***************************************************************************** Histnews: The Electronic History Newsletter Wednesday, February 9, 1994 Vol.2, No.4 Subscriptions: listserv@ukanvm.bitnet or listserv@ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu Submissions: histnews@ukanvm.bitnet or histnews@ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu FTP Archive: byrd.mu.wvnet.edu:/pub/history/internet/hist_news Editor: Bob Pasker (rbp@brown.edu) ***************************************************************************** Table of Contents 0. Item Zero: What' a URL? 1. New Additions to U.S. Dep. of Education / OERI (69 lines) 2. U.S. Dep. of Commerce Gopher Server (10 lines) 3. Univ. Architec. of Venezia: Professors' researches (7 lines) 4. CBC Radio Trial on the Internet (13 lines) 5. Center for Electronic Records Announcement (38 lines) 6. Internet Guide to Book Discussions and Book Reviews (14 lines) 7. JEWISH STUDIES JUDAICA eJOURNAL (9 lines) 8. ONLINE EXHIBIT from THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: "1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE" (34 lines) 9. New French On-Line Library Catalogs (36 lines) 10. INTERNET ACCESS TO LC INFORMATION SYSTEM (56 lines) 11. Internet Address for OAH (5 lines) 12. Re: Reviews In American History (23 lines) 13. Collections & Marine Information Data Base (59 lines) /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 1. Item Zero: What's a URL? You'll notice a change in this issue in how resources are listed. At the end of many of the articles is a line containing "URL", which stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is a way of uniquely identifying a resource on the Internet just like an e-mail address, such as rbp@brown.edu, identifies an individual. URLs can identify files available via FTP, gopher menu items, and World Wide Web hyptertext documents. Some programs, e.g., Mosaic, understand URLs and will obtain or connect you to the resource directly without your having to know exactly how it does it. This means you can use one tool for FTP, Gopher, news, and World Wide Web. I hope that by using URLs in HistNews, subscribers will be able to tell at a glance where electronic resources reside and, perhaps in the future, to use automated tools like Mosaic to retrieve them. The way to read a URL is by identifying three parts: the method by which the resource should be retreived, the internet address of the machine on which the resource resides, and the location of the resource within that machine. Files which you would normally obtain via FTP are designated: file:/// For instance, if you see: URL: file://seq1.loc.gov/pub/LC.Online You would type the the following commands: ftp seq1.loc.gov login: anonymous password: your e-mail address ftp> get /pubLC.Online Gopher files are designated: gopher:/// If you see: URL: gopher://gopher.ed.gov you would start by typeing gopher gopher.ed.gov Another kind of URLs you might see is http://// which is a World Wide Web hyptertext document. All of this is explained in URL: file://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/web/mosaic-papers/url-primer.ps.Z The Mosaic program itself is available for Mac, Windows and Unix in: URL: file://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic Please send comments or suggestions. /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 1. New Additions to U.S. Dep. of Education / OERI FFI: gopheradm@inet.ed.gov Significant recent additions to the U.S. Department of Education/OERI Gopher Server include: _A Teacher's Guide to the U.S. Department of Education_ This publication centralizes and compiles information on the U.S. Department of Education's services to teachers, with the intention of increasing teachers' access to the educational resources available throughout the country. The Department offers many valuable resources to teachers in the way of programs, services, and publications. These resources would be more valuable if they were widely known and used. Think of this publication as a road map of sorts. It provides a general description of programs and their relative location within the Department, and it is also a reference to which you can turn with specific needs or questions. The full text is available under: #3 U.S. Department of Education Programs--General Info. #4 A Teacher's Guide to the U.S. Dept. of Education _National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent_ >From the Foreword: More than 20 years have elapsed since the last national report on the status of educating gifted and talented students. Much has changed since that report alerted Americans to the pressing needs of these youngsters and challenged policymakers to provide them with a better education. _National Excellence: The Case for Developing America's Talent_ discusses these changes. It also describes the "quiet crisis" that continues in how we educate top students. Youngsters with gifts and talents that range from mathematical to musical are still not challenged to work to their full potential. Our neglect of these students makes it impossible for Americans to compete in a global economy demanding their skills. The full text is available under: #6 U.S. Department of Education/OERI Publications #3 ED/OERI Publications - Full Text Educational Software This directory contains educational software which has been contributed by callers to the OERI Toll-Free Electronic Bulletin Board (BBS). Since 1986, the OERI BBS has provided educators dial-in access via a toll-free number (1-800-222-4922) to education research and statistical information and has enabled educators to share educational software with other educators by uploading it to the BBS' software library. The directory includes software for IBM PC, Apple II, MacIntosh, Amiga, Atari, and Tandy platforms. Please read the file "About ED Software" for warnings about viruses, suitability, and representations. URL: gopher://gopher.ed.gov E-mail: gopheradm@inet.ed.gov Telephone: (202) 219-1547 Fax: (202) 219-1817 Snail Mail: INet Gopher Administrator U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement/EIRD 555 New Jersey Ave. N.W., Room 214 Washington, D.C. 20208-5725 /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 2. U.S. Dep. of Commerce Gopher Server FFI: Amy Williams The U.S. Department of Commerce has a new gopher available at ecix.doc.gov. The gopher contains setions on General Background Information, Contacts for Defence Conversion Programs for military installations and affected communities, Economic and Defense Data, Information Sources, Adjustment Programs, and Technology Development and Application. The data collected will be continually expanded and will reflect the most current information regarding defense conversion programs. URL: gopher://ecix.doc.gov /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 3. Univ. Architec. of Venezia: Professors' researches FFI: Corrado Petrucco Abbiamo reso disponibili le ricerche effettuate dai Docenti del nostro Istituto dagli anni 1986 al 1990. Sono indicizzate in Wais. (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Italy. Our Professors' researches are now availables via Gopher/WAIS) URL: gopher://gopher.iuav.unive.it /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 4. CBC Radio Trial on the Internet FFI: cbc@debra.dgbt.doc.ca The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is exploring additional means of distributing its programming. Working with the New Broadcast Services Laboratory of the Communications Research Centre and the Communications Development and Planning Branch of Industry Canada, CBC is starting a trial where some radio programs will be available over the Internet. These programs are available "on-demand" from a server located at CRC, and can be accessed via WWW, Gopher, and FTP: URLs: http://debra.dgbt.doc.ca/cbc/cbc.html gopher://debra.dgbt.doc.ca file://debra.dgbt.doc.ca:/pub/cbc cbc@debra.dgbt.doc.ca /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 5. Center for Electronic Records Announcement FFI: THEODORE J. HULL The Center for Electronic Records of the U.S. National Archives has updated the FTP-able file containing the Center's "Title List: A Preliminary and Partial Listing of the Data Files in the National Archives & Records Administration" (TITLE.LIST.DEC1793). The Title List now has 12,273, 80 character lines. Since last updated in September, entries for the following major series have been included: the 1980 Census of Population and Housing, STFs 1D, 3C, 3D, and 3F (Bureau of the Census); National Surveys of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, 1975, 1980, and 1985 (Fish and Wildlife Service); and the [Southeast Asia] Combat Area Casualties Current File, as of November 1993 (Office of the Secretary of Defense). In January 1994, the Center for Electronic Records (NSX) will be moving to a National Archives new building in College Park, MD. As a result, some delays in the services may occur from around Jan. 15 - Feb. 15, 1994. If you wish to visit the Center during this time, please call in advance. Beginning Jan. 31, 1994, please send research mail to: Reference Services, Center for Electronic Records (NSXA), The National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. The Center's new general telephone number will be 301-713-6630. We do not anticipate any changes in our electronic mail addresses. An "Archives II Researcher Bulletin" provides information on the schedule for all units of the National Archives that are moving to the new building in College Park, MD. The move will occur over several years and will continue through 1996. Throughout the move period, various textual record groups and nontextual records will be closed for research and reference activities, including requests for information and reproductions. To be placed on the mailing list for the "Archives II Researcher Bulletin," please mail your request to the Textual Reference Division (NNR), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. 20408. URL: file://ftp.cu.nih.gov/nara_electronic /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 6. Internet Guide to Book Discussions and Book Reviews FFI: Shannon Allen and Gretchen Krug Over the past several months, we've been putting together an Internet guide to book discussions and reviews. It's finally finished! If you are interested in accessing our guide, it is available in the Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides. Jointly sponsored by the University Library and the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan, the Clearinghouse now contains over 60 guides on various topics. Here are several ways of getting to the Clearinghouse: anonymous FTP: URL: file://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/inetdirsstacks http://http2.sils.umich.edu/~lou/chhome.html or gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/11/inetdirs /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 7. JEWISH STUDIES JUDAICA eJOURNAL FFI: ahyman@porpoise.oise.on.ca (Avi Hyman) The December and January issues of JEWISH STUDIES JUDAICA eJOURNAL are now availible. URL: file://israel.nysernet.org/israel/lists/jewstudies To subscribe to the Jewish Studies listserv: LISTSERV: jewstudies@israel.nysernet.org /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 8. ONLINE EXHIBIT from THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: "1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE" FFI: K.D. Ellis The Quincentenary exhibition 1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE describes both pre- and post-contact America, as well as the Mediterranean world at the same time. Compelling questions are raised, such as: Who lived in the Americas before 1492? Who followed in the wake of Columbus? What was the effect of 1492 for Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere? The Library of Congress's Quincentenary exhibition addresses these questions as well as other related themes, including fifteenth century European navigation, the myths and facts surrounding the figure of Columbus, and the differences and similarities between European and American world views at the time of contact. The exhibit is divided into six (6) sections: What Came To Be Called "America," The Mediterranean World, Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth, Inventing America, Europe Claims America, and Epilogue. The original exhibit included over 300 objects: manuscripts, books, maps, and artifacts such as globes, jewelry, and musical instruments. The online exhibit includes images of 22 objects from the original exhibit, representing each of the 6 sections. Each section consists of its own sub-directory within the /exhibit directory and contains the exhibit text for that section, a single image file with "thumbnail"-size copies of the images in that section, and separate image files for each object. The exhibit will be of interest to historians, students of the Age of Discovery, students of Latin-American and American issues, students of Native American issues, and to librarians and information professionals. Please get the README file (in the /pub/1492.exhibit directory) for details on what files this exhibit contains. If you have questions about how to use FTP, speak to your local computer support person. If you have questions or comments about the exhibit, please contact me. URL: file://seq1.loc.gov/pub/1492.exhibit /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 9. New French On-Line Library Catalogs FFI: Elizabeth Cherhal Les gens de Limoges et de Pau m'ayant contactee pour que j'ajoute leurs catalogues dans mon serveur gopher, je vous fais naturellement passer l'information. Catalogue de LIMOGES: accessible par telnet sur LIMVX4.UNILIM.FR (164.81.1.30) Userid : GRACE Et egalement a travers gopher: gopher gopher.grenet.fr rubrique OPAC puis "catalogues francais" Catalogue de PAU: accessible par WAIS, et egalement gopher (meme adresse, meme rubrique). Il devrait etre interessant d'"essayer" ce catalogue, car a ma connaissance, il s'agit de la premiere tentative d'indexation par wais d'un catalogue collectif! (je ne sais pas combien il y a de references) Trois autres bases wais recemment ajoutees dans le gopher de grenoble (cette fois dans la rubrique "catalogues grenoblois") (three other WAIS have recently been added to Grenoble Gopher Server, menu...) Catalogue de l'IREPD (Institut de Recherche en Economie, Developpement et Planification) (19000 references Environ) Catalogue du CRISS (Centre de Recherche en Informatique et Sciences Sociales) (environ 5000 ref, je crois) Catalogue de la Bibliotheque Centrale du CNRS-Polygone. PS : Complement d'info sur PAU: Il y a entre 35000 et 40000 notices. Le catalogue est egalement accessible par telnet sur crisv2.univ-pau.fr nom d'utilisateur "grace" (ou a travers gopher meme endroit, meme rubrique) URL: gopher://gopher.grenet.fr Telnet: LIMVX4.UNILIM.FR Username: Grace /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 10. INTERNET ACCESS TO LC INFORMATION SYSTEM FFI: KAREN STUART LC Online Search permits anyone outside the Library to search LOCIS (Library of Congress Information Service) over Internet. Anyone, anywhere, with a connection to Internet that permits logging on to remote computers (telnet) may search LOCIS. Up to 60 users will be able to access LOCIS at a time. Searching hours are: Monday-Friday, 6:30am - 9:30pm; Saturday 8am - 5pm; Sunday 1pm - 5pm Eastern time, except on national holidays. The Internet address for telnet (connecting) to LOCIS is locis.loc.gov; the numeric address is 140.147.254.3. LOCIS accepts both 3270 and line mode (such as VT 100). A LOCIS Quick Search Guide and a LOCIS Reference Manual will be available for file transfer (FTP) over Internet and for sale in printed form. Use Internet's anonymous FTP function to connect to seq1.loc.gov and get documents from the directory /pub/LC.Online. Print copies are available from LC's Cataloging Distribution Service at (202) 707-6100. LC offers hands-on search assistance only to on-site researchers. HELP screens exist for most files and commands. "LC MARVEL" ON INTERNET LC MARVEL is a campus-wide information system, which uses Gopher software from the University of Minnesota. The format of documents will, for the most part, be in plain ASCII text. To access LC MARVEL, telnet to marvel.loc.gov and log in as marvel. This will connect you to a "generic" Gopher client. Initially, only 10 ports will be available to outside users for direct telnet connection. However, connection is also possible through a local Gopher client or another Gopher server by pointing to marvel.loc.gov, port 70 (the 10-port user limit does not apply to this access method). The Main Menu of LC MARVEL consists of the following: 1. About LC MARVEL 2. Library of Congress: Facilities, Activities and Services 3. Research and Reference 4. Library of Congress Online Systems 5. The U.S. Congress 6. Federal Government Information 7. Services to Libraries and Publishers 8. Copyright 9. Employee Information 10. The Global Electronic Library (by subject) 11. Other Internet resources 12. What's New on LC MARVEL URL: gopher://marvel.loc.gov file://seq1.loc.gov/pub/LC.Online Telnet: locis.loc.gov /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 11. Internet Address for OAH FFI: Michael Regoli Organization of American Historians 112 North Bryan St, Bloomington IN 47408 tel (812) 855-7311; fax (812) 855-0696 Internet: oah@indiana.edu Bitnet: oah@indiana /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 12. Re: Reviews In American History FFI: staff@enews.com Reviews in American History has joined the online world and has made selected articles available to Internet users. Reviews in American History is a quarterly journal that publishes in depth reviews of important new books in American historical scholarship covering many specialities. This issue features _Feral Tendencies_ by Jeanne Chare reviewing Carville Earl's book _Geographical Inquiry and American Historical Problems_. The articles from Reviews in American History and other publications are available free from The Electronic Newsstand, a service which collects articles, editorials and table of contents from over 50 magazines and provides them to the Global Internet community. Access to The Electronic Newsstand is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via Gopher, an information navigation and retrieval technology from the University of Minnesota. For those without a local Gopher client program, The Electronic Newsstand provides a telnet account which will allow you to use a text based Gopher client to access our service. URL: gopher//gopher.internet.com Telnet: gopher.internet.com Username: enews Password: /\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\ 13. Collections & Marine Information Data Base FFI: Maurice Smith at MMuseum@qucdn.queensu.ca The Maritime Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), in cooperation with Queen's University, has developed a Collections & Marine Information Data Base that would be accessible to anyone with a modem-equipped computer. According to Maurice Smith, Museum Director, the data base includes over 35,000 records with another ninety pages of finding aids for the Canada Steamship Lines Collections to be added in the next few months. There are seven categories of information in the data base: books, article index, pictorial, archival, ships and owners. Keyword searching will be by individual category or by all categories. The system uses a simple "no-bells-and-whistles" data base called PCfile that has seven pre-formatted screens matching the seven categories of information. Volunteers enter the first level of information into PCfile. This work is then passed on to a staff member for proofing and editing. The Museum has a direct line to Queen's University that is used to upload the information to the university's mainframe once a week. The intent of the data base is to provide primary and contextual information from a variety of sources (eg. written, pictorial etc.) and to encourage people to explore. It may take some time to develop the full potential of the system, but Queen's has been very cooperative with the Museum in responding to any problems experienced by users and to suggestions for improvements. I can certainly attest to this. I experienced some initial problems in accessing the system. With the assistance of the Museum and the computer services people at Queen's, the problems were quickly solved and I soon found myself with the Museum's data base at my finger-tips. My difficulty was that the computing system at my university, through which I connect to the world computer network, was not fully compatible with the system being used at Queen's (this may not be technically precise, but it's the best explanation that this computer-illiterate user can come up with!). The folks at Queen's responded to this dilemma by opening up another port at QLINE (Queen's University's computerized library catalogue system). To get in, you must connect with: telnet qlineascii.queensu.ca That connects you with QLINE, a simple, menu-driven system. To connect with the museum's data base, enter the keyword MAR. There was one other wrinkle. I discovered that whenever the menu instructed me to use one of the Function keys on the computer keyboard (e.g., F8 or F7), it would not work for me. Again, the Queen's computer services people came to the rescue. They explained that the Function keys do not work with many terminal emulators. So, instead of F8 or F7, I have to press the ESC key, release it, then hit the appropriate number in the row of keys below the Function keys (i.e., instead of F8 I use ESC-8); F11 is ESC followed by a hyphen, F12 is ESC plus the = sign. And where the menu offers the option of clearing the screen, the key to use is the oversized + key on the far right of the keyboard. This makes it seem more complicated than it actually is. Anyone interested in maritime history, especially that concerning maritime history relating to the Great Lakes of North America, should give it a try. ------- End of HistNews Vol.2 , No.3 -------