The millennium sans hype

The millennium as a cultural phenomenon will be impossible to ignore during the next 10 months, but you can rise above the hype with a few Web sites that eschew the frivolous and focus on scholarly or practical considerations. The Center for Millennial Studies has an academic Web site at http://www.mille.org/ that researches apocalyptic thought and the millenarian movements it generates. CMS publishes scholarly articles in its online Journal of Millennial Studies and offers a highly informative FAQ, glossary and bibliography. There are many well-organized links examining the millennium historically and culturally, plus an exceptionally lucid overview of the Y2K computer problem.

The Millennium Institute Web site at http://www.igc.org/millennium/ promotes environmental sensitivities and seeks to use the renewal properties of the year 2000 to move the world towards a more sustainable, peaceful, just and humane future. It links to several documents proposing strategies for personal, community, national and international change, and lists worldwide events that have been planned in conjunction with 1999/2001, which they refer to as the Millennial Moment.

Even the White House is getting millennium mileage with its Web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/Initiatives/Millennium/index.shtml. A White House Millennium Council was created to promote meaningful activities to mark the new millennium. To that end, it is supporting a series of Millennium Evenings, which are lectures and programs featuring scholars, creator, and visionaries that have been or will be cybercast around the world via satellite. Transcripts of those that already have taken place are available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/Initiatives/Millennium/evenings.html.

Virtually all millennium Web sites feature or link to one, and usually more, countdown clocks showing how much time is left before the new millennium arrives. The reason for multiple clocks, which is acknowledged by most Web sites, is that the actual date is debatable. Although the majority of experts agree that the second millennium won't begin officially until midnight on Dec. 31, 2000, it's quite clear that the masses are intent on partying hearty come the end of 1999. You can track their course via the Countdown 2000 Web site http://www.countdown2000.com/ and its links to news stories about millennium-related travel and celebrations, doomsday alarmists and the turn of the century as a time of religious significance.

For assistance in connecting to the World Wide Web, contact the CIT Help Desk at 645-3542.

--Will Hepfer and Nancy Schiller, University Libraries