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NewsvineThe online Stanford Bulletin — currently a series of difficult-to-navigate, downloadable PDF files — will be accessible from the University Web site in a fully indexed and searchable HTML format beginning fall 2008.
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The 750-page Bulletin, which is published every August, outlines the courses and degree requirements for all undergraduate programs, and provides information on graduate programs as well.
“We have long felt that the Bulletin needed to be available in a fully HTML, Web-based format,” said Bulletin Editor and Assistant University Registrar Stephen Arod Shirreffs, who has worked on seven Bulletins to date. “We definitely feel that there is a demand for this, and it is an improvement that the students will appreciate.”
Shirreffs said another major improvement in the new online Bulletin format will be the alphabetical listing of available courses by department. In a separate section, degree requirements will be listed alphabetically by school and then department as well.
“That’s probably the biggest change in the way the book will look,” Shirreffs said in an interview with The Stanford Report. “Chemistry majors, for instance, will look in one section to see what they have to do to get a degree in chemistry, and look in another section for course descriptions.”
Degree requirements and available courses are currently listed together in the same section.
Stanford still plans to publish hard copies of the University Bulletin, but expects demand to fall sharply.
“We expect students will want to use the online product, as it will be more convenient and accessible,” Shirreffs told The Daily. “And in the process we’ll save a lot of trees.”
The new online Bulletin will offer all of the features available in a Google Advanced Search, including the option to search multiple terms or to exclude terms, allowing users to make more precise searches.
The new Bulletin will be available online and in its finished format late this summer before Axess opens for the academic year.