ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 1038 / C&RL News ■ December 2000 I n t e r n e t R e v i e w s Joni Robertsand Carol Drost, editors Contentville. Access: http://www.contentville. com. Contentville is the brainchild of Steve Brill, publisher of Brill’s Content an d creator of Court TV. The p urpose of this site is to pro­ vide access (for a fee) to the content of books, magazines, and other resources, and to p ro ­ vide co m m en tary o n th e p u b lish in g a n d m edia industries. Materials for purchase are arranged into 12 categories: study guides (CliffsNotes™), dissertations (via UMI’s Dis­ sertation A bstracts1*) d atabase), m agazines (links to subscription sites, no t the full-text), e-books (in Microsoft Reader format), screen­ plays, books, “hard-to-find” books (provided in partnership with online bookseller Alibris), legal docum ents, speeches, archives, tran­ scripts, and newsletters. The category labeled “Archives” is an article database providing access to “nearly 2,000 publications.” The real onsite content (read: free) at this site are reports, essays, reviews, interviews, and critiques w ritten by the cadre of “experts” (journalists, cultural critics, academ ics, and i n d e p e n d e n t b o o k s to re o w n e rs ) su c h as D avid H a lb e r s ta m , S h e rm a n Alexie, Anita Hill, and Su­ san Gubar. T hese writers provide com m entary and advice o n topics ranging from the low dow n on fashion m agazines to a critique of M adeleine Albright’s Ph.D. dis­ sertation. Categories at Contentville can be searched by keyw ord or brow sed. The “Cross-Content Search” provides the ability to search all re­ sources by topic. T he “A dvanced Search” al­ low s searching by keyw ord, author, title, publisher, subject, content type, price range, and ISBN. Boolean, phrase, an d proximity searching is available. A search cannot be d o n e by date of publication, w hich is unfor­ tunate if you are looking for the latest books on a subject. It sho uld b e noted that som e of the items found here are also available elsew here on the Internet for free. For instance, Patrick B uchanan’s speech, “A D en o f T hieves,” can be dow nloaded from Contentville for $1.95. However, by going directly to the Buchanan cam paign Web site, it can be dow nloaded at no charge. Having this content, or at least access to content, in one place may be a convenient albeit potentially expensive alternative for those without the time or research skills needed to find these resources elsewhere. The insider commentaries on the media may be of inter­ est to business, journalism, and media stu­ d e n ts .— Robert L. Battenfeld, Long Island University, battenfeld@soiLthampton.liu.edu T h e U n iv e r s i t y o f M ic h ig a n L a w School Refugee C a se la w Site. Access.- http ://w w w .refugeecasela w . org. Enshrined in the 1951 C onvention relat­ ing to the Status of Refugees, the definition o f “refugee” is the subject o f m uch interpre­ tation in national courts. This can have sig­ nificant ramifications for the m any people around the w orld w ho seek asylum (or “refu­ gee status”) as a m eans o f protection against persecution. A n ew data­ base p ro d u ced by the Uni­ v ersity o f M ichigan Law School m ay h elp to p ro ­ m ote m ore consistent ap­ plication o f international standards by providing ac­ cess to refugee caselaw from a variety o f ju­ risdictions. At the time of this writing, selected deci­ sions from high courts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States are available. T he stated objective is to even­ tually branch out to other jurisdictions. Al­ though date coverage is not indicated, U.S. decisions from the 1960s are included, while other cases from certain jurisdictions ap p ear to date from the 1980s. Users can choose from Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian fo r public services and co llection d evelop m en t a t W illa m e tte University, e-mail: jrobertsOwillam ette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian fortechnical services at Willam ette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu http://www.contentville mailto:battenfeld@soiLthampton.liu.edu http://www.refugeecasela mailto:cdrost@willamette.edu C&RL News ■ D ecem ber 2000 / 1039 several options for searching the database: full text, case name, country of origin o f the applicant, court, date o f deci­ sion, or jurisdiction. An addi­ tional search m e th o d is by “H athaw ay num ber.” A Michi­ gan law professor and o n e o f the d atab a se’s m asterm inds, Jam es H athaw ay is the author o f a w ell-know n treatise in the refugee law com m unity entitled “The Law o f Refugee Sta­ tus.” The chapter n u m b er system u sed in the b o o k has b e e n translated into a “to p ical” search option in the caselaw database. Users may further refine their searches with a subsequent search— effectively conducting a search within a search. This feature can lead to som e initial confusion since it is relatively easy to overlook the fact that one is “refining” a search rather than initiating a new one. The safest w ay to avoid getting zero hits errone­ ously is to simply follow the links provided at the bottom of each results page; either start a new query or conduct another search using the particular option selected. The total num ber o f cases available in the database is still relatively small (just over 300); users may be disappointed by a consistent pattern o f n o results retrieved, particularly w h e n se a rc h in g by c o u n try o f orig in o r Hathaway number. For this reason, the most effective option is “full text.” Results are dis­ played in descending date order. The com ­ plete decisions, taken from LEXIS, are pre­ sented in .pdf format and their original lan­ guage. The database is designed for legal practi­ tioners, refugee status decision makers, and policy makers. However, it will also prove a b oo n to law students drafting papers, briefs, or advisory opinions, w hether in asylum clin­ ics o r the classroom. Although currently lim­ ited in the variety of jurisdictions represented, this resource is a useful tool for undertaking comparative work. And w ith its sophisticated s e a rc h m ech a n ism in p lace , th e refu g ee caselaw database will only improve as its hold­ ings begin to multiply.— Elisa Mason, indepen­ d en t inform ation specialist, elisamason@ yahoo.com W orld W ar I: T re n ch es on th e W eb. Access: http ://w w w .w o rld w arl.c o m . T here is an increased interest in the m a­ jor events that occurred at the beginning o f the cen ­ tury. World War I: Trenches o n th e Web has b een de- 1 v e l o p e d a n d r e g u l a r l y m aintained since 1996 by a private individual, Mike Iavarone. A netw ork adm inistrator by p ro ­ fession w ith an avid am ateur interest in World War I, Iavarone has p ro d u ced a co m p reh en ­ sive an d highly accessible clearinghouse of materials relating to this period of history. Endorsed by the Great War Society and by the History Channel, Trenches o n the Web is an outstanding exam ple o f a multim edia tool for the study of m odern history. U pon reaching the site, the searcher is initially o verw helm ed by the som ew hat ram ­ bling hom epage, w hich takes up five screens. By the third screen, visitors discover a num ­ b e r o f thoughtfully constm cted finding aids, m ost allowing different paths of access to all o f th e site’s contents. The academic researcher will find the “Ref­ erence Library” section the m ost useful. The “Site at a G lance” flow chart m aps out the site’s contents by subject and format. The chart offers quick access to such resources as origi­ nal docum ents, a w ar atlas, p h o to archives, statistics, artwork, books, reviews, an d a vir­ tual reality hall. The “Exhibit" section features prim ary data, including 20 thum bnail p h o ­ tos, m aps o f the major theaters o f action, and a timeline o f the war. For the researcher w ho w ishes to sam ple current discourse o n the G reat War, clear links are p rovided to an u n m o d erated discussion g ro u p an d to an Internet Relay Chat session. A nother service provided w ithin the “Reference Library” is a com prehensive list to o ther external com pi­ lations of World War I materials, including several academ ic reading lists an d bibliogra­ phies. Links are provided to not-for-profit World War I p oster reproduction businesses an d to booksellers. While World War I: T renches on the Web m ay no t be a scholar’s first source o f World War I information, this site nonetheless p ro ­ vides an original and content-rich gathering p o in t for m any supplem entary research re­ sources. R ecom m ended for undergraduate and graduate historians and teachers seeking multimedia class materials.—-JaneDuffy, Ohio State University, duffy.88@osu.edu ■ http://www.worldwarl.com mailto:duffy.88@osu.edu