Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

THIS website provides vetted, searchable annotations of resources about nuclear issues including books, articles, films, websites, and CD ROMs. While the central focus of the collection is the Manhattan Project, it contains materials on scientific developments preceding the building and deployment of the first atomic bombs, and ensuing scientific, geopolitical, military, social, and cultural consequences. Among those materials are references concerning the Cold War, nuclear power, nuclear terrorism, and the development of the current global nuclear arsenal.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Washington and Lee University, the collection is part of the newly established National Science Digital Library (NSDL at nsdl.org). Containing about 750 references, Alsos has been publicly available since 2001, and had a press release in early 2002. The name Alsos comes from the World War II missions of the U.S. Army to discover the extent of progress the Germans had made in creating an atomic bomb. The library originated in the personal library used by its founder, Dr. Frank A. Settle, in teaching a multidisciplinary undergraduate course on the Nuclear Age.

The user interface is easy to navigate. Six major topics are shown on the home page: Issues, Science, Warfare, People, Places and Disciplines. History is one of the disciplines listed. The People entry contains an alphabetical list of over 300 names of individuals who were important in the history of nuclear energy. Searching such lists is facilitated by clicking on the desired letter of the alphabet, which appears at the top of the screen.

In an example of use, selecting the Warfare topic displays seventeen subtopics such as the Arms Race, the Pacific Theater of World War II and B-29. A click on the latter subtopic lists twenty-three references that provide significant information on the aircraft used to deliver the atomic bombs to Japan. The user can then use the Narrow Search feature to obtain a subset of references that best suits his or her needs. When a specific reference is selected, the user can read and print the annotation and the accompanying bibliographic citation, mark the reference for inclusion and later retrieval in a relevant bibliography, and, if the reference is a website, visit the site.

A primary goal of the library is to link nuclear topics from different academic disciplines. For example, a user seeking references about the initial test of a nuclear weapon in New Mexico might also be interested in the mechanism of the plutonium bomb that was tested, the use of a second plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, or the effect of the successful test on the position of the United States at the Allied conference at Potsdam, Germany. Conversely, a user interested in any one of the previous topics could easily access references associated with the others.

The multidisciplinary approach of the site is part of an overall attempt to create a series of balances. The annotations should provide resources for specific disciplines while connecting disciplines, issues and ideas; they should be informative to scholars while accessible to high school students. The criteria for inclusion should establish academic credibility while representing diverse and sometimes controversial viewpoints. The website should provide useful detail without overwhelming users. The site is nearing success in establishing these balances.

The annotations aspire to excellence through a process in which they are written in-house by students, professionally edited, and appear on the site only after review by a member of the prestigious National Advisory Board. Holdings are also determined by suggestions from board members. Access to information is facilitated both by topics arranged hierarchically for browsing, and by keyword searches. Overall, the website provides the benefits of a substantial and credible annotated bibliography, with excellent search and retrieval capabilities.

The library's weaknesses result primarily from its youth. It is still uneven in its holdings. The collection continues to grow...