The Scout Report - April 11, 1997

April 11, 1997

A Publication of Internet Scout
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin

A Project of the InterNIC

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.

EdSearch: Education Statistics on Disk--1996 Edition [.zip]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/97076.html
Gopher access:
gopher://gopher.ed.gov:10000/11/table-gen/EDsearch96/
gopher to:gopher.ed.gov
select: OERI & NCES/NCES/Table Generators & Searchable Statistics/EdSearch 96
FTP access:
ftp://ftp.ed.gov/ncesgopher/table-gen/EDsearch96/
ftp to: ftp.ed.gov
change directories to: ncesgopher/table-gen/EDsearch96
NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) has recently released the latest version of this program (DOS 3.1 or greater), which makes the tables, charts, and text in seven major education statistics publications considerably more accessible to researchers, allowing them to search over 2,600 items and view, download, or print them. Items can be searched five ways and files can be downloaded in ASCII or Lotus .wk1 format. It is this ability to find exactly the files needed, and convert them into a format that allows further statistical manipulation, that gives EdSearch its power. Don't be fooled by the clunky DOS interface that harkens back to the 1980s; this is a powerful program, with a tremendous amount of data. Note that about 12.5 MB of disk space are needed to hold the uncompressed files. [JS]
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Cataloger's Reference Shelf
http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crs/
Press release:
http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crspress.htm
The Library Corporation (TLC) has just made its collection of 21 MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) manuals and other reference works relating to library technical services freely available on the web. Library of Congress publications and the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) were the basis for the content and arrangement of many of the manuals contained at this site. There are cataloging manuals for specific formats, including "archival moving images," looseleaf publications, serials (CONSER), rare books, maps, and graphic materials. In addition, there are guides to USMARC formats for bibliographic, authority, classification, and holdings data. For detailed descriptions and examples of all MARC fields and their subfields, choose "Bibliographic Data" from the main menu and then follow the "Tag List" link. USMARC code lists for countries, geographic areas, and languages are also available. [AG]
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Our Place in the World: An Inquiry-based Thematic Curriculum Resource
http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Resources/Place/index.html
ArtsEdNet--The Getty Museum
http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/
Our Place in the World, a curriculum unit for elementary and secondary teachers by Dr. Mary Erickson, Professor of Art Education at Arizona State University, is the first in a series of ten curriculum units (Stories of Art) to be made available at the ArtsEdNet (Getty Education Institute for the Arts) site. The unit is driven by an inquiry-based approach to learning, in which "students formulate questions and search for answers in their own experiences and by consulting knowledgeable sources." However, it also incorporates thematic and discipline-based approaches. The unit consists of seven core lessons, as well as several supplementary lessons, including a theme portfolio, imagination story, art making, and art history, among others. As the Stories of Art units become available, they should be a major electronic source of K-12 art curriculum. The ArtsEdNet site also contains information about the Institute, other curriculum resources, over 150 works of art, and a large annotated bibliography on discipline-based arts education. [JS]
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National Institute for Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/
Located at the National Institutes of Health, NIMH is focused on mental health: Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Alzheimer's Disease, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Schizophrenia, etc. The site contains items of interest to the researcher (news & events, grants, contracts, & committees, and research activities) as well as the lay person (the public information section provides specifics on "mental disorders, diagnosis and treatment," as well as links to other NIMH programs such as D/ART, the Depression Awareness Recognition Treatment Program). Additionally, NIMH organizational and directory information is available. The site can be searched, through either a simple or an advanced search interface. [ATW]
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Jurist--Law professors on the web
http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/jurist.htm
Bernard Hibbitts, Professor and Associate Dean for Communications & Information Technology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, provides this site, "designed to connect Neterate legal academics to each other, to law students, to the legal profession and to the public at large as individual law professors become independent information-providers on the [web]." The site is highlighted by links to the home pages of over fifty law professors, to over fifty pre- and post-prints of articles (in nine subjects from business law to regulation), and to twenty meta-pages, maintained by law professors, on topics from administrative to tax law. Also included are a large list of online law course pages, three lectures, and pointers to other resources. What is interesting about this site is that it is essentially an annotated tour through the law resources of the Internet conducted by professors of law. [JS]
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The Integrator--From Wolfram Research
http://integrals.wolfram.com/
The people who brought you Mathematica, one of the leading mathematics applications, have created a simple web site that promises to "do integrals as the world has never seen before." Users enter an integral (instructions for suitable notation are given at the site) and then press the "DO IT!" button. The answer is returned in one of four user-selected formats: text, ASCII, standard form, and traditional form. The last form is returned as an image, so that Greek letters are displayed correctly. The site also offers some background on integration: uses of integrals, the history of integration, and how the Integrator works. Of course, there is a link to information on the full version of Mathematica at the bottom of the page. [ML]
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ECOMP-L--College English Composition mailing list
ECOMP-L is an open, unmoderated discussion list related to the teaching and learning of college English Composition. Any discussions/announcements related to college English Composition theory and pedagogy are welcome. [JS]
To subscribe send email to:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU
In the body of the message type:
SUB ECOMP-L yourfirstname yourlastname
[Note: Resource(s)/URL(s) mentioned above is no longer available.]
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The World Factbook 1996--CIA
http://www.cia.gov/publications/nsolo/wfb-all.htm
Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments
http://www.cia.gov/publications/chiefs/chiefs-toc-view.html
The US Central Intelligence Agency has recently released the latest in this annual series of country information reference books. Data is available for over 250 countries. For each country, map and flag, geographic, population, government, economic, transportation, communication, and defense information is provided for the latest year available. Users can browse the whole country list, by continent, or by subject (Data in the Factbook). There are also fifteen individual reference maps (.gif, .tiff, or .pdf format), and eight appendices. The entire book is available in compressed (.gz) plain text and rich text format (.rtf). Information comes from several US sources. This is an indispensible reference source for those who want quick, thumbnail country information. The agency also offers name information for chiefs of state and cabinet members for over 190 countries. [JS]
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Latest Galileo Images from Jupiter Moon Europa
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/europa/e6images.html
Observatorium mirror:
http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/europa/e6images.html
April 9, 1997 Europa news release:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/status970409.html
http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/status970409.html
Galileo Home Page
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/
Stunning new Galileo images from the surface of Europa have been made available by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The images, originally captured February 20, 1997, were taken from a distance of 363 miles. They are intriguing in that they suggest the idea that the Jovian moon may have "a very thin ice crust covering either liquid water or slush," as well as the possibility that its "surface is much younger than previously believed." Each of the eight grayscale images is available in two resolutions and accompanied with descriptive caption material. Note that the Observatorium mirror sites are usually much less congested than the JPL sites. [JS]
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EntreWorld
http://www.EntreWorld.org/
No-frames version:
http://www.EntreWorld.org/EntreWorldHome.cfm?F=N
Looking to make that first million? Then EntreWorld, provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is an excellent place to begin. The site is highlighted by four sections: starting your business, running your business, rapid growth (under construction at present), and supporting entrepreneurship. The first two sections allow users to select from an interactive search box of several topics, and retrieve annotated articles from various Internet sources. The fourth contains a potpourri of information including annotated pointers to other Internet resources in six major subject areas (pointers are also available from the Business Center area of each major section). Navigation of the site can sometimes be confusing, and some links do not yet work, but the number of article pointers, and the annotation of each, make this site worth a visit. [JS]
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Jackie Robinson--The ball player, the man
Jackie Robinson: Breaking Barriers [QuickTime, RealAudio, frames]
http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/u/baseball/mlbcom/jackie/jackie.htm
Beyond the Playing Field: Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate--NARA
http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/robinson/robmain.html
Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier fifty years ago, but that was not his only contribution to the civil rights struggle in America. The official Major League Baseball site pays tribute to the ball player, and is highlighted by stories from Maury Allen and Larry Lester, RealAudio tributes by Willie Mays, New York Mayor Guliani, Rachel Robinson, and Joe Black, and QuickTime movies of the great player in action. To illustrate Robinson's continuing activism in the civil rights struggle, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has recently made available (as part of its Teaching with Documents series) a new site that includes nine documents (letters and telegrams, in .gif format) in the correspondence between Robinson and four US presidents. The annotated correspondence shows Robinson's steadfastness in pursuing civil rights, and some of his prescient opinions about what might happen if civil rights continued to be denied to African Americans. [JS]
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Wanderlust--Salon
http://www.salon.com/wanderlust/
Wanderlust Archives:
http://www.salon.com/wanderlust/archives/archivesmain.html
Inspired by a "strong or unconquerable longing for or impulse toward wandering," the creators of Salon (discussed in the May 24, 1996 Scout Report) recently unveiled their new weekly online travel section--Wanderlust. Under the editorial direction of Donald George, former Travel Editor of the San Francisco Examiner, the first issue of Wanderlust (March 25, 1997) featured the writings of Isabel Allende, Peter Mayle, Jan Mossis, and Pico Iyer. In addition to travel essays from well known writers, each issue will contain news and insights from cities around the world in "Postmark," and excerpts from new and noteworthy travel books in "Passages." Salon's popular reader's forum, "Table Talk," is also present here, providing a place for travel enthusiasts to share tips and experiences. [AG]
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HEALTHPOL--Health policy mailing list
HEALTHPOL is a forum for discussion of the American health care system. It is intended for persons who have a working knowledge of health care policy. [JS]
To subscribe send email to:
LISTSERV@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM In the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE HEALTHPOL yourfirstname yourlastname
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Possible Futures of the Internet
Next Generation Internet Initiative Concept Paper (Draft)
http://www.ccic.gov/ngi/concept-Jul97/
Internet 2 Homepage
http://www.internet2.edu/
It is almost universally agreed that the Internet bandwidth problem has reached critical proportions for the research and education community. These two sites present possible solutions. Next Generation Internet Initiative Concept Paper (draft) is produced by the National Coordinating Office for Computing, Information, and Communications. It outlines the NGI high performance network initiative, and discusses the goals, deliverables, benefits, management, and action plan for NGI. Interested readers can comment on any section of the draft, and comments will be used in the preparation of a final version of the report. The Internet 2 site provides information about the "cooperative effort of 106 member universities working together with private member companies and non-profit organizations," through "high bandwidth and bandwidth reservation," to "provide tools for scientific research and higher education in the 21st century." The site is still under construction, but contains useful technical information, a list of members, events, and information on how to contact and join I2. Of particular interest are the examples of possible I2 applications (Library, Applications). [JS]
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Electronic Learning in a Digital World
http://www.thegiim.org/home.html
This site, provided by The Global Institute for Interactive Multimedia, is designed to "stimulate thought about electronic [Internet-based] learning." It provides general information on electronic learning, the Internet, computing, and benefits of incorporating these into an educational environment. It also offers general information in the way of tools and what one should consider when beginning to establish an online course. Since keeping up with web news and resources is difficult, a brief section with links to various news sources, latest sites, and search resources is included. This well organized site does an excellent job of addressing the idea that the Internet represents a whole new dimension of learning. [TB]
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Macromedia's Flash 2 Beta Version--A multimedia interactive web tool
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
The beta version of the multimedia web tool Flash 2 has recently been released by Macromedia. With Windows 95/NT or a Macintosh with System 7.5, users can create streaming interactive vector-based web animations, graphics, buttons, and sounds. Flash 2 beta is a free download, and contains examples and a tutorial. The tutorial, while easy to use, is also in beta form--some of the interactive features were not functioning and there were some spelling errors. Users should be aware that, as with all beta version software, some bugs and software crashes might occur, and so should save files often. [TB]
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Copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-1997. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout

Susan Calcari
Jack Solock
Matthew Livesey
Teri Boomsma
Aimee D. Glassel
Amy Tracy Wells
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The Scout Report - April 11, 1997

April 11, 1997

Research and Education

General Interest

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