The POTUS Web‐site is part of the Internet Public Library and is targeted toward a general audience. The home page contains links to sites for each of the 41 presidents arranged to follow the same design and format. A thumbnail sketch of the president is followed by links to Presidential Election Results, Cabinet Members, Notable Events, Internet Biographies, Historical Documents, Other Internet Resources, and Points of Interest. Video and audio links are included in each of these categories as applicable. Video clips are presented in QuickTime, .mpg (Motion Pictures Experts Group or MPEG), and .rm (Real Media) formats. The audio links use WAV or MPEG2.
The Thumbnail contains basic biographical information including any presidential nicknames. The Presidential Election Results includes major and minor candidates as well as popular and Electoral College results. All Cabinet members are listed including their terms of service. A number of these are also linked.
The Notable Events category is empty in almost all the presidential sites. The attempted assassination of Reagan is included but World War II is not. It is not clear what warrants inclusion in this category. Internet Biographies range from the relatively brief to the lengthy, such as an extensive 14‐ chapter book on Lincoln. The Historical Documents Section contains a fairly extensive collection of electronic documents for many of the presidents. Other Internet Resources contains a pot‐pourri of links and usually includes sites for presidential libraries, birthplaces, and homes.
Points of Interest is often just a list of presidential trivia and factoids. A number of the modern presidents have a Media Resources category with a link to The Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA). It is unclear as to why this site is included, as there is no apparent linkage to the presidency.
Overall, POTUS is a directory to many well known Web sites, notably “The Presidents of the United States”, produced by the White House, Grolier Online, and the Vincent Voice Library to name a few. Other links are from a variety of sources, notably presidential libraries and PBS. Other links are both unique and informative.
New links are added on an as‐needed basis. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find that a link to a URL has changed or moved or is no longer available. Still, this site is easy to navigate and is quick in its response time. But it does not provide for Boolean or any other type of searching. Nor does it make any provision for downloading.
POTUS is linked from the Internet Public Library’s Public Library Youth Division page and is geared more to high school level users, though lower level undergraduates would find some value in this resource as well. In this context, POTUS is recommended.
