Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost Internet Reviews

Beliefnet. Access: http://www.beliefnet.com/. Loss” (a grief counselor shares how to heal Beliefnet claims to be the largest spiritual from longstanding grief) and “Illness and Web site on the Internet. Recovery” (information on pain management It presently has 76 million subscribers and and mental health). There are also several adds 15,000 new subscribers daily (as of Au­ “Relationship” links, such as marriage, dat­ gust 1, 2008). The average reader spends 13 ing, and divorce. minutes on the site. Seventy­five percent of Beliefnet appears very similar to an its visitors are female, with a median house­ ecumenical version of the monthly maga­ hold income of $65,000. Beliefnet’s mission zine Christianity Today, but contains more is to help people find “a spiritual path that advice than dispassionate analysis. The site will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength and should particularly find traction in libraries, happiness.” in religious colleges, or in Religious Studies The toolbar on the homepage provides classes. Instructors in courses on the world’s links to the religious faiths and practices of religion can use Beliefnet as a departure the world (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, point for classroom discussion. Beliefnet is Hinduism, Judaism, etc.). Each page con­ a commercial site and presents an abun­ tains features of interest respective to that dance of advertising. Given its content and particular faith. For example, “Hinduism” advertising, patrons will be more likely to describes Hindu intercultural marriage consult Beliefnet for news rather than for traditions and reviews movies of special research material. Beliefnet is part of the interest to Hindus (such as Prince Caspian). Fox Entertainment Group and is updated “Christianity” features “A Church in Crisis,” daily.—Wendell Johnson, Northern Illinois describing the issues facing the Anglican University, [email protected] Church, particularly the ordination of gay clergy. “Islam” features “Obama reaches out Center for History and New Media. Access: to Muslims,” and discusses the Democratic http://www.chnm.gmu.edu/. candidate’s trip to the Middle East. “Bud­ The Internet portal of the Center for dhism” contains material from the Dalai History and New Media (CHNM), based at Lama. “Christianity” has separate pages for George Mason University, is a collection of at its Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Latter­ least 30 freely accessible exhibits, interactive Day Saints branches. Other faiths, however, projects, and tools designed for researchers are not similarly divided. and educators in history and related fi elds. Beliefnet hosts several blogs. Particularly The portal is designed to foster the integra­ interesting is the Blogalogue “How Would tion of Library 2.0 strategies into the display, God Vote?” Two columnists debate “God’s interpretation, and management of interdis­ priorities” and discuss the pressing political ciplinary source materials. issues of the day, such as abortion, same­ Users of the portal will find a crisp inter­ sex marriage, and the Iraq War. Other links face offering a menu of three main choices of interest include “Comfort and Support,” at the homepage: “Collecting + Exhibiting,” where readers will find links to “Grief and “Research + Tools,” and “Teaching + Learn­ ing.” The first of these options contains Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for several collections of primary sources on public services and collection development at subjects such as September 11, the French Willamette University, e-mail: jroberts@willamette. edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian Revolution, the Soviet Gulag, and Mexican for technical services at Willamette University, e-mail: guest workers in the United States. These are [email protected] organized with the spirit of interactive blogs

C&RL News October 2008 574 rather than static databases, with possibilities the site serves as a clearing house for much for user­generated content and tagging. of the information generated by the various The second area, “Research + Tools,” sub­agencies and offices falling within Envi­ offers a number of freeware applications, ronment Canada’s portfolio. Site content is among them an innovative bibliographic organized both by subject and the geographi­ management system known as Zotero. Avail­ cal region from which it originated. able as a Firefox plugin, it has been compared Overall, the site provides a wide range of in its functionality to proprietary offerings, resources appropriate for elementary, high such as RefWorks and EndNote. school, and college students. It devotes a The newer Omeka is a series of conve­ large section to the provision of teaching nient templates for online exhibits of image materials and kits. Much of the content would and document collections. also be of interest to the general public (e.g., Librarians working with instructional plans information about national environmental for history programs at the K–12 and college initiatives, and tips for making environmen­ level will take special note of the third area, tally sound decisions around the home). It “Teaching + Learning.” Created with the also directs users to a wide range of original collaboration of prominent historians and data sources that would be of interest to museums, these modules offer nuts­and­ researchers. bolts suggestions for integrating technology Unfortunately, some of the data resource with primary sources, planning of research links were not working at the time this review projects, and for reinforcing best practices in was written. It is important to note that the information literacy. number of broken links is not necessarily a If the sheer experimental dynamism and flaw of this site as much as it is a statement granularity of offerings at CHNM is an asset about the stability of Canadian Government to many users, it may be a source of slight Web sites addresses in general. In terms confusion to others. Librarians seeking to of original data, the site also refers users recommend projects to their users may need to restricted access databases such as the to spend extra time parsing the established Particulate Matter Database, which allows initiatives from those in an earlier stage of the user to submit requests for additional development. information. All told, this site is highly recommended No direct comparison can be made be­ for its source materials and as a laboratory tween the Environment Canada site and any for methods in faculty outreach and stu­ single U.S. federal site. However, much of dent instruction.—Joshua Lupkin, History, the meteorological and climate data provided University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through Environment Canada is similar in [email protected] scope to that which is provided by the Na­ tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra­ Environment Canada. Access: http://www. tion. The information related to Canadian ec.gc.ca. environmental policy, programs, and public Environment Canada’s mandate is to “pre­ awareness is similar to the content provided serve and enhance the quality of the natural on the Department of Energy and the Envi­ environment; conserve Canada’s renewable ronmental Protection Agency sites. resources; conserve and protect Canada’s As is the case with all Canadian federal water resources; forecast weather and envi­ sites, content is fully bilingual (French and ronmental change; enforce rules relating to English). Web site designers have included boundary waters; and coordinate environ­ an accessibility statement that indicates the mental policies and programs for the federal site has been tested to ensure compatibility government.” In addition to providing general with adaptive technologies. They have also contact, policy and mandate information, (continues on page 579)

October 2008 575 C&RL News Manon Theroux is head of cataloging Jeannette Sommer Ward has retired from and metadata services at the George Mason the University of Central Florida (UCF) Librar­ University Libraries. ies. Ward had been working in libraries since Carrisa Tomlinson has been appointed 1975, when she was an acquisitions searcher. emerging technologies librarian at Towson Her first professional library position as head University’s Albert S. Cook Library. of the serials depart­ Scott Watkins is head of educational servic­ ment at the Rider es at the George Mason University Libraries. College (now Rider University) library in Lawrenceville, New Retirements Jersey. Ward has been a driving force in three complete li­ William A. Gosling has been named uni­ brary management versity librarian emeritus and curator of chil­ system conversions, dren’s literature emeritus at the University of beginning with one Jeannette Sommer Ward Michigan. He joined the university as assistant at Rider College and director for technical services and library sys­ then two more, 20 years apart, at the UCF tems after positions at the Library of Congress Libraries, where she began working in 1984 and Duke University, and served as university as the technical services librarian. In 1986 librarian from 1997 to 2005. Gosling became Ward was appointed head of the UCF Serials curator of children’s collections in the special Department, later serving as the department collections library in 2005. head for the combined serials and acquisi­ tions and collection development depart­ Stephen Karetzky has retired after serving ments. In 2005 Ward was appointed the fi rst for two decades as library director of Feli­ associate director for collections and tech­ cian College in New Jersey. The author of nu­ nical services. Throughout her career Ward merous books—including Reading Research has been an active member, presenter, and and Librarianship, The Media’s Coverage leader of several professional organizations, of the Arab-Israeli Confl ict, and Not Seeing including ACRL, North American Serials Inter­ Red: American Librarianship and the Soviet est Group (NASIG), and Florida Library As­ Union—He also taught at schools of informa­ sociation. She has also presented programs tion and library studies in the United States at EDUCOM and the Charleston Conference. and abroad. Ward received UCF’s Excellence in Librarian­ ship award, and for her more than 20 years of Advertisers service in the library profession (ten or more of which having been served at the UCF Li­ Annual Reviews 570 braries), she will also receive the UCF Librar­ Archival Products 543 ies Lifetime Service Award. Association of Research 580, Libraries centerspread Chemical Abstracts Service 514, 557 (“Reviews” continues from page 575) Choice 573 included “text only” layout options and EBSCO cover 2 “printer friendly” functionality. Despite the H. W. Wilson cover 4 complex nature of the content, the Envi­ LexisNexis cover 3 ronment Canada site is well organized and Perry Dean Architects 535 Rittenhouse Book Distributors 517 provides a simple yet effective search engine. SWETS 513 —Jennifer McKinnell, McMaster University, [email protected]

October 2008 579 C&RL News