This is “…the printed version of the CD‐ROM produced by Informit in Melbourne, and the Web pages which are publicly available over the Internet at: http://www.alia.org.au/∼apsig/directory/html”. It is based on a 1992 survey and includes Australian databases that primarily or to a significant extent offer Asian content. “For the purpose of this project, ‘Asia’ is defined as the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Southeast Asia.”
The entries are organised in three sections. The first lists some 70 databases which are freely available; this includes such well‐established and useful resources as the Index to Malaysian Newspapers and the University of Melbourne Library Catalogue, as well as the more esoteric and perhaps of questionable value, such as the Joseph Needham Home Page and The Asian Economies (the latter for a Melbourne University course). The second section, again with about 70 entries, lists databases having restricted access that requires membership, subscription or purchase. Here one finds such standard resources as ABI/INFORM, Asian Wall Street Journal Ondisc, Hongkongiana On‐Line, Kompass Asia/Pacific and again some more esoteric entries ‐ for example, Mushroom Abstract Bibliography. Part 3 is a limited listing of search services and database hosts, a mere six entries such as Dialog and UMI. A database name index and a general index conclude the listing.
While some entries provide only limited information, the fuller ones are very complete indeed. There are headings for such data as access (Internet address), availability (publicly available, restricted, etc.), format, contact person and related details, type of data (bibliographic, etc.), country and subject coverage, time span, languages, thesaurus and data structure, size of database, charges, document delivery, general comments. The fullest entries, then, give one a clear indication of whether the resource is worth consulting for a particular query. Those with more limited data, of course, are correspondingly less useful; but on the whole Asian Resources performs adequately as a guide to online Asiana.
Whether one is in Australia or elsewhere, this ALIA publication and its online version should be of use to collection development managers seeking information on online Asian resources, and also to reference staff in both academic and special libraries serving users with Asian information requirements. It is to be hoped that the Asia and Pacific Special Interest Group of ALIA will find the resources needed to update the online version on a regular basis.
