By Amy Charlene
Reed, RiskWorld staff
E-mail to: reed@tec-com.com
The National Academy Press has taken a monumental step toward its goal of having the full text of 5,000 scientific and technical books on line by the end of 1997.
On September 24 the publisher announced that more than 1,000 publications on science, technology, health, and the environment - including several major risk reports - are now on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.nap.edu/.
"We believe that we are the only publisher offering the full text of its entire list of books on the Web, " said spokesperson Barbara Kline Pope (e-mail bkline@nas.edu). "Others offer only sample chapters at best."
In an effort to get publications on line as quickly as possible, student interns from the University of Maryland are scanning the books in shifts of 16 hours a day. As new books are added, they are listed in the site's Fresh Paint department.
"Our ultimate goal is to have on line all of the National Academy of Sciences' studies done since its inception in 1863, as well as the studies of its related institutions," Pope said. "We'd like to create a comprehensive archive that people can access for free from anywhere in the world."
The non-profit academy press, which is the exclusive publisher of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, expects sales to increase from the increased exposure even though potential buyers can now read the books for free on line.
"We look at this as an innovative way to reach a bigger audience than we have ever reached before, " Pope said. "Those who only need a few pages can print out what they want from our Web site. But those who want to read the whole book will probably order a hard copy, which is more comfortable to read than a computer screen is. "
Currently, the site's offerings include publications on topics such as agriculture sciences, behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, earth sciences, education, energy studies, engineering, environmental issues, food and nutrition, health care, industry and economics, marine and maritime studies, mathematical sciences and statistics, molecular biology, medical sciences, physical sciences, science and ethics, transportation, and urban and rural development.
While the site offers an impressive quantity of information that is expanding daily, two drawbacks are the poor readability of the text and the primitive navigation tools.
The academy press hopes to improve these areas within the next two months. "We plan to have new software in place by November that will make the text sharper, allow the reader to magnify the text, and provide better navigational toolbars, " Pope said.
See Also RiskWorld's Related Article
National Academy Press Publishes
Major Risk Reports On Line
See Also Related Links
To search the National Academy Press' on-line library by subject
or title, go to the Reading
Room.
To see the National Academy Press' latest additions to its
on-line library, go to the Fresh Paint department.
National Academy of Sciences
home page
National Academy of
Engineering home page
Institute of Medicine home
page
National Research Council
home page
Story posted September 27, 1996
Copyright © 1996 by Tec-Com Inc.