By Scott Sleek
Monitor staff

APA has dramatically upgraded its award-winning World Wide Web site, providing easier and quicker access to information about psychology and the association, Monitor stories and journal articles.

Beginning Jan. 1, the web site (http://www.apa.org) became a comprehensive database that offers members a variety of ways to access information. Rather than using a single search tool, visitors to the APA site can choose from several electronic doorways to track down the information they need, says Gary VandenBos, PhD, APA?s executive director for publications and communications.

?It?s like a gigantic beehive, with lots of ways to get inside,? VandenBos says. ?And those different access points are all linked together.?

Three main features of the upgrade are:

? Access to the full texts of APA journal articles from 1995 to the present, plus abstracts of professional journal articles dating back more than a century.

? An easy-to-read site map, which lists virtually all categories of information and services available on the web site.

? The ?Concept Corridor,? which conveniently assembles masses of information under several commonly used key words, such as ?therapy? or ?depression.?

The revamped web page places APA in a unique position when it comes to online publishing and information services, says Hal Warren, APA?s director of Internet services. Only a handful of companies throughout the world?mainly software companies such as Microsoft and Oracle?have online databases, he says.

With the redesigned web site, you?ll still be able to obtain the online version of the Monitor, click onto home pages for each of the association?s four directorates, get information about APA publications and member services, and use PsychCrawler, the feature that allows you to access psychology-related information throughout the World Wide Web.

But you?ll also have additional choices for accessing information. Take a subject like managed care. Some people may want as much information as possible on the subject. Others may want to know specifically what APA?s Practice Directorate is doing to protect consumers from substandard managed-care services and protect psychologists? rights. The redesigned web page accommodates both preferences.

More doorways
Such preferred searches are now possible through the Concept Corridor. With that feature, you can either type in one of five designated concepts, or key words, on the site?s search mechanism, or click on that word when it?s highlighted in any text accessed through the web site. You?re then instantly linked to hundreds of documents on that topic. Key words included in the Concept Corridor, along with ?depression? and ?therapy,? are ?women,? ?children? and ?managed care.?

Each key word in the Concept Corridor is divided into subtopics. Under ?depression,? for example, you?ll find such sublistings as ?aging,? ?children,? ?prevention? and ?treatment.? More key words will be added later, Warren says.

Visitors to the web site can also access specific information about APA and psychology by typing any key word in the ?best search? mechanism or by checking such other sections as the home pages of the directorates or APA Books.

?Before, you could only rely on a single search engine that didn?t organize things as well,? Warren says. ?Now, no matter what part of the site you enter, you?ll find the information you need quickly.?

Member services
Another major addition to the web site is the expanded online member services page, which offers information about APA membership services and online access to various PsycINFO and journal services. APA members have the option of subscribing annually to three databases:

? PsychINFO 111 years, which includes abstracts for all 111 years (1887 to the present) covered by PsycINFO.

? PsycINFO, covering the current year and past three years.

? The full text of all APA journals covering the last three years.

Members pay $49 for the PsycINFO 111-year database or full-text journal database, $89 for both of those databases.

APA also recently added a student information category to the site. It includes information for high school psychology students, as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.

The site includes information on career opportunities, internships and accredited doctoral programs.

Warren describes the changes to the web site as a natural growth process, and he notes that the demand for online information from APA is profound. An estimated 4,000 people click on to the site every day, he says. That results in more than 50,000 ?hits? a day, revealing that people are coming to the site and digging deeply into it to get lots of information, he adds.

Since it launched its web site in 1994, APA has won numerous plaudits for its online activities, most recently the prestigious ?Battle of the Webmeisters Award,? given by the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services for the best Internet marketing communications.

Web Sites of the Month
In the March Monitor, look for ?Web Sites of the Month,? a new monthly department we?re launching to highlight the best in psychology-related sites on the World Wide Web. Readers who would like to suggest a web site or Internet resource to be featured are encouraged to contact Scott Sleek, Monitor Assistant Editor, at APA 750 First St., N.E., Washington, DC 20002-4242, (202) 336-6102, fax: (202) 336-6103, e-mail.