Even-numbered issues will contain update information; odd-numbered issues will be complete reissues, with all new & revised information fully integrated into the basic Directory.

Een overzicht van 428 internationale databases en databasesystemen met specifieke gegevens

Though an enormous amount of information relating to earth sciences are available on the Internet, for a serious researcher, teacher, librarian or a student who has deadlines to meet, searching the Internet for specific scientific information can at times be frustrating. The main purpose of Online Databases and Other Internet Resources for Earth Science is to group these resources together and to provide the URLs and hyperlinks so a researcher, teacher or student can access them with the minimum effort, time and cost. The book also introduces the reader to a few basic concepts that propel the Internet and the world wide web so that he or she can make informed searches apart from assessing the quality and reliability of the data available on the internet. A brief introduction is provided on the current status of the draft treaty by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the EU directive on copyright restrictions for scientific databases and what a researcher is permitted to do with the data obtained from the Internet, especially those from a commercial data provider. - Earth science resources on the Internet are grouped into various categories: such as journals, databases, multimedia, directories, teaching aids and mailing lists - Online earth science publications and a list of open access publications related to earth sciences - The databases are further grouped into bibliographic data, specimen collection, chemical analysis, geophysical data, etc.

This paper provides an overview of a University of California (UC) study of the issues involved in creating an online directory of electronic information resources available to the university community. For the purposes of the study, electronic information resources include bibliographic and other databases available at or through UC libraries and campus computer centers, and databases and data files maintained in departments. Such a directory would bring together information about computer files that has not been available from one source. It was found that the project would be feasible if the directory could be implemented in three phases: (1) design of the record structure, user interface, and means of access; (2) implementation and evaluation of a prototype; and (3) refining the user interface, indexing additional fields, and adding newly created records. Six development issues (some of them complex) that would need to be resolved before implementation were identified: the forms of electronic information to be included; the scope of the database, including external databases; availability of satisfactory descriptive information about items to be included; and a machine readable catalog record for each item. It is noted that, in addition to existing UC library records and other on-campus sources of electronic resources, there are nine bibliographic utilities and commercial vendors which produce "databases of databases" that could be included in the UC directory; other resources are available to provide descriptive detail for items in the directory. It was concluded that the directory should exist as a separate database searchable by the MELVYL user interface. Further discussion about Machine Readable Computer Files (MRCF) and a list of the MARC Bibliographic Format for MRCF are appended. (KRN)