Agricultural Fact Book 1996
http://www.usda.gov/factbook/contents.htm
Agricultural Fact Book 1996 is now available online courtesy of the USDA Office of Communications. It offers basic facts about many aspects of U.S. agriculture, including the U.S. farm sector, the structure of U.S. agriculture, and rural America. It contains short entries and brief statistical breakdowns, and is meant to be used as a ready reference tool for journalists, librarians, farm special interest groups, and the general public. Available only in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Source : Scout Report, May 17, 1996.

Agricultural Statistics 1995-96
http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr95_96/acro9596.htm
Agricultural Statistics 1995-96 is the latest volume in the Agricultural Statistics series. It is a detailed compilation of statistical charts and tables covering all aspects of the U.S. agricultural economy. Many of the tables have been updated through 1995, and this edition is available for downloading chapter by chapter for those with slower connections. Available only in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Source : Scout Report, May 17, 1996.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Home Page
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
The U.S. Department of Justice has created an ADA Home Page as part of its efforts to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The web site provides information about the law's requirements, status reports on enforcement efforts, technical assistance materials, and state and local certification requirements. For more information, consult AG Press Release, July 25, 1996.

AskERIC
http://ericir.syr.edu/
The U.S. Department of Education offers access through the world wide web to a newly designed home page called AskERIC, which directs users to an Internet-based education-information service. The site pulls together three different services, a question-and-answer service, a virtual library, and a research-and-development section in addition to the ERIC database. Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, May 24, 1996, p.A20.

Backing Off Bakke?
http://www.counsel.com/spotlight/bakke.html
The U.S. Supreme Court stunned affirmative action advocates by declining to review Texas v. Hopwood, the 5th Circuit's ruling that Texas Law School's ethnic diversity-based admissions program was unconstitutional. Read the petition for certiorari and the Court's decision. Source : Counsel Connect's Law Links Spotlight on Legal News.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1996
Features rich personal and career detail on more than 11,000 men and women who served in the United States Congress from 1789 through 1996, and the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1789, as well as a complete listing of Congresses and Cabinet members. Prepublication price : $245; after November 1, 1996 : $295. CQ Staff Directories, Inc., 815 Slaters Lane, Alexandria, VA 22314; (800) 252-1722. Or visit http://www.staffdirectories.com/

Canada's National Library Catalogue
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/
The National Library Catalogue is available free of charge at this site, as well as information on accessing the full AMICUS (the library's fee-based bilingual holdings database) system. Government documents librarians may want to take a look at the Canadian Government Information Section ( http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/cangov/egovinfo.htm). Additional sections provided or promised include: Canadian Information by Subject, the National Library Gopher, Forthcoming Books, Canadiana Quick Reference, and information on the Canadian Confederation. Source : Scout Report, July 5, 1996.

CenStats--U.S. Census Bureau Electronic Subscription Service
http://tier2.census.gov/dbappweb.htm
For a limited time the U.S. 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. Source : Scout Report, July 12, 1996.

Communications Decency Act Ruling
http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/trial.htm
The full text of the unanimous decision of a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pa., which ruled much of the Communications Deceny Act unconstitutional, is available at the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Web site. Along with the decision, the site contains a 40 minute ACLU news conference (in RealAudio format), case materials, and selected trial testimony and transcripts. The ACLU, along with the American Library Association, spearheaded the legal challenge to the CDA. Source : Scout Report, June 14, 1996.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/cdc.html
On July 1, the CDC will celebrate its 50th anniversary. The public health agency that got its start in WWII as a group to control "Malaria in War Areas" has come a long way in its mission of preventing disease, both by research and education. And what better way to educate the masses than over the Internet. You can find information on various diseases from AIDS to Ebola. A Traveler's Health section allows jet-setters to view vaccination requirements for diseases we don't normally deal with in the United States. You can also see the CDC's updated Blue Sheet - a list of countries battling diseases like cholera, yellow fever, and plague. Have a specific country in mind? You can get a health snapshot of the nation, with any illnesses you should be vaccinated for, and prevention tips. Source : Chris Clonts, Detroit Free Press, June 30, 1996, p.7E.

Chemistry Web Book
http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/
For information on thermodynamic data for over 5,000 chemical compounds and on ion-energetics data for over 10,000 chemical compounds, NIST's Chemistry WebBook is available for searching. Compounds can be searched by name, chemical formula, or CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) registry number. Information on enthalpy of formation, heat capacity, entropy, ionization potential, and appearance potential is available. Note that this site works best on browsers that support tables. In case you can't remember, NIST stands for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Source : Scout Report, August 16, 1996.

CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates
http://www.odci.gov/csi/books/briefing/index.htm
There's an informative work entitled CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates at the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence web site. This work covers CIA briefings of presidential candidates from 1952 to 1992 and examines how individual presidential candidates responded to CIA briefings of pertinent intelligence and national security issues. Source : Bert Chapman, Purdue University, GOVDOC-L, July 15, 1996.

Condition of Education 1996
http://www.ed.gov/NCES/pubs/ce/index.html
At the heart of The Condition of Education 1996, recently released on the web by the US Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, are "60 indicators, representing a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education." Indicators are arranged in six categories: Access, Participation, and Progress; Achievement, Attainment, and Curriculum; Economic and Other Outcomes of Education; Size, Growth, and Output of Educational Institutions; Climate, Classrooms, and Diversity in Educational Institutions; and Human and Financial Resources of Educational Institutions. Each indicator is presented in tabular form (although your browser does not need to be able to render tables to view them), with highlights and selected charts when available. Time series coverage varies by table, with most series ending in 1994. This site is searchable and provides a wealth of information about all aspects of US education. Source: Scout Report, August 16, 1996.

Social Security Death Index
http://www.infobases.com/ssdi/query01.htm
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. Source : Scout Report, July 12, 1996.

DIGOR Debuts
http://nemesis.willamette.edu/digor
The Documents Interest Group of Oregon (DIGOR) has created a web site containing information about upcoming meetings and programs, information about the Federal and Oregon Depository Library Programs, and links to government information sites on the Internet. But most important of all, it contains links to DOCUMENTOR, the online newsletter of the organization.

EASI : Easy Access for Students and Institutions
http://easi.ed.gov/
The U.S. Department of Education has created a web service that directs students to resources that help them plan for college. Project EASI (Easy Access for Students and Institutions] provides information from federal and state governments, individual institutions, and private sources on topics such as financial aid, admissions testing, and student loans. Source : Chronicle of Higher Education, July 19, 1996, p.A24.

Center for Electronic Records
http://www.nara.gov/nara/electronic
The Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives and Records Administration is pleased to announce the availability of our new homepage. The homepage provides access to information about the Center's holdings and services for researchers and Federal agencies. Please send any questions, comments, or criticisms to cer@nara.gov. Source : Ted Hull (Center for Electronic Records, National Archives and Records Administration; e-mail : theodore.hull@arch2.nara.gov; telephone : (301) 713-6645, ext. 253), GOVDOC-L, August 20, 1996.

Envirofacts
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/ef_home.html
For environmental lawyers and other earthlings, take a deep breath and plunge into EPA's searchable mega-database, which "integrates data extracted from five major EPA program systems: AIRS/AFS, CERCLIS, PCS, RCRIS and TRIS." That's a lot of data. Trail a link to EPA's main site for everything you want to know about the federal green police. Source : Counsel Connect, Editor's Picks Archive, July 8, 1996.

Environmental Impacts of Water Quality in the United States
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/indic/
This report by the EPA describes water quality in the United States in terms of a set of 18 environmental indicators that measure progress toward national water goals and objectives. The report is available as a twenty-four page Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) document or as a set of HTML pages, and includes a selection of fact sheets about the individual indicators of water quality. Contents: Water Quality Objectives and Indicators; Water Resources; Human Activities and Their Effect on Water Quality; Water Quality Objectives and Indicators; and Water Quality Monitoring and Information Management. References are available. Source : Scout Report, June 28, 1996.

FBIS Update
In a letter dated June 5, 1996, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) announced its intention to provide the Library Programs Service (LPS) with the CD-ROM version of the FBIS publications in lieu of the microfiche version. FBIS intends to discontinue the paper products sometime in September or October and FBIS confirmed that it expects to begin furnishing the CD-ROM to LPS for distribution to the depositories beginning with the disc covering the period June through September, 1996. Allowing for processing time, LPS expects to receive the disc sometime in November. Until that time, FBIS publications currently reproduced on microfiche will continue until all paper publications have been converted to "softcopy." As a result of the overlap in the scheduled discontinuation of the paper product and the production of the CD-ROM version, libraries can expect some overlap and duplication of content. Source: GOVDOC-L, June 11, 1996.

1996 Farm Bill Provisions
http://WWW.econ.ag.gov/pubs/agout/
Provisions of the 1996 Farm Bill is an ERS (Economic Research Service) supplement to the monthly Agricultural Outlook series. It discusses the new Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 in detail, provides a glossary of agricultural policy terms, and gives a detailed comparison of the 1996 and 1990 farm acts. Available only in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. Source : Scout Report, May 17, 1996.

Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
http://www.stls.frb.org/fred/
Sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Includes the Beige Book, Federal Reserve Board Statistical Releases, and historical U.S. economic and financial data. Source: Peggy Walker, Florida Atlantic University, FLADOCS, August 6, 1996.

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/fincen/fincen.html
Meet the Department of the Treasury's elite, specialized unit dedicated to helping federal, state and local law enforcement clean up money laundering. FinCEN uses high tech intelligence as it follows dirty money trails and administers the Bank Secrecy Act. Download FinCEN advisories and hop a link to Treasury. Source : Counsel Connect, Editor's Picks Archive, July 8, 1996.

Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/
Everyone knows about the branch of the Department of Health & Human Services responsible for monitoring one trillion dollars worth of food, medicine and other products per year. Visit the FDA's webspace to inspect FDA's budget, its mission and vision statements, history and organization, and reports and information about human and animal drugs, biologics, cosmetics, medical devices and more. And don't forget to read the label. Source : Counsel Connect, Editor's Picks Archive, July 15, 1996.

Freedom of Information Act Celebrates Anniversary
Thirty years ago on July 4, 1966, President Johnson--with no fanfare and much reluctance--singed the Freedom of Information Act at his Texas ranch. The measure, which went into effect one year later, required most federal departments and agencies to make available to the press public records they routinely kept secret. Today nearly 600,000 requests are filed each year-- only about 5 percent by the press. According to Harry Hammitt, who publishes Access Reports, an FOIA Newsletter, 60 to 75 percent of requests are made by businesses that want to know about government procurement practices or to learn what their competitors are up to. Individual citizens, including inmates, requesting what files the government has on them, are the next largest user. For more information, consult the Detroit Free Press, July 4, 1996, for a number of articles celebrating the history of the act and its current impacts.

Galileo Images of Jupiter Moons
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/
http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
Recent photos of Jupiter moons Io and Ganymede from the Galileo spacecraft are available from NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) web site. The Ganymede black and white images were taken on June 27, 1996 from a distance of 4,628 miles. One of the most interesting is a side-by-side comparison of a photo taken by Voyager 2 in 1979 and the Galileo image. At present there is one color image of Io, taken June 26 from a distance of 1.4 million miles. Source : Scout Report, July 19, 1996.

GODORT Handout Exchange Available
The GODORT Education Committee Handout diskette containing 128 files of handouts, bibliographies, collection policies, training and processing guides, and other finding aides for Census products, government CD-ROMs, internet sites, legislation and regulations, statistics, foreign topics, and specific subjects are now available for purchase for $7 on two disks. Send your personal check or your purchase order to: Larry Romans, Head, Government Information Department, Central Library, Vanderbilt Univ., 419 - 21st Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37240-0007. Source : Larry Romans, Vanderbilt University, GOVDOC-L, July 17, 1996.

GODORT Handout Exchange Available
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/11/socsci/poliscilaw/godort/guides/
Grace York has just loaded the files from the 1996 GODORT Education Committee Handout Diskettes at the University of Michigan gopher. Source : Larry Romans, Vanderbilt University, GOVDOC-L, August 26, 1996.

GPO Pathway Services
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces760.html
Pathway Services, a product of the US Government Printing Office, is an attempt by that agency to make finding US government information easier for both librarians and interested end users. It does this by connecting the user to many sources of government information from one site. Users can browse the information by topic (though the topic listing is a work in progress at this time) or by title, arranged alphabetically by agency. This title page contains a "New Additions" hypertext link to help interested users keep up with new releases across agencies. Government Information Locator Service (GILS) records can also be browsed. These records contain information about government agencies, along with relevant hypertext links. Pathway Services also provides keyword searching of government information sites, as well as MoCat (the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications). This site shows great promise in helping information seekers use one location as a gateway to all their government information needs. Source : Scout Report, August 16, 1996.

HMSO Publications Home Page
http://www.hmsoinfo.gov.uk/
In case you're interested in finding out what's available from Her Majesty's Stationary Office, i.e. government publications from the United Kingdom. Source : Bob Walter, Pittsburg State University, GOVDOC-L, August 2, 1996.

Hubble Space Telescope Photographs
Dynamics of Crab Nebula
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/96/22.html
Doomed star Eta Carinae
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/96/23.html
Amazing new photos have been added to the Space Telescope Electronic Information Service Site. Hubble Space Telescope images released in the last month include Dynamics of the Crab Nebula and Doomed Star Eta Carinae. Included are several black & white and color resolutions, as well as well as explanatory captions. Of particular interest are the incredible gas clouds emanating from each side of Eta Carinae. "Even though Eta Carinae is more than 8,000 light-years away, structures only 10 billion miles across (about the diameter of our solar system) can be distinguished. Dust lanes, tiny condensations, and strange radial streaks all appear with unprecedented clarity." Source : Scout Report, June 14, 1996.

Human Rights Practices, 1995
http://www.usis.usemb.se/human/index.htm
In 1995, from Angola to Rwanda, in "many countries around the world widespread abuses of human rights continued unabated." Here's a world wide web version of the report submitted to Congress by the Department of State on the status of internationally recognized human rights. The U.S. will use these unsettling findings to set policy, engage in diplomacy and offer assistance globally. A gopher version of this report was reported in the March 1996 issue of Red Tape. Source: Counsel Connect, Editor's Picks Archive, June 3, 1996.

INTL-DOC Debuts
INTL-DOC, a new LISTERV for international document librarians and users of IGO material, has been set up at Northwestern University and is now open to subscribers. While INTL-DOC is intended primarily for individuals working with IGO documentation, queries concerning the literature of foreign national governments and of international affairs in general will be welcomed.
To subscribe to INTL-DOC send the following message:
SUBSCRIBE INTL-DOC yourfirstname yourlastname
to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ACNS.NWU.EDU.
The listowner and moderator is Mike McCaffrey-Noviss, International Documents Librarian at Northwestern University Library. Source : Mike McCaffrey-Noviss, GOVDOC-L, July 15, 1996.

Lansing Home Page Debuts
http://ci.lansing.mi.us/
Includes information from the Mayor, City Clerk, City Council, and other departmental offices. For example you can find the Mayor's State of the City Address, the Mayor's Report Card, the Budget Message, a copy of the City Charter. The Code of Ordinances is coming soon. Contains an unofficial Lansing Lugnuts page.

The Learning Web
http://www.usgs.gov/education/index.html
The Learning Web, provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, is dedicated to K-12 education, exploration, and life-long learning. It is divided into two sections, Teaching in the Learning Web, and Living in the Learning Web. Teaching at present contains information about three main topics, Global Change, Working with Maps, and Earth Science. Each of these sections offers student activities, along with several images. Global Change and Working with Maps also offer teacher's guides that contain bibliographies and further information. Teaching also contains pointers to lists of USGS maintained pointers (not limited to K-12 sites) in subjects such as climate, earth science, hydrology, oceanography, and volcanology, among others. Living in the Learning Web presents information on topics such as household water supply, radon gas, preparing for volcanoes, and the affect of weather on streams. Each one of these sections connects to a pertinent USGS Web page, which in turn offers additional information and pointers. Source : Scout Report, May 24, 1996.

Library of Congress Redesigns Home Page
http://www.loc.gov/
The Library of Congress observed Independence Day by redesigning its web site. Users will find easy access to Thomas (legislative information), the LC catalog, US Copyright Office information and publications, library exhibitions, and all library services. Featured on the site is "American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library." The collections can be searched, or the user may access them by type: prints and photos, documents, motion pictures, and sound recordings. Educators should visit the "Learning Page," which provides information on using the materials in the American Memory collections; lesson plans, a tutorial, and links to related web pages are provided. Librarians and archivists should also take note of the National Digital Library Competition, a $2,000,000 grant program to help libraries, museums, and archival institutions add their collections of primary resource materials to the National Digital Library. Application forms will be available August 19. Source : Scout Report, July 19, 1996.

Library of Michigan Home Page
http://www.libofmich.lib.mi.us
The Library of Michigan's new web site offers resources for the legislature and state government, libraries and Michigan citizens. Items of special interest to the library community include the Michigan Public Library Trustee Manual, the Guide for Establishing and Funding District Libraries, our gateway to the GPO Access program, and information about many of the library's programs (including MichiCard, Michigan Center for the Book, the Document Depository Programs, the Library Services and Construction Act Grant Program, and the Michigan Newspaper Project). Our site will remain a work in progress so if you have specific items of interest you think we should add please let us know. Any and all comments on our web site are encouraged. Please email them to info@libofmich.lib.mi.us. Source : Mary Karpinski, GOVDOC-M, June 26, 1996.

NASA's "Life on Mars?"
http://cu-ames.arc.nasa.gov/marslife/
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/flash/marslife/
http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/marslife/
The rock that rocked the world is the subject of three mirror sites. NASA's official "Life on Mars?" site has press releases, photos, video, audio from press conferences, and background information on meteorites. Due to the heavy public interest in this topic, expect some delays in retrieving information from the NASA sites. For more information, follow the debate about life on Mars by visiting the CNN Special Report--Mars: Life Signs? devoted to the discovery. In addition to articles, audio, and video, this page provides links to many official and non-official sites about this discovery, Mars, and even meteorites in general (including Meteorite Central, which accepts advertisements for meteorites for sale). Source : Scout Report, August 9, 1996.

Mars Exploration
http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/
Why go to the movies to see fictional space adventures when NASA offers the real thing? Check out the pending Mission to Mars Pathfinder. Source : USA Today Online, Web Traveler, July 9, 1996.

Medscape--With free Medline access
http://www.medscape.com/
Free searching of the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE abstracts database has been added to the wealth of medical information for practitioners and health care consumers available on the Medscape site. Free registration is required before using most of the site's features. The Medscape site offers full-text articles from a number of medical journals, all of which are searchable. The "Patient Info" section groups information for consumers by category; the articles within each category are linked to related information elsewhere on the site. The news page offers the latest medical headlines, as well as recent articles grouped by subject. For practitioners, the "Exam Room" is an interactive diagnostic challenge which evaluates user responses to the condition presented; in fact, non-practitioners interested in interactive instruction may benefit from the example of these pages. Throughout, the site is well organized and effectively cross-referenced. Source : Scout Report, August 9, 1996.

Michigan Department of Agriculture
http://www.mda.state.mi.us/
This site is for you if you are a consumer, a student, a farmer, a veterinarian, an educator or a business owner. This page is the starting point for information about food safety, animal welfare, Michigan food products, gasoline purity, the laws and regulations that govern agricultural businesses, and many other topics of interest to people who live, work or do business in Michigan or with Michigan residents.

Michigan Children's Commission Report Released
Governor John Engler released the Children's Commission Report, presented to him by Lt. Governor Connie Binsfeld and the 16-member Commission, on July 2, 1996. Commissioned by the Governor in 1995, the report outlines a series of recommendations to improve the protection of children and strengthen families. For a copy of the Governor's Press Release concerning the 132-page report, click http://www.migov.state.mi.us/prs/9607/children.html.

Michigan Governor Web Site Video Clips
http://www.migov.state.mi.us/videoclips/video.html
Governor Engler has begun adding videoclips to his web page. At present, there is an excerpt from the 1996 State of the State Address and several clips related to the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. Requires Quick Time.

Michigan Governor Web Site Causes Political Flap
http://www.migov.state.mi.us/migov.html
A speech Governor John Engler gave at the Republican National Convention got yanked off the governor's state-funded home page after aides said it was put there by mistake. The posting angered state Rep. Laura Baird, D-Okemos, who called on Engler to retract the speech and apologize to taxpayers. "Governor Engler is using government facilities, supported by Michigan taxpayers, to campaign for Bob Dole. By doing so the governor has crossed the ethical line separating public service from politics." Source : Lansing State Journal, August 15, 1996, p.4A.

Michigan's Missing Children
http://www.msp.state.mi.us/child/child.html
Michigan's Missing Child Information Clearinghouse (MMCIC) was established under HB4482, 5/20/95. The clearinghouse is housed within the Prevention Services Section of the Special Operations Division of the Michigan Department of State Police. The clearinghouse operates as an information and referral resource to the public, local law enforcement, and other state clearinghouses. It provides information and guidance, where possible, to these entities. As part of its activities, it has established this web site.

1996 Michigan School Report
http://www.mde.state.mi.us/reports/MSR96/
In addition to the overall report on the state of our schools, this site also contains reports on individual school districts and schools, as well as a guide to interpreting the data.

Michigan Department of State Police
http://www.msp.state.mi.us/
A new web site featuring news releases, history, career and training opportunities information, organizational structure and telephone numbers. More information will surely follow as this site develops.

(Michigan) Office of the State Registrar
http://www.mdmh.state.mi.us/PHA/OSR/welcome.htm
The Office of the State Registrar and Division of Health Statistics is responsible for the collection, compilation, analysis, and publication of statistics about health and health-related matters. This new web site contains a 1994 state profile including birth and death statistics and selected cancer, mortality, natality, pregnancy, and health care statistics. The Office of the State Registar is a sub-agency of the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Midland County Friend of the Court Home Page
http://www.tir.com/~mcfoc/index.htm
Due to a change in internet providers, the Midland County Friend of the Court Home Page has a new new URL address. In case you missed the original entry in the March 1996 issue of Red Tape, the Midland County Friend of the Court Home Page is one of the few family law home pages in the nation. Friend of the Court Offices, an arm of county circuit courts, are responsible for collecting child support. Although some of the information available is specific to Midland County, much of it will be useful to anyone in Michigan. For instance, the site answers frequently asked questions about the legal system in relation to child custody and contains a directory of Friend of the Court Offices throughout the state of Michigan. Also provides links to information on co-parenting strategies, divorce resources, and domestic violence resources. Created by Alan Zoltowski.

National Digital Library Receives $1 million
Exactly 207 years after Washington's inaugeration in 1789, Reuters America Inc. and The Reuter Foundation have donated $1 million to the Library's National Digital Library Program specifically for the digitization of the papers of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The project will make it possible, for the first time, to place unique presidential manuscripts from the Library on-line. When completed, the materials will be available at http://www.loc.gov/. Source : Library of Congress Information Bulletin, May 27, 1996, p.199.

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA)
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration makes it easy to track down the safety reliability records of automobiles with their newly redesigned web site. The Vehicle and Equipment page offers information on safety problems and issues, testing results, regulations and standards, and research and development. Of particular interest are searchable databases on recalls, technical service bulletins, consumer complaints, and compliance investigations; each search retrieves information specific to the make, model, and year the user enters. The vehicle owners' questionnaire can be used to submit a report of car defects that the NHTSA should investigate. Source : Scout Report, July 5, 1996.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/11/socsci/econ/naics
The draft of the North American Industry Classification System, which is scheduled to replace the old Standard Industrial Classification, is coming out in bits and pieces on the Federal Register. The article in the May 28th register is over 1 million bytes, not exactly usable in electronic format. SO, I've downloaded it as well as two other notices, broken it apart into 30 files, and indexed it via our gopher. In other words, you can search "tires" and find at least the right section of the Federal Register with more reasonable ease. Source : Grace York, University of Michigan, GOVDOC-L, June 16, 1996.

NCBE Newsline
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/majordomo/newsline/archive.html
The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (NCBE) at George Washington University has made Newsline, a weekly newsletter of the NCBE, which contains announcements and news from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA), as well as grant information, job and conference announcements, and links to pertinent Internet resources, available via the Web and a mailing list. Source : Scout Report, May 31, 1996.

Organization of American States
http://www.oas.org/
Organization of American States Spanish Version
http://www.oas.org/shomepag.htm
The OAS, the world's oldest regional organization, offers current information on their programs and issues via this web site. The "Programs and Issues" page gathers information on current OAS activities in the areas of trade, democracy, environment, human rights, drug abuse control, telecommunications and information infrastructure, and others. Press releases, the OAS charter, and a weekly calendar of events are all available on the site. Every country in the Americas is a member of the OAS (with the exception of Cuba), and information on the OAS Mission in each is provided, along with pointers to Web and gopher information sources within that country. The entire site is also available in Spanish. Source: Scout Report, August 9, 1996.

Physics Reference Databook
http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/contents.html
Interested in a web reference book for the field of physics? This web site is provided by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Source : Scout Report, August 16, 1996.

President '96
http://www.pres96.com/
A governor prone to flip-flops, a politically minded corporate CEO--these are just two of the commander-in-chief wanna-bes in President '96, a campaign-simulation game on AOL and the Web. At the site, players become campaign managers to one of ten fictional candidates. Their advice helps shape the candidate's behavior up to the mock summer conventions, and hopefully, beyond. The web site is free to all comers, but the AOL subscribers get extras like chat rooms and real-time appearances by actors who play the candidates. Source : Newsweek, April 15, 1996, p.12.

Presidents of the United States
http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS
Contains a separate web page for each president with pictures, biographies, cabinet officers, administation highlights, and election results. All courtesy of the Internet Public Library. Fantastic.

Public Debt
http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/pubdebt/
The U.S. Department of Treasury offers access via the web to the Bureau of Public Debt. One can find out just how much it takes to operate the federal government. Researchers can also find the answers to frequently asked questions, infomration about savings bonds, and other data. Source : Chronicle of Higher Education, July 12, 1996, p.A20.

Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments--Final Report
http://www.ohre.doe.gov/cur/achre/report.html
The final report of the committee contains a historical perspective on the ethics of research using human subjects, case studies of the particular experiments that were performed on Americans during the period 1944-1974, an inquiry into the current state of human subjects research and the policies governing it, and the committee's findings and recommendations. Also included are the reservations of committee member Jay Katz, who argues that the recommendations of the committee do not fully address the problems of human subjects research. Appended to the report is the executive order that created the committee, and its charter, as well as glossaries and a selected bibliography. A search feature allows the user to find specific information within the report. There is also a link to the archive site of the original ACHRE gopher, which contains interim reports and background information. Source : Scout Report, July 12, 1996.

Science and Engineering Indicators 1996
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind96/start.htm
The National Science Board of the National Science Foundation has recently made Science and Engineering Indicators 1996 available via the web. This is the twelfth in a series of biennial reports that NSF has produced. "In an era of increased emphasis on assessment of government and university performance and industrial benchmarking, Science and Engineering Indicators provides decisionmakers and analysts in both the public and private sectors with a broad base of quantitative information and analysis regarding science, engineering, research, and education in the United States. Additionally, the Indicators report offers valuable comparative information on science and technology in other countries." The report contains chapters on elementary and secondary science and mathematics education, higher education in science and engineering, the science and engineering workforce, research and development, technology development and diffusion, and public attitudes and understanding. The final chapter, "The Economic and Social Significance of Scientific and Engineering Research," is a new development in the report. The report is available only in Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) format. A pointer to the free Acrobat Reader is provided. Source : Scout Report, July 19, 1996.

Search Online Forum (Criminal Justice)
http://www.search.org/
SEARCH offers computer systems training and technical assistance to justice agencies across the country and operates a clearinghouse that provides the criminal justice community with a national online forum and communication network.

Search the MoJo 400 (Mother Jones Database of Top Campaign Contributors)
http://www.motherjones.com/coinop_congress/96mojo_400/
Compiled from FEC records, the database lets users search and sort by categories like donor's name, amount of contribution, and recipient. For example, you can learn which Hollywood celebs give money to Ted Kennedy.
(Last checked 05/21/98)

Selective Service System Home Page
http://www.sss.gov/
"How do I register with the Selective Service System?" "Who Must Register?" Answers to these and other questions can be found on the Selective Service System Home Page. Includes information on conscientious objection, the relationship between registration and federal government services and benefits, and "women and the draft." There is also a link to the Consumer Information Center's "Information for Registrants" booklet, now available on the web. Those interested in further research will find a bibliography of books on selective service and the draft. Source : Scout Report, June 28, 1996.

SEMCOG
http://www.semcog.org/
The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments has developed a world wide web site to provide information including demographic profiles of 233 communities, a list of building permits issued in 1995, daily ozone updates, and information on SEMCOG's Ride Share and car pooling service. In addition, it has more than 100 links to related government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Source: Jeff Gerritt, Detroit Free Press, July 10, 1996, p.2B.

SIC To Be Replaced in 1997
The way American industries are defined will be changed in 1997. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code, used by government agencies, publishers, and information seekers, will no longer be employed. The new set of codes will be called North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), one of the many impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement. For more information, consult Jennifer Boettcher, "NAFTA Prompts a New Code System for Industry--The Death of SIC and Birth of NAICS", DATABASE, April/May 1996, pp.42-45.

Smithsonian Magazine
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/
With nice graphics, solid design, and fascinating content, the Smithsonian Magazine has made the transition to the Web in style. From a well-designed home page, a click on the helpful "Issue" link brings up a list with synopses summarizing current features and columns. The "Explore" tool allows readers to search current and back issues by category and keyword, and a search by issue date can also be performed. The excellent "Image Gallery" includes examples of work from contributing photographers and illustrators, while the "Events" area features information on Smithsonian events, exhibits, and seminars. Smithsonian "Membership" details, the "Guestbook," a "Feedback" area, and a "Kiosk" of Smithsonian products round out the main links at the home page. Source: iWorld, Site of the Day, July 1, 1996.

State Parks Online
http://www.crl.com/~ddickson/parks.html
Contains links to information on state parks in 44 states. Most of the links are to state departments of tourism, but there are some to personal pages. Also included are a park of the week, miscellaneous individual state park sites, and a link to L.L. Bean's ParkSearch service. This site provides one-stop shopping for prospective vacationers. Source : Scout Report, June 14, 1996.

Full-text State Statutes (US)
http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm
This meta-index gathers links to Web, gopher, telnet, and ftp sites that contain the full text of state statutes, state constitutions, and other legislative resources. Of course, results of your searches depend on what each state has made available, and each state offers a different searching mechanism. Some entries have been annotated, particularly where instructions are necessary (as in the case of telnet sessions, or when a certain plug-in is required for viewing). There is also a supplementary page with links to resources related to state legislation, such as executive orders and administrative rules. Source : Scout Report, August 9, 1996.

Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity & Health
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/sgr.htm
"Regular moderate physical activity offers substantial benefits in health and well-being for the vast majority of Americans who are not physically active, according to the first-ever Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health released today. The report, which was commissioned by HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala, also concludes that regular moderate physical activity can substantially reduce the risk of developing or dying from heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure." Site contains executive summary, press release, fact sheets, and ordering information on the full report.

TEKTRAN
http://www.nal.usda.gov/ttic/tektran/tektran.html
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) ARS' (Agricultural Research Service) TEKTRAN (Technology Transfer Automated Retrieval System) "is a dynamic database containing nearly 13,000 interpretive summaries of research results that have been peer reviewed and cleared by ARS. These are pre-publication notices, and as such, they forecast the future for improved food, feed, and fiber products and processes. TEKTRAN changes when scientists submit articles for publication and when previously submitted articles are published. TEKTRAN on the Internet is updated monthly." The system allows three different types of searches (each thoroughly explained), as well as browsing in over 60 categories from agrochemical technology to weeds. Each record contains title, author(s), an interpretive summary, keywords, contact information, and an ARS report number. The number of citations, as well as the power of the searching systems, make this one of the better agricultural bibliographic databases. As with most large databases, studying the searching FAQs is a must in order to exploit the resource. Source : Scout Report, May 31, 1996.

Term Limits
http://www.termlimits.org/
Stay current on the drive to impose congressional and state term limits. Source : USA Today Online, Web Traveler, July 9, 1996.

Tobacco and the FDA
http://www.counsel.com/spotlight/bandw.html
Here's Brown & Williamson's summary of the tobacco companies' arguments against the FDA's proposed regulation of nicotine as a drug. B&W argues that tobacco is an "agricultural commodity" and compares it to "frozen orange juice or applesauce." Spotlight has also acquired the tobacco companies' entire 2,000 page report, which voraciously dissects and attacks every argument the FDA has made. Source : Counsel Connect's Law Links Spotlight on Legal News.

TRAC IRS Web Site
http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse IRS Web Site (TRAC) provides a unique compilation of information about the criminal enforcement actions of the IRS -- how and where it seeks to enforce the nation's tax laws -- that has been drawn from internal administrative records maintained by the Justice Department. TRAC is a non-partisan, non-profit, tax exempt data research organization associated with Syracuse University. Requires registration. Source : Internet Public Library.

United Nations Web Site Locator
http://www.unsystem.org/index.html
The UN web locator site helps users find specific UN information by providing an alphabetic, subject, and official UN classification list of agencies. It also provides links to frequently requested information about conference schedules, library and documentation services, press releases, publication sales and catalogs, and vacancy notices, all by agency. There are also connections to other web sites that contain information related to but not produced by the UN. This site should be bookmarked as a starting point for browsing UN information. Source : Scout Report, July 19, 1996.

Automated Translation Engine
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/trans.htm
The United Nations Online Justice Information System (UNOJUST) provides an Automated Translation Engine for those whose foreign language skills are rusty or non-existent. Just type in the text you'd like to translate, choose the language you wish to translate it to/from, and press the translate button. The translated text is the result of an automated translation process performed online by software developed jointly by GlobaLink, Inc., and Vivigy, Inc. By the way, the engine converts English to Russian, French, Spanish, or German, and vice versa.

UNHCR's REFWORLD Now On WWW
http://www.unicc.org/unhcr
UNHCR's Centre for Documentation and Research (CDR) is delighted to announce a full WWW implementation of its REFWORLD site, to replace its previous gopher. The new REFWORLD site continues HCR's policy of providing authoritative information on refugees worldwide, and includes country reports, legal and policy-related documents, literature references, statistics and publications. Of particular interest are the Repatriation Information Reports prepared by UNHCR's Special Operation in former Yugoslavia (SOFY). These reports, created and updated by UNHCR field staff, provide detailed information about specific municipalities within Bosnia & Herzegovina, in order to inform those contemplating return. Among the subjects covered are political background, demographic characteristics, security situation, registration procedures for returnees, infrastructure conditions and existing assistance programmes. Source : Susin Park, PSRT-L, May 10, 1996.

UNICEF News
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) has recently released The Progress of Nations 1996 on the Internet. Progress of Nations records what is happening to the health, nutrition, and education of children today. It monitors not only specific advances and regression in some of the key areas of human well-being, but also the overall investment that countries are making in their own futures. According to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, "Many disturbing issues are dealt with in this 1996 edition, including exceptionally high rates of child malnutrition in some areas, and the dreadful toll taken on women's lives and health in countries that lack emergency care in childbirth. But the facts and figures set out in these pages also tell a story of sustained progress in reducing child illnesses and child deaths, in slowly improving nutritional standards for most countries, and in the steady rise of the percentage of boys and girls who are enrolled in school." The book contains sections on women, nutrition, health, education, children's rights, and statistical indicators. Source : Scout Report, June 21, 1996.

UN Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (Selected Tables)
http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/mbsreg.htm
The Statistics Division of the United Nations Division for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis has made selections from its Monthly Bulletin of Statistics freely available (after registration) for a trial period on the web. Each issue contains a selection of tables from the print version. The countries for which data is available vary widely by table, and chronological coverage also varies, but this is a source of much useful international information. At this time it is unknown if an archive will be maintained. Scout Report, August 16, 1996.

United Nations Online Justice Information System (UNOJUST)
http://www.ncjrs.org/unojust/
A cooperative venture between 12 criminal justice research institutes affiliated with the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. Member institutes are located in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Highlights new acquisitions, provides a calendar of events, and shares other pertinent information of interest to the international criminal justice community. If nothing else take a look at the Automated Translation Engine which converts English into Russian, French, Spanish, or German, and vice versa.

University of Memphis Web Server Update
http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/unclesam.htm
The Regional Depository Library at the University of Memphis recently announced that Migrating Government Publications is now available alphabetically by TITLE as well as in SuDoc order. The list contains linked addresses of about 275 government periodicals and serials available on the Internet. The web server also contains a new Map and Geography guide with sample maps from various interactive mapping sites. Be sure to check out Current Concerns, a "hot topics" page. Source : Saundra Williams (WILLIAS@CC.MEMPHIS.EDU), GOVDOC-L, July 17, 1996.

Vital Records Information State Index
http://www.inlink.com/~nomi/vitalrec/staterec.html
Amateur genealogists beginning their searches through the vital records at the state or county level will find useful resources on this web site. Organized by state and then by county, these pages present instructions on how to make inquiries concerning vital records. In addition to general guidelines on what data to include in a request for birth, marital, and death records, each state's page has addresses for both state and county records offices and information about fees. All fifty states and several US possessions are included. There are also links to other local and national genealogy resources, as well as state and local historical societies, which can often be a good source for genealogical information. Source : Scout Report, August 2,1996.

Washington Post Country Information
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/front.htm
Buried within the Washington Post web site is a wonderful search engine that allows one to type in the name of the country and voila, it provides a selection of Washington Post and Associated Press current news items, CIA World Factbook excerpts, and Internet Links. If you don't like using the search engine, there is also an alphabetical listing of countries which you can choose from. Worth checking out.

White House Briefing Rooms
Economic Statistics Briefing Room : http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html
Social Statistics Briefing Room: : http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/ssbr.html
The White House Web site has made access to current U.S. economic and social data much easier by establishing the Economic and Social Statistics Briefing Rooms. The power of these sites is that they not only offer brief statistics and charts, but that they also link to the agency that is responsible for the data, allowing interested users to obtain much more detailed data when available. The Economic Briefing Room contains current data on income, output, employment, unemployment and earnings, production and business activity, prices, money, credit and securities markets, transportation, and international statistics. The Social Briefing Room contains data on crime, demographics, education, and health. These two sites make the distinction between agencies that produce particular types of data invisible to the user. Source : Scout Report, May 24, 1996.

The Special Committee's Whitewater Report
http://www.counsel.com/spotlight/white/
The Special Committee to Investigate Whitewater released its reports to the public on June 18 -- 759 pages from the Republicans, and almost 400 pages from the Democrats. The documents have generated reams of news articles and commentary -- now you can read them yourself and judge whether the majority opinion is just a political smear or raises legitimate questions about the President and First Lady. Source : Counsel Connect's Law Links Spotlight on Legal News.

World Resources 1996-97: A Guide to the Global Environment
http://www.wri.org/wri/wr-96-97/index.html
The full text of World Resources 1996-97: A Guide to the Global Environment, produced by the World Resources Institute, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, and World Bank, is now available via the Web. It is the official source book for the United Nations Habitat II Conference being held in Istanbul, Turkey June 3-14, 1996. The tenth edition of World Resources contains two major sections, Global Conditions and Trends and Data Tables, and The Urban Environment, a special section concentrating on how urban population growth is affecting the global environment. Major findings include: "more than half of humankind will live in urban areas by the end of the century, and 60 percent by 2020; by 2010 the number of motor vehicles could grow to more than 800 million; and, by 2050, as many as 2.4 billion people could live in countries facing water scarcity." The report is available in HTML, and the data tables and Executive Summary are available as Adobe Acrobat .pdf files. Acrobat may be downloaded from the site. Print version availability and pricing can be found on the home page at the bottom of the News Release and under "Ordering Information." Scout Report, June 7, 1996.

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