Full-Text Reference Down to a Science

Science literacy is not just important for its own sake. It is necessary to come to grips with the ethical and public policy issues that are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives. Students, teachers, librarians, and educated nonspecialists have been well served for the past quarter century by Wilson's General Science Index. Its current incarnation as General Science Full Text makes general science research both significantly less complicated and more powerful. The product merges Wilson's high-quality indexing and abstracting with the capability of retrieving--in full text--a range of resources, from popular science literature through a core collection of professional research journals. While not offering the depth of coverage that Wilson does, EBSCO's General Science Collection delivers a substantial body of full-text research material online while maintaining access to a consistent interface for current EBSCO subscribers.

As impressive as these full-text delivery products are, service to general science researchers has really made strides in the area of ready-reference. Increasingly, the specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, chronologies, and fact books that once populated the shelves of the reference collection are becoming available online with a host of features and enhancements made possible by electronic publishing.

Science Online from Facts On File combines a tool chest of reference sources--dictionary entries, essays, diagrams, and a time line--in the full spectrum of the sciences, with the addition of a judiciously selected collection of web links. AccessScience@McGraw-Hill enhances the venerable McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology with updated material, web links, and science news (including a news archive). Marshall Cavendish and EBSCO have partnered to produce the Marshall Cavendish Science Reference Center, combining the content of three encyclopedias targeted at school-age students with the full text of selected science-related periodical articles. The science fair crowd has never had it so good, and neither have members of the general public who want to stay abreast of the scientific advancements impacting their lives.

Content: AccessScience@McGraw-Hill is the online counterpart to the eighth edition of McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, with a slew of additional material. Among that additional material are three or four weekly news stories and a News Archive browsable by topic and/or chronology. There is also full-text access to 8000-plus articles, with hundreds of Research Updates not available in the print format. AccessScience also includes 115,000 dictionary definitions; 2000 in-depth biographies of leading scientists from throughout history, including Nobel prize and Fields Medal winners; and 11,000 illustrations, now searchable as a separate collection. A Student Center contains study guides, essay topics, reading materials, and a Q&A archive. Rounding out the compilation of resources is a Data, Tables & Tools section, with an impressive collection of links to scientific and technical tables and tools, such as commonly used symbols in scientific writing and conversion factors. Additionally, users can link to authoritative web sites selected by the editors and organized by subject area.

Searchability: Users have numerous search and/or browse options from the welcoming screen of AccessScience. The search features are prominently presented on the left side of the page, and the news stories and recently added articles are displayed on the right side in list form. During the period of this review, news headlines detailed a recently completed study of Labrador retrievers and diet, hidden toxins found in honey, and asteroids orbiting near Earth. Each piece includes linked references and further readings, typically to abstracts available from Science Online or Science News Online. In addition, there are links at the bottom of the page for further study within the AccessScience database.

AccessScience has a Quick Search (simple), Find a Definition, and More Search Options (advanced). Both the simple and advanced searches support Boolean search capabilities and truncation. Once a search is executed, the Search Results page displays all categories (Dictionary Term, Encyclopedia Article, Research Updates, Biography, In the News Archive) meeting the criteria of a query. Searchers can select a category link to restrict the search to a specific grouping. This is helpful for the novice user, who often needs basic information, such as an encyclopedia article or news story. The ability to organize or limit search results is timesaving. Users can also choose to view results in order of relevance or by category. The results include complete definitions, as well as the first few lines of all articles.

Icons throughout notify the user that an article has been updated and about related readings, open a separate window for larger illustrations, and open a Geological Time Scale or the Periodic Table of Elements. Clicking on any element in the Periodic Table will take the user to the desired element's properties table. At the top of the properties table page, users can click on the See Full Article icon to go directly to a full-text article on an element.

Another handy feature is Find a Definition, which allows users to look up terms listed in the Scientific Dictionary. This search also takes into account possible misspellings in search terms. Entering the term dendrohydroligy, for example, retrieves the correctly spelled dendrohydrology. This feature does not work in Quick Search or More Search Options; one hopes that will be added in the next version. For those unsure of a symbol for a chemical element, Find a Definition supplies it.

More Search Options offers a variety of parameters and the ability to refine a query to defined areas of the web site in a three-step process. Searchers can limit their terms to titles only, titles and text, bibliographies, illustration captions, etc. In addition, further limiting can be accomplished by selecting a particular category and/or topic. Using this search mode, we searched on genetic engineering, limited to titles and text and restricted to Research Updates and News categories, in the topical areas of Agriculture, Forestry & Soils, Environmental Science, and Food Science & Technology. The search resulted in 15 entries, ranging from articles on genetically engineered crops to renewable resources.

For searchers wanting to browse, AccessScience allows navigation through 20 main subject areas, each with its own topical homepage. From the Topic pages all the related content within the site can be found. The database also provides the option to browse alphabetically through the Articles, Research Updates, and Dictionary categories. All articles are signed, and the contributors' names are linked to brief bios, important for tracing authority and any additional reading by the same individual. Articles can be formatted for printing on letter-size paper, including illustrations and/or tables. For news stories printing is only available via the web browser. Choose the selected frame option for best results. E-mail and save options would be useful features.

Price: AccessScience is priced based on institution size, on a weighted FTE basis. Prices include unlimited simultaneous users. The web site offers a detailed pricing structure. Thirty-day trials are available.

Who Needs It? The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology has been a standard science reference work for 40-plus years and continues as an authoritative choice for many academic institutions. AccessScience@McGraw-Hill, designed for a wide range of general science researchers, is a major improvement over the print edition. The AccessScience Wizard, a step-by-step search tip guide, available from every screen, takes all the guesswork out of interpreting the interface and is an asset for the less-experienced user. Because it provides access to such a variety of material--from the basics to the technical--this database is highly recommended for all science users, from high school through college, as well as for users in large public libraries.

Content: Newly released this spring, EBSCO's General Science Collection will interest school and public librarians seeking a general online database that focuses on all aspects of the scientific world. This product offers full-text access to 64 of the 72 more popular science periodical titles indexed and abstracted in the EBSCO system. Publications include the familiar, such as American Scientist, Aviation Week & Space Technology, EPA Journal, Focus on Geography (newly added), National Geographic, Physics Today, and Scientific American. A complete and updated title list is available within the database, detailing publisher and publication information and dates of coverage.

As with the Science Reference Center--a Marshall Cavendish/EBSCO partnership reviewed below--there will be a major upgrade to the EBSCOhost web interface this summer. Currently in beta testing, EBSCOhost Web 6.0 will include numerous design and functionality modifications, with easier navigation and new features and the ability to change preferences and options for library administrators via the EBSCOadmin module. Features will incorporate navigation tabs at the top of all search pages, folders for storing articles during search sessions, results sorted by source type, and, best of all, spell-checking.

The General Science Collection also includes images, and users can limit to Articles with Images, Full Page Image, or Text with Graphic. Captions for images are not indexed, and it is uncertain whether the upgrade that will allow sorting by source type will be applicable here. The option to search for web links to other resources is included on the results screen.

Searchability: For a detailed evaluation of general search features and options presented in the EBSCO interface, see also the Marshall Cavendish Science Reference Center review. The methods for searching the General Science Collection include EBSCO's Basic, Guided, and Expert Search modes, accessible by tabs at the top left portion of each search screen. Limiting can be done within all search methods and includes Full-Text, Expanding Your Search (for related words), Journal Title, and Date Published. Available only from the Expert Search is the Search History information, allowing users to Print Search History, Retrieve or Save Search/Alert, View a Search, or Revise a Search.

Users can also navigate through the database by selecting the New Search, Subject, or Publication Search icons located at the top right section of the screen. After clicking the Subject icon, an alphabetized hierarchical list is displayed. Searchers can browse the list or enter a term in the search box. Choices for each subject include View Periodical References, Review References, Explore subdivisions, or See also related terms. We first performed a Subject browse, entering the term fossils. In addition to numerous minor fossil headings, we received 588 Periodical References, seven Review References, pages of subdivisions (primarily geographic), and narrower terms such as Dinosaurs and Paleontology. Users can then choose to refine search, or mark, save, print, or e-mail the results.

A Publication Search permits users to select Publications Beginning With, Match Any Words, or Match Exact, when entering a title in the query box. Search results are listed in alphabetical order. We entered the term nature and selected the Publications Beginning With option. The resulting screen offered a choice to Browse Issues or Mark Items for Search. The default display is browse and includes publication/publisher details along with a link to all available issues. We clicked on the Mark Items tab, selected the journals Nature Alert and Nature Matters, and clicked the Post Marked Items to Search tab. The system entered the search JN 'Nature Matters' or JN 'Nature Alert' in the search box (574 results). Again, users have the opportunity to limit or expand the search. We added the term canada (284 results), then limited our query to articles published since January 2001 (11 results). For all search methods, records retrieved include a 25- to 75-word abstract, and Subject(s), Source, and Author(s) hyperlinks for related searches.

Price: Pricing is based entirely on library type. Contact EBSCO for specifics. Any subscription regardless of institution includes unlimited access and remote access. 30-day trials are available.

Who Needs It? General Science Collection, while less comprehensive than several of the other specialized science resources discussed in this column, provides powerful searching because of the EBSCO interface, which is highly customizable based on user population and desired needs. As detailed above and in the Science Reference Center review, searchers have all the bells and whistles that accompany the more comprehensive EBSCO databases, including EBSCOhost links to full-text articles from other EBSCOhost databases, or from electronic journals subscribed to through EBSCO Subscription Services. For those libraries in quest of a bit more concentration on the sciences than the general databases can deliver, this might fit the bill.

Content: Starting as a print index in 1978 and evolving through online and CD-ROM incarnations, General Science Index is a staple for budding scientific researchers. Like its precursors, the web-based General Science Full Text provides indexing--dating back to 1984--to a core group of English-language science magazines and peer-reviewed professional journals. Abstracts were first incorporated in 1993. In 1995, Wilson began full-text coverage for some 65 of about 160 currently indexed titles. These range from popular magazines such as Discover and Science News to a selection of annual reviews (in biochemistry, genetics, physiology, and plant physiology among others) to professional peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Epidemiology and The Hastings Center Report.

The database contains over 600,000 records and is updated monthly. Subjects covered include astronomy and physics, atmospheric science, chemistry, conservation and the environment, earth science, food and nutrition, the life sciences (including genetics, physiology, and health and medicine), mathematics, oceanography, and physics.

Searchability: The uncluttered WilsonWeb welcome screen invites visitors to orient themselves by taking the short QuickTour, or, alternatively, to start right in by checking the databases they intend to search. Three options are available--SearchPlus (advanced), Search, or Browse--although the site's design nudges the searcher toward SearchPlus.

The template in SearchPlus offers two boxes for search terms, each with the pull-down option of changing from the default keyword index (Words Anywhere) to limit searching more precisely to the Subject, Title, Author, Journal/Source, or ISSN/ISBN fields. Boolean operations between search statements are handled by clicking the AND, OR, or NOT buttons. Search results may be restricted to Full Text and Peer Reviewed sources. Additional limits include Article type (including Autobiography, Biography, Book-Review, Exhibit, Interview, Obituary, Product-Evaluation, Symposium, and the somewhat unlikely Recipe) and Publication Year (including Any, 2002 only, or a user-selected range of dates).

General Science Full Text, like many web-based products that have evolved from online databases, provides users with the tools needed for achieving precise results. These include nesting, wildcards and truncation, and proximity operators.

What happens when a searcher puts the capabilities of General Science Full Text to work? A Subject search on human cloning AND ethical aspects produced 95 hits, 15 of which were available online in full text. Articles from peer-reviewed journals accounted for more than half of the items in the results list, and nine of these 56 peer-reviewed articles were available in full text. (Full text in WilsonWeb means a combination of conventional text, PDF images, and the somewhat unappealing PDF text.)

The Full Text and Peer Reviewed limits may also be selected after search results are posted, and searchers may view results as brief citations or full records where descriptors, authors' names, and journal name (and issue) are all hotlinks to facilitate browsing. Marking, printing, saving, and e-mailing are all supported. The Search Results page also features a link to the Infotrieve document delivery service, but because it is implemented at the results level rather than the citation level, bibliographic information has to be entered manually to place an order. (Infotrieve services start at $10.75 per document, and the company states that its fill rate is 95 percent.)

Navigation bars are at the right side and bottom of every page. Revising a search simply requires clicking on the History navigation button. New search terms may be added or previous ones combined or removed by checking the search statement number and clicking the appropriate button. Context-sensitive Help is also accessible via the Navigation bar (and Wilson posts a 16-page Quick Reference Guide to WilsonWeb on its homepage in the Technical Support area).

The basic Search mode employs a single search term box and eliminates refinements such as searching in the Journal/Source and ISSN/ISBN fields, specifying full-text and peer-reviewed sources, and limiting by article type. Date searching remains, though limiting to the current year with a single click gives way to searching by a range of dates. Browse mode, in fact, offers superior options for refining a simple search, with pull-down Peer Reviewed Journal and Document Type supplementing the standard Author Name, Subject, and Journal Name searches. A multifaceted search is beyond the capabilities of Browse mode, however.

There are a number of variations on the basic product. Wilson itself offers the database in WilsonWeb and WilsonDisc for Windows CD-ROM versions with indexing-only, indexing and abstracting, and full-text options available in both formats.

ProQuest offers General Science PlusText, which by default allows subscribers to get results from the science titles, of course, as well as from newspaper articles and nonscience magazines. Researchers concerned with ethical and policy issues, for example, as well as the educated nonspecialist, will appreciate access to these additional resources. (ProQuest users who prefer to see a more focused list of results may limit themselves to just the General Science PlusText database by clicking on the Collections button and checking the General Science PlusText box.) Accessing the database on a trial basis as we did for this review did produce some unexpected results--items in the results list were occasionally 'dupes,' with a Wilson version of the citation and abstract for one record and a ProQuest version for its mate. (Full text availability--or lack thereof--was consistent among the pairs of dupes.)

General Science Index is part of the basic OCLC FirstSearch package, but subscribers may upgrade to the version with abstracts. (Selective full text is available in both.) Interestingly, a basic search on bioterrorism conducted in the WilsonWeb version of the product and in the FirstSearch General Science Index revealed that even though abstracts could not be viewed in FirstSearch, they were still being searched. As far as currency goes, the WilsonWeb database contained 32 articles of more recent vintage than the OCLC version. Dialog File 98 offers the same indexing and abstracting coverage as WilsonWeb, including selected full text from 1995. Those who prefer Ovid or SilverPlatter interfaces can get the indexing-only version or the database with abstracts.

Price: The single-user annual rate for General Science Full Text for a college with nearly 2300 FTE would be $2530; two to four simultaneous users boosts the subscription price to $3,795, and five to eight users would cost $4,435. Contact H.W. Wilson for more specific information. Free 30-day trials of all WilsonWeb products are available.

Who Needs It? The highly accessible General Science Full Text is a nearly ideal resource for student researchers (middle school through high school) and their teachers, nonscience majors in college, and the general public interested in science. With content that ranges from news and popularized treatments of science topics through peer-reviewed professional journals, there is enough substance to satisfy the research and information needs of many types of users. AP science students will start bumping against the product's upper limits soon enough, as will undergraduate science majors, and the Web of Science and BIOSIS Previews crowd will obviously have to turn to professional-level databases to meet their research needs. The genius of General Science Full Text is that it doesn't purport to serve everyone but rather attempts to match content to the nonspecialist's level of comprehension. Within these parameters, it is a successful, highly serviceable resource.

Content: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, well-known publisher of children's books and multivolume illustrated reference sets, has partnered with EBSCO Publishing to produce a new science database, the Marshall Cavendish Science Reference Center. The product is so new that at the time of this review numerous changes and features were still being implemented. EBSCO reports that there will be an interface upgrade in the summer, at which time various features will be modified.

The Science Reference Center comprises Marshall Cavendish's print 'science encyclopedia trilogy.' These include Encyclopedia of Earth and Physical Sciences, whichcovers chemistry, cosmology, geology and mineralogy, meteorology, oceanography, physics, and physical geography. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences covers topics inagriculture, anatomy, genetics, pathology and histology, biochemistry and biotechnology, medicine, physiology, botany, microbiology, psychology, ecology, molecular biology and cytology, and zoology. Finally, Encyclopedia of Technology and Applied Sciences covers agricultural and food technology, engineering, construction and design, medical and biotechnology, chemistry and materials science, environmental technology, military and security technology, computers and communication, manufacturing and industry, transportation technology, and energy and resources. With such extensive subject coverage, this resource clearly provides a well-rounded compilation for general science study. While the articles are both interesting and comprehensible to all levels of users--no easy feat--the focus is middle and high school students.

The Science Reference Center includes access to 2000-plus core encyclopedia articles and close to 12,000 related full-text periodical articles--from popular to scholarly journals--which are accessible within the EBSCO framework. Additionally, the database features 800-plus science-focused images that greatly enhance the research process. Articles and images are updated monthly. The Science Reference Center contains 'relevant, carefully selected Web Links' to other online resources, although many of the web sites retrieved were not satisfactory. While users can browse or search by publication source for titles such as Child Health Alert, Lancet, and Science News, an official title list does not exist, since supplemental articles are added as deemed appropriate by the publishers.

In the works is the addition of three encyclopedias. Environment Encyclopedia, which should be available by the time of this publication, will include natural ecosystems, cultural ecosystems, history of environmentalism, law, government, education, art, literature, ethics, and biographical entries. Scheduled for later this year are Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, covering the lives and achievements of 472 individuals, and Biographical Encyclopedia of Mathematicians, profiling the lives and achievements of 178 mathematicians.

Additional features will include Ideas for Educators, offering online lesson plans and further reference materials; Student Resources, with biographies and features on the latest scientific findings; Take Notes, allowing researchers to write comments for printing, saving, or e-mailing via a separate browser window; and Citation Builder, letting users add and store citations in an accompanying Notes box.

Searchability: For institutions with access to other EBSCO databases, this resource offers the same functionality and familiar interface. The opening screen allows users to select any number of databases (if the library subscribes to multiple databases). Patrons should be aware that each product has unique features and special limiters so searching multiple resources simultaneously makes certain options inapplicable.

The default search mode is a Basic Search, where users can enter a term or phrase. Other search options include Guided and Expert. The Guided Search provides the same features as the Basic Search but presents them by use of drop-down menus. Limiting can be done in all search modes and includes full text and expanding the search for related articles. Special unique limiters include pull-down menus for 29 Encyclopedia Categories and Lexile Reading Level. A search for pollution, limited by Energy & Resources, produced a different focus than when limited by Agricultural & Food Technology. Users can assign a ranking from grades one through 12; looking for information on newts, limited to grades one to four, retrieved a nice introductory article from Ranger Rick magazine.

Navigation is simplified with a set of icons at the top and bottom of each page. Users can limit searching to the following indexes: Subjects, People, and Encyclopedia Entries, displayed as buttons across the top right of the screen. After clicking a desired index, an alphabetized list is displayed. Searchers can browse through the list or enter a term in the search box. Multiple terms can be searched together and a results list of all articles directly related to the search term(s) will display. A search of abacus in the encyclopedia search mode resulted in an article from Encyclopedia of Technology & Applied Sciences that detailed typical construction, uses, and development. At the bottom of the article were links to additional articles.

Similar to its print counterpart, each encyclopedia entry begins with a concise definition. There is a Core Facts section and typically a Connection segment, linking the term or topic within a broader context. All articles are signed (which might be more significant in the print format where contributors' bios tend to be available) and are followed by lists of further readings.

The search results screen also lists a Search Web Links tab, which allows users to search for related web sites. While searches produced first-rate links for additional primary and secondary material, this option often resulted in zero results. When searching for heart, of the 17 retrieved web sites, one was for an ad agency and one for Sacred Heart University, leaving us skeptical of the selection process. A practical option will allow users to sort search results by document type. Tabs will display at the top of the screen to sort by Encyclopedia Article, Periodical, or Image. Science Reference Center employs all the standard search capabilities--wildcards and truncation, Boolean, and proximity operators NEAR and WITHIN. Users have the option to mark records for future printing, saving, or e-mail. A great feature that is standard with all EBSCO products is the e-mail manager, which permits the user to e-mail an HTML link to a current search query, or to e-mail HTML links to articles that have been selected. The citation and link information retrieved in the e-mail provides persistent HTML links to the exact articles the user has requested, which can be viewed or placed in external web documents at any time.

Price: Pricing is based entirely on library type. Contact EBSCO for specifics. All subscriptions, regardless of institution, include unlimited access and remote. Thirty-day trials are available.

Who Needs It? Marshall Cavendish Science Reference Center will appeal to those in a variety of institutional and library settings. It is highly recommended for middle school and high school students, although there is material suitable for the younger crowd as well. The EBSCO interface is a major bonus for students familiar with other EBSCO products. Many of the sophisticated options are impressive and not typically found in a product geared toward novice users, such as the Search History and Save Alert feature, which tracks search queries and results. Science Reference Center's greatest value is that it is just as appropriate for a third-grade exploration of tadpoles and frogs as it is for tenth graders working on a research project on brain development.

Content: Support for school science programs gets a hearty shot in the arm from Science Online. The bulk of the content--some 1400 essays--is drawn from current editions of Facts On File's impressive line of science reference products. Included on this list are The Facts On File Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society, the company's full line of science dictionaries (The Facts On File Dictionary of Environmental Science, ...Marine Science, The Dictionary of Space Technology, Space and Astronomy On File, Encyclopedia of Environmental Studies, and ...Earthquakes and Volcanoes, among others), and content from the On File binders series in such areas as genetics and cell biology, weather and climate, and marine science. Encyclopedia of World Scientists supplies biographical information about 800 major figures in the history of science, and over 24,000 definitions are hot-linked from within the essays and biographical articles.

Textual material is further supplemented with a library of 2700 diagrams and an extensive time line that records events 'from the big bang through recent anthrax outbreaks.' A judiciously selected menu of high-quality science web resources completes the package.

Science Online's content is organized according to National Science Content Standards and Benchmarks (NSCSB) Level 3 (grades 6-8) and Level 4 (grades 9-12) competencies for Earth and Space Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Nature of Science. The site's design facilitates instruction as well as student research by making related essays, definitions of scientific terminology, biographical material, and visual aids readily accessible via extensive use of hot-linking. Science Online is updated twice a year, sufficient given its purpose.

Searchability: Prominently positioned in the upper left corner of Science Online's main page is a quick search template with a link to a custom search option immediately below it. The left-hand frame lists the Main Menu search options--Diagrams, Definitions, Biographies, Essays, and Timeline. Content Standards, Web Links, Help, Acknowledgements, and a Get Acrobat Reader link (necessary for viewing and printing high-quality versions of the diagrams) are arranged below the primary search options.

The Main Menu search options are repeated--with content notes--in the frame that dominates most of the remaining on-screen real estate. As of mid-May, these notes reflected the most recent updates to the database, shortchanging the diagrams count by 200 and the definitions count by 10,000 entries. The biographies notes, aside from ignoring 500 articles that have been added to the database, dramatically understated this section's depth of coverage does not begin with 'the onset of the industrial revolution' but with ancients such as Aristotle and Archimedes and key scientific thinkers from the medieval and Renaissance periods.

The basic search mode produces results derived from all sections of the database. Custom Search allows the researcher to browse by broad content area--Animal Anatomy, Earth Sciences, Genetics and Cell Biology, Human Anatomy, Human Physiology, Life Sciences, Marine Sciences, Physical Sciences, Space and Astronomy, Weather and Climate--or to search by word or phrase using a 'relative' or more precise 'exact' match. An exact search on escape velocity found 12 definitions, 11 essays, and one time line entry. Interestingly, not only was the phrase escape velocity itself defined, but it was also found when it appeared within the definitions of other terms. When executed as a relative search, escape was ORed with velocity, producing broader results. Contrary to the online Help notes, search terms were not highlighted within database entries, which would be useful.

Searching through the Main Menu options provides different access points in different sections of the database. Diagrams may be browsed by the broad content areas listed above, by subtopic within those content areas, or in an alphabetical topic list. Definitions and Biographies afford alphabetical access. The Timeline offers student researchers the most flexibility, permitting browsing by topic and by ranges of dates from ten billion years ago to the present and searching by a single date, user-specified ranges of dates, and by word or phrase.

Although the search and browse capabilities of Science Online are impressive enough, many conventional search features--Boolean searching, nesting, truncation, and proximity other than exact phrase searching--are absent. Librarians may miss these features, but most novice searchers will not.

Each entry concludes with citation information, a thoughtful plus for instructors who are trying to encourage students to use and cite Internet resources honestly and accurately. Print and save functions work via the web browser. On the mildly negative side, the extras that some systems offer--marking results, e-mailing of articles, saving search strategies, or bookmarking documents so they can be revisited later--are missing from Science Online. The annotated Web Links section is arranged by topic area and is well maintained.

Price: Prices start at $599 for schools with enrollments of under 1000 students and range to $1,199 for schools with enrollments of 1000-2000. The cost for public libraries with up to 25,000 cardholders is $1050. All prices include remote access. A free 30-day trial is available.

Who Needs It? Facts On File aims Science Online squarely at the school market. Teachers, librarians, and students from middle school through high school will find that its high-quality, clear presentation and wide-ranging content make it ideally suited to support the science curricula. Public libraries serving this school-age population and the public seeking science information will benefit from a subscription as well. Science Online would be useful even in academic libraries, where lower-level science students, nonscience majors, and social sciences students considering science policy issues could get considerable mileage out of it.

At A Glance