Al's Picks |
 |
by Al Massey |
http://www.isoc.org/ (follow link from home page)
Proceedings of Sixth Annual Internet Society Conference (INET'96). The proceedings of the recently completed sixth annual conference of the Internet Society (INET'96), including over 150 papers, are available at the ISOC web site. Main topics of the conference, held in Montreal, Quebec, consist of "Internet Applications and Services," "Transforming Internet Commerce and Reshaping the Marketplace," "Internet Learning and Teaching", "Networking Technology Frontiers," "Internet and Social Transformations", "Growing and Regulating the Internet: Economic and Policy Issues", "Expanding and Enhancing Internet Access," and "Internet Case Studies".
http://www.infobases.com/ssdi/query01.htm
Social Security Death Index. The Social Security Death Index (SSDI), provided by Infobases, Inc., is a searchable database of the Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration (SSA). DMF "contains over 50 million records created from SSA payment records." The database can contain name, social security number, date of birth, date of death, and last residence/lump sum payment information when available, and can be searched on those criteria. Search help is available from the home page. Note that this is not an index of everyone who has died in the United States, but rather an index of people who had Social Security Benefits when they died.
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/
CenStatsUS Census Bureau Electronic Subscription Service. For a limited time the US Census Bureau is offering free access to many of its published statistical series through CenStats. This service is scheduled to become fee based in the future, but the Bureau is offering it "free for the next several months." Included at present are over 100 publications, including the 1995 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the 1992 Census of Agriculture, several of the 1992 Economic Censuses, and 1993 County Business Patterns. Each item contains a description and is available in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format. There is a connection to the Adobe site at the CenStats site.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/
MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. Provided by the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, MacTutor is a comprehensive archive that contains biographies of over 1100 mathematicians, from Niels Abel to Antoni Zygmund. Mathematicians can be accessed alphabetically or chronologically. Biographies contain birth and death information, along with a synopsis of the mathematician's work and references. The site also contains a history topics section, with short articles on over twenty topics ranging from Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics to the quantum age, as well as an overall chronology of mathematicians, a birthplace map (for those born in Western Europe), and a selection of short articles on over 60 famous curves. The site is searchable, and is one of the most exhaustive mathematics history sites on the Internet.
http://www.askanexpert.com/p/ask.html
Ask an Expert. Over 200 "Ask an Expert" services, specializing in almost as many topics and provided by related organizations, have been gathered together on this page for easy browsing. The collection was assembled with teachers in mind "to enhance your curricula and answer your questions"; however, many topics will prove more useful outside the classroom. The list is arranged alphabetically by subject, allowing the user to easily locate a service on a specific topic if it is provided. Some services promise to answer each question personally. Others state that due to volume they can answer only selected questions but will publicly post those they do answer. Many services offer listings of previous questions, with the answers. Having a forms-capable Web browser is a definite plus, since many services offer forms-based input for the questions; however, some also offer e-mail input and in those cases the e-mail address is listed along with the Web link. A random sampling of the services provided indicates that some are very well done where as others may not be as useful.
The American Museum of Natural History web site gives information about all of the museum's current pursuits, including exhibitions, education, and research. The exhibitions currently available are "Amber: Window to the Past," and "Expedition: Fossils." Users may take virtual tours of the Fossil Halls and the museum's 125th anniversary exhibition. There is great depth to the exhibitions, and the framed outline (appearing only with frame-capable browsers, of course) provides a clear road map as the user explores. The museum shops are also available.
http://KidsHealth.org/ orhttp://www.kidsdoctor.com/
Two sites devoted to children's health are now on the web, with special emphasis on health education for kids and parents. KidsHealth, created by the Nemours Foundation, offers separate browsing areas for kids, parents, and professionals. The kids' section contains features on the food pyramid and emotions, as well as games. Parents will find a collection of resources on pediatric and parenting issues. KidsDoctor takes a different approach, presenting parents with a search box into which a condition or illness can be entered. The search term is highlighted in the results of the search, so that anxious parents can quickly locate the vital information.
The National Library Catalogue is available free of charge, and there is information on accessing the full AMICUS (the library's fee-based bilingual holdings database) system. The full text of all formally published Canadian on-line books and journals is available, indexed alphabetically and by subject, and searchable by title or full-text keyword. The site offers a virtual tour of the building. Also provided (and partially under development) are resources about Canada: Canadian information by subject, the National Library Gopher, Forthcoming Books, Canadian government information, Canadian quick reference, and information on the Canadian Confederation.
http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html
The Labyrinth is a global information network providing free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth Library contains links to medieval texts as well as current research. The subject menus provide well-organized links to Internet resources in the respective subject areas. Because this is a web site that serves professionals as well as the interested public, there are pedagogical resources and professional information. The entire site is searchable, but is so well organized that most users will likely not find it necessary to do so.
Web users may now search the UnCover database of nearly 17,000 periodicals. In addition to tables of contents and keyword index searching, users may place orders for article delivery from the web site (the fee schedules for this service are clearly explained). The search page allows the user to enter terms for a keyword or name search, or to browse the list of periodical titles. Entering information in a user profile before searching facilitates the ordering of articles, but is not required for use of the database.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
Back to the User Journal Home Page