INTERNET/BITNET SEARCHING

     Several people have stated that they are stymied trying to
come up with academic disciple specific resource material for
their final project.  There are several that I would like to
suggest that you try.

     The primary reason for the existence of Internet is to
foster research sharing and collaboration among its users.  Get
other people involved in your research.  My first suggestion
would be to send a broadcast message, requesting help, to
appropriate listserv lists.  First you need a list of appropriate
lists.  Send a message to any major listserv requesting a list
search.  As an example, send a message to
listserv@templevm.bitnet.  In the body of the message put
list global /<search keyword>.  If your topic is history then
send list global /history.  The lists of lists will be searched
for your keyword in the name of the lists and also in the short
description.  Plan you searches carefully.  There may be a list
on the second world war that does not mention history.  You may
put several request for searches in the same message.  Each
separate request must be on its own line.

     Subscribe to the promising lists.  After you are sure you
have subscribed successfully post a message to each of the list
requesting help.  Lou Bona had a great message and I'm going to
repeat it with a few enhancements.  To quote Lou "I've gotten a
ton of suggestions."  An important kicker is to offer people the
results of your research.  I will put your final projects in our
FTP directory so that people may obtain them at will.  Keep a
record of the list where you have posted the help request so that
you may make another posting when the results are available for
FTPing.

     Suggested posting.

     I am posting this request on several lists so please excuse
any redundancy.

     My name is Lou Bona and I am a senior at Stockton State
College in New Jersey.  I, along with other students, am doing a
research project on Internet/Bitnet and its resources.  The
purpose of the research is to identify the resources available
on, or through, Internet that a professor of <your selected
discipline> might find useful or interesting.

     I am visiting several lists that seem to be related to <your
selected discipline> to see if they are appropriate to include in
the final resource manual that will be assembled.

     I am requesting help with my research from the members of
this list.  What Internet/Bitnet resources do you think would be
of interest to a <your selected discipline> professor just
starting with electronic communications?


     Thank you in advance for your help and I will be very happy
to make my final resource guide available to anyone that would
care to receive it.

     I have found that the best SINGLE source of information is
Law Library at Washington & Lee University.  The site is
extremely user-friendly and menu driven.

telnet liberty.uc.wlu.edu or 137.113.10.35
at the login prompt enter "lawlib" (no quotes and must be lower
case.)

     The site has Gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web, all the major
Internet and Bitnet documentation, searchable versions of several
lists of discussion lists, menu access to library catalogs and
other telnettable sites, and USENET news.  John Doyle, the site
administrator, adds something amazing to this facility every
couple of weeks or so.  Try the Gopher service for starters.

     Lou Bona has also passed along the following suggested
resource.  He recommends that you ftp the NorthWestNet User
Services Internet Resource Guide (NUSIRG) from ftphost.nwnet.net.
In nic/nwnet/userguide you will find both a Postscript version
and a text version.  This is 250 pages of descriptions of what
there is and how to get to it.

     In summary, try to be creative and enlist help wherever possible.