The Scout Report

February 6, 1998

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
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.

An Acrobat .pdf version of this report is available for printing and distributing locally. For information on Adobe Acrobat Reader, visit the Adobe site.

Scout Report for Science & Engineering
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/sci-engr/
End User's Corner--February 1998
http://scout.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/enduser/archive/1998/euc-9802
The tenth issue of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering is available. It annotates over twenty new and newly discovered Internet resources in the physical & life sciences and engineering. The In the News Section annotates six resources related to 1998--The Year of the Ocean. The February 1998 End User's Corner, Minding the Web to Keep Current on the Internet, discusses a few of the techniques interested users can employ to keep current of new developments at their favorite sites. [JS]
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Termination of GDB Project
http://www.gdb.org/shutdown/notice.html
The well-known GDB (Genome Database) project, in existence since 1989 and hosted by the Johns Hopkins University, has announced that it will be ceasing operations effective July 31, 1998, due to the fact that the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Research has made a decision to discontinue funding. The database will continue to be available to researchers after that time, but its content will no longer be developed. Complete details of the termination, as well as future data availability, are discussed in the termination notice. [JS]
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AlphaSearch
http://www.calvin.edu/library/as/
AlphaSearch is a new subject-based metasite provided by the Hekman Digital Library at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A metasite of metasites, AphaSearch is a gateway into the topics it covers. Users can browse by resource type, any of 35 subjects from archaeology to Spanish, or by descriptor, which the Calvin selectors have applied to each resource. Searches in AlphaSearch are limited to single word at this time; however, fielded searching is available. Each resource offers a short description and a link to a full description containing hyperlinked title words and descriptors. At present, AlphaSearch contains some 700 metaresources and shows great promise of becoming one of the premier educational subject metasites on the Internet. [JS]
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Two UKOLN Electronic Library Conference Proceedings
Beyond the Beginning: The Global Digital Library
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/bl/blri078/content/
US Mirror
http://www.cni.org/regconfs/1997/uk-content.html
Training for Change: New Skills for the Electronic Library
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/bl/ans-1997/
The UK Office for Library and Information Networking has made available proceedings from two conferences that took place in June and September of 1997 respectively. Beyond the Beginning: The Global Digital Library contains summaries of the conference proceedings compiled by The Marc Fresko Consultancy. This conference was sponsored by six major organizations, including the British Library, the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). Featured are 26 papers and presentations in seven major areas including research and development, measurement, metadata, authentication, and intellectual property. Training for Change: New Skills for the Electronic Library, a conference held in York, UK, contains abstracts and twelve full text papers in the areas of the challenge of change, current projects, skills and training for the digital age, and the impacts of the digital library on staff training. It concentrates on experiences in European university libraries. [JS]
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A Time to Act: A Report of the USDA National Commission on Small Farms--USDA NCSF [.pdf, WordPerfect, 123p.]
http://www.reeusda.gov/agsys/smallfarm/report.htm
This recently published United States Department of Agriculture National Commission on Small Farms document (MP-1545) (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] or WordPerfect format only) is the result of the work of a 30-member commission appointed by US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman in July 1997. The commission held a series of nine public hearings and meetings all over the US. Their 146 recommendations fall into eight broad categories designed to emphasize the importance and aid in the preservation of small farms as economically viable and ecologically sustainable enterprises that support an American way of life. The report is a response to the increasing tendency toward concentration in the production sector of the American agricultural economy. [JS]
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1998-1999 High School Debate Topic Online--UKGDC
http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/kulib/docs/debate98.html
"Resolved: That the United States should substantially change its foreign policy toward Russia." The National Federation of State High School Associations has announced that this is the US national high school debate topic for 1998-99. In response, as it has done for the last two national debate topics, the University of Kansas Government Documents Library compiled a marvelous resource of pointers to relevant Internet sites that will illuminate this topic for these high school debaters, as well as for the rest of us. The site contains links to relevant US Government, legal, international, and partisan and bipartisan resources addressing the question. While some resources are links to sites that students will have to research further, the think tank and selected readings links point to specific articles that may prove very useful in preparing for the debate. In addition, pointers to selected print resources are available. [JS]
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The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam001.html
This site marks the publication by the US Library of Congress of the Mosaic, the first Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African-American collections. "Covering the nearly 500 years of the black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range, size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound." The site offers samples of the materials and themes in the Library's collections. It is also a sample of a much larger exhibit planned for 1998. The LOC chose to highlight four of the many themes covered in the Mosaic at this site: Colonization, Abolition, Migrations, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Each section covers key issues and figures and offers many digitized images of original documents held by the Library. [MD]
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PILOTS: Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress--NCPTSD
http://www.ncptsd.org/PILOTS.html
Telnet Access
telnet://lib.dartmouth.edu
telnet to: lib.dartmouth.edu
At prompt, type SELECT FILE PILOTS
The PILOTS database, provided by the US National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and housed at the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, provides access to over 12,500 international literature citations related to post-traumatic stress. The literature covered dates back to 1917. The database may be searched by any of fourteen fields or browsed by any of five. Retrieval includes bibliographic information, format, language, descriptors, and abstract; five display formats are available. Although the database is sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs, literature is not limited to PTSD among veterans. [JS]
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Tarlton Law Library--Law in Popular Culture Collection
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/lpop.htm
Marlyn Robinson, reference librarian of the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin provides this site, which contains information about the library's collection of books and films related to how popular culture affects peoples' notions of the American legal system. The bibliography, a collection of information about nearly two hundred articles and books related to the subject, highlights this site. Visitors can find information about the library's collection of over 500 films featuring lawyers, as well as descriptive information about the library's collection of hundreds of books of "fiction in all genres, as well as legal humor, plays, comics, and pulp magazines" that either feature a lawyer in a central role or are authored by lawyers. Rounding out the site is a gallery of related movie still photos. Note that while the books are available via interlibrary loan, the films are not available outside the UT community. [JS]
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Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 1999 [.pdf, .wk1, .wk4]
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/budget99/index.html
The US Office of Management and Budget has released the Fiscal Year 1999 Federal Budget (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] and .wk1 and .wk4 format only), which was presented to the Congress on February 2, 1998. The site provides "A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget." More detailed information can be found in the "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1999," which contains the "Budget Message of the President and information on the President's FY 1999 budget proposals." The summary and historical tables of the budget can be donwloaded from the site. Other documents available include "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1999," which provides analyses on certain subject areas, and the "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1999--Appendix," which contains detailed appropriation fund information. [THN]
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Blast From the Past--NMNH
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/blast/
A recently recovered deep-sea core supports theories that an asteroid collided with the earth 65 million years ago, around the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History's new site, Blast from the Past, contains details on this cataclysmic event. Colorful graphics provide conceptual illustrations of the asteroid impact and aftermath, accompanied by photographs of the deep-sea core. Text summaries, followed by bibliographic references, describe the asteroid hypothesis, the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary, and the utility of deep-sea cores. With links to other paleobiological sites and related museum exhibits, this site is a useful resource for those wanting to know more about fateful asteroid impacts. [LXP]
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WP Politics--Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/
The Washington Post (discussed in the June 21, 1996 Scout Report) has recently added this section, a compendium of features covering various areas of the American political scene. In addition to the excellent daily coverage of federal politics, it contains analysis of the newly released national budget, news on upcoming political campaigns, a guide section with directory information on members of Congress, the Administration and state governors, a compendium of selected opinion columns by political writers David Broder, Nat Henthoff, Meg Greenfield, William Raspberry, and George Will, among others, and twelve relevant interactive discussion areas (free registration required prior to discussion). One of the highlights of the site is the poll section, where interested users can compare their answers to recent questions to poll data from the same questions from Washington Post-ABC News Polls. [JS]
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The End of Life: Exploring Death in America--NPR [RealPlayer]
http://www.npr.org/programs/death/
Viewing the black and erie homepage of this website entitled Death in America might encourage one to shudder and quickly avoid it. But click on! This site, provided by National Public Radio, covers a number of very real issues surrounding the experiences of death and dying in America. It is highlighted by RealAudio and text transcripts of various "All Things Considered" segments on this topic that have aired since November, 1997. Another section provides testimonals by the dying (or by family members and friends who are faced with loss), and two others serve as bibliographic resources for people with terminal illnesses and for people coping with grief. A feedback section allows users to add their own death story to the page. [LXP]
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The Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar [RealPlayer]
http://www.udayton.edu/~dunbar/
Maintained by the Black Alumni Chronicle of the University of Dayton (Ohio), this site celebrates the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African-American to gain national eminence as a poet. Although he died at age 33, Dunbar ultimately produced twelve books of poetry, four books of short stories, a play, and five novels, and his work was recognized in literary circles in both America and Britain. The highlight of the site is a collection of seven Dunbar poems read by Herbert Woodward Martin, a University of Dayton professor emeritus who studies and performs Dunbar's work. Other features at the site include a biography of Dunbar, several articles on Martin's performance as Dunbar, and a collection of related links. [MD]
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The 1920s
http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html
On February 6, 1921 Charlie Chaplin made his feature-length film debut in The Kid. This is just one of the many bits of information at Kevin Rayburn's site devoted to the Roaring Twenties. The site is divided into three sections. Timeline contains a descriptive list of political, literary, entertainment, and other events arranged in chronological order. People & Trends divides the decade into six subject areas, with each of these areas containing brief essays on specific topics. A Remarkable Decade presents the author's views of the decade. [AG]
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E-CARM--Electronic Commerce and Rights Management Mailing List
This mailing list has been established to foster and support an on-line discussion forum to debate technical and managerial issues pertaining to: secure transactions, competing rights management models (e.g. ECMS, PICS, certificates, FIRM, etc.), evolving standards, supporting technologies, and other approaches to enabling electronic commerce. It will also serve to inform members of upcoming conferences and online resources, as well as to identify critical factors relevant to developing and implementing a rights management infrastructure. [JS]

To subscribe send email to:
listproc@lists.fsu.edu
In the body of the message type:
subscribe e-carm FirstName LastName
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WAI Accessibility Guidelines: Page Authoring--W3C
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
W3C Announcement
http://www.w3.org/Press/1998/WAI-Guide
The World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that develops common web protocols, has issued this "first public working draft" of the Web Accessibility Initiative. Driven by accessibility improvements in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 4.0 specification (discussed in the December 19, 1997 Scout Report), these guidelines seek to insure accessibility to the web by people with disabilities. Guidelines are provided in ten areas, including style sheets, audio-video, tables, links, and user input forms. Each of the recommendations is labeled as either "required" or "recommended" to provide full access. Many of the recommendations are also valid for earlier versions of HTML. [JS]
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Free Pint
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
Issue Archive
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/issues.htm
Free Pint, a biweekly email newsletter provided by the the Willco information consultancy and edited by William Hahn, covers various aspects of both network related tools and content. Recent issues have covered tool-related topics: web problem diagnostics, improving results from search engines, and metasearch sites. Content topics have included articles on major sources of business and medical information. Tools information usually targets novice users. The current issue is located in the issue archive. Interested users can subscribe on the home page. [JS]
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Claris Home Page 3.0--WYSIWYG Editor
http://www.claris.com/products/hp_home.html
Download Free Trial Version of Claris Home Page 3.0
http://www.claris.com/products/try_filemaker.html#homepage3
Claris Home Page 3.0 is now available for Macintosh and Windows 95/NT. It has undergone many enhancements. The most notable additions include the eight assistants, three viewing modes, and FileMaker 4.0 connectivity. The Home Page user interface is intuitive for those accustomed to using assistants. The documentation and tutorials under the Help menu provide optimal instruction. Note that at this time, there seem to be some problems with FileMaker connectivity. Users may download a free evaluation copy of this commercial product. [TB]
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Volume 1, Number 40, February 3, 1995
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/.html
BABEL: A Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms
http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html
NOBLE Web: North of Boston Library Exchange
http://www.noblenet.org/index2.htm
When BABEL (version 95A) appeared in the Scout Report, it was already legendary in the Net community. Irving Kind's massive glossary, available since 1989, contains hundreds of computer related acronyms from AA (Auto Answer) to ZSL (Zero Slot LAN). It is updated three times per year and is available via the web, FTP, and the same listserv as announced in the February 3, 1995 Scout Report (although the command is different--see Appendix B at the site). It also contains a brief introduction to the smiley emoticons in email, and a handy listing of country domain names. NOBLE, begun as a gopher site, has migrated to the web. It was one of the earliest attempts by a public library consortium to categorize quality sites. Today it contains briefly annotated links to resources in 24 subject areas from arts & architecture to statistics. [JS]
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Copyright Susan Calcari, 1994-1998. 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

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The Scout Report - February 6, 1998

The Scout Report

February 6, 1998

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