The US federal government, prompted by initiatives from the Clinton Administration, has adopted the Internet as a means of communication in a way no other government has done. There is now a vast sea of information available to citizens of the US and visitors from around the world, on everything from policy releases, laws, regulations and licenses, to recipes, wildlife, health advice, American history, and culture. Any up‐to‐date, well‐written manual that can assist students, researchers, and the public to access this information more effectively is always welcome.
Printed on blue paper as close as possible to the Blue Pages themselves, this guide is a directory of high level federal Web sites, that in the absence of any official directory, promotes itself as the “leading print and on‐line reference to almost 1900 US Federal web sites”. This is a matter of opinion – it has several competitors, notably the guides by Maxymuk, Maxwell, and Hernon, all of which publish an annual edition, or are currently bringing out new editions. The 2001‐2002 edition includes new listings for all national parks, federal courts, military and presidential libraries, and more. However, the 1900 sites covered are still only a small proportion of all federal Web sites that are now considered to be in the tens of thousands.
The volume is systematically organised by government agency – starting with the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch and the Office of the President, and followed by departments from Agriculture to Veterans Affairs. The final three chapters cover: Boards, Commissions and Committees, Quasi‐Official Agencies (mainly the Smithsonian Museum and associated art galleries), and Gateways, a fairly slender list of US government‐hosted sites focused on specific user groups or types of information (e.g. seniors, students, statistics, etc.).
Each chapter follows the same format, listing the primary agency first and working systematically through the divisions and committees of that agency. This is not always easy to navigate, even with considerable knowledge of the US federal system, and a brief summary at the beginning of each chapter would have been useful. Fortunately, there are two indexes. The first lists all agencies whose Web sites are included in the directory (except national parks which presumably are considered too numerous, although since their Web sites are all provided it seems logical to include them in the index), and a second index provides subject access. This is less useful, because it is too uneven. As well as high level terms, a selection of links from various sites are indexed, but the result is a rather muddled group of subject terms which have not been cross‐indexed or organised into a systematic vocabulary. Given the enormous extent of information available from these federal Web sites, more assistance with subject access would be welcomed. An appendix describes some of the main departments and the areas they cover. It also lists search engines available on specific US federal sites. This could usefully be placed at the beginning of the book, with individual search engines placed at the agency whose Web pages they search.
The main value of the directory is for browsing before going online – to get a sense of whether the agency in question has a Web site, and what is on it or where the information sought will be. A companion Web site keeps the information up‐to‐date, as well as providing quick links to all listed sites, organised in the same way. This is a very useful tool, in the open domain, and could be independently bookmarked by libraries as a useful portal to US government Web sites.
The directory is probably correct in its claim to be the most comprehensive of its kind. Whether it is the most useful source of information about federal Web sites is open to question. More help to users on how to search for information, how to enter suitable search terms into a Web site’s internal search engine, and how to get the most out of a general search engines when searching for US government information is needed to help make this a more useful guide. Recognition of the fact that on the World Wide Web there are no national boundaries and that people from all around the world access federal Web sites would be welcomed in future editions. This means using the words “United States” when referring to the federal government, not using phrases such as “our government”, or creating a sense of alienation in non‐US visitors to the companion Web site with waving flags.
All in all this is a useful directory and, in the absence of any official directory, a useful contribution to the reference librarian’s toolkit. Because of its relatively limited coverage, it should be supplemented by Hernon et al.’s US Government on the Web, which outlines in a great deal more detail the structure of the US federal government and provides the reader with more assistance in ascertaining where useful information might be found, and in developing a search strategy to reach it.
