The Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library has been an official member of the WWW Virtual Library since March 1994. It is published by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. The site aims to serve the information needs of academics, librarians, journalists, and graduate students. In the first four years of operation, there were more than 1 million accesses of the home page. The site is mirrored at six locations around the world.
The site deals with the Asian continent as a whole, as well as with individual Asian regions, countries, and territories. This includes the Middle East, former Soviet Union, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Far East. It offers access to thousands of Internet resources from around the world, including archives, library catalogues, documents, bibliographies, electronic‐journal registers, and mailing lists. There is an editor‐in‐chief and 41 section editors located in more than ten countries.
The home page has three major sections:
- 1.
1Asia‐Pacific global resources
- 2.
2regional resources
- 3.
3individual country/territory resources
Within the global resources section some of the links lead to:
the Asian Studies WWW Monitor which provides daily announcements of new Asian‐focused online resources.
information on upcoming conferences, databases and mailing lists
academic programmes and resources for studying abroad in Asia
regional, country and subject‐oriented mailing lists
online Asian studies journals and newsletters
search engines for Asian studies and social sciences information
The regional resources cover the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, Pacific Ocean, East Asia, and Asian continent as a whole. There are about 60 links to resources on individual countries or territories. The nature of the information presented varies but usually touches on political, social, economic, and business issues. The variability reflects the availability of information and the fact that a large number of individuals contribute to the site.
Generally, the design of the site is very simple with a minimum of graphics. This is important given that a significant percentage of users might be located in countries without well‐developed network infrastructures. The actual page designs vary widely since common templates have not been used. This tends to be a drawback since the design of many of the pages could be improved.
The strength of this site is its currency, thoroughness, and quality of information. It can be recommended as a very good starting point for locating scholarly information on the Asia‐Pacific region.
