Internet Resources Newsletter, Issue 66, March 2000 (SECTION D)

Internet Resources Newsletter, Issue 66, March 2000 (Section D)

New Lists

Electric Scotland Monthly Newsletter (ElectricScotland)

http://www.topica.com/lists/electricscotland

A monthly newsletter bringing you information on Electric Scotland's monthly developments as well as stories of Scotland and Scottish events, people and clans. Electric Scotland is a huge Scottish site run by Scots in Scotland and provides a massive historical archive on Scottish history, clans and lots more.

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Internet Resources Divider

In the course of finding sites of interest for this Newsletter, I sometimes come across Web sites which I feel deserve slightly more than a passing mention. Each month I will try to pick out one or more such sites, and give them a short review. The sites will normally be UK based, may be small or large, and be of interest or potential interest to academics. After lengthy discussions I have decided, with incredible creativity :-), to call these: Nice Web Sites. Details of previous Nice Web Sites are available in the Nice Web Site Archive.

Once again, this month, there are some really good Web sites to choose from. Information for Industry looks as if it has some very useful features for anyone interested in UK environmental topics, as it has a news feed, a job directory, and you can buy discounted books. Datalake is a very useful service for those looking for university information, and GLAS @ccess! offers the catalogue of the Aslib Information Resource Centre, and allows you to search the library's collection of books, thesauri and classification schemes. Then there is The IT Portal, and Metor, which describes itself as new gate to hundreds of searchable information sources, and also the extremely useful and updated Current Awareness Services links from Loughborough University Library. But this month's Nice Web Site is:

WorldSkip.com: http://www.worldskip.com/

WorldSkip.com is designed to bring access to information, resources, products and services from any nation in the world. It is very easy to use, has some good features, and is well designed. A pity, though, that Scotland is not included in the list of countries!

Altogether a nice Web site.

Roddy MacLeod

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The Internet in Print

Occupational Safety & Health: Publisher: Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Birmingham, B5 7ST
Frequency: Monthly
Subscription: Members £50, non-members £58.82; Each issue features a Sitegeist with details of interesting Web sites.

If you know of other Internet journals or journals with regular significant sections about the Internet which have not been mentioned in The Internet in Print section, please let me know at: R.A.MacLeod@hw.ac.uk

Roddy MacLeod

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Network News

BIDS News Bulletins

http://www.bids.ac.uk/Tfedocs/news.html

BIDS is a UK provider of networked information services for higher education and research.

BIDS is pleased to announce the addition of the Medline dataset to the suite of services it offers. The ingenta MEDLINE service is unique in providing free access to the MEDLINE database seamlessly linked to full-text articles in ingentaJournals.

Renowned for its international coverage of drug-related research literature, MEDLINE is produced by the National Library of Medicine.

The database covers all aspects of human medicine and related biomedical research.

ingenta MEDLINE includes data from approximately 3,800 biomedical journals published worldwide, dating back to 1966. The database contains more than 10 million records and is updated weekly with a one-to-three month delay between publication and indexing.

NISS News

A week-by-week listing of new information resources on the NISS (National Information Services and Systems) Information Gateway selected by experts in the subject area is available at:

http://www.niss.ac.uk/welcome/whatsnew.html

BUBL News

BUBL has retained a strong library element, but now provides a subject-based service to the academic and research community more generally, this via the BUBL LINK Subject Tree. The latest news from BUBL is available at:

http://bubl.ac.uk/news/

The latest updates to the BUBL LINK / 5:15 Catalogue of Internet Resources are available at:

http://bubl.ac.uk/link/updates/current.html

EEVL News

The latest Additions and Updates to EEVL (Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library), The Gateway to UK Engineering Information on the Internet, are available at:

http://www.eevl.ac.uk:4321/whatsnew/

EEVL is delighted to have just been awarded accreditation from 'Enterprise Zone', the DTI and Business Link supported portal site, in recognition of its provision of accurate, relevant and up-to-date information. See elsewhere in this issue for the EEVL press release.

SOSIG News

The latest additions to SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) are available at:

http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk/roads/whats-new.html

SOSIG has a new Look! See elsewhere in this issue for the press release.

EDINA Newsline

The latest issue of Edina (Edinburgh Data & INformation Access) Newsline can be found at:

http://edina.ed.ac.uk/newsline/

EDINA BIOSIS-Web vsn 1.0

EDINA is pleased to announce the availability of a Web interface to EDINA BIOSIS.

EDINA BIOSIS-Web is accessible from the EDINA home page, at URL http://edina.ac.uk. The current EDINA BIOSIS-Telnet interface will continue to be available.

A Quick Reference Guide to EDINA BIOSIS-Web is in preparation, and sample quantities will shortly be sent out to subscribing institutions. Please contact EDINA if you wish to order larger quantities (at 13.20 pounds per 100 Guides).

Links to PowerPoint training presentations in HTML and PowerPoint version 4 and 97 formats for BIOSIS-web are also now available from the list at of EDINA Training Presentations.

CHEST News

CHEST aims to obtain quality commercial software, datasets, training materials and other IT products for the Education and Research Community at low prices and attractive licence terms. The latest news from CHEST is available at:

http://www.chest.ac.uk/news.html

MIMAS News

MIMAS is a JISC-supported national data centre run by Manchester Computing, at the University of Manchester, at the University of Manchester, to provide the following range of services to the academic community:

Flexible on-line access to strategic research and teaching datasets.
Access to key bibliographic information.
Access to specialist support and training.
Access to software packages and large-scale computing resources.

The latest news from MIMAS can be found at:

http://www.mimas.ac.uk/news.html

New on RUDI

RUDI (Resource for Urban Design Information) is a multimedia information resource for research and teaching in the field of urban design in the Western cultural context. The latest news from RUDI can be found at:

http://rudi.herts.ac.uk/new.html

OMNI News

UK's independent gateway to high quality biomedical Internet resources. The latest sites added to OMNI can be found at:

http://www.omni.ac.uk/newrecords/

Netskills: News

Netskills aims to help the UK HE community make effective use of the Internet for teaching, research and administration. The latest news from Netskills can be found at:

http://www.netskills.ac.uk/news/

What's new on Eldis

Electronic Development and Environment Information System. A gateway to information sources on development or the environment. What's new on Eldis can be found at:

http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/wnew.htm

What's New on Biz/ed

Biz/ed is a dedicated business and economics information gateway for students, teachers and lecturers.

http://www.bized.ac.uk/homeinfo/whatsnew.htm

AHDS Newsletter

The latest issue of the AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service) Newsletter can be found at the top of the newsletter index page at this site.

http://ahds.ac.uk/public/newslind.html

Mailbase News

Mailbase provides electronic discussion lists for the UK higher education community.

http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/news/

Data Archive news

The Data Archive at the University of Essex houses the largest collection of accessible computer-readable data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. It is a national resource centre, disseminating data throughout the United Kingdom and, by arrangement with other national archives, internationally.

http://dawww.essex.ac.uk/news/

What's new on the TASI web site

TASI is a service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) set up to advise and support the academic community on the digital creation, storage and delivery of image-related information.

http://www.tasi.ac.uk/new.html

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Press Releases

Here are extracts from some recent Press Releases which you might have missed.

ENN Centralizes Environmental News Daily for Nearly 500 Organizations Worldwide

Sun Valley, Idaho -- February 14, 2000 /Xpress Press/ -- The Environmental News Network (ENN.com) http://www.enn.com, announced today that ENN Direct, an environmental news source, now centralizes news daily from nearly 500 conservation, academic, governmental and corporate organizations worldwide.

ENN Direct was introduced on the ENN.com web site in August 1999. In only six months, the feature has grown to include news from nearly 500 groups, a wealth of environmental information from every part of the world.

ENN Direct is a global communication network for environmental issues," said Kris Thoreson, director of affiliate relations at ENN.com. "Now people have direct access to information that can fundamentally change our perception of the environment."

Through ENN Direct, news from nearly 500 conservation, academic, governmental and corporate organization around the world is available daily on ENN.com.

ENN.com is the premier provider of environmental news and information on the Internet. ENN news is syndicated to CNN, Encyclopedia Britannica, MSNBC and The Weather Channel. The ENN.com news staff also produces daily news for National Geographic.

Source: Environmental News Network PO Box 1996 Sun Valley, ID 83353

BIDS/Ingenta. Any queries please contact bidshelp@bids.ac.uk

BIDS has recently announced the addition of the free Ingenta Medline dataset to the suite of services it offers. The ingenta MEDLINE service is unique in providing free access to the MEDLINE database seamlessly linked to full-text articles in ingentaJournals.

This new service is available to all users of BIDS and ingenta services. As a free service, this is not an Athens resource but can be removed by request to the BIDS helpdesk.

MEDLINE uses Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to identify topics. It is more precise to use these headings. The MeSH headings also help determine the scientific name for common conditions e.g. rubella for german measles. Search terms can be automatically translated to the appropriate MeSH items when a search is submitted.

UK internet economy held back by metered internet charges. Durlacher survey reveals that usage would triple with unmetered access.

Durlacher Research's most recent residential internet survey, involving interviews in 4000 homes around the UK, has uncovered some startling truths about internet access in the UK.

Durlacher believes that the absence of widespread US-style unmetered access (whereby users do not pay per minute phone charges) is dramatically slowing the growth of the UK internet economy. Evidence from the survey suggests that residential internet users would increase the frequency of their internet access by 46% and the duration of their internet sessions by over 100% if they had unmetered access.

Taken together, these findings mean that average internet use per residential user would triple from 130 hours per year to 386 hours per year. Furthermore, this does not take into account an expected increase in new internet users drawn by unmetered access. Behind the lack of a computer, high telephone costs were cited as the biggest factor in preventing people getting internet access in the home.

Durlacher believes that the widespread adoption of unmetered internet access would have a substantially beneficial effect on consumer-focused internet companies in the UK:

Advertising revenues would increase through increased content consumption/traffic -
E-commerce revenues would increase due to increased traffic and enhanced familiarisation with the concepts and technologies of e-commerce (which itself would come from increased usage). -
Real-time services such as financial sites, chat services, internet telephony, online games and streamed media (ie audio and video) would benefit in particular from lower barriers to usage and prolonged user connectivity.

The results have significant implications for Britain's ambitions to create the most conducive e-commerce environment in the world. Durlacher believes that unmetered internet access would accelerate the development of world class e-commerce companies based in the UK, allowing the UK to develop a sustainable lead in the nascent European market.

The results and analysis of the above survey are being featured in the forthcoming issue of the Durlacher Quarterly Internet Report. A subscription to the report costs £195/annum

EEVL Engineering Internet guide celebrates awards, and further enhances Web site

EEVL: the UK-based not-for-profit, free gateway to engineering information on the Internet is delighted to announce that it has become the WWW Virtual Library for Engineering. This means that EEVL, already recognised as the number one gateway to engineering information in the UK, has also become the top level guide for engineering in the oldest catalogue of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee. The WWWVL is widely regarded as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web.

In addition, EEVL has been awarded accreditation from 'Enterprise Zone', the DTI and Business Link supported portal site, in recognition of its provision of accurate, relevant and up-to-date information.

A recent landmark passed by the service was the addition of the 5,000th site in the EEVL searchable and browsable directory of quality engineering Web sites. EEVL's portfolio of services includes a UK Engineering Search Engine which mines over 100,000 Web pages focused entirely on engineering, a searchable engineering newsgroup archive, an Engineering E-journal Search Engine which searches the full text of over 150 engineering e-journals, a Manufacturing bibliographical database, and an Offshore Engineering Information Service.

These nested services make EEVL a very powerful tool for anyone looking for engineering information.

EEVL, which covers all areas of engineering, was recently strengthened through the addition of an Aerospace and Defence Engineering section, provided by AERADE at Cranfield University. Other new sections include Occupational Safety and Health, and Materials and Energy Recycling and Reuse.

To celebrate all of the above, EEVL has substantially redesigned its site to make it easier to use. Not only are automatic cross-searching of databases and search engines options available, but the site now includes handy Hot Links to other engineering guides, other subject portals, recruitment agencies, events, engineering industry news sources, teaching and learning resources, and literature searching sites. Additional features are lists of the top 25 most visited engineering sites in the UK and worldwide, and a contact directory for University Science and Technology Librarians.

EEVL combines the benefits of automatic search engine robots with assessments by independent subject experts located in various UK universities and professional institutions. It is a user-friendly service which provides easy access to networked engineering resources, with the emphasis on the UK, but including the best world-wide engineering resources. All of EEVL's services are free, and no registration is required.

EEVL, which is part of a national initiative funded through the Higher Education funding councils via JISC and the Resource Discovery Network (RDN), is available on the Web at: http://www.eevl.ac.uk/

Welcome to the New Look SOSIG!

The world's first and best gateway to Internet resources for social scientists has just got even better. We have been joined by more leading subject experts to expand, enhance and improve the individual subject sections.

We have also created a Virtual Community Centre for all social scientists with the addition of:

SOSIG GRAPEVINE

Grapevine allows you to create a personal profile and offers:

Likeminds - the chance to find and interact with colleagues with similar research interests from around the world

My CV - the chance to create an on-line CV and put it in front of leading researchers in your area

My Account - use your profile to create your own personal view of the Web, using the high quality SOSIG catalogue and the massive harvested "research-engine" database. Find out which resources have been added recently in your area and register for regular email notification of important developments in your specialism.

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Recent Internet Books in Heriot-Watt University Library

Recent arrivals:

001.644 HUI 
Routing in the Internet 
2nd ed., by Christian Huitema, 
Prentice Hall, 1999

001.6442 BAC 
Introduction to metadata: pathways to digital information 
by Murtha Baca
Getty Information Institute, 1998

A complete list of new books added to Heriot-Watt University Library is available from the Library News page.

http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/news/news.html

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Get a life ! Leisure Time

BSES Expeditions

http://www.bses-expeditions.org.uk/

A boating site.

Climb for CARE

http://www.care.org/support/climb4care5/index.html

For the fifth consecutive year, a group of adventurous and charitable individuals from across the United States will take part in the 2000 Kilimanjaro, Climb for CARE.

thedeal.net

http://www.thedeal.net/

thedeal.net is a site covering everything you need to know about money and more.

Brodies Backpackers Hostel

http://www.brodieshostels.co.uk/

Quality Accommodation for travellers in the heart of Edinburgh

descent-world

http://www.descent-world.co.uk/main.html

Mountain bike site

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STOP PRESS! Several new e-journals now available to members of Heriot-Watt:

Elsevier's Science Direct is now available to members of Heriot-Watt University

The ScienceDirect service is a Web database that contains the full text of more than 1,000 Elsevier Science journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences. To provide a starting point for the research process, and to expand the literature coverage beyond Elsevier Science journals, ScienceDirect also contains abstracts from the core journals in the major scientific disciplines making ScienceDirect one of the most comprehensive database of primary literature in the sciences.

Click on "group-wide login" and you can view the list of journals by subject or alphabetically and then directly connect to the issue and article. In most cases, coverage is back to 1995.

Access is controlled by IP address, so off-campus users will need to connect to Heriot-Watt first via the Dial-In Service.

There is an alpahabetical list of all the networked journals that the Library subscribes to.

A number of titles from Springer LINK are now available to members of Heriot-Watt University

This service gives access to the contents/abstracts of all Springer online journals and, for members of Heriot-Watt University, full text access to the following:

Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing

Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics

Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations

Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics

Finance and Stochastics

International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Journal of Mathematical Biology

Journal of Nonlinear Science

Marine Biology

Marine Biotechnology

Microbial Ecology

Numerische Mathematik