ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 6 74 /C&RL News U.S. H o u s e G o p h e r . Access: g o p h e r ://g o p h e r . h o u s e . g o v : 7 0 / l g o p h e r gopher.house.gov. The U.S. House of Rep­ resentatives has constructed a gopher site that serves as a directory of its organiza­ tional structure, a reporting service of House and Sen­ ate actions, a visitor’s guide, and an educational resource for political and governmen­ tal study. The U.S. House Gopher, under Congressional Information, contains a wealth of information regarding the operations of the House. Included are an instructive re­ port of how laws are made, the FY 1995 bud­ get as proposed by the president, and e-mail addresses of participating members and com­ mittees. Access to other gophers focusing on gov­ ernmental and public policy information is of­ fered through a pointer to Sunsite UNC. This completes the package nicely as this site has an excellent m enu of presidential and judicial branch inform ation including White H ouse papers, photographs, Gore’s Reinventing Gov­ ernm ent project, Supreme Court decisions, and a directory of U.S. federal Judges. By far the richest folder under Congressional Information is Legislative Resources. A pointer to the House WAIS server and its full text of House Bills leads to four university gopher sites with bill texts of the 103rd Congress. The alter­ native to the House Bills folder for access to the full text of bills is to go to the House WAIS server directly (if you have a WAIS client) via diam ond.house.gov, port 210, to the source file USHOUSE_house_bill_text_103rd.src. House committee schedules are maintained on an hourly basis and there are daily updates of the weekly House floor schedule. The House floor and committee actions are listed for the last three legislative days. The drawback is that committee actions taken during recess are ex­ cluded since it is updated only w hen Congress is in session. Senate committee actions are in­ cluded as well, but the Senate floor actions Sara Amato is systems librarian at Willamette Univer­ sity, Salem, Oregon; e-mail: samato@willamette.edu In te r n e t R e v ie w s Sara Amato, editor folder is empty at this time. The House Committee Infor­ mation pointer is incomplete as only five committees have established folders. The En­ ergy and Commerce Com­ mittee has a comprehensive offering of its history, mem­ bership, jurisdiction, and re­ cent actions. The House Directories list c o m m itte e s a n d H o u s e mem bers by state and list district, party, office, and phone. House Member In­ formation offers more in-depth information, but few members are represented. The U.S. House G opher is rounded out with a pointer to standard Internet resources and with visitor information complete with maps and w eather information. The H ouse Internet W orking G roup has done a superior job in building and maintain­ ing this resource to serve both House staff and constituents. The structure of the House Go­ pher is friendly and concise. The initial “about” text files offer clear and thorough explanations about each main m enu item. These are par­ ticularly helpful for those w ho wish to explore the resources more fully.—Inga H. Bamello, Le M o y n e College, S yra cu se, N ew York; barnello@maple.lemoyne.edu E-MATH. Access: g o p h e r: e-m ath.am s. org; WWW: h t t p : / / e - m a t h .a m s .o r g / w e b / index.html; telnet: e-math.ams.org (username and password are both e-math). System require­ ments: an Internet host connection, VT100 con­ nectivity, tabs set at 8 column. Help: e-mail address provided (support@e-math.ams.org). Services provided: ability to search American Mathematical Society (AMS) m em bership list registry of employment and postdoctoral o p ­ portunities. Access to AMS’ document-delivery service. Access to AMS supported Tex software available by ftp. Access to the author list in M athem atical Reviews electronic journals full- text AMS’ publications catalog. E-math is a gopher partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and main­ tained by the AMS. The initial screen is on a single page allowing for a quick scan of the w hole system at one glance, always a plus for gopher://gopher gopher://gopher.house.gov diamond.house.gov mailto:samato@willamette.edu mailto:barnello@maple.lemoyne.edu http://e-math.ams.org/web/ math.ams.org mailto:support@e-math.ams.org November 1 99 4/67 5 any gopher. The choice of heading terminol­ Students interested in locating specific tele­ vision new s stories or visuals, and media schol­ d ars studying new s selection, content, agenda t setting, o r new s bias will find the Vanderbilt Television News Archive and Journal Graphics ­ databases fascinating. y The V anderbilt Television News Archive s began recording television new s in 1968. The Archive indexes and abstracts every story shown . on the ABC, CBS, and NBC national news. A s typical abstract includes the nam e of the net­ ­ work, time and date the segm ent aired, key r w ords an d nam es, nam es o f rep o rters and people interviewed, and one sentence per scene s describing the content and action show n on ­ the screen. The Archive lists commercials by e product or program name. Currently, Internet e surfers may search 1983-84 and 1991-present ­ (abstracting runs about one w eek behind) by date a n d /o r by keyword(s). The Archive plans c to make m ore years available in the future. In s addition to the “Evening News Abstracts,” the Archive also covers “Special Reports and Peri­ s odic News Broadcasts” like conventions and , elections by expanding their scope to include new s from CNN and programs like Nightline. , They do the same for their “Specialized News . Collections,” w hich currently cover the Persian h Gulf War and the 1991 U.S.S.R. coup attempt. Vanderbilt lends copies of programs under the ; fair use provisions o f copyright laws. They ­ charge $60 p er hour to copy and $180 p e r hour l to compile tapes. t Journal Graphics began transcribing televi­ sion and radio new s programs for its clients in ­ 1968. Their m ore than 80 programs range from h national netw ork new s and news magazines - to syndicated talk shows. They transcribe all ­ new s and information programs for ABC, CNN, , PBS, CBS Radio, and NPR. A typical abstract includes reporters’ names, a headline, the name o f the program and the network, a one- or two- . sentence summary, topical key words, names ­ o f guests, and the time and date the segment : aired. Journal Graphics does not list commer­ : cials. Abstracts are available o n CARL from 1981-present (abstracting runs a day or two : behind) and may be searched by nam e of the - correspondent or any key w ord in the abstract h except air time and date. Journal Graphics pro­ e vides no online help and virtually no database T description. It charges $20 for a fax, $15 for l overnight mail, and $10 for U.S. mail delivery t of transcripts.—M ark Emmons, Occidental Col­ lege; mee@oxy.edu ■ ogy is clear and concise. The m enu items move from specific limite interest items to general broad interest items a the bottom o f the list. Access also is provided to the gophers o f the NSF, other scholarly soci eties, and other m ath-related gophers (mostl math departm ents at universities and college around the world). Professional, general, and specialized information is grouped separately Full-text AMS publications appearing in thi gopher are all peer-reviewed. Retrieving docu ments was easy and reasonably fast. Even afte several layers of m enus the item titles rem ained clear and concise with no lapses into filename and com puter coded file titles. Access to sev eral electronic journals is provided such as th Electronic Jo u rn a l o f Combinatorics. These ar large files w ritten in eith e r TEX o r POST SCRIPT. Retrieval via Mosaic is recom m ended to maintain integrity of the symbols and graphi images used in these publications. Retrieval wa slow, so be patient. Sections are provided for announcem ent of upcom ing math meetings and conferences bulletin boards/discussion lists, general and professional information for mathematicians and preprint publications (not peer-reviewed) A section is set aside for AMS publications whic can b e ordered by mail, e-mail, or fax. The go p h er seems to be well-maintained files are revised and u p d ated regularly. Experi ence with TEX or POST-SCRIPT file retrieva and translation is required in order to read mos o f the mathematical full-text material. This gopher is an asset for upper-level stu dents, teaching faculty, and researchers. Wit the section on MathMagic for k in d e rg a rte n grade 12, there is som ething here for every one.-—B rian McNally, M ount Allison University Sackville, New Brunsw ick V a n d e r b ilt T e le v is io n N e w s A r c h iv e Access: gopher: tvnew s.vanderbilt.edu. Pro ducer: Vanderbilt University. Contact: e-mail tvnews@ tvnews.vanderbilt.edu. Print version Television News In d e x a n d Abstracts. J o u r n a l G r a p h i c s . A c c e ss: te ln e t database.carl.org CARL Database Services/In form ation D atabases/Journal Graphics (pat may differ because CARL has m ore than on user interface) (also available as TRANSCRIP th ro u g h C o m p u S erv e). P ro d u c e r: J o u rn a Graphics. Contact: phone: (800) 825-5746. Prin version: Transcript/Video Index. tvnews.vanderbilt.edu mailto:tvnews@tvnews.vanderbilt.edu database.carl.org mailto:mee@oxy.edu 6 7 6 /C& R L News