In response to pleas for more evaluation of what's available on the World Wide Web, FEMINIST COLLECTIONS: A QUARTERLY OF WOMEN'S STUDIES RESOURCES is inaugurating a new and ongoing feature. We'd like for each quarterly issue to carry a review essay covering Web resources on a particular topic related to women's issues or women's studies. We're looking for reviewers well-versed in the topic under consideration as well as the workings of the World Wide Web so they can compare related sites as to some of the following criteria:

Content of the site, authority/validity. This is by far the most important part of the review; sites may be glitzy or well-organized, but do they have useful information? Does the site include journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, news features, speeches, reproductions of artists' works, etc.? Who (organization, individual?) maintains the site?

Currency of information. Is the site being regularly updated?

Uses and/or usefulness for research, class projects, or feminist activism.

Links to other sites. How useful? Are they properly attributed?

Comparison of site to resources in other media, particularly print.

Organization and workability of site.

Presentation of the site: time loading, readability, usefulness of graphics, special viewer necessary?

So many topics are either touched on or more thoroughly covered by various websites that we can only suggest some broad subject areas and look for suggestions for more specific review topics based on potential reviewers' interests and expertise. If you're a librarian who has recently presented a bibliographic instruction session on a particular women-related topic, let us know; if your women's studies class is researching websites on the course's subject area, give us your evaluative summary of their work. Possible topic areas might be: contemporary women artists, African American writers of the early 20th century, women scientists, adolescent sexuality and STD's, reproductive technology, women of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, breast cancer, women in the field of information technology, lesbian studies, feminist theory. These are only suggestions. If you have other or more specific topics in mind, please send us email, drop a note, or give us a call and we'll discuss it with you. We'll send guidelines including suggested length, deadline, and format to those whose proposed contributions match what we'd like to offer our readers. (If we hear from enough reviewers, we'll attempt to mount more reviews on our website than we can offer in our print publication.)

Send suggestions/proposals of 50-150 words indicating your background and expertise (and a few of the websites you might discuss) to: wiswsl@doit.wisc.edu

Women's Studies Librarian, 430 Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison, WI 53706

or call us at 608-263-5754