Background (Note: Site Terms of Use follow)

Bob's ACL WWWBoard is home to in-depth discussions on all aspects of knee-ligament injuries (involving not only the ACL but also the PCL, MCL, and LCL), as well as other types of knee problems (e.g. patellofemoral pain/chondromalacia, osteoarthritis, meniscal tearing, articular-cartilage damage/bone-bruising) and surgeries (including lateral release, osteochondral allograft transplant [OAT], microfracture, recontouring, tibial-tubercle transfer [TTT], high tibial osteotomy [HTO], total knee replacement/arthroplasty [TKR/TKA], specialty bone realignments, complex combined surgeries, etc.). The forum, founded in 1996 by software developer and dual-ACL-injury veteran Bob Willmot, is (as of 2007) the oldest and largest of its type in the world. The site also includes the Knee Library, a unique and continually growing on-line resource that proffers free access to high-quality, unabridged, full-text peer-reviewed medical-journal articles and other advanced-level reading materials.

Since its founding as a tiny bench-scale site in 1999, and later as a pilot-scale site in 2000, the Knee Library has always had, as its core mandate, the objective of making high-quality medical-research and unabridged peer-reviewed journal content available to ordinary people outside of the medial and allied fields. This task is not as straightforward as it might at first seem. Consider that, over the past few decades, thousands of knee-related articles have been published in dozens of major journals worldwide, and the number of articles published each year continues to grow – quite a testament to the number of people whose lives are touched by knee problems. Obviously, the Knee Library cannot hold every single knee-related article ever published (especially since the entire Knee Library, even in its current full-scale incarnation, continues to rest entirely on the efforts of a single volunteer), but it is possible to have the goal of having the absolute best ones in the Library. The criteria for inclusion of materials in the Knee Library focus on lasting meaning, intrinsic significance, inherent profundity, genuine usefulness, advancement of the state of knowledge, and applicability to specific knee situations. Special attention is given to adding articles which are referred to in forum discussions. Please note that because so many knee-related articles are published each month, there is always the risk that an excellent article will be missed. If you encounter (via a search on PubMed, Medline or other abstracts-only indexing services, or via other means) a reference to an article you would like to see in the Knee Library, please e-mail Michael Frind at frind@execulink.com.

The Knee Library, like all of Bob's ACL WWWBoard (also known as the Kneeboard), is proud to have universal compatibility with all computer platforms (including Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, as well as all flavours of Unix/Linux and other operating systems) and connection speeds (including dial-up and mobile connections). These features have been made possible by the use of highly efficient code resulting from manually-done programming and the avoidance of proprietary canned software-development packages. So, in a world of heavily ornamented websites replete with staggeringly inefficient behind-the-scenes coding and annoying animated adornments, the Knee Library remains disarmingly plain and simple in its structure and layout.

This Unix-based site has been tested for functionality with various versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla/Firefox, Opera, as well as text-only Lynx. If you encounter problems with any browser, please e-mail Michael Frind at frind@execulink.com.

Unix (including variants such as Linux and Sun Solaris) is the standard in both the Internet realm as well as in large organizations, academic institutions, and anywhere high reliability and efficiency are considered to be of paramount importance. Accordingly, Bob's Board (which includes the Knee Library) is entirely Unix-based, and runs exclusively on professionally hosted Unix-based servers. All file names are Unix-compatible, and so hyphens are used instead of space characters. (Note that Unix is case-sensitive.) The use of plain HTML-based coding ensures not only efficiency and reliability, but ease of printing and local saving as well.

Knee Library -- Site Terms of Use

Articles provided on this site are for personal/educational use only. All of the article content is stored electronically at Burgessville, Ontario, Canada. The material present on this site is therefore subject to Canadian jurisdiction. This material may be reproduced for individual use only, with only single copies (either digital or paper-based) being made or retained by any one person. (You are welcome to link to as many pages on this website as you like, but please do not repost electronic copies of any of this material to another website.) In this context, "individuals" are defined as members of the general public, including high-school and college/university students.

Questions and comments regarding copyright as it pertains to the herein-reproduced articles should be directed to Michael Frind.

This website was created for the benefit of the world's largest knee-injury community, Bob's ACL WWWBoard (also known as the Kneeboard), accessible to everyone at http://factotem.com/kneeboard or simply http://factotem.org. Any individual who views postings or otherwise partakes in this forum is considered a participant, and is welcome to read as much of the Library material as he/she wishes (subject to the subsequent provisos).

Documents posted on this site serve merely as a virtual library, and are intended solely for purposes of making access to high-quality peer-reviewed medical journals convenient for participants on Bob's ACL WWWBoard. Knee-injury patients are hereby encouraged to discuss this material with their respective medical teams. Access to these journal articles and other advanced-level materials is intended to serve as catalyst for in-depth contemplation and to assist in the process of consideration of possible options pertaining to knee conditions, and not as a substitute for the services of knee-experienced orthopedists and physiotherapists.

This site is not intended for use by people who would normally be expected to access the herein-excerpted peer-reviewed journals via paid subscription (institutional or otherwise), or who are employees in the medical profession and its allied fields (including those involved in medical-knowledge creation and dissemination). The existence of this site is only possible because its role is constrained to that of background education for members of the general public (including students). In other words, this site is merely an electronic version of what you would find if you were to walk into the freely accessible periodicals section at any Canadian university library and make paper-based copies of the print versions of these articles.

Because peer-reviewed journals constitute an expensive undertaking (i.e. the cost of running the extensive peer-review process is high, yet said system is the only way to ensure high quality of the material published), and because the only route (other than display advertising) for these journals to defray costs is via paid subscriptions, it is important that this site be used only by people who are not in the pool of potential subscribers to medical journals.

By accessing and making use of this site, you are certifying that you are a member of the general public or a student at an educational institution (either high-school or college/university), and that you agree to the terms and aspects discussed above.

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