 photographs, docu­ ments (more than 55 million pages), books and over 82,000 articles. The electronic site is an admirable addi­ tion to Yad Vashem. Through the Web site, visitors have the opportunity to learn about the Holocaust—from those responsible for the destruction to the “Righteous Among the Nations” w ho risked their lives to save indi­ viduals condem ned by the Third Reich. Al­ though m uch information has b een made available on the electronic version of Yad Vashem, some items such as the library cata­ log are not available via the Web site. Assis­ tance is offered for help in locating informa­ tion not available online. O ne o f the most moving segments o f this site is the online exhibit. “Auschwitz Album,” “Visas for Life” and “Under this Blazing Light” are am ong the exhibits available for viewing. The reviewer was cap­ tiv a te d b y th e “No C hild’s P lay” exhibit. The personal anecdotes and the vivid pictures of artifacts (dolls, games, a teddy bear) bring to life the absolute horror encountered by children during the Shoah. One of the many features of this outstand­ ing site is “About the Holocaust.” This section features information about various aspects of the Holocaust, including a chronology of the Holocaust, FAQs, documents of the Holocaust (more than 200 on the destruction of Jews in Europe) and a recommended bibliography. The amount of information is staggering, yet it is presented in a straightforward, accessible manner so anyone from a novice student to a researcher will be able to locate information. Although the information is emotional, the Web site does not preach about the racism and unjustness o f the Holocaust. In eloquent language, one is exposed to the various ele­ ments of life during this period—the ghetto, the train car, and the arrival at a camp. Also available on the Web site are selec­ tions from Yad Vashem’s historical and art museums, memorials, monuments, and re­ search and educational opportunities. Infor­ mation is updated to reflect upcom ing con­ ferences and book publications. This is a first- rate site for information on the Shoah from both an academic and personal viewpoint. — Karen Evans, Indiana State University, libevak@isugiv.indstate.edu ■ http://www.yad-vashem mailto:libevak@isugiv.indstate.edu