This last review in the series will look at countries of the Pacific Rim that are accessible by Internet. These include: Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan. The major omission is the People's Republic of China, which is not accessible by normal Internet means.
Countries of the Pacific Rim have by far the greatest variation in the quality and number of institutions, holdings, and the way in which the library system works. More so than any other area of the world, there are chronic problems with connectivity. Unlike the nordic countries, however, language is not a problem, and does not usually act as a limiting factor. Nearly all of the institutions offer all services in at least English and Chinese, and possibly other languages.
Some libraries have truly unique and wonderful systems that I have never seen elsewhere. For example, the system at Hong Kong Polytechnic is interactive, and will suggest better search terms if the one used does not retrieve anything. "Limnology" was broken down into eutrophication, paleolimnology, freshwater biology and fisheries; "glacier" was supplemented by glaciology; "permafrost" was replaced by frozen ground, cryopedology and frost heaving. This flexibility in search terms sometimes makes the difference between a successful search and one that fails. It is also very helpful to have search terms that are Library of Congress terms, which nearly all libraries classify books by.
Some regional variations exist between the Pacific Rim countries and North American or western European and Scandinavian countries. Pacific Rim countries have many more references to tephra, possibly because of the "ring of fire" circling the Pacific.
Resources are listed below by country, with numerical evaluations given in Table 1, above. Unless stated otherwise, to exit you can use the telnet escape key (on my system this is control-] ).
ANU MU NLA UA UW HKP HKU NZC NZO NZW VUW
Arctic 4 5 5 4 4 2 4 5 4 4 4
Antarctic 5 5 4 5 5 2 4 5 5 5 5
beetle 4 2 4 2 1 1 3 2 4 3 1
diatom 4 2 5 1 1 0 3 3 2 1 1
fjord or fiord 5 2 3 1 1 0 2 3 2 1 1
foraminifera 5 4 4 3 5 0 3 4 4 3 3
glacier 4 4 4 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 2
glaci(o)[marine|lacustrine] 3 3 2 3 3 0 2 2 3 3 3
limnology 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 2
ostracoda 5 3 4 3 4 1 3 2 3 2 2
[periglacial|permafront] 3 4 4 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2
pollen 5 4 5 4 3 2 4 4 3 4 3
radiocarbon 3 4 4 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2
tephra 4 3 5 4 4 2 3 4 4 4 4
thermoluminescence 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 1
till 2 3 2 2 3 0 2 2 2 3 3
TOTAL SCORE ( /80) 65 55 62 46 47 21 47 50 52 47 39
Australian National University (ANU)--by far the best resource located. Very easy to use, and has excellent holdings.
Telnet library.anu.edu.au or 150.203.84.4. Login as library and follow directions from there.
Monash University (MU)--generally slightly above average, but some weak areas like specific biological groups.
Telnet library.monash.edu.au or 130.194.1.151
National Library of Australia (NLA)--possibly even more comprehensive than ANU. Very easy search and display features, and excellent holdings.
Telnet janus.nla.gov.au or 192.102.239.30.
University of Adelaide (UA)--generally slightly above average, with some weak areas like fjords and tills.
Telnet library.adelaide.edu.au or 129.127.48.1. Press [return] after connecting, then enter 'bslnet' for login id. Press [return] for password.
University of Wollongong (UW)--generally slightly above average with some weakness in biological areas. Has nice display giving year of publication, author, and lists up to 20 items per screen.
Telnet library.uow.edu.au or 130.130.68.3 and follow directions on screen.
Hong Kong Polytechnic (HKP)--typical of the Hong Kong institutions, this one is not very comprehensive, and has few good geological holdings. Has a tedious display that doesn't show the total number of hits, and forces users to page through the entire list. One excellent feature is that the keyword search is intelligent--it will suggest very good alternate terms.
Telnet library.hkp.hk or 158.132.6.15. Login with username = library.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKU)--the best of the Hong Kong facilities. Very fast, and easy to get information, Displays are good, and the holdings are also good. Also makes suggestions for better search terms: eg coleoptera -> beetle; till -> drift; permafrost -> frozen ground.
Telnet ustlib.ust.hk or 143.89.14.5.
University of Canterbury (NZC)--one of the more idiosyncratic systems. It can be quite useful, but it is awkward doing repetitive searches, and you can get stuck in listing the last search findings.
Telnet cantva.canterbury.ac.nz or 132.181.30.3. At the connection message, type [return] to continue. At the username prompt, type 'opac'. One strange feature is that to go back to the main menu, just press [return], but do not enter a new search term.
University of Otago (NZO)--
Telnet libcat.otago.ac.nz or 139.80.64.6. Login as libcat. To exit, type 12 on the main menu, then use the telnet escape key.
University of Wellington (NZW)--generally good, but one annoying feature: display scrolls without stopping.
Telnet library.waikato.ac.nz or 130.217.64.32. Logon as opac. To end, type 'stop'- this returns you to the first screen, then type 'log' to exit.
Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)--much friendlier system than (say) Canterbury.
Telnet library.vuw.ac.nz or 130.195.11.90. When connected, press [return], and at the login prompt, type 'opac'.