A period of uncertainty

When was this written?

"It is one of the most melancholy reflections of the present day, that while wealth and capital have been rapidly increasing, while science and art have been working the most surprising miracles in aid of the human family, and while morality, intelligence, and civilization have been rapidly extending on all hands;- that at this time, the great material interests of the higher and middle classes, and the physical condition of the labouring and industrial classes, are more and more marked by characters of uncertainty and insecurity."

Though the argument could probably have been made at any time since the early Nineteenth Century and up to a minute ago, the fact that the quote above is a single sentence gives us a big clue. Actually, it’s 1843, it’s from The Economist, and it’s from the first issue included in The Economist Archive, 1843 to 2003.

I nearly didn’t cover The Economist Archive this week, since it’s been causing us a bit of trouble. A gremlin seems to have crept into the Westminster Libraries computer system, making it rather difficult to use this otherwise highly impressive new resource. But it doesn’t seem to affect access elsewhere, so I decided I would tell you about it after all.

It’s a subscription website – you know the drill, Westminster Libraries pay the sub, so you need a library card to use it at home. Got your card? Good, then read on…

The archive is a complete facsimile of The Economist from 1843 to 2003. Like The Times Digital Archive, you can search it like any other database but, when you click on to the item you want, it pops up looking just as it did when it was published, complete with off-white background and a hint of staples at one side. In fact the early issues come complete with scuff marks and ink blots – very atmospheric.

If you want to go into more depth than The Times (so we’re talking a long way from shallow) The Economist can do very deep indeed. Sometimes po-faced, sometimes waspish and petulant, there’s a lot of opinion here, all mixed up with the news. Not many pictures, but there are the charts and tables for which The Economist has become rightly respected, and these can be downloaded in a number of ways, as well as in facsimile form.

Jokes and light relief? – a bit thin on the ground, I’m afraid. But if your idea of a good laugh is to read some very thorough hatchet-jobs on erring politicians, this The Economist can do in spades. Good digging.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Newspapers and magazines". The Economist Archive is a Key link.)



Picture Credit: The Economist

Curl up with a good eBook

Be careful as you come out of your local supermarket. Drop your receipt in the street, and the chances are that someone will digitise it and bung it on the Internet. It’s not cheap to digitise material which was previously only available in print - you either need a charitable handout, or you need subscribers to share the costs. Let’s have a look (in reverse order) at one of each of these.

Searching for the sausages

Gale Virtual Reference Library is paid for by subscription. In our case, Westminster Libraries have coughed up the dosh, and library cardholders get the service by using a library computer, or by entering their card numbers elsewhere.

It covers a wide range of subjects (well, they include Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, History, Information & Publishing, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Religion, Science, and Social Science, since you ask). But it isn’t a database, with all the stuff in one virtual pile on the Gale server.

It is just over 120 eBooks, each of which has been digitised and added to the library. Each eBook has a publication date, and its contents will remain constant until a new edition is substituted. With me so far? Good. Well here’s the clever bit: even though they’re individual volumes, you can search them all together. So when I put in my usual test search word, "sausages", I am offered entries from the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, the Writers Directory and Countries and Their Cultures.

Then, if I like the look of Countries and Their Cultures, for instance, I can browse it by going back to the home page. It’s rather clunky: I am faced with a list of subjects with +s by them. But if I can’t guess where my target eBook is hiding, I can click "show all" to reveal the whole list of volumes in the library. Then I can go exploring.

Gale Virtual Reference Library needs a bit of work on the Welcome Mat, but once you’re inside it’s a library well worth spending time in.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Quick reference". Gale Virtual Reference Library is under "Dictionary and encyclopaedias".)

Thanks a hundred million

Project Gutenberg is an example of the Fairy Godmother school of web publishing. A chap called Michael Hart was given $100,000,000 worth of computer time by the University of Illinois. If that isn’t being in the right place at the right time, my name’s not Santa Claus.

Michael decided that digitising out-of-copyright books and making them freely available was the best way to spend his windfall. As you can imagine, the subsequent story is long and complicated, and if you like you can read about it in an account rather longer than some of the books!

What we need to know immediately is that there are over 20,000 eBooks in the collection, with another 80,000 available through partners and affiliates. You can spend days exploring the treasure trove of texts, or you can use the search box to find the one you want.

If it’s there, you will usually be offered a variety of delivery methods. You can view an HTML or plain text version on your screen (or print it off if you have enough paper and strong arms), or you can download an electronic version which works on some of those little handheld devices – Palm organisers, smartphones, and so on.

Good work Michael. I imagine the University are satisfied that their computer time was well spent.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books", then select "Online books" for Project Gutenberg.)

Picture credit: johnsense/morguefile.com

The choice is yours

Choice continues to be a buzzword with politicians. Choice is now compulsory, even when it’s between substandard goods or services. So when I was told about NHS Choices, and that it was similar to but better than NHS Direct, I was sceptical (now I’ve shocked you).

It’s all a bit strange, actually. NHS Direct is still there (last time I looked), with all the features which led us to put it on the Gateway in the first place: information about the NHS and the 24 hour advice line staffed by nurses; a self-help guide; a search box for local services such as doctors and dentists; and a health encyclopaedia explaining key medical concepts.

Now along comes NHS Choices, doing all the same things. What’s going on? My theory is that Choices is a development of Direct, and that they are keeping Direct going for the time being, in case Choices collapses. Given the government’s record with IT projects, that may prove a wise decision.

Doctor Where

We’ll keep an eye on all that, but in the meantime we’ve plumped for NHS Choices on the Gateway, prompted by its better performance in the finding-a-doctor department. When you first look at the home page, the search box simply says "enter a search term" – not very helpful. But if you click "GPs" in the grey box, the search box changes, to "place, postcode or organisation". Pop in your postcode, to get a list of local doctors (or dentists or hospitals, with more options).

The advantage of NHS Choices is that each item on the list has the information you need to choose a doctor. The distance from your home, the clinics the surgery runs, whether they are accepting new patients, whether they have early or late surgeries: all these are given, along with full contact details. Click on an individual entry for surgery and opening times. The print version seems to include all the information from the web page – now there’s a novelty!

I have concentrated on the "finder" function, but the site is also groaning with health advice, some of it interactive. My eye was also caught by the "compare hospitals" feature. This is a bit clunky – you have to do a lot of clicking to build up a comparison – but it’s a good start, and will be even more worthwhile when they start to get (and publish) feedback scores.

We’re getting flashier

By the way, if you are using a Westminster Libraries computer, you may find difficulty using some of the interactive functions on NHS Choices and some other websites. This is because they need the latest version of Flash (whizzy software). The bad news is that we don’t have it, but the good news is that it’s coming next month.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Health & medicine". NHS Choices is a Key link.)

Picture credit: click/morguefile.com

Tunnel vision

Web Treasure Hunt often features websites which have recently been added to the Gateway to websites. Obvious really – once they’re on the Gateway, show them off and get people using them. Reviewing the last year’s additions, I started to check out how they had stood the test of time. Here’s one which caught the eye again…

Metro magic

You know how it is. You’re jetting off for a weekend city break, you’ve managed to cram your stuff into a bag the size of a crisp packet to satisfy both Mr O’Leary and the security checker, and you start browsing the guides (print or online) to get the most out of your trip.

One of the keys is to crack the local transport system. You know your city has a metro system, and the guide book tells you which ticket is the best value. The book even has a map. The problem is that you don’t have 20/20 vision, the station names are printed in 4-point type, and the stop near your hotel is just outside the central area shown. You could try the local transport undertaking’s website – often a less-than-rewarding experience – or you could go straight to Subway Maps.

It does exactly… This clever, utterly simple website, has collected the subway/underground/metro maps from cities around the world. From Glasgow’s "Clockwork Orange" to Tokyo’s breathtakingly-complicated pile of subway spaghetti, they’ve got them. A glance at London will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation.

The site uses a standard graphic system to show the systems, not the maps used locally. In many cases, the standard version is much better than the dog’s breakfast you see on the platform. In the case of London, the Subway Maps version serves only to remind you how clear and elegant is Frank Pick’s "official" map.

So if you’re staying in London, pick up a map as you pass a tube station. If you’re off to Bilbao or Bangkok, though, Subway Maps is worth a look.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". Subway Maps is under "Other Links/Rail".)

Picture credit: n-k-teko/morguefile.com