INTERNET REVIEWS
C&RL News, February 2008Vol. 68, No. 2
by Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost
CYFERnet: Children, Youth and Families Education and Research Network. Access: http://cyfernet.org.
A national network of land grant university faculty and county extension educators, CYFERnet supports community-based educational programs for children, youth, parents, and families. With an online presence since 1992, this well–connected organization brings together professional reports, programs, studies, tips, and even games on a wide variety of topics. College students, educators, and researchers will discover many pockets of useful information here.
CYFERnet.org does emphasize its primary role as a community educator.
The bright, active, visually attractive layout invites teens and younger children, as well as parents and teachers, to explore the site. “Hot Topic,” “Announcements,” and “New CYFERnet Resources” seem to shine in yellow on the right, while tidier clearly designated categories await on the left. Every path leads to some kind of information, justifying the site’s slogan: “Practical Research-based Information from the Nation’s Leading Universities.”
Organized categories on the left include “Early Childhood,” “School Age,” “Teens,” “Parent/Family,” and “Community.” Choosing any one displays that program’s page, with subdivisions eventually leading to anything from short how-to articles to full research studies. Teen pregnancy, family conflict, adult development, after school programs, and intergenerational parenting are just a few topics. Featured resources for each category show up at appropriate points on the right sidebar, obscured at first by the extent of content in the middle.
CYFERnet is clearly a large-scale, professional, noncommercial network as any amount of drilling down reveals. Fortunately, competent Web design provides logical pathways to research, preventing one from being overwhelmed. In addition, an ever-present Google search box always beckons for an alternative approach or quick escape. In general, the trip is worth it. Still, the sheer variety of resources available at CYFERnet means that many of the sources retrieved will not always be relevant to a particular researcher.
In the end, this site serves the community, but has a lot to offer the practitioner and scholar, as well. Students majoring in education fields will find useful tips for creating appropriate programs and curricula along with relevant research. Others interested in research on the health and well-being of children, families, and communities are bound to find something different and valuable here.—Barbara Valentine, Linfield College, bvalen@linfield.edu
Moving Here: 200 Years of Migration in England. Access: http://www.movinghere.org.uk/.
Americans who hear the phrase “British migration” probably recall the settlement of the North American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. To Britons, however, migration first calls to mind the tremendous influx of foreigners into Britain, particularly from the Commonwealth countries. Moving Here “explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be.” A joint project of 30 museums, archives, and libraries organized by the British National Archives, the project is targeted at individuals and students in England who want to learn more about their heritage. It contains 200,000 items, mostly primary source materials.
The site is well organized, with sections devoted to images, oral histories, the history of mass migration, and genealogical research. An online catalog allows searching the collections either as a whole or within these categories. A special section for educators features extensive lesson plans and online student activities. Interactive exercises teach about immigrant life in Victorian England, migration in post-war Britain, and the influence of the Holocaust.
A particularly useful tool for people in Britain who want to learn about their family history is the “Tracing your Roots” section. This interactive tutorial provides useful guidelines for researching within four major immigrant groups: Irish, South Asian, Caribbean, and Jewish.
While mainly intended for people within the United Kingdom, much of the material will be useful for Americans of British heritage.
The galleries include representative images and sound files from the archives, with more available through the online catalog. Only a couple of bad links were found. The images are smaller than those found on some archival sites, but were perfectly usable. Images may be e-mailed as online postcards, which is an uncommon feature.
The maintainers encourage immigrants to contribute their own stories.
Recent additions document the experiences of Chinese from Hong Kong, who arrived in Britain in the mid-20th century and acculturated in spite of challenges posed by language barriers and occasional prejudice.
The site will be useful to people researching the history of ethnic groups in England, families exploring their British roots, and scholars interested in ethnography and historical migration patterns.—Mark A. Stoffan, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, mastoffan@ualr.edu
USINFO. Access: http://usinfo.state.gov/.
The USINFO Web site is produced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), which “engages international audiences on issues of foreign policy, society, and values to help create an environment receptive to U.S. international interests.” In other words, USINFO, like Voice of America and Radio Liberty, is a medium for propaganda. Its purpose is to promote “American values” and pro-U.S. sentiment abroad; however, the format has been updated to reach an Internet audience.
Since USINFO’s target audience is citizens from other nations, the site is available in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Persian, Russian, and Spanish. IIP has taken advantage of new technologies by giving users the option to subscribe to daily or weekly updates, RSS news feeds, podcasts, or a mobile edition that can be sent to PDAs and cell phones. The homepage also has a link to video clips, including the four-and-a-half-minute long “I Am America,” described as presenting “iconic scenes of America and its people.” There also are videos about the 2008 Presidential elections and the Middle East peace process.
The “Topics” page links to “news and information” about U.S. policies regarding “International Security,” “Trade and Economics,” “Global Issues” (environment, health, humanitarian assistance, and immigration), “Democracy,” “Human Rights,” and “U.S. Life, Culture, and History.”
Users can also browse the site by geographic region. This section includes information about U.S. policy and interactions with different nations or regions. All of these pages present U.S. policies and efforts in only the most positive light. However, there are links to other Web sites, reports, and articles throughout.
Under “Resource Tools,” there are links to an “International Events Calendar” (“a schedule of events worldwide that may include participation by U.S. officials”), “Information USA,” and information about consulates and obtaining visas. The “Identifying Misinformation” page “sheds light on misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes and other false reports about the U.S. government.” The “Products” page offers electronic journals, a photo gallery, and Webchat and Webcast stations.
Unless a user is specifically interested in government propaganda, this reviewer would direct users to the State Department’s home site, where much of the same information is available without the hyperbole.—Gerri Foudy, University of Maryland-College Park, gfoudy@umd.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