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Version 4.0 February 24, 1994
Prepared by Martin Raish
Coordinator for Information Management Education
Binghamton University Libraries
Box 6012
Binghamton NY 13902-6012
mraish@bingvmb.BITNET
mraish@bingvmb.cc.binghamton.edu
and the
NET*WORK*SHOP Crew
Available from LISTSERV@BINGVMB -- get NETKNOW NEOPHYTE BI-L or by anonymous ftp from hydra.uwo.ca --
/pub/libsoft/NETWORK_KNOWLEDGE_for_the_NEOPH.TXT
DISCLAIMERS
"Getting Connected to the Internet," first given in March and May 1992. It has evolved into somewhat more than simply a set of class handouts, but it remains far less than a "complete introduction to networking." It is necessarily brief, and should not be used as a stand-alone resource.
When used in conjunction with lecture, demonstration, and
hands-on teaching, it is a good tool. The bibliography
points to several excellent guides for use in situations
when greater detail is needed.
2. The network landscape is constantly transforming itself.
Resources appear, mutate, merge, migrate, and disappear with
impunity. I make no claim that the information contained
here will be accurate by the time you read it.
All bibliographic sources were alive and well as of the date
on the title page, but that was long ago (in net-time).
Please let me know of major errors, but learn to live with
the small stuff.
3. This guide was developed specifically for the networking
environment at Binghamton University. Some explanations and
examples may not be universally applicable. If I do not
address your particular situation -- sorry. If a particular
statement seems false for your circumstances -- ignore it.
Copyright (c) 1994 by Martin H. Raish. All rights reserved.
Permission to copy and distribute this document for non-
commercial, educational purposes is hereby granted, provided
that it is reproduced in its entirety, and that this
paragraph appears on all copies.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Networks, Protocols, Gateways
I. ELECTRONIC MAIL
Understanding addresses
Inter-connectivity
II. ON BEYOND E-MAIL
Electronic discussion groups and conferences
Network "Netiquette"
III. REMOTE LOGON
IV. GETTING STUFF FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
V. OTHER TOOLS
Archie
WAIS
Gopher, Veronica
World Wide Web / Mosaic
BIBLIOGRAPHIES: A -- Network Guides, Books
B -- Network Guides, FTP-able Documents
C -- Periodicals
D -- Other Good Stuff
APPENDIX: Directories of Computer Discussion Groups
PREFACE
As you explore the electronic village (or cruise the "Information Highway") you ought to take along three companions:
Patience
Practice
Persistence
Patience will remind you to work on your training in small bites (or bytes?). The 'Net is huge, and growing at an astounding rate. Not even a network "guru" can know it all, so don't let yourself become frustrated when you feel as if your desire to learn is outpaced by your lack of experience. (A little patience will also help keep your blood pressure under control.)
Practice will remind you that the best (and perhaps only) way to feel comfortable on the information highway is to slide behind the wheel, put the transmission in gear, and step on the gas. The more time you can log at your work station, the sooner you will feel confident of your navigation skills.
Persistence will remind you to be patient, and to practice. As Calvin Coolidge said,
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful
men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is
almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent. The slogan "Press On" has solved and always
will solve the problems of the human race.
So, pick up your three companions and embark on what will likely become a life-long journey.
Good luck.
INTRODUCTION -- Networks, Protocols, Gateways
NETWORK A set of computers that all use the same PROTOCOL to
exchange information among themselves.
PROTOCOL A standard that defines the method of
communication among computers. It is the
language and the grammatical rules that
machines agree to use in order to understand
each other.
The protocol for the Internet is known as TCP/IP --
"Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol."
Some important networks:
INTERNET Begun in the early 1970s by the federal government
in an effort to link its many research and
military computers. It is based on protocols used
by UNIX computers. Sometimes called the NSF net.
USENET Begun in 1979 to link two computers in North
Carolina. Also UNIX-based, but focused more on
news and discussion than on research.
BITNET Begun in 1981 with the intent of linking together
IBM machines at research universities in the
eastern United States. Its European counterpart
is EARN; its Canadian counterpart is NETNORTH.
These began as separate networks, but as their protocols were made more compatible, and GATEWAYS were created among them, they became an amorphous jumble (some would say a "jungle") that is usually referred to simply as "The Internet" (upper case I) or even just the 'Net.
GATEWAY A computer that provides both a physical link
and a protocol translation program that
permits a network to send information to and
through another network.
Gateways are like doors that allow you to move from one
room to another. Most are invisible to network users.
Some commercial gateways are described below under
"inter-connectivity."
One writer has described the Internet as "a global community of computing resources, . . . an interconnected data-highway that spans the earth. . . . [It is] large, dynamic, and relatively unfathomable, yet it can sit on your desk top, at your command."
Some Internet numbers for January 1994:
14,041 networks
67 nations
53,574,569,150 packets of data transferred
And the packet figures do *not* represent the total network
traffic, but only the part that traversed the NSF backbone
in the United States *during that one month*.
Figures for January 1993 were:
6,621 networks
52 nations
27,148,529,550 packets of data transferred
Figures for January 1992 were:
3,581 networks
40 nations
9,204,830,750 packets of data transferred
NREN The National Research and Education Network, a
"new" network proposed by the federal government
to try to bring a semblance of order to the
situation. It will absorb and expand the
Internet.
It will also be able to transmit more data at faster speeds,
something that is absolutely necessary as the amount of
traffic on the Internet continues to grow exponentially.
The bill to create the NREN has been signed into law, but
much work remains to be done to bring it to actuality.
Other networks you may hear about:
FidoNet -- a series of DOS-based computers that uses modems
to directly link one PC to the next. It is the largest
privately-owned computer network in the world.
FrEdMail -- a consortium of more than two hundred schools
and universities around the world dedicated to linking
students and teachers.
I. ELECTRONIC MAIL ("e-mail")
UNDERSTANDING ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESSES.
Just as we all have an address that identifies us by house number, street, city, state and nation, each person using e-mail has his or her own unique network address. It consists of two major parts:
the person's name as known to the computer
the name and location of the computer itself
These are separated by an "at sign" -- @.
For example, my computer "name" is "mraish" and the
name/location of my computer is "bingvmb.BITNET". So my
full e-mail address is
mraish@bingvmb.BITNET
(In practice the ".BITNET" is often ignored. Mail will
reach me at mraish@bingvmb.)
However, because the computer I use has a gateway to the Internet, I also have the Internet address
mraish@bingvmb.cc.binghamton.edu
Since Internet addresses are a bit more complicated, let's dismantle this address, starting at the far right end.
DOMAIN This identifies the network or sub-network.
Networks outside the United States are identified by two-
letter codes: CA for Canada, ES for Spain, TW for Taiwan,
UK for the United Kingdom, and so forth.
Networks within the United States are identified by the
nature of their owners: COM for commercial companies, EDU
for educational institutions, GOV for government facilities,
MIL for military sites, NET for network support groups, and
ORG for other miscellaneous organizations.
My internet address ends in "edu" because my computer is at
a university.
** NOTE. The 'Net is changing, and it is becoming common to
see the .US domain in addresses for institutions in the
United States. I'll explain more about this in a moment.
SUB-DOMAIN This identifies a sub-set of the domain.
At European universities the computer is usually identified
by "ac" and the name of the institution where it is located.
For example, if the last part of an address was
"oxford.ac.uk" you would know that the person was writing
from a computer at Oxford University in England.
In the United States we do not use the "ac" part, but we do
often (but not always) include the name of the university.
Did you notice the "binghamton" in my Internet address?
Sometimes a second sub-domain is necessary, to distinguish
machines located in different areas of the same institution.
That is why I have "cc" in my address -- to identify the
computer center on campus, where my machine is located.
HOST or NODE The name of the machine itself.
In the beginning computers were named by numbers and
acronyms, such as "bingvmb." Nowadays they tend to have
names that are more interesting and clever, and thus easier
to remember. Some common names are Orion, Merlin, Mozart,
Snoopy, and Spock (and I just recently saw a Picard).
When an institution owns several computers, they will often
have related names, such as the planets, the signs of the
zodiac, or the names of the seven dwarfs. (The most popular
host name is Venus, followed by Pluto and Mars.)
These sites use the .US domain, preceded by a two-letter state code, perhaps a county and/or city name, and the name of the institution. Other sub-domains may be included, such as .CC (for community colleges), .CI (for cities), .CO (for counties), .K12 (for schools), and .LIB (for libraries). For example:
Fire-Dept.CO.Los-Angeles.CA.US
Horace-Mann.K12.TN.US a school in Tennessee
MLC.LIB.MI.US a library in Minnesota
SSCC.CC.OH.US a community college in Ohio
And at the same time, some non-US sites are adopting the .EDU sub-domain. For example, I recently saw this address:
LAUREL.OCS.MQ.EDU.AU (is there a Hardy?)
Now let's look at the part in front of the @.
When you get an account on a machine the institution will usually assign you a "userid" -- a user identification "name." Sometimes you can select one you like, but most often it is created from your real name. Sometimes it is all numbers. In the BITNET world it cannot be longer than eight characters, while Internet userids can be longer.
Some BITNET examples:
shorties same library unusual ones
--------- ------------ ---------------
ROSA@PUCC LIBHQB@BYUVM SV#4@LAFYACS
PHH@UNC LIBMMR@BYUVM $M$LB52@LUCCPUA
Some Internet examples:
Elizabeth_Knight@CARLETON.EDU
Bijs10@vaxb.strathclyde.ac.uk
Kagasawa@TANSEI.CC.U-TOKYO.AC.JP
info18@HAL.UNM.EDU (from 2001?)
Also, some people's messages must go through several gateways before they can be delivered. So the person's "name" might include a "bang" (!), a per cent sign (%), or double-colons (::), all of which are simply intermediate routing symbols that you don't need to worry about (except to type them correctly!).
Some examples:
JDPI%delphinus.lib.umb.edu@CS.UMB.EDU
decrwl!fernwood!well!nola@LLL-WINKEN.LLNL.GOV
INTER-CONNECTIVITY The need to provide links (gateways) among
dissimilar networks and computers, so anyone
can send mail to anyone else, regardless of
the type of computer or network involved.
Several commercial companies furnish access to the Internet to people who would not otherwise be able to connect. They charge users by the minute or message, or a flat rate. Some of the larger firms are listed below. (Notice that the addresses end in "com" to denote their status as commercial enterprises.)
America Online -- username@aol.com
AppleLink -- user@applelink.apple.com
AT&T Mail -- user@attmail.com
CompuServe -- 12345.678@compuserve.com
MCI Mail -- user@mcimail.com
II. ON BEYOND E-MAIL
DISCUSSION GROUPS Specialized mail systems through which people
(or "lists") exchange messages with others who share a
(or "forums") common interest. These groups are more than
bulletin boards; they can best be described
as multi-participant party line telephone
conversations.
Every person who joins a list (or "subscribes" although there is no exchange of money) can send a message to the host computer that then re-distributes it to every other subscriber. Any member can reply to the message (or "posting") and this reply will, in turn, be distributed to every one else in the group. The electronic conversation continues as long as anyone is interested in discussing the subject at hand. Then someone else raises a new issue and the process begins anew.
The program that operates discussion groups on BITNET is known as LISTSERV. Similar programs exist on the Internet, and although they are not technically the same, most people speak of "listserv lists" in the same sense of using the "Xerox" machine or Kleenex.
Discussion groups exist for virtually every subject imaginable. Here is a tiny sampling:
AIA-L -- sponsored by the Archeological Institute of America
ALF-L -- Academic Librarians Forum
DTS-L -- Dead Teachers Society Discussion List
(one of several education-related groups)
DOROTHYL -- women mystery writers
ESPER-L -- Esperanto
FWAKE-L -- Finnegan's Wake (by James Joyce)
HUMANIST -- computing in the humanities
NAT-LANG -- languages of aboriginal peoples
PETS-L -- domestic animal care and education
PHOTO-L -- the "Photography Phorum"
SCIFRAUD -- fraud in science
STREK-L -- Star Trek fan club
Several "lists of lists" have been compiled to help you find ones of interest. See the "Directories of Computer Discussion Groups" (at the end of this document) for instructions on how to get these "list-ographies."
Hundreds of other forums, called "news groups," can be found on USENET. They differ from LISTSERV lists in that each article is posted to the local system only once, for all to read and reply to, rather than having separate messages sent individually to each subscriber.
NETWORK "NETIQUETTE" Customs and practices that have been
adopted in order to promote effective
electronic communication.
Most of these are simply matters of common courtesy, but the electronic world offers a few extra wrinkles. Here are a few matters to keep in mind when sending message over the network, especially messages that are distributed to more than one person.
header (the "envelope" that precedes your actual message).
that generate heat but not light. These tend to cause "flame wars" that only make everyone angry.
the appearance of shouting.
network cannot convey the sort of non-verbal clues that take place in face-to-face conversations, simple "smiley face" symbols and common acronyms can help set the tone of your message. For example:
"Emoticons" -- turn your head sideways to see them.
:-) happy
:-( sad
:-)= bearded humor
8-) happy with glasses
(:-|K- formal message
=|:-)= Uncle Sam
Acronyms -- devised originally to reduce the size of
messages so they could be transmitted faster.
BTW by the way
OTOH on the other hand
WYSIWYG what you see is what you get
IMHO in my humble opinion :-)
YHOS Your Humble and Obedient Servant
III. REMOTE LOGON
TELNET and TN3270 Programs that permit you to log on to and
operate a computer other than your own.
These are essentially the same thing. Check with your local
computer experts on which is appropriate for use with your
equipment.
The most common reason for wishing to log on to a "remote" computer is to search another library's catalog. But there are lots of other interesting databases out there, ranging from geographic names to weather forecasts. See the items listed in the bibliographies for more information on these fascinating resources.
TELNET and tn3270 allow you to search remote databases, but they do not permit you to retrieve the actual files. To capture documents you must use ftp.
IV. GETTING STUFF FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
ftp "File Transfer Protocol" -- a process that allows you
to transfer files over the Internet from one mainframe
computer to another. "Anonymous ftp" allows you to do
this on machines that have been programmed to accept
requests from people who do not have accounts on them.
Thousands of interesting documents and software programs are stored on computers around the world, and copies are offered to anyone who has access to the anonymous ftp procedure. See the items listed in the bibliographies for more information on how to access these files.
V. OTHER TOOLS
As the network has become larger and more complex, trying to remember a particular document and its location has become increasingly difficult, and keeping track of hundreds of telnet and ftp addresses, log on/off procedures, and other details has become nearly impossible. The network, while vastly rich in resources, is simply too cumbersome for anyone to master.
In an effort to solve this dilemma various network navigation tools have been developed. Their overall intent is to make the net "transparent," so you can find things without needing to know what they are called or where they are located. Each of these tools uses some sort of user-friendly interface to translate your request into network commands, search files, and locate (and sometimes even fetch) the document you desire.
The following descriptions are brief, but are as much as can be covered in this beginning tutorial. For further information, consult the works cited in the bibliographies.
ARCHIE locates programs, data, and text files stored on
hundreds of computers around the world.
The system maintains a database of all the file names at sites that allow anonymous ftp. When you enter your search terms it automatically identifies files that contain those words, and tells you where they are located. With this information you can then get the files through regular ftp procedures.
WAIS not only locates files based upon their names (as
Archie does), but also by knowing what is *in* the
files. It can also display the documents for you.
Wide Area Information Servers, pronounced "wayz," allow you to search through archives of files for which indexes exist. The program searches the text itself, not just the file name, for your desired term. The results are then presented in a weighted list, with those judged "best" listed first, and others listed in decreasing order of relevance. You may then select items you want to see in full, and the system will retrieve them for you.
The major drawback is that WAIS can search only those documents that have been specially formatted to make them compatible to the WAIS software. Unfortunately, this includes only a small percentage of the files available on the Internet.
GOPHER allows you to browse for network resources using menus.
When you find something you want, gopher will get it
for you.
You can use gopher to search thousands of sites and millions of documents without knowing a single Internet address, file name, or locally idiosyncratic command. You just sniff around "Gopher Space" like you would browse your local library, using structured menus to guide you along the way.
Gopher systems are multiplying rapidly, and becoming more sophisticated. And since they all connect to one another, as well as to various WAIS and Archie servers, you can explore virtually any part of the net using a single, relatively simple, interface.
However, gophers are not perfect. For example, there is no unified subject vocabulary, so different systems often use different terms to organize similar materials. (The phrase "Hunting and Gathering in Cyberspace" is an apt description of how gopher works.)
And they cannot provide you with anything you could not get directly via telnet or ftp. But they do tend to uncomplicate things. I especially appreciate the "book mark" feature that allows me to save complex searches and re-execute them with a single keystroke or click of the mouse.
VERONICA is a fledgling, but very promising attempt to improve
upon gopher.
The drawback to gopher systems is that you need to negotiate several layers of menus before you locate what you want. Veronica ("Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives," and also a play on Archie) permits you to search gopher menus by keyword, so you can more quickly find ones that are likely to have materials of interest.
There are not yet many Veronica systems in operation, so the ones that do exist are heavily used, and can be very slow to respond. As more and better Veronica systems are developed, they might well become even more popular than gopher is at the moment.
WORLD WIDE WEB does much the same thing as gopher and WAIS, (or WWW) but uses hypertext/hypermedia as its basic
(or "The Web") organizational design.
WWW is not as fully developed as gopher, nor as widely available, but it is much more powerful. It can identify, locate, retrieve, and display files of all types, including pictures (and even video and sound), from virtually any source and with little effort. It uses a GUI ("gooey," Graphical User Interface) system, so users need only move their pointer to an icon or highlighted word in a text and click the mouse button to retrieve the item.
The Web has two drawbacks. First, in order to work as intended it needs documents that already exist in hypertext/hypermedia format, and these are not yet common on the 'Net.
Second, it uses a relatively new tool called HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) as the basis of its information-sharing system. This requires a rather sophisticated computer with a high resolution color monitor (for displaying files in windows) and a *very* large memory storage capacity.
The best known of the handful of WWW/HTTP client software programs now available is called NCSA Mosaic. (A "client" is what you call your computer when you use it to log onto another machine -- a "server" -- that actually provides the information you are seeking.) As Mosaic and similar programs become more widely availble, the Web might well become the preferred network navigation tool.
BIBLIOGRAPHY A: Network Guides -- Books
This is a highly selective list. Books on "How to Use the Information Highway" are multiplying rapidly, and the end is not in sight. Each title listed below has been cited by at least one reviewer as among the best now available.
Aboba, Bernard
1994 The Online User's Encyclopedia: Bulletin Boards and
Beyond. Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA.
Praised by Jim Milles as "a remarkably useful and
comprehensive work, covering everything from the basics of
computer communication, to using local bulletin boards, to the
intricacies of the Internet."
Dern, Daniel P.
1994 The Internet Guide for New Users. McGraw-Hill: NY.
Generally regarded as one of the best books available.
Includes a good survey of the history of the Internet, as well
as just enough Unix to get you by. "For all Internauts," says
Jean Armour Polly.
Hahn, Harley, and Rick Stout
1994 The Internet Complete Reference. Osborne/McGraw-
Hill: Berkeley.
Widely acclaimed as the best book written about the Internet
so far. Witty, complete (800+ pages), easy to read.
Kehoe, Brendan P.
1992 Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide
to the Internet, 2nd edition. Prentice-Hall:
Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
One of the earliest and most popular guides. Still useful,
although somewhat dated.
NOTE: An electronic version of the first edition is widely
available from many network sites.
Kochmer, Jonathan, and NorthWestNet
1993 The Internet Passport: NorthWestNet's Guide to Our
World Online. NorthWestNet: 15400 SE 30th Place,
Suite 202, Bellvue, WA, 98007.
[E-mail: passport@nwnet.net]
One of the most complete guides, covering areas not included
in others. Strong in K-12 computing and supercomputing.
Krol, Ed
1992 The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog. O'Reilly
& Associates: 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol
CA, 95472. [E-mail: nuts@ora.com]
Another of the early guides. Although many of the resources
are out of date, it is still essential reading.
LaQuey, Tracey, and Jeanne C. Ryder
1993 The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global
Networking. Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA.
Milles considers this the best guide for the beginner, or even
the "pre-beginner" who has not yet signed on to the Internet.
Tennant, Roy, John Ober, and Anne G. Lipow
1992 Crossing the Internet Threshold. Library Solutions
Institute, 2137 Oregon St., Berkeley CA 94705.
Intended as a teaching manual, it contains excellent "real
world" examples and handy one-page fact sheets.
BIBLIOGRAPHY B: Network Guides -- FTP-able Documents
Electronic Internet guides are multiplying almost as rapidly as printed manuals. The dilemma, of course, is that you cannot fetch a guide on "how to use the 'Net" until you have learned at least a little about how to use the 'Net.
The list below includes not only some of the better general guides, but also a few of the growing number of subject-specific guides.
Although I provide only the anonymous ftp directions, all these are probably accessible via Gopher/Veronica, too. With luck you might burrow into a gopher hole that has all of them.
The full filenames are given, in the format
/directory/sub-directory(ies)/filename
You can get the file by using the full path name (including the slashes) or you can change directories one level at a time and browse along the way. If you see a related README file you should get and read it before you try to get the full file.
Note that almost all of these sites contain other documents. You may find the same items in several places. But not all will be the same versions, so remember check the date of anything you fetch.
The dates given are the latest of which I am aware. Updates could appear at any time.
Ciolek, T. Matthew. Internet Voyager: Social Scientist's Guidebook
to AARNET/INTERNET Online Information Services. (March 1993)
FTP: coombs.anu.edu.au -- 150.203.76.2
FILES: /coombspapers/coombsarchives/coombs-computing/
internet-voyager-inf/
internet-voyager-1-2.txt
internet-voyager-2-2.txt
December, John. Information Sources: The Internet and ComputerMediated
Communication. (January 1994)
FTP: ftp.rpi.edu -- 128.113.1.5
FILE: /pub/communications/internet-cmc
Gaffin, Adam. Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet. (December 1993)
FTP: ftp.eff.org -- 192.77.172.4
FILE: /pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/bigdummy.txt
Hancock, Lee. Internet/Bitnet Health Sciences Resources.
(September 1993, updated 4-5 time a year)
FTP: ftp.sura.net -- 128.167.254.179
FILE: /pub/nic/medical.resources.xx-xx
where xx-xx = latest release date
Harris, Judi, and the students of TEB 8000. Internet Resources
Directory, Part 3: File Archives (FTP Sites) of Interest to
Educators. (August 1993)
FTP: tcet.unt.edu -- 129.120.20.191
FILE: /pub/telecomputing-info/IRD/IRD-infusion-ideas.txt
Maas, Robert Elton. MaasInfo.TopIndex:Toplevel Index to All
Major InterNet Indexes. (April 1993)
FTP: niord.shsu.edu -- 192.92.115.8
FILES: /maasinfo/MaasInfo.TopIndex_1of2
/maasinfo/MaasInfo.TopIndex_2of2
Martin, Jerry. There's Gold in them thar Networks!, or,
Searching for Treasure in all the Wrong Places, (Network
Working Group RFC 1402). (January 1993)
FTP: nis.nsf.net -- 35.1.1.48
FILE: /documents/rfc/rfc1402.txt
Strangelove, Michael. The Electric Mystic's Guide to the
Internet: A Complete Directory of Networked Electronic
Documents, Online Conferences, Serials, Software, and Archives
Relevant to Religious Studies. (February 1993)
FTP: panda1.uottawa.ca -- 137.122.6.16
FILE: /pub/religion/electric-mystics-guide-v1.txt
NOTE: Volume 2 has not yet appeared
NOTE: Also via listserv@uottawa as MYSTICS V1-TXT
SURAnet. Information Available on the Internet: A Guide to
Selected Sources. (Updated weekly; posted 9 am Mondays).
FTP: ftp.sura.net -- 128.167.254.179
FILE: /pub/nic/infoguide.<date>.txt
NOTE: Before you attempt to retrieve the guide, get and
read the file 00-README FIRST.
BIBLIOGRAPHY C: Periodicals
Network News: An Update to Libraries and Information Resources on
the Internet
Sponsored by Metronet in Minneapolis, this short newsletter
has many useful items specificially focused on libraries and
media centers. To subscribe, contact Dana Noonan at
noonan@msus1.msus.edu.
NYSERNet USER and NYSER.Update
NYSERNet USER is published quarterly in both print and
electronic formats. It has good articles not only about
NYSERNet and the New York area, but also about the net in
general.
NYSER.Update is an on-line report intended to fill the gap
between issues of the NYSERNet USER.
To subscribe to either of these send an e-mail message to
nyser-user-request@nysernet.org
For further information call 315-453-2912.
BIBLIOGRAPHY D: Other Good Stuff
Drew, Wilfred
1992 Not Just Cows: A Guide to Internet/Bitnet Resources
in Agriculture and Related Sciences. State
University of New York, Morrisville College of
Agriculture and Technology: Morrisville, NY.
A revised edition (October 1993) is available on the 'Net.
Check Gopher/Veronica. (I found it at dewey.lib.ncsu.edu.)
Rick Gates. The Internet Hunt.
This is a monthly "contest" to see who can be the first to
answer ten questions using only Internet resources. The
contest is posted to several discussion groups on the first of
each month, with the answers posted later in the month.
Previous hunts are archived at several ftp sites.
Scott Yannoff. Special Internet Connections.
Updated every week or so, this short list (usually five or six
pages) provides access information and brief notes on about
one hundred popular / new / interesting network resources. To
subscribe contact Scott Yanoff at yanoff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu.
The following documents provide information on how you can acquire network access if you are not affiliated with an organization, such as a university or research center, that has an institutional connection.
Engel, Genevieve. Public Dialup Internet Access List.
(Updated regularly)
E-mail: info-deli-server@netcom.com
Command: send PDIAL
Estrada, Susan.
1993 Connecting to the Internet: An O'Reilly Buyer's
Guide. O'Reilly & Associates: 103 Morris Street,
Suite A, Sebastopol CA, 95472.
[E-mail: nuts@ora.com]
DIRECTORIES OF COMPUTER DISCUSSION GROUPS
(February 1994), by Diane K. Kovacs and The Directory Team.
Entries are arranged by broad subject fields, and each is
accompanied by a short description, instructions for
subscribing, and the name of the owner/moderator.
The list is divided into ten parts. You should first retrieve
the "readme" file to see a fuller description of the others,
and descriptions of the various formats available.
Send the following message to listserv at kentvm:
get acadlist readme
2. BITNET Listserv lists.
This provides addresses and one-line descriptions of BITNET
groups only. It is available from your nearest listserv using
the command "list global." If the node you ask doesn't have
the list, it will direct you to one that does.
3. List of Lists.
This includes both BITNET and Internet lists. It gives
addresses, descriptions, instructions and contact persons.
The latest version, dated November 23, 1993, is VERY large, so
is sent in several pieces.
It is available from listserv at ndsuvm1 as
interest package
It is also available by anonymous ftp from sri.com
(128.18.30.65).
directory = netinfo
file name = interest-groups
4. Merged list of LISTSERV lists and Interest Group Lists.
This list, maintained by Dartmouth College, is updated
monthly. However, each entry is only one line long, so does
not provide much information. It is available by anonymous
ftp from dartcms1.dartmouth.edu (129.170.16.19).
directory = siglists
It is also available from listserv at dartcms1.
It comes in several pieces, so regardless of how you get it,
you should first get the READ.ME file that provides further
instructions.
5. "An Educator's Guide to E-Mail Lists," by Prescott Smith.
The compiler describes this as "an arbitrary sample of the
email lists that might be of interest to one or another group
of educators, no doubt with some clinkers among them, arranged
according to my own notions." The lastest version is dated
January 1993.
It is available by anonymous ftp from nic.umass.edu
(128.119.166.14).
directory = pub/ednet
file name = educatrs.lst
A guide to Usenet education groups is also available.
file name = edusenet.gde
6. Library-Oriented Computer Conferences and Electronic Serials,
by Charles Bailey, Jr.
The latest revision, dated January 18, 1994, includes more
than 100 conferences and about 20 serials. It is available by
anonymous ftp from hydra.uwo.ca (129.100.2.13).
directory = libsoft
file name = libconfers.txt
7. Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Scholarly
Discussion Lists, 3rd ed., edited by Michael Strangelove and
Diane Kovacs, Association of Research Libraries: Chicago,
1993. (A fourth edition is due in April 1994).
As good as these sources are, however, none can be considered both complete (i.e., up-to-date as well as offering full information) AND easy to get and use. With the development of Gopher, the best way to locate network discussion groups is to search for them on the 'Net.
On the Binghamton gopher, follow "General Reference Works" to "Internet Directories and Guides," then to "Directory of Academic Electronic Conferences." Here you can search items 1 and 5 above by keyword(s), and receive information about how and where to send your subscription requests.
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