USDA statistics held in the Mann Library at Cornell. ------------------ Gabriel A. Hegyes Sustainable Agriculture Network ghegyes@nalusda.gov ---------- Text of forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 08:48:28 -0500 (EST) From: Henry DeVries To: Jodi Horigan , Extech , DEIT Group Subject: USDA (ERS/NASS) Info On the Internet at Cornell Folks, This appeared this morning in the campus weekly. Henry ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ - Henry DeVries CENET: hdevries - Extension Electronic Technology Group Internet: hdevries@cce.cornell.edu - B-15 Wing Hall Cornell University voice: 607-255-8127 - Ithaca NY 14853-8101 fax: 607-255-4950 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ CORNELL'S MANN LIBRARY IS INTERNET SITE FOR USDA STATISTICS Computer users worldwide note have access to statistical data gathered by the USDA through a cooperative agreement with Cornell that began December 1. Mann Library is the host for more than 140 agricultural data sets, which are free and open to anyone with access to the Internet, an international computer network used by an estimated 30 million people. "This service will benefit many users at Cornell and elsewhere," said Jan Olsen, Mann Library director. "It also dovetails nicely with our efforts to provide a variety of quality information resources that will make the national data superhighways a truly useful reality." The agricultural data sets contain information on topics such as farm information on topics such as farm production expenses, milk and dairy products sales, European Community what supply, U.S. meat supply and consumption, fertilizer use and ozone records for the Northeast, among scores of others. The data are supplied by USDA's Economic Research service and the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Until now, the data have been available for a fee on computer diskettes and only in an IBM format. Due to the volume of data, print records have been limited to summaries. Oya Reiger,a Cornell reference librarian who is coordinating the project, said she expects that Internet access to the data sets will rapidly become the method of choice. Cornell has designed the system to be easy for users to search, and the data is formatted so that it can be imported into a wide range of analysis programs for most any computer, she explained. As a result, government and industry analysts as well as academic scholars will have easier access to current information about U.S. and world agriculture and rural development. Each data set will be accompanied by an explanatory document, and all the text documents will be indexed for electronic searching. The internet address for the service is usda.mannlib.cornell.edu. Reiger suggests using the "Gopher" program to gain access to the data sets, although Telnet and FTP are acceptable as well. Users may direct questions to oyr1@cornell.edu, Reiger's e-mail address at Cornell. : Accessing the data : : Gopher: Host=usda.mannlib.cornell.edu : : port number = 70 : : Telnet: Host=usda.mannlib.cornell.edu : : user id= usda : : FTP: Host=usda.mannlib.cornell.edu : : user id= anonymous : : password = your e-mail address : : change directory with cd usda : : Cornell Campus Users: Data base is accessible : via the Mann Library Gateway : --reprinted from The Cornell Chronicle, 12/16/93 Don Harris National Research Council University of Prince Edward Island 550 University Ave., Charlottetown, P.E.I. Canada, C0A 1R0 902-566-0794, Fax: 902-566-0756 dharris@upei.ca