Online Ecological and Environmental Data attempts to offer readers a better understanding of a number of aspects concerning ecological and environmental data, and to promote access to information resources in the field, especially those freely available. Among other issues, it addresses the following:
cooperative design, development and management of interdisciplinary data;
cataloguing of multidisciplinary environmental data;
data networking;
new developments in information science and technology;
extraction and compilation of data; and
convergence and dissemination of information via the internet.
Innovative projects from diverse institutions are explored in six chapters and an introduction. Projects include the Global Environmental Change Research Community, the Syracuse Research Corporation's Chemical Information Databases and the StreamNet project. There is also a paper on the National Environmental Data Network revealed through the study of acid rain. Several of these projects are making data freely available via the internet. The chapter that most interests me is the one by Frame and his co‐authors on information science and technology developments within the National Biological Information Infrastructure. In this paper the authors describe a portal project for specific biological collections available on the web. The portal, BioBot, is an intelligent agent that targets the NBII collection, major search engines and indexes and specific biological collections on the web.
The chapters are all well‐written with good lists of references. The soft cover publication is also well‐bound, and concludes with a seven‐page index. At $19.95 it comes as very good value for money.
Online Ecological and Environmental Data is recommended to those interested in finding ecological and environmental data, as well as those responsible for the design and maintenance of information resources in the field. It is especially recommended to LIS professionals who need to advise end‐users on their choices of information resources.
