 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
| ALA American Library Association | Search ALA Contact ALA Login |
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
INTERNET REVIEWSC&RL News, January 2008Vol. 69, No. 1 by Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost AsiaSource. Access: http://www.asiasource.org/. AsiaSource, developed by New York-based Asia Society, provides a superb resource for Asian arts, culture, politics, business, education, and historical information. Founded in 1956 as a nonprofit organization, the Asia Society’s mission is to “strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia.” This site—incorporating audio, video, e-mail alerts, RSS and podcasting—has a very professional look and is clearly structured with easy navigation and keyword searching. Users can access the site by topics and services. The striking blue horizontal topic tabs cover “Arts & Culture,” “Business & Economics,” “Policy & Government,” and “Social Issues.” The vertical sidebar guides users to various services, including “AsiaTODAY,” “AskASIA,” “AsiaFOOD,” “AsiaSTORE,” “AsiaPROFILES,” “AsiaVIEWS,” “AsiaLINKS,” “AsiaEXPERTS,” “AsiaEVENTS,” “AsianNYC,” and “AsiaBULLETIN.” On each topical page users can find special reports, interviews, and other useful links. “AskASIA” has numerous documents that facilitate the study and teaching of Asian subjects in the curriculum. This section also includes maps and images from a variety of sources. “AsiaPROFILES” is a great resource for students and researchers looking for information about a specific country. Each country profile is represented by “Geography,” “Demographics,” “Economy,” “Communications,” “Transportation,” and “Military.” The ability to compare country data is particularly appealing as users can select up to five countries for comparison. The data is from the CIA Factbook and other sources. “AsiaEXPERTS” is a very impressive database for locating specialists in Asian culture, arts, history, and society. The database is searchable by keyword or by “Discipline,” “Country or Region,” and “Language.” Although targeted for the press, experts are often happy to answer questions by students and can be an excellent resource. Other valuable information on the site includes “This Day in Asian History,” “Fact of the Day,” “Asian Holidays,” “Chronologies,” “Dictionary Tool,” “Embassies,” and “Regional News.” “Bibliographies” from various universities and individuals are not listed on the main page but do appear in the sitemap and can be an effective guide for students. The major problem with the site is that the current news section has not been updated since April 12, 2007. Despite this, students in international or East Asia Studies or anyone interested in information on Asia will find a tremendous wealth of resources at AsiaSource.—Jia Mi, College of New Jersey, jmi@tcnj.edu The Becket Fund. Access: http://www.becketfund.org/index.php. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, which seeks to protect the right of free expression for all religious traditions. The Becket Fund is named for Thomas á Becket (118-70 CE), who was martyred by the knights of King Henry II of England for defending the principle of religious liberty. The nonprofit, nonpartisan, interfaith organization operates in three arenas: litigation, media, and scholarship. The Becket Fund’s homepage provides a link to each area of the fund’s activities. Under “Litigation” the user will find an alphabetical list of more than 100 cases involving the Becket Fund. In ACLU v. Shundler, for example, the Becket Fund was retained by Jersey City, New Jersey, to defend an ACLU challenge against displaying a crèche and menorah on city property. They have also defended the rights of Native Americans to worship in sacred sites (Bear Lodge Multiple Use Association v. Babbitt and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Association) and Sikhs to build a temple (Guru Nanak Sikh Society of Yuba City v. County of Sutter), etc. “Media” provides a chronological list of all news releases issued by the Becket Fund dating back to 1997. “Scholarship” provides a roster of conferences sponsored by the Becket Institute in Rome (The Becket Fund’s academic partner in Europe). However, only the titles of the conferences are on the Web page, and no further information is provided. The homepage provides a list of “The Issues” (international, property rights, schools, prisons, employment, associations, and public square), which serve as topical indexes to the material contained in the site. The main page also has a search screen with Boolean capability which retrieves site information on a variety of topics: “zoning,” “abortion,” “first amendment,” “Hinduism,” etc. Contact information is given and the site is well maintained with weekly updates. Other than a link for prospective donors, there is relatively little commercial material on the homepage. Students who are preparing a persuasive speech on some topic relating to the freedom of religious expression can be referred to the site. The Becket Fund provides useful background information on issues dealing with the freedom of religious expression. For more detailed background information on the particular court cases, however, the patron should be referred to Lexis-Nexis.—Wendell Johnson, Northern Illinois University, wjohnso1@niu.edu LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center. Access: http://lanic.utexas.edu/. LANIC is associated with the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas (UT)-Austin. LANIC is part of International Information Systems, also based at UT Austin, which includes ASNIC (Asian Network Information Center), MENIC (Middle East Network Information Center), and REENIC (Russian and East European Network Information Center). The Web site has been in service since 1994. LANIC states that its mission “is to provide Latin American users with access to academic databases and information services throughout the Internet, and to provide Latin Americanists around the world with access to information on and from Latin America.” They claim that to be one of the largest guides for Latin American content on the Internet. LANIC can be viewed or searched in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The site can be browsed by broad subject categories, such as “Humanities” or “Society & Culture,” and these broad categories are subdivided into general resources and country resources. It can also be browsed by country or by subject. LANIC’s advanced search allows one to search LANIC and its other projects: Latin America and the Caribbean Economic & Social Data (USAID), Centro Latinoamericano de Administración para el Desarrollo (CLAD), Latin American Studies Network (LASNET), Sistema Económico Latinoamericano (SELA), and the Castro Speech Database. The advanced search option also lists portals and directory sites in Latin America. LANIC is an index to more than 12,000 sites. Whether searching or browsing, the results are links to government, scholarly, and popular sites, along with electronic lists and usernet newsgroups about Latin American history, culture, and arts. LANIC staff evaluates and catalogs all sites, and these sites are presented in an organized format for researchers. LANIC is unbiased and provides links to both sides of political issues; for example, the “News” category for Cuba contains a link to the United States Office of Cuba Broadcasting (home of Radio Martí and TV Martí) and a link to Granma (the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba). LANIC is a valuable site for all things Latin American and can be useful to both an undergraduate student needing the history of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos and a scholar looking for the growth of exports from Nicaragua to Jamaica between 1987 and 1992.—Delores Carlito, University of Alabama-Birmingham, delo@uab.edu Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: cdrost@willamette.edu |
| ACRL is a division of the American Library Association |
| © 2008 American Library Association. Copyright Statement Last Revised: May 21, 2007 |
