Newsletter No. 70
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Free Pint
"Helping 31,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN 1460-7239 7th September 2000 No.70
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from Holly Ellson
FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"A Web of Mental Health"
By Sam Vaknin
BOOKSHELF
"Customer Service on the Internet" 2nd Edition
Reviewed by Diana Nutting
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Top Sites on the Web for Aeronautics and
Aerospace Science and Technology"
By Emma Turner and Karyn Meaden
PORTAL, EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070900.htm
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TARGETED BUSINESS CONTENT ON YOUR INTRANET
Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters company, introduces Factiva Publisher,
a news feed and server application that enables you to display
strategic news alongside internally-generated content on your
intranet.
With Factiva Publisher, employees receive their own personal page,
which increases both intranet traffic and intranet value.
Find out more. Visit http://www.factiva.com/integration
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>>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<<
Free Pint is a community of business professionals who use the Web
for their work. Members receive this free newsletter every two weeks
packed with tips and articles by information professionals who share
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet. Sign
up at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/> for free access to the substantial
archive of articles, book reviews, industry news and events, and have
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EDITORIAL
It's tricky choosing a name for something. Sometimes it comes to you
in a flash (like "Free Pint" did for me) or you have to pay
consultants significant sums to come up with something suitable. I
dread to think how much BP just paid consultants to come up with the
idea that "BP" should now no longer stand for British Petroleum but
instead should stand for, er, whatever you want it to. That will
certainly make all the employees in the merged companies (Amoco,
Burmah Castrol) feel like they work for one company. Hmm. And to
change the familiar green and yellow shield - which after all only
appears on some 29,000 service stations around the world - makes
perfect sense to me. Err ...
Anyway, I was therefore sure that we were in for some fun yesterday at
the Institute of Information Scientists' (IIS) Member's Day at which I
gave a talk about building portals. As you are no doubt aware, an
implementation group is working on creating a new organisation from
the merger of the IIS and the Library Association. The main issue for
debate however did not appear to be the workings or offerings of the
organisation, but the newly proposed name:
"the Library and Information Society"
Since this is a consultation period, I would ask you to seriously
consider these questions: What type of membership organisation do you
wish to belong to? Should the main purpose of such an organisation be
to enhance your employability (not my words)? What industry do you
think you work in? Do the current membership organisations give you
what you want and expect? Since the name obviously is very important
then what concepts should be the most prominent in the new name?
Should the name give greater or equal preference to keeping current
membership happy or to attracting new members and increasing the
profession's respect outside of traditional fields? Would charitable
status be desirable and/or appropriate?
These are all very important questions in the development of an
exciting new organisation which we hope will enhance and expand the
reputation of our profession. You must think carefully about these
points and make your thoughts known either directly to the working
party or at the Free Pint Bar. The debate is not about the name
(although this is important) but about our individual professional
responsibility to take this opportunity to make sure that the new
organisation is set up to best serve both ourselves and the profession
as a whole.
Anyway, since unification is the order of the day everywhere else then
you can rest assured that the content in today's Free Pint will be as
diverse as usual. Today we take a look at mental health Web sites,
resources for aeronautics and aerospace and another book by popular
author Jim Sterne. It's been a particularly busy time lately at the
Free Pint Bar and so Simon once again provides his invaluable roundup.
By the way, I've just decided to change the name Free Pint to "FP".
These new initials will stand for, er, whatever you want them to.
Kind regards,
WH (previously, William)
William Hann BSc MIInfSc
Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint
e: william@freepint.co.uk
t: +44 (0)1784 455435
f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Free Pint is a trademark of Free Pint Limited
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from Holly Ellson
* Fundraising.co.uk - For professional fundraisers this site gives
advice, taxation and policy info, international news, access to
services, jobs pages, book reviews. <http://www.Fundraising.co.uk>
* BBC Webwise - the BBC's guide to using the internet is a great
coaching aid for beginners. The design is a bit fiddly but the
content and tone of instruction is really excellent.
<http://www.BBC.co.uk/Webwise>
* Rail.ch - Oh, if only all train scheduling was done by the Swiss!
This speedy website runs as smoothly as the trains, with ticket
sales and perfectly presented information for routes throughout
Europe. <http://www.rail.ch>
* Emailthis.com - free gadget to organise and share the good stuff you
find online. Just click and drag the buttons to add to your browser
toolbar. <http://www.EmailThis.com>
* Why don't people use capital letters in a web address? It usually
looks better and greatly helps readability (and recall). Eg
<http://www.mrbenn.co.uk> makes more sense written as
<http://www.MrBenn.co.uk>
Holly Ellson does online marketing and fundraising for WWF, the
conservation organisation <http://www.panda.org>. Contact Holly with
any good e-fundraising schemes you find up your sleeve! -
<h_ellson@yahoo.co.uk>.
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To submit your top five favourite tipples see the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm> or email <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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Visit http://www.factiva.com/infopro to join.
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FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070900.htm#bar
How do I search thee? Let me count the ways. For a start, one of our
customers noticed the number of queries that ask how to do certain
things and he recommended a great directory of online tutorials
(4711), a very welcome suggestion. This followed queries about how to
start up a Web newsletter (4583) and how to create help pages (4709).
Indeed, we get lots of 'how to' questions relating to the likes of
creating an internal communications programme (4538), creating forms
using MS Outlook (4555), designing a multimedia training project
(4680), taking care of online security (4536, 4631), dealing with
metatags (4575) and search engine submissions (4692), Web page design
(4640), marketing to law firms (4578) and picking up dead links
automatically (4670).
As well as 'how tos', we hear from lots of people searching for
specific things, such as information on the Bluetooth standard (4539),
domain registration details (4715, 4686), conferences (4673), content
syndicators (4723), copyright information (4702), business grants
(4509), the cost of advertising on Web sites (4699), where to
advertise for free (4532) and SIC codes with their UK equivalents
(4625).
And then there are those searching for collected data, especially
statistical or quantitative data, such as details of the children's PC
market (4529), the number of computers in the UK (4636), the number of
home PCs in the UK (4632), the size of the European popular science
market (4703), IT graduate statistics (4599), email lists for direct
marketing campaigns (4610), UK healthcare data (4734), and the top UK
B2B portals (4674).
Company information is much in demand and there are plenty of relevant
sites available, but it can be hard to keep track of what sort of
information can be found where. Queries on the Bar have included ones
about partnership information (4521), Latin American private companies
(4623), share price information (4731), European private companies
(4614) and free company financial information (4666).
A lot of searching is best carried out from a good starting point,
such as a specialist search facility, and we have examined some
excellent facilities in the Bar over the past three weeks, what with
history timelines (4525), genealogy sites (4526), advertising
resources (4554), an aerospace and aviation portal (4571), an
agriculture search engine (4624), an architecture directory (4649), a
site on the automotive industry (4655), a banking portal (4704), a
defence information site (4710) and an excellent site on the late JS
Bach (4544).
It didn't stop there either. We also looked at distance calculators
(4518), news sources (4566), news tickers (4576), National Geographic
online (4585) and Time Magazine online (4748). And we found out where
to go if we want official looking email addresses (4586), any kind of
information on search engines (4637), help with computing and Web
problems (4693) or the latest on ebusiness (4735).
There were a few job related postings too in the last few weeks.
Teaching exchanges in Australia (4648), IT lectureships in Bangladesh
(4564) and freelance information research jobs (4745) are available.
And there are people searching for jobs in information (4698, 4744)
and environmental management (4721).
And we mustn't forget the miscellaneous things that people search the
Web for. These included requests for style guides for food writing
(4739), shipping company contacts (4546), licensing requirements for
radio transmission (4527) and motorway information (4565). Also,
information on franchise valuation (4612), health food and vitamin
shops (4689), building regulations (4570), seminar venues (4701) and a
1960s musical called 'Time' with Laurence Olivier (4639).
There seems to be no end to the number of things you can search for
and no end to the number of ways you can search the Web. That's not
even the depth and breath and height of it. That's just the last
three week's worth.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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If you want to transform your company into a successful e-business,
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070900.htm#tips
"A Web of Mental Health"
By Sam Vaknin
Never before was such a wealth of material about mental health
available to the public. Whole libraries are placed on line daily. It
is a blessing - yet, in the disguise of clutter.
In 6 years of constant daily surfing, I discovered that I much prefer
directories to search engines. The bigger the subject - the better a
web directory is as a starting point. I am an editor of mental health
categories in a few directories but my favourite is the Open Directory
Project: <http://dmoz.org> Click on "Health" and then "Mental Health".
Thousands of web sites are arranged in categories from "Addiction and
Recovery" to "Web Directories and Indices". The "Disorders" category
(of which I am the editor) contains listings on mental health
disorders. Rare conditions are listed in "Other Disorders". Another
favourite of mine is Snap.com: <http://www.snap.com>.
Web directories differ in their editorial content and quality of links
- rather than in hierarchical structure. Another up and coming
directory is Go.com <http://www.go.com/WebDir/Health/Mental_health/>.
Yahoo!, surprisingly, has very poor and out of date mental health
content <http://www.yahoo.com>. Looksmart is, as usual, superb,
though much more selective than the Open Directory:
<http://www.looksmart.com>.
A few enterprising mental health professionals have created their own
directories. These are often professionally and editorially superior
to all-purpose directories. These sites usually include the diagnostic
criteria of mental health disorders, resources regarding various
treatment modalities, links to other content web sites, chat and
discussion areas organized in communities, recommended reading and,
sometimes, therapist directories. Among the most notable: Internet
Mental Health <http://www.mentalhealth.com/>, Mental Help Net
<http://mentalhelp.net/>, PsychCentral - Dr. John Grohol's Mental
Health Page - <http://psychcentral.com/>, Self-Help and Psychology
Magazine <http://www.shpm.com/>.
Similar "private" directories are maintained by dot.coms or mental
health clinics. Some of them are commercially oriented - though this
by no means affects the high quality of the contents. Among the more
conspicuous: HealthyPlace <http://www.healthyplace.com/index.html>,
Mental Health Ask the Expert Archive
<http://www.mhsource.com/expert/consumer.html/exp1093096b.html>,
Mental Health InfoSource <http://www.mhsource.com/>, At Health
. The same goes
for Geocities and Tripod <http://www.geocities.com> and
<http://www.tripod.com>. But their search engines are awful. Better
browse the relevant neighbourhoods for hidden treasures.
Finally, don't miss the superb mental health online libraries offered
in such rich and free abundance:
Online texts
<http://psychology.wadsworth.com/>
The archives of the "Journal of Psychiatry"
<http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/>
The famous Merck Manual
<http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/>
Medscape Psychiatry Resources
<http://www.medscape.com/Home/Topics/psychiatry/psychiatry.html>
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Sam Vaknin, an economic and political columnist and a published and
awarded author of short fiction and reference, is currently
economic advisor to the government of Macedonia. He has collaborated
with Israeli psychologists and criminologists in the study of
personality disorders and is the author of "Malignant Self Love -
Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the
East". He is the editor of the Mental Health Disorders category in the
Open Directory Project and of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder
topic in Suite101. Web address: <http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/>
Email address: <palma@unet.com.mk> or <samvak@briefcase.com>
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* "Healthcare and Medicine" links in the Free Pint Portal
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31 October Conference: Information Sources in Complementary Medicine.
Organised by the British Library and the Foundation for Integrated
Medicine. Aimed at information providers/health service
workers/academics, journalists/doctors/complementary therapy
practitioners and anyone else with an interest. It will focus on the
range of information sources available, including internet sources.
For further details go to http://www.bl.uk/services/stb/comp_med.html
or telephone Tony Catarinicchia on 020 7412 7915.
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>>> FREE PINT FACT <<<
For the first two years, Free Pint received 500 new members a month.
As we near the end of our third year we're now welcoming over 1,000
new members a month. At this rate we should easily hit the million-
member-mark by the time I'm due a telegram from the Queen.
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
"Customer Service on the Internet" 2nd Edition
Reviewed by Diana Nutting
This is not just another book on building your own website; it aims to
take the issue of e-commerce one stage further, by discussing how
Internet companies can use the available technology to give themselves
a competitive edge in excellent customer service.
The first half of the book is focussed on the need for good
communication with lots of examples from real life of what can happen
if it goes wrong. The second half deals more with new developments in
web technology that more and more companies are harnessing for
improving customer communications.
The book is well laid out and clear. It consists mainly of anecdotal
evidence with frequent illustrations and several case studies of each
point made, which makes it an easy, if repetitive read, with an
understandably American bias. Jim Sterne gives many examples of
companies that have got it wrong, and some that have pushed back the
frontiers.
Some of the tools outlined to improve customer service are simple to
put into place and require only an imaginative outlook from companies
that already have an Internet presence. These include: making the site
easy to use and navigate, and including a FAQs section and learning
from it.
The management of email and newsgroups is one of the most interesting
sections in this book. Sterne suggests that companies should
regularly monitor newsgroups to discover what people are saying about
them, but also should participate proactively. He also recommends
that companies should host their own newsgroups, bulletin boards and
closed discussion lists, all of which give companies valuable product
and service information.
Newer developments are also mentioned, such as dynamic services and
extranets, all of which can be harnessed to improve customer
communication.
Much of this book is common sense. It reiterates constantly the
message that it is important to communicate with customers; to
encourage them to communicate with you, and to respond promptly and
efficiently when they do so. What is different is that the author
takes those tried and tested marketing principles of two way
communication with customers, and puts them into an Internet context,
arguing that it is vital to keep up with technological changes that
allow new ways of interacting with the customer. The book does not set
out to be a technical manual of how to put these concepts into place.
It simply suggests and exemplifies useful tools.
There is a great deal of padding in this book, and huge chunks are
little more than extended advertising for the author's consultancy,
but the basic premise is sound; the Internet is a great opportunity to
interact, and it is all too easy to get it wrong. Most of the ideas
can and should be put easily into place by companies with any sort of
Internet presence.
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Diana Nutting initially qualified as a librarian. She spent her early
career in academic libraries, including that of the Polytechnic of
North London, then moved to Unilever where she worked in market
intelligence. After managing the market intelligence units of JP
Morgan and Parcelforce, she became Head of Marketing at the London
East Training and Enterprise Council. Two years ago she set up her own
marketing and market intelligence consultancy, which concentrates on
providing hands on marketing advice and help to small but growing
companies.
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Related Free Pint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/custserve.htm>
* Read about other Internet strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/strategy.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471382582/freepint0c>
or Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471382582/freepint00>
* Details: ISBN 0471382582 published by John Wiley and Sons;
written by Jim Sterne
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf>
To propose a business-Web-related book for review, send details
to <bookshelf@freepint.co.uk>.
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WORLDWIDE ANSWERS TO YOUR INFORMATION NEEDS
BOOK YOUR SEAT TODAY! www.online-information.co.uk
Online Information 2000; 5-7 December 2000
This year's conference is a vital forum for anyone working within, or
reliant upon, the information industry to explore the major issues,
determine key trends and predict future developments.
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>>> FREE PINT PORTAL - YOUR WINDOW TO BUSINESS INFORMATION <<<
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FEATURE ARTICLE
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070900.htm#feature
"Top Sites on the Web for Aeronautics and
Aerospace Science and Technology"
By Emma Turner and Karyn Meaden
The aeronautics and space science and technology fields are
particularly well covered on the Internet, and there is a huge range
of sites available. We've sorted through the poor quality sites to
bring you a selection of the best. Aeronautics is made up of several
very specific and separate subject areas - for this article we've
restricted ourselves to the more general sites which cover all aspects
of the subject.
AERADE <http://aerade.cranfield.ac.uk/> is a gateway to over 1,300
quality aerospace and defence information resources available on the
Internet. It is searchable and browseable by subject area and each
resource is described to allow users to evaluate its potential use to
them before they visit it. It is maintained by a team of information
specialists from Cranfield University who select, evaluate and
regularly monitor the sites included in the service. AERADE is freely
available to anybody who wishes to make use of it, whether they are in
industry, commerce or academia and is equally relevant to both
aeronautics and aerospace science and technology.
Of course, no discussion of these subjects on the Web would be
complete without mentioning the NASA Web site <http://www.nasa.gov/>.
This is a huge site containing many thousands of pages that are of
interest to the amateur and professional alike. Important pages
include the NASA databases, particularly the Technical Report Server
<http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/NTRS> which allows you to
cross search all the NASA document-producing centres by subject, and
CASI TRS <http://www.sti.nasa.gov/RECONselect.html>, a database of 2.2
million records of bibliographic citations and abstracts for publicly
available aerospace documents, journal articles, and conference
proceedings. It's a good idea to spend some time exploring the NASA
pages to get a flavour of what's on offer.
Top sites for aeronautics
=========================
The AIAA Meetings Papers Searchable Citation Database
<http://www.aiaa.org/publications/mp-search.html> is updated quarterly
and contains bibliographic information for papers presented at AIAA
meetings from 1992 to today. The database offers a number of search
options including author, paper number, title and year. A number of
sort options can be used to display records. Copies of AIAA papers can
be ordered online as a charged service.
BUBL LINK / 5:15 <http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/a/aeronautics.htm> is the
name of a catalogue of selected Internet resources covering all
academic subject areas and this link provides direct access to the
aeronautics section. All items are selected, evaluated, catalogued
and described. The aim is to guarantee at least 5 relevant resources
for every subject included, and a maximum of 15 resources for most
subjects, hence the name 5:15. BUBL LINK is searchable and there is a
browsable a-z list of subjects. Resources are also grouped by country
and continent, and by type.
Landings <http://www.landings.com> is a commercial aviation directory
service providing access to a wide variety of aviation-related
resources. It includes mediated expert forums covering topic areas
such as GPS, maintenance, aviation medicine and law. There are
listings of newsgroups and e-mail groups. An extensive reference
section includes links to various databases of FAA Regulations,
Canadian Regulations, Service Difficulty Reports, Airworthiness
Alerts, NTSB Briefs, N Numbers and many more. The reference section
also includes coverage of aerospace companies, museums, reports and
other publications. Landings also has sections devoted to
aircraft/parts; air transport/airports; services; general aviation;
government/military: and pilot supplies.
Aviation Today <http://www.aviationtoday.com/index.html> is another
commercial service which provides access to aviation business news and
market intelligence. In addition, it contains a special reports
database, an aircraft values facility, safety information from the
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), forthcoming conferences
and meetings and a large list of associated links.
Although you might think that the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) <http://www.sae.org/> is all about cars, you would be wrong! It
is an organisation of engineers, business executives, educators, and
students from all over the world that is concerned with advancing the
engineering of mobility systems. The interest and activities of the
SAE cover all forms of self-propelled vehicles including aircraft and
aerospace vehicles. The site provides access to a range of
information including membership details, forthcoming events,
conferences and expositions, committee structure, standards
development, continuing education, career resources and online job
listing, and discussion forums. SAE publications are described and
there is a searchable database of SAE technical papers.
The National Transportation Library <http://www.bts.gov/NTL/> is
provided by the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the
Transportation Administrative Services Center, the operating
administrations, and the Office of the Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Transportation. The Library holds full text materials
in either PDF or Word format from public and private organisations and
makes this available to search or browse over the Internet. The
aviation section is divided into several subject areas, including laws
and regulations, human factors and air traffic control.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Documents On-Line
Collection <http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/> is a searchable database of
over 23,000 online full text documents produced by the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. The database can be searched in a
number of different ways including author, title, data and keyword.
The subject coverage is very broad, and includes aeronautics,
propulsion systems and propellants, materials science, mechanical and
civil engineering and space vehicles and technology.
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) is the
internationally recognised trade association for the UK aerospace
industry. The SBAC home page <http://www.sbac.co.uk/index.htm>
provides access to a range of information resources including a diary
of forthcoming events, a directory of members, products and services,
press releases, SBAC Newsletters and Bulletins. Within the Newsroom,
the Industry Information section contains a range of full-text
documents, including the SBAC annual report, comprehensive UK
aerospace industry statistics and Research and Technical Department
articles
The Engineering Sciences Data Unit (ESDU) <http://www.esdu.com> create
and maintain over 22 series of validated engineering design data
covering structural, mechanical, aeronautical and chemical process
engineering. They are produced by committees of independent experts
who ensure that each Data Item is a sound technical document which
presents a clear explanation of the recommended approach. The
bulletins that each committee produces are available for viewing using
Adobe Acrobat. Subscribers to the service can access the full text of
all data items. Non subscribers may view abstracts of each Data Item.
An FAQ, glossary and technical notes are also available.
Top sites for aerospace science and technology
==============================================
There are a number of full text electronic books which you may find
interesting. The 'Basics of Space Flight Learners' Workbook'
<http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/> is produced by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory <http://jpl.nasa.gov/>. This is intended as a training
tool for space flight operations. The user works through it at their
own pace, completing tests to reinforce knowledge throughout. The
National Academy Press <http://www.nap.edu/> makes over 1,500 books
freely available online, including those produced by the Aeronautics
and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and the Space Studies Board (SSB).
If you are interested in space medicine and the human aspects of
spaceflight, Spaceline
<http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/doler?account=++&password=++&datafile=
spaceline> is a key resource. It consists of references from the
Medline database and relevant records added by NASA staff. Subjects
covered include basic research related to the space life sciences,
bone and muscle physiology, psychological effects of isolation, and
gravitational effects on plants.
An important application of space science is earth observation. The
Goddard DAAC <http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/DAAC_DOCS/dataset_list.html>
datasets provide not only data on aspects such as ocean colour,
hydrology and precipitation and atmospheric chemistry, but also
detailed background information about the data including software and
documentation.
Space debris is a risk to the future development of space exploration
- did you know there are currently over 3500 spent satellites orbiting
our skies? DebrisWeb <http://www.etamax.de/debrisweb/> aims to
provide a gateway to debris-related information on the Web. The site
provides background information on the topic, a searchable and
browseable database of relevant references in the literature and a
database of contacts.
The international space centres all have extensive Web pages. The
European Space Agency (ESA) <http://www.esrin.esa.it/> site contains
full text publications, press releases, annual reports, photographs,
links and masses of information about space science, including
launchers, earth observation, manned spaceflight, microgravity and
telecommunications.
The British National Space Centre site <http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/>
provides a wealth of information on the UK space industry and includes
full text surveys, research and news. Of particular note is the Space
Index <http://www.highview.co.uk/002695.htm> which contains
information about UK educational opportunities and industrial space
activities. Entries are written by the contributors themselves.
The Russian Space Agency <http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/rsa.html>
was formed after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the end
of the Soviet space program. Interestingly, the site is held on a
NASA server! It is worth highlighting the facility to track
satellites such as the Mir space station in real time, and the
assembly pages outlining the construction of various space stations.
Ask an Astronaut <http://www.starport.com/live/astro/search.cfm> is
good fun. You can either submit a question to be answered by the
current featuring astronaut (previous names include Buzz Aldrin and
John Glenn), or browse and search the archive of previous questions
and answers. This includes fascinating answers to questions such as
'Do you believe in UFOs or extraterrestrial life?'
The Internet Aviator <http://www.eevl.ac.uk/vts/aviator/>, is a Web-
based interactive tutorial designed to teach Internet information
skills in the areas of aerospace and defence. It is part of the RDN
Virtual Training Suite and is based at the Institute of Learning and
Research Technology at the University of Bristol.
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Emma Turner gained an MA in Librarianship from Sheffield University in
1995. She is currently one of a team of Assistant Librarians at the
Kings Norton Library, Cranfield University, where she is now
preparing to assume responsibility for aerospace and engineering
information provision. She is currently working on the Internet
Aviator.
Karyn Meaden is the Networked Information Specialist at Cranfield
University and is responsible for the maintenance of Cranfield's own
CRUISE gateway, and for the design and implementation of AERADE. She
is a regular reviewer for Online Information Review (previously Online
and CD-ROM Review) and New Library World, and has written various
journal articles about AERADE.
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Aerospace and Aviation" links in the Free Pint Portal
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/industry/industry.php3?category_id=5>
* "Top sites on the Web for Air Transport" article in Free Pint No.61
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/270400.htm>
* Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/070900.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/>
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To search the Web use the search forms for Google and AltaVista
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FREE PINT PORTAL
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal
Even though all members of the Free Pint team have enjoyed a holiday
during the last couple of weeks, developments in the Portal and on the
site haven't relaxed. We've added a further 100 hand-picked link
sites, portals and gateways and the development team (who are not
allowed holidays, ever) have been busy on a number of new projects.
They've been developing our own bulk mailer so that we can send out
the Newsletter and Bar Digest ourselves rather than relying on a third
party. This will give us a lot of flexibility in the future to offer
tailored publications and offers a lot of exciting opportunities. The
URL Checker is coming along nicely which will allow members to enter a
Web address and we'll check all the links and send you a report
detailing any problems. Then there's the eCommerce system and links
with third-party database providers which are tricky projects but
which are also progressing satisfactorily. Finally we're going to be
announcing soon an exciting new service for students on information-
related courses.
So make sure you frequent the Bar (or sign up for the Bar Digest on
the site) for details of the latest developments.
William Hann, Managing Editor <william@freepint.co.uk>
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The Free Pint Portal gives you access to the full range of Free Pint
content by industry and country as well as a large number of
selected external resources at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal>.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/events
This year's Internet Commerce Expo takes place in California,
overlapping with the Creating and Launching Learning Portals
conference in Chicago. Also in California, there is the KM World
conference and exhibition and the Online World conference.
Over in Europe, there'll be the European Conference on Digital
Libraries in Portugal, two workshops on Living Through Change in the
UK and the eBusiness 2000 event, also in the UK.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
Full details of these and many other forthcoming conferences and
exhibitions in the online-information and Internet industries can be
found on the Free Pint Events page <http://www.freepint.co.uk/events>.
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FREE PINT GOLD
This time last year we had an article on where to find system files
and drivers for sound cards and video cards, etc, on the Web. We also
had an article on intranets and extranets and sites which give
information on developing them.
* Free Pint No.45, 9th September 1999 "File finding, file filing" and
"Intranets and extranets"
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/090999.htm>.
This time two years ago we had an article on newsgroups and
newsreaders. We also looked at the wealth of Legal resources
available on the Web and how best to make use of those resources.
* Free Pint No.21, 3rd September 1998 "Tricks with local newsgroups"
and "Legal Resources on the Web"
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/030998.htm>.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
[Provisional]
* Business Information Portals * Film Industry *
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If you have a suggestion for an article topic or would like to write
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Rex Cooke, Editor <rex@freepint.co.uk>
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I really hope today's issue has provided you with a few interesting
leads and new sites to check out. We'd love to welcome you to the Web
site and specifically the Bar to discuss issues of our professional
future. If you can help us spread the word about Free Pint to your
colleagues and friends then you will be helping to ensure a bright
future for Free Pint.
See you in two weeks!
William Hann, Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2000
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
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CONTACT INFORMATION
William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Founder and Managing Editor
e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor
e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1342 316027 f: +44 (0)1342 316027
Simon Collery BA, Business Development
e: simon@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1865 434143 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Address
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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free newsletter written by information
professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information
on the Internet. Useful to anyone who uses the Web for their work, it
is published every two weeks by email.
To subscribe, unsubscribe, find details about contributing,
advertising or to see past issues, please visit the Web site at
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Please note: Free Pint is a trademark of, and published by, Free Pint
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The opinions, advice, products and services offered herein are the
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 6th September 2000
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/70
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