Recommended Internet Links  -
New Sites of Interest Archive


October / November 2006
August / September 2006
June / July 2006
April / May 2006
February / March 2006
November / December / January 2006
September / October 2005
July / August 2005
May / June 2005
March / April 2005
December / January 2005
October / November 2004
August / September 2004
June / July 2004
April / May 2004
February / March 2004
December / January 2004
October / November 2003
August / September 2003
June / July 2003
April / May 2003
February / March 2003
November / December / January 2003
September / October 2002
July / August 2002
May/ June 2002
March / April 2002
January / February 2002
November / December 2001
September / October 2001
July / August 2001
May / June 2001

New Sites of Interest -  October / November

General

Altered Oceans: a five part series on the crisis in the seas
Published by the LA Times this series is a wake up call to all who care about the environment.

Digital Library for Earth Science Education
As the crucial element of the National Science Digital Library that provides information on the area of geoscience, the Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE) provides access to “quality teaching and learning resources about the Earth as a system for a wide range of learners.”

Doing Business
Several years ago, the World Bank became concerned about the business climate and environment in different countries around the world. After a time, they decided to embark on the creation of a database that would provide indicators of the cost of doing business in various countries. With a keen eye towards looking at existing laws and regulations in each country, their team of researchers looked at such topics as starting a business, protecting investors, paying taxes, getting credit, among others. Visitors with an interest in such matters can download their annual reports, view country specific reports (such as “Doing Business in Brazil”), and also take advantage of 155 printable country data profiles.  Includes also a law library of business laws and regulations from around the world.

Expanding job opportunities for Pacific Islanders Through Labour Mobility [World Bank Report]   
The main purpose of this report is to examine the economic arguments – analytically and empirically – in favor of greater labor mobility.

General Chemistry Online
Chemistry, like many of the hard sciences, can be an uphill battle for students who are making their first foray into the world of ions, gases, redox reactions, and polymers. Fortunately, there is the General Chemistry Online site, created by Professor Fred Senese of Frostburg State University's chemistry department. The site contains companion notes and guides that will help students as they navigate the world of first semester chemistry, as well as a toolbox of interactive graphing devices and a glossary of over 1000 chemical terms, complete with audio pronunciations. For those who cannot find answers to their queries here, the site has the "Ask Antoine" section, where they can ask about anything chemistry they so desire. Visitors can also peruse a list of 400 questions that have already been answered since the site's inception. And last, but not least, the site also has an exam survival guide that will be of great comfort to students who find themselves anxious about such affairs.

GIS Unit of the USP School of Geography
The GIS website is designed to provide information about:

Global Policy Forum
The United Nations has a number of policy initiatives occurring in all parts of the globe, and some might ask the question: Who evaluates the effectiveness of such programs? The United Nations does some of this work themselves, but the Global Policy Forum is also intimately concerned with monitoring their programs, along with "promoting accountability of global decisions." Visitors who know what types of material they are looking for will want to search through the headings which include such themes as globalization, international justice, and UN reform. Each one of these sections contains a brief essay on their work, along with a smattering of reports, tables, and charts that highlight their analyses, past and present.

Globalization and Health
Open-access peer-reviewed journals continue to grow in number and in scope, and those dealing with the future of public health are no exception. One of the latest is Globalization and Health, which provides “a platform for research, knowledge sharing and debate on the topic of globalization and its effects on health, both positive and negative.” With such a broad range, it is no surprise that the journal has included articles on the tobacco industry, intellectual property rights, the effect of trade agreements on health, and the dissemination of Western diets across the globe.

HIV / AIDS Policy in the Asia Pacific Region
hivpolicy.org aims to gather and provide access to information about the policy responses to the epidemic in the Asia Pacific.

Learnthat.com: Free web training for computer courses
As more and more people find themselves needing introductory materials that deal with all aspects of computer operation and the like, it’s good to know that there are a number of websites that provide a nice range of basic tutorials in such matters. The folks at Learnthat.com have created just such a resource on this site, which includes basic tutorials for Microsoft Windows, XHTML, and on how to design a web page using Word. While the site itself doesn’t contain a search engine, visitors can just scroll down the homepage to locate any tutorials that might be of interest. Teachers might also find the site helpful as they could easily place some of these materials on a projection device and have students follow along as they go through the tutorials as a class.

Moana: an online database of marine literature
Developed and maintained by USP's Pacific Islands Marine Research and Information Service [PIMRIS] and hosted by SPREP, Moana is an excellent gateway to pacific marine resources.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Website of New Zealand's national museum.

My Micronesia
"joining the dots in the western Pacific". Serving the islands of the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Guam, Northern Marianas and Marshall Islands.  Includes news and online forums.

Oceania Flash
Latest news as it happens from around the South Pacific. Browsable by topic and also available in a weekly digest form. Strong focus on events in New Caledonia and French Polynesia.  [In French and English].

Pacific Journalism Review
The Pacific Journalism Review, founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, is a peer-reviewed journal covering media issues and communication in the South Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. It is now published by the School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, and has links with the University of the South Pacific. [abstracts of articles only].

Pacific Media Watch online
An independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, editors, researchers, lawyers and other media workers, supporting media freedom, and examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region.

Pacific Regional Economic Integration Programme (PACREIP)
The negotiations of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Pacific Island Countries and the European Union (EU) will be assisted with the launch of a website containing information on the Pacific Regional Economic Integration Programme (PACREIP).  The overall objective of PACREIP is the sustainable development of Pacific ACP States as an economically integrated region. PACREIP assists in the Pacific region's preparations and conduct of negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU), and provides support for the region in World Trade Organization talks.

UC Atlas of Global Inequality
Researchers attempting to wade through the murky and volatile waters of globalization can sometimes find the going rough. For the general public, even grasping the mere tenets of what globalization entails can be equally confounding. The Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz has stepped in to help with their UC Atlas of Global Inequality. Drawing on a wide range of data sets, their online Atlas “explores the interaction between global integration (globalization) and inequality.” Some of the themes visitors can explore include economic globalization, health, and income inequality. Along with these interactive features, visitors also have access to time series maps of the world that show patterns of inequality and a database that allows tables and graphs to be generated and downloaded for selected data and countries.

Western Pacific Archive website
Details of the archive of the Western Pacific held at the University of Auckland

Law 

Constitutional and Parliamentary Information
From the Association of General Secretaries of Parliaments, this website includes a large number of papers of interest from a range of jurisdictions.

International Journal of Not-For-Profit Law
In an admirable attempt to "reflect the evolving worldwide conversation about civil society", the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law created the International Journal of Not-For-Profit Law (IJNL) in 1998. Since that time, the Journal has worked with their in-house editing team, guest editors, and a deep pool of contributors to create a number of special themed issues. The IJNL is published several times a year, and recent volumes have paid special attention to the Middle East, comparative approaches to civil society, and public benefit organizations. Visitors can view the complete text of each issue, and search their online archive, which dates back to September 1998.

Intute: Law
Intute: Law provides guidance and access to global legal information resources on the Internet. The service aims to identify and evaluate legal resource sites offering primary and secondary materials and other items of legal interest. Descriptive records and links are created for legal service sites and specific documents.

IPRsonline
IPRsonline.org is an internet portal on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Sustainable Development. It contains a selection of relevant online documents and resources related to IPRs and sustainable development including a guide to IPRs, proposals submitted to the WTO, discussion papers classified by topics, a calendar of IPRs related events, latest news on IPRs, and links to listservs and relevant institutions working on IPRs.

Legal Theory Blog
Includes online articles, book reviews and links.

World Bank Business Law Library
An online library of business laws and regulations from around the world.

WorldLII News
WorldLII News will bring you information about updates to the databases from each of the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) and other organisations as well as the latest category pages or links to websites added to the WorldLII Catalog.
 

New Sites of Interest -  August / September

General

Australasian Digital Theses Program Database
A comprehensive metadata repository of Australian PhD and Masters [research] theses. To be augmented over time by New Zealand theses. Access to 150,000 Australian PhD and Masters [research] theses over 5,000 available full-text online link directly to home institutions for access to non-digitised theses unrestricted open access serving the national and international research community.

Google Trends
“With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.”

The Internet TESL Journal
English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum continue to be refined for different audiences both in the United States and overseas, and new teachers in this area can find their task a bit daunting. Fortunately, there exist a number of websites such as this one that can help ease this transition. Started in 1995, the Internet TESL Journal has brought together articles, research papers, lesson plans, classroom handouts, and teaching ideas to this website. Published monthly, the journal can be viewed in its entirety here, and users can also browse through the contents by category, such as questions, techniques, and lessons. ESL educators have reviewed all of the materials featured in the journal, and visitors are also encouraged to submit their own teaching materials for consideration. Some of the more recent pieces contained within the journal include features on using newspaper articles in the ESL classroom and creating an effective group learning environment.

Journal of Religion and Popular Culture
Edited by Professor Mary Ann Beavis of the University of Saskatchewan, the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture is a “web-based, peer-reviewed journal committed to academic exploration, analysis and interpretation, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, of the interrelations between religion and religious expression and popular culture, broadly defined as the products of contemporary mass culture.” It is quite a broad area to cover, and they do so admirably, and members of the public and those in the world of higher education will want to look over their site closely. Published three times a year, visitors can browse through the online archive offered here, or take a look at their most recent issue. Some of the articles that have appeared in recent issues include “The Apocalyptic Imagination and Popular Culture”, “Seeking the Roots of Terrorism: An Islamic Traditional Experience”, and “Under the Influence? The Bible, Culture and Nick Cave”.

Librarians Without Borders
An organization that wants to address the vast information resource inequity existing between different regions of the world.

RDN Virtual Training Suite
RDN Virtual Training Suite provides a set of free online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information literacy and IT skills. It is organisied by broad subject. Excellent for beginner academic level students.  It has a UK bias but that's OK.  RDN also produces The Internet Detective ­ a new resource to help teach students how to use the Web properly.  Plus for law students there is  Internet for lawyers (see below).

Mi harem se
News, views and gossip circulating in Port Vila, Vanuatu - online forum.

PIMRIS Newsletter
Newsletter of the Pacific Islands Marine Resource Information System. Includes discussion of current marine and fisheries developments in the South Pacific .

Stuck in the mud [blog ]
stuck in the mud ... Of Fiji socio-cultural and soci-political limbo ...

UN Chronicle
As the United Nations’ scope is quite global, one can expect that the issues and topics covered in their fine publication, the UN Chronicle, will be compelling material for persons interested in global policy issues and other such heady matters. On their rather full homepage, visitors can look up articles via a search engine, or by theme. For those who would rather look through the complete issue as a whole, the most recent issues are offered on the left-hand side of the homepage. Recent subjects covered within their virtual pages include HIV/AIDS prevention in Sierra Leone, the avian flu pandemic, and the vexing question of inequality. For those seeking historical coverage, the online archive dates back to 1997.

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
The study of globalization has gained great currency over the past decade, and a number of private organizations and institutions of higher learning have moved to create centers and institutes where individuals can come together to discuss and research this phenomenon and process. The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization (YCSG) was created in 2001, and it is dedicated to “enriching the debate about globalization on campus and to promote the flow of ideas between Yale and the policy world”. First-time visitors will want to take a look at one of the thematic areas, which include those dedicated to global trade reform and climate change. In both locations, visitors will find a number of helpful research papers and related materials. The real treat here is the YaleGlobal Online Magazine, which contains compelling articles on the effects of globalization in Europe as well as special reports on the Avian flu and SARS.

Law 

ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
The study and practice of international law can be a tough area to get a handle on, and with numerous online resources available for both areas, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Since 1997, The American Society of International Law (ASIL) has been continuously updating and revising their Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law, under the able direction of Marci Hoffman and Jill Watson. Within each of its eight primary sections, users can read about various high-quality online resources for each topical area (such as international organizations and human rights), and then read brief summaries of what each online resource features in terms of its content and scope. As might be expected, the site also contains information on relevant and helpful weblogs that deal with international law.

Courts of New Zealand new website

Globalex: Hauser Global Law School Program [NYU]
Excellent collection of research guides on international and comparative law.  Includes 'South Pacific : Introduction to Researching South Pacific Law'.

Internet for lawyers - A free, "teach yourself" tutorial that lets you practise your Internet Information Skills. Includes key internet sites for lawyers, how to search the internet, and  what to trust on the internet.

Wex
"Wex is an ambitious effort to construct a collaboratively-created, public-access law dictionary and encyclopedia. It is sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute [LII] at the Cornell Law School." Searchable, or browsable by category. Contributors are evaluated by LII before being authorized to add material.

New Sites of Interest -  June / July

General

The Best of the Humanities on the Web
EDSITEment, The Best of the Humanities on the Web from the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Verizon Foundation. This educational partnership brings online humanities resources from some of the world's great museums, libraries, cultural institutions, and universities directly to your classroom.

British History Online
British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, we aim to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.

Foreign Correspondent - the online version

Information Literacy Website
This website has been designed and developed by information professionals from key UK organisations actively involved in the field of information literacy. The site will support practitioners by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely available toolkits. Their aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regularly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy.

The Free Expression Policy Project
Founded in 2000, The Free Expression Policy Project has been part of the NYU School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice for the past two years. During that time, the Project has continued to provide research reports and a host of other valuable insights on copyright, free speech, and media democracy issues. The site is fairly easy to navigate, as users can peruse some of the topical headings offered at the top of the homepage. These include areas that deal with media policy, violence in the media, art censorship, and censorship history. Users can also use tabs on the left side of the homepage to look over a number of fact sheets, commentaries, and court and agency briefs. Overall, the site contains a host of materials that will be quite helpful to both legal scholars and those with an interest in these weighty and important issues.

Information rights journal
From the Department of Constitutional Affairs [UK].  ”We have launched a new information rights journal to provide information rights practitioners with a round up of the latest developments in the information rights field. The journal will provide information on a wide range of issues across information rights as a whole, uniting freedom of information, data protection and the environmental information regulations.”

New Sites of Interest -  February, March 

General

Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise
[alt. cit. via USPNet - http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/sol%5Fadobe%5Fdocuments/usp%20only/ece/rand.pdf ]

"A significant amount of intellectual hand wringing has gone on as of late regarding the nature and importance of early childhood intervention programs. Some have claimed that such programs (including Head Start) are inherently a waste of money, while others tout their apparent ability to increase future educational and life opportunities, particularly for the under-privileged. This intriguing research report from the RAND Corporation, authored by Rebecca Kilburn and Jill Cannon, provides compelling evidence suggesting that well-designed programs for disadvantaged children age four and younger can produce economic benefits that are quite significant. The report contends that high quality early childhood programs can “keep children out of expensive special education programs; increase high school graduation rates; reduce juvenile crime, and increase the number of students who go on to college.” Stimulating in its approach and its scholarly rigor, this report will be quite useful and helpful to persons interested in such policy issues."

Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Education
This is an important resource that supports the sharing of current knowledge with educators, parents, and practitioners.

Global health facts
Data, by country, for "HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other key health and socio-economic indicators." Features tables, charts, and color-coded maps which "can be downloaded for custom analyses." GlobalHealthFacts.org is a companion site to GlobalHealthReporting.org, a project operated ... with major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Data is viewable by country or by topic. Also includes demographic information.

The Global language monitor
The Global Languge Monitor (GLM) documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.  Various themes, all to do with current usage of language (mostly English). Like "misguided criminals", BBC correct term for the July bombers (ie not "terrorist")

The Head Heeb
Musings about politics, religion, law, art and marriage - what else is there?" ... An interesting blog with a strong focus on contemporary political and legal issues  - including the South Pacific see  http://headheeb.blogmosis.com/archives/cat_pacific.html

Humanities Ejournals
There are a growing number of online, freely available, peer-reviewed electronic journals for a wide range of humanities subjects. This page brings together over 100 ejournals which have been catalogued by Humbul. Each journal makes all, or a substantial amount, of its content freely available.

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
“This wiki was created to be a one-stop-shop for great ideas for librarians. All over the world, librarians are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology that no one outside of their library knows about. There are lots of great blogs out there sharing information about the profession, but there is no one place where all of this information is collected and organized.”

Links to Selected Websites Related to the Pacific
Compiled and maintained by the Pacific collections librarian at the University of the South Pacific.  Includes the following sections:

POPACA [Producers Organization Project for the Associative Trading]
The POPACA is an Agricultural Development Project implemented by the Vanuatu Ministry of Agriculture.  POPACA’s aim is poverty alleviation and the improvement of rural livelihoods through increasing small scale producers ’ agricultural incomes.  Includes information about Vanuatu's agriculture sector and up to date newsletters on agricultural production and programmes in Vanuatu.

Public Library of Science
Public Library of Science (PLoS) , an open-access collection of scientific journals, is beginning to reach the same level of recognition as authoritative publications such as Nature and Science.

Vanuatu Cultural Centre
The new Vanuatu Cultural Centre website includes information about the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and current projects, news and forthcoming events.  Also includes a digital online art gallery of Vanuatu Arts.

Wikibooks
A collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit.

Wikinews
The free-content news source you can write.

Law 

American Tort Reform Association (ATRA)
ATRA is a national organization ("co-founded in 1986 by the American Medical Association and the American Consulting Engineers Counsel") that is "dedicated exclusively to reforming the civil justice system." The site provides publications and data on lawsuit abuse, a list of "judicial hellholes" ("places that have a disproportionately harmful impact on civil litigation"), and information about "looney lawsuits," state civil justice reform laws, and other tort reform topics see also the Frivolous" Lawsuits Resource Center - Discussions of "frivolous" lawsuits and the idea that special interest groups and media are claiming a marked increase in litigation from the 1980s to the present. Topics include "Rule 11" ("federal act specifically provides sanctions for attorneys who bring frivolous claims"), medical malpractice suits, the McDonald's "scalding coffee case," businesses suing businesses, and more.

Global Legal Information Network
The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English

Nouvelle-Caledonie Documentation Juridique
Full text access to the law that applies in New Caledonia. Includes full text access to the Codes, Le Journal Officiel NC and Les Debats du Congres. Work is proceeding on a full text archive of codes that applied in French territories dating back to 1980.

November, December, January 

General

In 1906, the first edition of The Chicago Manual of Style was published by the University of Chicago. Over the past one hundred years, the Manual has been revised and edited fourteen times, and is now in its fifteenth edition. On this site, visitors may register for free and gain access to the search tool for this latest edition. While this feature is certainly helpful, there are a number of equally useful aspects of the site. The first is the area that gives a number of examples of Chicago-style documentation, such as the humanities style and the well-known author-date system. Equally helpful is the "Q&A" section where the editors answer such timely questions as "If someone has a PhD and is a professor at a University, is their title Doctor or Professor?"

Digital Micronesia
"In-depth and authoritative information about the people, culture, environment, arts, history, health, politics, and the economy of Micronesia."   Includes some historical legislative and treaty documents.

Human Development Report 2005
The notion of human development is one that is quite old, even if it has not always gone by that name. The United Nations understands human development to be about “creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests”. In this way, of course, many ancient city-states and other such communities of shared interests have always been about creating such an environment. This latest report on the state of human development affords curious individuals an insight into the United Nations’ work in this area. It offers some insights into the nature of inequalities which affect the potentiality of human development schemes and also looks at other related processes such as the nature of international trade and violent conflict. The report is divided into five primary chapters, and is supplemented by a list of human development indicators and a bibliography. The site also contains an animated file that offers a visualization of the trend of human development. see human development indicators for Vanuatu.

Oceanic anthropology: a list of useful sites / compiled by Susanne Kühling

Tidal Pools: Digitized Texts from Oceania for Samoan and Pacific Studies
Provides 0nline access to some useful resources on Pacific islands history, language, culture and politics.

World Malaria Report 2005
The persistence of malaria in much of the developing world remains a public health problem of staggering proportions. Most people may be familiar with the problem of malaria throughout much of Africa, but over the past decade, incidences of the disease increased in Southeast Asia and a number of Central Asian countries. Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO), with assistance from several other international humanitarian organizations, released the World Malaria Report 2005. This site provides access to the complete text of the report, along with a number of other helpful features. These features include brief executive summaries of the report's findings (in English, French, and Spanish), profiles of the state of malaria in each country, and copious amounts of data. see country report for Vanuatu.

Young Children: Journal of the National Association of the Education of Young Children
Print and online resources for exploring early childhood education from around the globe.  "Young Children is an award winning peer reviewed journal published bi-monthly by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. YC issues are organized around topical clusters that devote special attention to issues in the field of early childhood education. The practitioner based nature of YC makes is unique among journals and its award winning status testifies to its excellence."

Law 

Commonwealth Legal Information Institute (CommonLII)
Like other LIIs, CommonLII is free access and non-profit.  CommonLII already allows browsing and searching of 464 databases from 50 Commonwealth and common law countries and territories. Most of these databases are located on existing LIIs in Commonwealth countries but CommonLII contains 44 databases from 28 additional countries. More databases are under development. There is a Catalog of law websites for all Commonwealth countries. Database lists, a brochure and user guide are on the site.  Notable database collections on CommonLII include those from India (very extensive), from Singapore and Malaysia, from most Caribbean countries, and from ten African countries. It is also possible to search Commonwealth-wide legislation (from 30 countries), or case law or law reform.

Current Law Journal Content
The CLJC covers 1109 law journals (including many from Australia and New Zealand). Scanned copies of journal contents pages are supplied by the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library (685), W&L (79), other libraries (22), and additional contents pages are received electronically at W&L via e-mail, web-sites, or RSS feeds.

EISIL - Electronic Information System for International Law
Developed by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) , EISIL is a searchable gateway to the highest quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet. To this end, EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law, which until now have been scattered in libraries, archives and specialized web sites.

E-Journal of Tax Research (AustLII)
The eJournal of Tax Research is a double blind, peer review refereed journal that publishes original, scholarly works on all aspects of taxation. It is normally published twice a year by Atax within the Faculty of Law of the University of NSW. Thematic editions covering topical issues will also be published on a one-off basis.

European Union Legal Materials: An Infrequent User's Guide  / By Duncan E. Alford

Foreign Law Translations [from the Institute for Transnational Law]
Foreign Law Translations is a collection of nearly 1,000 translated judicial decisions and statutes. It is a unique resource for comparative law research. France and Germany are particularly well represented. The fields of constitutional law, administrative law, tort law, contract law, and restitution are covered. Austria, Israel, and Italy are also represented in the collection.

Human Rights and Democracy Movement in Tonga
Full text articles, commentary and analysis.  Includes full text of the Basic Proposal for an Alternative Structure of Government for Tonga (Draft 4).

The Index to Common Law Festschriften
This is the first index of contributions to common law Festschriften and fills a serious bibliographic gap in the literature of the common law.  There are some 270 common law Festschriften indexed on this database, amounting to over 4,500 chapter entries. In addition, there are more than a thousand entries of English language contributions to predominantly foreign language, non-common law Festschriften from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. "

Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies
New website for IJALS detailing the history, staff and current programmes of the Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies

International Center for Civil Society Law
International Journal of the Center for Civil Society Law (IJCSL) see also Newsletter

"An Introduction to New Zealand Law & Sources of Legal Information" / by Margaret Greville (updated August 2005)

The Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law
This online journal "is an interdisciplinary forum dedicated to examining issues in the intersection of applied philosophy, science, and the law."

Peace Palace Library
A treasure trove for international law researchers. 

University of New England Law Journal (AustLII)
The University of New England Law Journal was established in 2004 as a legal periodical publishing scholarly articles, case notes and book reviews of interest to practitioners, academic lawyers and students of law. The journal is generalist in outlook and publishes on a wide variety of doctrinal, socio-legal, historical and theoretical perspectives of the law from both Australian and international authors. The journal is published twice a year, in June and December.

World Justice Information Network
The WJIN is a participant-driven news and research network on international justice. WJIN is more than just a document repository. Via a system of interconnected web-logs (blogs), WJIN members can create and interact with valuable content, contribute original research, create photo-essays, report related news, and participate in ongoing research collaborations.

September / October 2005

General

Australian Library and Information Association(ALIA) : Asia Pacific Special Interest Group
ALIA Asia Pacific Special Interest Group is a national group that aims to lead efforts in identifying new sources of support for the development between information professionals in the region, through two-way co-operation.  Publishes a Newsletter three times per year giving details of new developments and initiatives in libraries in the Asia and the South Pacific.

British library Direct
British Library Direct is a multi-disciplinary database containing 20,000 journals held by the British Library and focuses predominantly on the subjects of science, technology and medicine.  Useful database for identifying articles however access to the full text of articles is not free.

Google Earth
Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Te Papa's key tasks are to preserve and present the taonga (treasures) of New Zealand's peoples and to interpret the country's heritage for national and international audiences.  Includes materials on Pacific cultures

Pacific Economic Bulletin
Volumes 1-19 (1986-2004) of the PEB are now available in full text on the Emalus library's digital archive.  All articles in the PEB can be keyword searched via the Emalus Campus library's online search facility [Emalus Campus only].  An excellent resource.

Physics.org
Information for children and adults about physics. The site features a database of refereed physics websites that are searchable by "natural language query software (EasyAsk)" and that are ranked by age and level of physics knowledge. The site also provides interactive features about the history of physics and physicists and about physics in everyday life. From the Institute of Physics, an "international professional body and learned society."

Smithsonian: Spotlight on Science
This weekly newsletter from the Smithsonian Institution provides information about the "latest cutting-edge research by Smithsonian Scientists." Topics include space travel, astronomy, "bar coding" gene sequences, and biodiversity. Each issue also includes a bibliography with links to selected material. Newsletters date back to 2003.

Speigel International
English version of the prominent German magazine.

Law 

Association of Pacific Island Legislatures
APIL, formed in 1981, is comprised of legislative representatives from 12 island governments. These are: American Samoa Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Island of Guam FSM State of Chuuk FSM State of Kosrae FSM State of Pohnpei FSM State of Yap Republican of the Marshall Islands Republic of Palau State of Hawaii Republic of Nauru Republic of Kiribati APIL is a regional organization committed to working together on matters of mutual concern and interest. APIL meet regularly to consider matters in areas where regional cooperation, coordination, exchange and assistance may help governments achieve their goals through collective action.

Australian Journal of Legal History (AustLII)
Contains the full text of the Macquarie University Australian Journal of Legal History from 2003.

Australasian Law Journals Project (AustLII)
The Australasian Law Journals Project aims to provide a comprehensive search facility for all academic law journals in Australia and New Zealand. Currently, the search facility allows searches over 21 law journals.

EU Law
The number of websites containing information on EU law / EU policies appears to grow daily and it is a virtually impossible task to provide a comprehensive list. This directory of online resources  provide a good starting point for further study and research.

German Law Journal
Review of developments in German, European and international jurisprudence.  Articles in English.  Fulltext and freely available. 

Guam Bar Association

GuamJustice.net
Network of Guam statutory  bodies including the Attorney-General and Superior and Supreme Courts.

Hauser Global Law School Programme
Site includes full text access to articles and working papers in human rights, international and comparative law.  The site also includes Globalex - a collection of articles on international, comparative, and foreign law research including An Introduction to New Zealand Law & Sources of Legal Information ; French Law on the Internet - The Basics and Free Resources ; Researching French Law.

International Law Commission
Includes full text access to international law conventions, texts, Commission reports and other documentation.

JurisPacific [Guam]
JurisPacific was developed to enable legal professionals to conduct research on Guam case law with ease.
 

Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental Law  (AustLII)
Contains the full text of the Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental Law since its inception in 2004.

NatLex [International Labour Organsiation]
Database of national laws on labour, social security and related human rights. Links to full text legislation. Detailed entries for the following countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

New Zealand Law Commission
New website from the New Zealand Law Commission.  The new NZLC site provides more information on projects and you can now subscribe to email updates that will advise you when a new publication or press release is added to the site.  Includes details of the NZLC project examining Custom and Human Rights in the Pacific.

NZLII Copyright Tribunal of New Zealand Decisions (NZLII)
This database contains selected decisions of the Copyright Tribunal of New Zealand.

PACLII Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea
This database contains decisions from the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court from 1976.

Papua New Guinea Law Reports
This database contains decisions from the Papua New Guinea Law Reports from 1963 to 1996.

Papua New Guinea District Court (PacLII)
This database contains decisions from the Papua New Guinea District Court from 1995 to 2001.

Supreme Court of Guam Compiler of Laws
The Compiler of Laws is responsible for officially publishing the Session Laws of the Guam Legislature, the Guam Code Annotated and updates thereto, the Guam Administrative Rules and Regulations, Supreme Court of Guam Opinions, Executive Orders and Attorney General Opinions.

New Sites of Interest - July / August 

General

Credo - Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania
CREDO is a cross-disciplinary research laboratory in socio-cultural anthropology, history and archaeology.

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems
A multidisciplinary encyclopedia incorporating 16 separate encyclopedias (over 200 volumes) examining natural environmental systems as well as ancillary social systems required to foster societal harmony, safety, nutrition, medical care, economic standards, and the development of new technology.  Excellent online resource for science students, environmental and international law, and linguistics.  *Emalus Campus Library subscription.

Furtherarts.org - furthering Vanuatu music, dance and culture
A new Website to facilitate online shopping for Vanuatu Music and Cultural Products

France in America: La France en Amerique
This "English-French digital library ... tells the story of the French presence in North America and the interactions between the French and American peoples from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries." Features access to thousands of documents and interpretive texts, which are searchable, or browsable by theme such as exploration and Franco-Indian alliances. Also includes a chronology and maps. A joint project of the Library of Congress and the National Library of France.

Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing
The "information collected on a large number of endangered languages in all parts of the world is now available online starting with the map of the African continent." Includes information about endangered, moribund, and extinct languages. Browsable by language or location. Includes link to the 2003 "Language Vitality and Endangerment Paper." From United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Matangi Tonga Magazine
Tongan news.  Includes coverage of Court cases and parliamentary proceedings.

Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area
Includes information about Nguna (Vanuatu), photographs and travel essays.

Pacific Aids Foundation
"The Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation (PIAF) is the first and sole regional non-governmental organisation focusing exclusively on HIV/AIDS in the Pacific Islands."

Schema-root.org
A cross-referenced encyclopedia of current events, with news feeds and research links.

Solomon Star [newspaper]
Solomon Islands newspaper.

Vanuatu's colonial past
an archive of newspaper clippings from 1883 to independence.

Volcano World
Features current volcano activity around the world, specific volcanoes, and volcanic parks. Features interviews with famous volcanologists and volcano video clips, as well as a section for children that includes learning games, school project ideas, and instructions for making a volcano. Searchable, and browsable by world region, country or area, or volcano name. From the University of North Dakota. see Vanuatu volcanoes

Wan Smolbag Theatre
"Working with communities through drama to provide a greater understanding of development issues in the South Pacific".

'Webby' Awards winners 2005
The best of the net.

Law 

CIMEL and INTERIGHTS: "Honour" Crimes Project
This project "focuses on forced marriage along with other manifestations of 'honour' crimes such as 'honour' killings." The site features articles, a directory of initiatives to address honor crimes throughout the world, a bibliography, and links to related sites. From the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Laws (CIMEL) at London University and the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (INTERIGHTS).

Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights
Includes links to the workings of the Committee, full text documents and the status of national ratifications of the Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Department of Land Affairs [South Africa]
Official information about the programs in South Africa "to provide access to land and to extend rights in land, with particular emphasis on the previously disadvantaged communities, within a well-planned environment." The site features information about legislation and policies, publications, and an overview of land reform programs of restitution, redistribution, and land tenure. Also includes a glossary and links to related sites. Searchable.

Fiji Law Society
Includes full text of the FLS monthly newsletter and information about the activities of the Fiji Young Lawyers Association.

Inquiry to Review New Zealand Constitutional Arrangements
Includes the committee's draft papers on the history and status of what makes up New Zealand's constitutional arrangements, what other countries' constitutions look like and how other countries went about changing their constitutions.

Legal Theory Blog
Legal Theory Blog comments and reports on recent scholarship in jurisprudence, law and philosophy, law and economic theory, and theoretical work in substantive areas, such as constitutional law, cyberlaw, procedure, criminal law, intellectual property, torts, contracts, etc.

Movement towards independence in the South Pacific
A digital archive of legislation, orders, Treaties, and related documents.

Offshore Oasis
A gateway to information about offshore banking facilities.  Includes access to many articles about offshore banking.

Reference Guide to the Geneva Conventions
Includes history, guides, online and offline resources, an index to the conventions, the full text of the conventions, and text and information about other treaties. From the Society of Professional Journalists.

Reform: the journal of the Australian Law Reform Commission
As part of a series of events this week to mark its 30th anniversary, the Australian Law Reform Commission is pleased to announce that past issues of its journal Reform will now be freely available online.  The ALRC will be providing full text of articles published in previous issues as part of its commitment to providing community education and information on law reform issues.  Reform seeks to provide a forum to engage a broad cross-section of the community in constructive, high-quality debate on issues of national and international law reform.

South Pacific Civil Society Library
A collection of documents and resources promoting an enabling environment for civil society and public participation in the South Pacific.

UN Pulse
The Dag Hammarskjold Library of the United Nations has launched a new web blog, UN Pulse, an alert to just-released UN online information, major reports, publications and documents.

Vanuatu Maritime Services
Includes maritime law relevant to Vanuatu including the full text of the Maritime Act and Regulations.

New Sites of Interest - May / June 

General

British Library Images Online
The British Library is the United Kingdom's national library and one of the largest libraries in the world. The site provides "thousands of the greatest images from the British Library's collections, which include manuscripts, rare books and maps spanning almost 3000 years with material from every continent." Searchable, or browse by subject or title.  *Included in the collection is The Landing at Erramanga [Eromanga], 4 August 1774, during.Captain Cook's Second Voyage, 1772-1775.

Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies
The CPAS aims to advance basic and applied research in the region .
The Centre publishes a newsletter entitled Oceania Newsletter. This newsletter includes progress reports on research projects of members and affiliated members of the CPAS as well as short articles on topical issues concerning the Pacific. It also contains announcements of workshops, seminars, conferences and exhibitions on the Pacific, and a list of recent publications on Oceania

Healthopedia
A health encyclopedia.  "Healthopedia.com's mission is to be the Internet’s most trusted and extensive information resource for health and medical content. We will achieve this aim by presenting objective, comprehensive, up-to-date health information in a clear and concise format for consumers and health professionals alike."

In Depth: Pope Benedict XVI
Profile of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, who was chosen on April 19, 2005, to succeed Pope John Paul II. He will be known as Benedict XVI. Also includes related news stories, the English text of his first speech as pope, background and analysis, an explanation of relativism, images, and video and audio clips. From the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Incredible blogs
This well-written review site for blogs is useful for discovering excellent blogs on a wide range of subjects.  Updated daily; free subscription available.

Newspad Pacific Info
Available in English and French, this new Pacific news website has a strong focus on French Polynesia and New Caledonia.

Pope John Paul II: Theological Obituary
An overview of Pope John Paul II's attitudes and opinions on various spiritual and moral issues, such as liberation theology, reconciliation with the Jews, euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment, abortion, women in the church, and right to life. From the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

South Pacific Stock Exchange
The South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE), formerly the Suva Stock Exchange, is currently the only licensed securities exchange in the Fiji Islands.  In November 2000, the Stock Exchange officially changed its name to the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE). The change is in line with the SPSE's vision of being a regional exchange.  Site includes Stock Exchange Listing Rules and announcements.

Subject Finder
Subject Finder is developed by Ethiopian Treasures to help students, teachers and lecturers find educational websites easily without being overwhelmed with a large number of search results. It is designed to search only educational websites which contain tutorials, learning and teaching materials such as Accounting, Arts and Design, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Computing, Construction, Counselling, Economics, Electronics, Engineering, Geography, Health, History, Law, Languages, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Reference, Science, Social Science, Sociology, Travel, etc.

Law 

Commonwealth Legal Education Association
The CLEA aims to foster high standards of legal education and research in Commonwealth countries; to build up contacts between interested individuals and organisations, and to disseminate information and literature concerning legal education and research.

Constitutional Court of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa announces the launch of its new website. The launch coincides with the tenth anniversary of its establishment on 14th February 1995. This national and international legal information resource is intended to be a focal point for legal research in the fields of Constitutional, Public and International and Human Rights Law.

Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN.

Human Security Centre
Unlike traditional concepts of security, which focus on defending borders from external military threats, human security is concerned with the security of individuals and focussing on protecting individuals and communities from violence.  The Human Security Gateway is a rapidly expanding searchable online database of human security-related resources including reports, journal articles, news items and fact sheets

Pacific Law Blog
The Pacific Law Blog , maintained by the law librarian at the University of the South Pacific, will include the latest books on Pacific law received in the library, the most recent legislation received and the latest articles added to the Pacific Law Journal Index.  The weblog will also include links to media items relating to Pacific law drawn from Pacific Islands Report and PINA in addition to linking to the latest developments on PacLII.

PLN Banknote
The financial services industry newsletter from the Pacific Legal Network.  Discussion of current legal issues in the South Pacific.

New Sites of Interest - March / April 

General

The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
"Through interlinking text and image trails, the Encyclopedia takes you on a journey of discovery. Beginning with the theme of Peoples, it will eventually present a comprehensive guide to New Zealand – its natural environment, history, culture, economics and government."

Fiji Museum
The aim of this website is to encourage the understanding and accessibility of information on the history of Fiji and the surrounding South Pacific region.

The Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Resource for graduate students who are writing theses or dissertations.

National Integrity Studies of Pacific Island Countries (NISPAC)
As a part of Transparency International’s worldwide NIS project, TI Australia in collaboration with the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University (ANU) has carried out a further 12 National Integrity studies of Pacific Island Countries. The National Integrity Studies country surveys provide a standardized way of assessing anti corruption activity in particular countries.  The 12 individual country studies released during 2004 were Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu .

Online Etymology Dictionary
The basic sources of this work are Weekley's "An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English," Klein's "A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language," "Oxford English Dictionary" (second edition), "Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology," Kluge's "Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Englischen Sprache," Ayto's "20th Century Words," and Chapman's "Dictionary of American Slang."

Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC)
 The mission of the PCRC is "to coordinate, articulate and disseminate information about the concerns and struggles of peoples of the Pacific in their desire to exist free from exploitation, from the threat of environmental degradation and from both foreign and internal forms of subjugation."  Includes access to full text resources in the following areas: Demilitarisation, ,    • Decolonisation     • Environment     • Sustainable Human  Development     • Human Rights & Good       Governance

Law 

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Text of this declaration that went into effect in 1987. Also includes an alphabetic list of ratifying nations, declarations and reservations, and information about the Committee against Torture, which was established to monitor the convention's implementation. (From the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.)

ELSA Selected Papers on European Law
A compilation of legal papers in the field of Private and Public European Law

FSM Legal Information System website (UPDATE)
Proposed constitutional amendments and other material from the 3rd Chuuk Constitutional Convention on the The Legal Information System (LIS) of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) website announces the addition of constitutional amendment proposals, committee reports, and journals of the 3rd Chuuk State Constitutional Convention on its website. The FSM LIS website can be accessed at http://www.fsmlaw.org/. Users can access the Constitutional Convention documents by clicking on the Chuuk State directory http://www.fsmlaw/Chuuk/index.htm. The fourteen constitutional amendment proposals, accompanying standing and style & arrangement committee reports, and the daily journals of the convention can be accessed from the Chuuk Constitution link at http://www.fsmlaw/Chuuk/constitution/index.htm. The Chuuk Constitution is also available on that page and can be accessed by article or as a whole.

JURIBURKINA
Legal portal developed by LexUM (University of Montreal) in collaboration with Ordre des Avocats du Burkina, Secretariat General du Gouvernement and ZCP informatique. Provides full text access to decisions of Burkina Faso including the Conseil Constitutionnel, Conseil d'Etat, Cour de Cassation and Tribunal du Travail. Available only in French.

Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal (LGD) 
An electronic law journal covering a range of topics relating to legal issues surrounding the impact of globalisation on social development.

Law Via the Internet 2004
The 6th International Law via the Internet Conference was held in Paris on 3-5 November 2004. The conference proceedings are now available.

New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII)
The New Zealand Information Institute (NZLII) is a prototype system developed by the University of Otago Faculty of Law, the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law and AustLII. It currently contains decisions from the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, New Zealand Commerce Commission, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Review Tribunal of New Zealand, publications of the New Zealand Law Commission, the Otago Law Review and the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review.

Official Document System of the United Nations
The United Nations has announced the availability of its Official  Document System (ODS), the premier full-text web resource  for official United Nations documentation, to the general public via http://documents.un.org, as of 31 December 2004. The ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation originating from duty stations worldwide, including selective documents of the regional  commissions: Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia  (ESCWA), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

Comprehensive coverage starts in 1993. Older United Nations documents are added to the system on a daily basis. Selective coverage of General Assembly and Security Council documentation currently reaches back to 1985.  The ODS also provides access to the  resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.

Currently, the ODS contains close to 800,000 files and approximately 100,000 new documents are added each year.

Pacific Islands Treaty Series (PITS)
The Pacific Islands Treaty Series focuses on publishing, in both French and English, the bilateral and multilateral treaties and Conventions that 21 Pacific Island states have entered into, in a wide-range of categories. The project also identifies the ratification (domesticating) legislation passed by those countries. 

The agreements (treaties) contained on the website include, amongst others, environmental treaties, fisheries agreement, human rights, peacekeeping treaties and the international Conventions these Pacific Island states have entered into.
 

The Pacific Islands Treaty Series displays the international rights and obligations of the Pacific Island states from the late 19^th century to date, thus showing the evolving priorities and commitments at international level of each Pacific Island state.

New Sites of Interest - December / January 

General

Education Resources Information Center: ERIC

The new site provides users with increased search capabilities utilizing simple, streamlined retrieval methods to access the existing ERIC bibliographic database (1966-2004). For example, users are now able to quickly refine search results through the use of keywords, publication date, publication type, or the ERIC thesaurus. Effective October 1, more than 107,000 full-text non-journal documents (issued 1993-2004), previously available through fee-based services only, will be available for free.  In addition, the Web site provides users with the capability to save and rerun searches using the My ERIC personalization feature.

Google Scholar
Google has released a new search site  called Google Scholar that lets you search "specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research."

Google Scholar also introduces a new query modifier:

author:authorname

How do you use the new author: query modifier? Well, here are three examples of it in work:

author:stack "The effect of country music on suicide"

author:Balasubramaniam "Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping"

author:crispen "Social stress in pregnant squirrel monkeys"

With the advent of Google Scholar it becomes possible to see what resources have been mounted and made available on servers local to your own [or any other] institution.  Try using the standard Google command to limit searches to your site and you can, in Google Scholar, see what papers, chapters, reports etc are being stored on servers across your Uni.Try this search in the Scholar search box [you don't have to use any keywords, just the command]: site:your_uni.edu.au [or just site:edu.au or site:edu or whatever you fancy] and you come up, with hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of 'resources' of various kinds on servers around your Uni. On looking at ours [briefly], most seem to be copies of papers put there by the authors of the papers and are, presumably, legit. However, one doesn't know that they are all legit. Either way, if we can do this kind of search, so can the publishers, so the advent of Google Scholar may mean that we have to be more careful about being seen to comply, since what we are doing actually CAN be seen. *You can search for specific file types at specific sites as well. Thus, searching for PDFs could be done this way: filetype:pdf site:your_uni.edu.au .

Google Zeitgeist
Track "search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google." Features top popular searches in general, as well as in categories such as celebrities, musicians, seasonal topics, and more. Includes archived weekly and monthly search reports back to 2001 and query information for various countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Brazil, Australia, and Japan.

Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC)
The mission of the PCRC is "to coordinate, articulate and disseminate information about the concerns and struggles of peoples of the Pacific in their desire to exist free from exploitation, from the threat of environmental degradation and from both foreign and internal forms of subjugation."  Includes access to full text resources in the following areas: Demilitarisation, ,    • Decolonisation     • Environment     • Sustainable Human  Development     • Human Rights & Good       Governance

Pacific Regional Information System (PRISM)
Developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, PRISM is a regioanl clearinghouse for socio-economic statistical information on the countries of the South Pacific. 

Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.  Site includes full text access to its own online journals: PLoS Biology & PLoS Medicine

USP Regional Knowledgebase
"The University of the South Pacific is frequently asked for information concerning the region. Due to the vast geographic distances between our Island Nations and our different levels of socio-economic development, information gathering for research and other purposes can become a daunting exercise. This knowledgebase is an attempt to rectify this difficulty and to make your information gathering a more meaningful and successful experience".

Vanuatu.
Socio-economic statistics available from the Pacific Regional Information System (PRISM).

Law 

Government of Papua New Guinea Law and Justice Sector website
The Law and Justice Sector website has been developed to provide easy access to information and services provided by the agencies and partners within the sector. The sector strategy focuses on the implementation of positive change associated with the many aspects of law and justice within PNG.

Papua New Guinea Judiciary Website
Official website of the Supreme and National Courts of Papua New Guinea.  Includes information on Court services, procedures and practices .

PLN BankNote
Financial services publication from the Pacific Legal Network.

Practice Source
Snappy new Australian law portal.  Includes the latest law news plus access to a range of useful resources.

Tokelau Council of Ongoing Government
Official site of the Tokelau Council of Ongoing Government. Includes full text materials on the government structure of Tokelau and Tokelau's constitutional relationship with New Zealand .  Also includes full text access to legislation of Tokelau.

New Sites of Interest - October / November

General

Campaign 2004 News
"Use the unique capabilities of LexisNexis ... to get the latest updates on Election 2004 candidates and issues surrounding the 2004 presidential election." Includes links to stories about George W. Bush and John Kerry, speeches and quotes, poll results, television transcripts, and related information.

Nationmaster country profile - Vanuatu

South Seas
South Seas is an online reference guide to Captain James Cook's momentous first Pacific voyage of discovery (1768-1771). As well as providing the full text of Cook's journal and other important contemporary accounts of the voyage, it brings together and establishes relationships between information from many sources and in different forms (for instance, text, maps, and pictures) so that Cook's voyage can be understood within the context of 18th-century Pacific exploration and cross-cultural encounters.

World Economic Outlook Reports
These reports, issued twice a year, examine recent world economic developments and future prospects. Includes links to searchable databases aggregating data used for the reports; search or browse by country, scope by market or economy, and more. From the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Law

E-Journals and Journals on the Web Relating to the Field of Law
A large and up-to-date list of online journals compiled by the Staff of the Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford Law School for the Association of American Law Schools and the AALS Committee on Libraries and Technology.

Fiji Human Rights Commission Digest

The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center War Crimes Research
Portal
This site features "over a thousand links to websites related to international humanitarian law." It also contain the text of research memoranda on issues pending before the International Criminal Tribunal and the International Criminal Court, a research guide, articles by members of the American Branch of the International Association of Penal Law, and a bibliography. Links and memoranda are searchable. From the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Government of Papua New Guinea Law and Justice Sector website
The Law and Justice Sector website has been developed to provide easy access to information and services provided by the agencies and partners within the sector. The sector strategy focuses on the implementation of positive change associated with the many aspects of law and justice within PNG.

Introduction to the legal structure of Tokelau
A collection of primary materials, commentary, and online materials compiled by Peter Murgatroyd, Law Librarian, at the Emalus Campus Library.

New Sites of Interest - August / September 

General

Avoiding plagiarism
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers this page on how students can avoid plagiarism. Provides a brief overview of contradictions in academic writing, actions that might be seen as plagiarism, and guidelines for researching, quoting, paraphrasing, and deciding if something is common knowledge. Includes exercises and a brief bibliography.

CareerNET
Fiji’s very first on-line job searching website.  CareerNET is focussed on school leavers, final year tertiary students, belated entrants into the work force and laid-off workers seeking re-employment.

Early Childhood News

ECRP Early Childhood Education and Practice

Ecole Francais [Vanuatu]
The website of Ecole Francais includes  interesting materials on Vanuatu's history, culture and geography.

Environment Vanuatu
Official site of the Vanuatu Environment Unit.  The Environment Unit is the government agency responsible for providing technical advice on environmental matters to the government and peoples of Vanuatu.  Includes full text access to  a wide range of documents including legislation.

Least developed country report
The reports in this series on LDCs (least developed countries) discuss economic development and poverty reduction in these countries, providing statistical tables and demographic information. Each report has a specific emphasis, such as the relationship between international trade and poverty, debt, agricultural productivity, and deficiencies in infrastructures; reports are provided back to 1996. From the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Managing references
This page aims to give general guidance to users about references and bibliographies.

The Olympic Games
Librarians' Index to the Internet is pleased to present a new LII Theme Collection, The Olympic Games. Visit games and Olympians of past, present, and future; explore Athens, the home of the 2004 games; learn about the many different competitions; browse sites related to mascots, collectibles, doping, and security; learn about the Olympic Truce; or just look up a quick fact.

Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration
"Distance learning continues to grow in a number of guises, from asynchronous online learning to various satellite and television linkups between disparate locales and in some cases, different hemispheres. Therefore it is not so surprising that an online journal would come into being that addresses the various aspects of administering different distance learning programs".

Resources for Open University TEachers and Students.
ROUTES is a Library service providing access to selected quality-assessed Internet resources for Open University courses. Resources are selected by course teams and the Library's Information Specialists.

Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
Resource base for information and exchange of ideas about what is happening in languages, linguistics and area studies.

Texas Information Literacy Tutorial
Designed to introduce first-year students to research sources and skills.

UTNE magazine
UTNE MAGAZINE reprints the best articles from over 2,000 alternative media sources bringing you the latest ideas and trends emerging in our culture... Provocative writing from diverse perspectives. Of interest is 'The Loose Cannon '  - described as a smorgasbord of books, movies, plays, television shows, and works of music that broaden,deepen, or define the experience of being alive - 150 great works to set your imagination on fire!

Law 

UK Centre for Legal Education
The UK Centre for Legal Education (UKCLE) supports best practice in learning, teaching and assessment in law.

Web Journal of Current Legal Issues

The World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems
This factbook provides narrative descriptions of the criminal justice systems of 45 countries around the world.

New Sites of interest - June / July

General

Academic Index
“Accessing tens of thousands of academic reference and research sites recommended by teachers and librarians”

Fijian Studies - a Journal of Contemporary Fiji
The first-ever academic journal devoted exclusively to the study of Fiji.  Although the journal
will be available in future only by subscription, the first two issues are freely available from the site.

The Head Heeb
Interesting commentary on contemporary political events in the Pacific.

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Math Goodies
Math Goodies is a free math help site featuring interactive lessons, homework help, worksheets and forums.

Selected winners of this years 'Webby' awards -- see also full list of winners

Law 

Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Part of the The Internet Medieval Sourcebook the Medieval Legal History provides a fascinating insight into legal matters medieval. Law codes, Roman law and marriage, "Sale of Daughter as a Concubine", and much much more.

Mediate.com [US]
Mediate.com is an extensive resource for alternative dispute resolution (ADR).Resources include news feed, e-mail newsletter, training and conference events, and a public message board. Free access is avaliable to over 1000 articles and resources and are both searchable and arranged by topic.

New Zealand Supreme Court website
Includes access to case summaries and also the full text of the judgments of the Supreme Court.

New Sites of Interest - April / May 

General

Bartleby.com
Outstanding free collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries and reference sources.  Highly recommended.

Blue Oceans
A coolly eclectic site from our very own Peter Forster and  Marijke Wilhelmus.

Celanen: A Journal of Indigenous Governance [Canada]

Citation Style Guides
This site is a convenient reference tool for students who need to write bibliographies using specific citation styles. Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago (Turabian), American Psychological Association (APA), and American Anthropological Association (AAA) styles are featured.

Connections: the newsletter of the Commonwealth of Learning

The Fiji Times

Hawaiian Electronic Library
"The word is out on Ulukau, an online digital library that's placing Hawaiian vocabulary, and some literature, a click away from the world. The Bible, two Hawaiian-English dictionaries, a journal of archival Hawaiian texts, a collection of Hawaiian-language newspapers and a book about Kamehameha are posted at Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Library (http://ulukau.olelo.hawaii.edu/english.php). Its developers say there's more to come."

Papuaweb
A research network that covers the two universities in West Papua as well as other teaching colleges and has information and articles of relevance to PNG and the region.

Special Edition on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
The Journal of Religion & Society presents a dozen articles from a January 2004 symposium that "explored some of the issues surrounding Mel Gibson's ... movie dramatizing the passion of Christ." Also includes "A Viewer's Guide to Contemporary Passion Plays," which provides background material and contemporary interpretations.

Vivisimo search engine
The best new search engine on the web.  'Clustering' of web results by topic helps reduce information overload.

Law 

American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO!)
This site aims to provide "a comprehensive, uniform, and useful compilation of links to freely accessible on-line sources of law for the United States and Canada."

Around the Courts this week - Port Vila Presse
Roundup of judicial and legal proceedings in Vanuatu.  Updated irregularly. 

EUR-Lex: The Portal to European Union Law 
The EUR-Lex website is in fact the "single entry point to the complete collections of EU legal texts in all the official languages." The homepage for the site contains several helpful thematic collections of documents (in a variety of file formats for convenience), such as case-law, parliamentary questions, treaties, and several other categories.

Parliament of Samoa - Legislations
Full text of legislation in Samoan is free.  English versions can be ordered from the site.  Includes current lists of legislation arranged alphabetically and by year.

Swarb.co.uk
An excellent free resource for UK case law online.

UN Web Search
Designed to give an overview of the UN website and to demonstrate effective search methods in selected databases. The training guide covers the major areas of UN activity, explores the wealth of information available in the Research Guide (http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/) and includes search techniques for the following databases: Human Rights, ReliefWeb, UN Treaty Collection and Press Releases.

World Justice Information Network - criminal justice news worldwide

New Sites of Interest - February / March 

General

 AgNIC Traditional Pacific Island Crops Web site

New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) - Samoan and Pacific texts
Texts to be made available on the NZETC website include: Pratt's Samoan dictionary, Dr. Semisi Ma'ia'i's Samoan translation of Turner's Samoa A Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, S. Percy Smith's Niu-fekai (or Savage) Island and its people, Professor Albert Wendt's 1965 Victoria University MA thesis on the Mau movement, and 1957 VUW alumnus Professor Ron Crocombe's ANU thesis on land tenure in the Cook Islands.

Pacific Updates
Latest online papers from ANU's Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government.

Research 101
This resource is "an interactive online tutorial for students wanting an introduction to research skills. The tutorial covers the basics, including how to select a topic and develop research questions, as well as how to select, search for, find, and evaluate information sources."

Vanuatu Weekly Hebdomadaire index 1989-2001
An index compiled by the Emalus Campus library to the Vanuatu Weekly Hebdomadaire from 1989 - 2001.  Searchable by keyword and browsable by month and year.  Headlines in English, French and Bislama as published.

'Working papers in Linguistics'
From the University of Hawaii.

Law 

Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism Newsletter

Mental Health Lawyers Alliance
Mental health law and health policy website .  Includes some full text articles , chapters and reports.

Online Courts for Kids: Learning About Law on the World Wide Web
A set of links intended to teach children about the creation and enforcement of laws in the United States and around the world. Includes annotated links to information on important legal documents, streaming media from courtrooms, children's pages from various court sites, and Spanish language legal sites. From the Washington State Department of Information Services.

Scottish Council of Law Reporting
Includes full text of session cases, useful resource links, and comprehensive collections of full text documents relating to landmark Scottish decisions such as Donoghue v Stevenson.

New Sites of Interest - December / January 

General

Babel Fish Translation
Online free tool for translating languages.  Can be used to translate from webpages from English to French and vice versa.  Not perfect but useful.

Blogwise
Blogwise is a new site bringing you a collection of categorised blogs from around the world.

BlogRunner
BLOGRUNNER is a portal for blog content. The site features an index of weblog entries from across the web. These entries are grouped together according to interest topics and news stories. BLOGRUNNER makes it easier to track stories and conversation threads that develop across blogspace. BLOGRUNNER also highlights the interdependency of mainstream media with the blogosphere by closely integrating weblog entries with the stories they track from traditional media.

British Pathe Collection
A collection of more than 12 million historic photographs, capturing scenes from the Boer War to the D-Day landings, has been published on the internet.
The images, which date back to the turn of the 20th century, have been captured from the archives of the British Pathe newsreel, a cinema news service that pre-dated television.

Census of Marine Life
This is "a growing global network of researchers in more than 45 nations engaged in a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans -- past, present, and future." The site presents descriptions of and links to the network's projects, such as "Natural Geography in Shore Areas" and the "History of Marine Animal Populations." Available in several languages, including German, Japanese, and Spanish. Searchable.

IDEAS
A bibliographic database dedicated to Economics. Over 200,000 items of research can be browsed or searched, and over 100,000 can be downloaded in full text. IDEAS uses the RePEc database. RePEc stands for "Research Papers in Economics" and is an internal name for a group working on the provision of electronic working papers.

International Action Network on Small Arms

Mathcentre
"Mathcentre provides support to students making the transition from school to university and offers all universities resources to establish or enhance their local mathematics support provision. Mathcentre offers students and university staff free-standing help leaflets on basic topics which are known to cause problems. For a more in-depth treatment there are also teach-yourself workbooks with plenty of worked examples, explanations and exercises."

Millenium Indicators Database
From the site, 48 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development goals was adopted by a consensus of experts from the United Nations Secretariat and IMF, OECD and the World Bank. It's also possible to search and compare information by country.
 

New Scientist Science Links
Excellent selection of online resources across all subject areas in both the sciences and social sciences.  

Papua New Guinea Resources
Containing news, pictures, books and links

Resource Discovery Network
The RDN is a collaboration of over seventy educational and research organisations, including the Natural History Museum and the British Library.  In contrast to search engines, the RDN gathers resources which are carefully selected, indexed and described by specialists in our partner institutions. see also The RDN Virtual Training Suite -  61 free Web - tutorials designed to help students to become more effective Internet users. A subject-focus enables students to learn Internet skills in a context that has relevance for them

Rotuma
It is an absolute goldmine of information (cultural, historical) about Rotuma and has a large full text document collection . "One purpose of this website is to provide information about Rotuman society and culture to those who wish to learn more about the island and its people. It contains information about Rotuman history, language, population and culture, as well as maps. A summary of recent publications concerning Rotuma is also presented."

Scenta
Scenta is a new service for professionals, schoolchildren and students, the media, teachers and academics interested in science, engineering and technology. Scenta provides content from leading industry, academic and institutional players from the SET community.

Slate Citation Machine
This tool generates bibliographic citations in MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) format from information entered in a form. The site includes templates for single- and multiple-author books, encyclopedia articles, broadcast programming, interviews, Web sites, personal e-mail messages, online forum postings, and articles from magazines, newspapers, print journals, and online publications. From the Landmarks for Schools educational Web site.

Taking IT Global
"TakingITGlobal (TIG) is about encouraging young people to believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference in the world. We create environments where people are exposed to new thinking, a diversity of voices, and new opportunities"

Vanuatu Weekly Hebdomadaire index 1989-2001
An index being compiled by the Emalus Campus library to the Vanuatu Weekly Hebdomadaire from 1989 - 2001.  Searchable by keyword and browsable by month and year.  Headlines in English, French and Bislama as published.

Law 

Asian Law Bibliography
Published by the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne.  Online searchable bibliography browsable by country and topic.  Includes some references to Fiji and Vanuatu .  It is a collection of English language materials on Asian laws available throughout the world and includes books, chapters in books, journal articles and theses.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL)
This directory of international law Web sites features sections for general international law, human rights, and economic, environmental, and criminal law. Directory entries include site descriptions and legal citations. Browsable and searchable. From the American Society of International Law.

Internet Journal of Criminology

Law Bore
Well presented subject gateways to law materials from the City University, London.

Law Scout
Provides subject access to all the pathfinders and guides of over 130 law schools and other institutions (US).

The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase, JURIST's enhanced legal news weblog .
A staff of 30 University of Pittsburgh law student anchors and reporters - organized and aided by a faculty member continually combs the Internet every weekday looking for the latest legal stories worth thinking about, filtering them, summarizing them and adding value to them with the best online primary and secondary sources available.  US focus but with some international content.

United Nations Research Guide
The Mitchell Memorial Library of Mississippi State University has been a United Nations depository library since July 2001. This is a selective guide designed to assist researchers and students in gaining access to United Nations materials available within the library's collections and databases, and via the Internet."

Vanuatu Financial Services Commission
Includes links to the following reports:

WTO ANALYTICAL INDEX — GUIDE TO WTO LAW AND PRACTICE
The WTO Analytical Index is the authoritative guide to the interpretation and application of findings and decisions of WTO panels, the WTO Appellate Body and other WTO bodies.

New Sites of Interest - October / November

General

The Battle Over Trade
Coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting of September 2003 in Cancun, Mexico. Includes an analysis of why the talks collapsed, opposition by farmers and other protesters, the conflicting views of rich and poor countries, a map showing rival trade blocs, and interviews contrasting the experiences of people in the southern and northern hemispheres who work in the same industries. From the BBC.

Endangered Languages Database
Over 100 languages are included in this database, which represents "endangered languages with which the members of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) have worked or are working on." Searchable; browsable by country. Includes a brief but well-selected reading list.

Green bananas: Pacific Newsletter
The Newsletter is a monthly information page for Maori & Pacific Islands Leadership Development (Published by Auckland University)

"Information and Communication Technology for Development in the Pacific: The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Fostering Poverty Reduction Efforts and Socioeconomic Development in the Pacific Region".

Informed Librarian Online
Monthly current awareness service that helps librarians keep up with our professional reading in an easy, timesaving way. Each month, it brings us, in one compilation, the tables of contents of ALL the library journals, e-journals, magazines, e-zines, newsletters and e-newsletters that hit their electronic newsstands during that month. Just go to http://www.informedlibrarian.com/ilofreesubscribe.cfm and you will immediately get your first issue of this highly useful email newsletter.

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
Written by an English professor with more than thirty years of teaching experience, this award-winning site is "an interactive, menu-driven, online writer's guide and handbook" designed "to be useful for all writers, from inexperienced to advanced." The site focuses on essay writing topics such as choosing a subject, organizing, revising, editing (including basic grammar and punctuation), and documenting sources. Includes a discussion forum, recommended books, and a section on writing poetry. Searchable.

Population Index on the Web
Population Index' is the primary reference tool to the world's population literature. It presents an annotated bibliography of recently published books, journal articles, working papers, and other materials on population topics.  This website provides a searchable and browsable database containing 46,035 abstracts of demographic literature published in 'Population Index' in the period 1986-2000." Site includes a user's guide and list of sources. From the Office of Population Research, Princeton University.

PRISM -  Pacific Regional Information System.
This site is an "initiative of the National Statistics offices of the Pacific Islands" and includes extensive "statistical information about Pacific island countries and territories."

ReadyWeb: A Resource for Parents and Educators
This site provides "an electronic collection of resources on school readiness sponsored by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, funded by the U.S. Department of Education." It features articles and links to resources on research, public policy, statistics, parenting tips, and other topics. Also includes bibliographies on transitioning to kindergarten and reading, writing, and school readiness. Searchable.

Wireless Security
This FAQ is a clear, not overly technical document on the inherent security problems associated with "wi-fi" (wireless networking based on the 802.11 standards). Includes steps you can take to make your computers and laptops more secure.  Undated, but the text suggests it was written mid-2003. From Rutgers University.

WSIS Focus: World Summit on the Information Society
"A World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is being planned by United Nations agencies. ... The summit will be held in Geneva in December 2003, with another planned for Tunis in 2005. WSIS events, and the process leading up to them, offer a framework in which to argue for 'pro-poor' policies that extend access to information & communication technologies (ICTs)." Site features position papers, a glossary, Web links, and other material on information literacy.

Law 

Findlaw's Writ: Legal Commentary
This searchable site presents essays (mostly US) by experts about current legal issues such as the California recall election, Enron, terrorism, and the 2000 elections. Archives are browsable by author. Also includes book reviews.

Institute of Global Law
The setting up of the Institute acknowledges the impact of law across national boundaries and the need to deepen inquiry into comparative approaches to law and legal study.  Includes a  database of translated German and French judicial decisions in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law .

IPRIA (Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia)
"A national centre for multi-disciplinary research on the law, economics and management of intellectual property". (University of Melbourne). Publications, such as working papers are available for download [pdf]. Of particular interest is the section on International developments in IP

Journal of Law and Financial Management
A forum for the publication of research and analysis focused on the nexus of the general disciplinary areas of law (primarily business, corporate and commercial law) and financial management. June 2002  -

Jurisprudence on Slate
A regular column on SLATE (American of course)- sometimes it covers universal legal, especially judicial, matters . Clever, breezy, thoughtful

Law clerk on Gilligan's island: diary of a castaway
Humourous true diary of a US attorney who resigns from his job at a commercial law firm in the US to be a Judge's clerk in Palau for 12 months.

Samoa Offshore Finance Centre
Includes a background to Samoa history, government and legal system.  Detailed  summaries of offshore banking legislation and the regulatory framework.

Transnational Law Database
The Database contains thousands of comparative law references (arbitral awards, articles, statutes, restatements, conventions etc.), many of them in full text format

New Sites of Interest - August / September 

General

2003 "Webby" Award Winners
Award winning sites worth checking out.

Contemporary Political Studies: PSA Annual Conference papers 1994-2003
This site provides free access to a large selection of the papers delivered at the UK Political Studies Association annual conferences from 1994-2003. They cover the full range of political science subject areas including: political theory; church and state relations, political parties, the electoral system, political communication and Third way politics. Also included are material relating to international relations, public administration and the reform of the welfare state.