FORESTRY INFORMATION RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET

Jarmo Saarikko Finnish Forest Research Institute, Information Systems Group Unioninkatu 40 A, FIN-00170 HELSINKI, Finland

ÄThe hypertext-links within this file are still under development. A plain text version is available hereÅ.

Abstract

This printed version of the presentation given at EUFORIS'94 comes in the form of a preliminary outline and description for the electronic resources on forestry in the Internet. Thus, the structure of the text is similar to a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or a Resource Guide. It covers discussion groups, electronic publications, electronic archives and databases as well as network access and navigation tools. Publicly available information services are listed as examples.

1. Introduction
2. Forestry information on the Internet 2.1 Discussion Groups Mailing Lists Newsgroups on Usenet Bulletin Boards 2.2 Electronic Publications Newsletters Electronic Journals Mail-based services 2.3 Archives and Databases Bibliographies, OPACs / Libraries Directories Text archives Numerical data Software repositories 2.4 Network Access and Navigation Tools Äonly short descriptionsÅ Basic functions (TELNET, FTP, Anonymous FTP) Gopher Archie Veronica WAIS WWW News Hytelnet
3. Future
Acknowledgements
References and bibliography

1. Introduction

Internet is currently based on a decentralised network of national or regional computer networks for research and development. There are over 2 million computers hooked to the Internet, with perhaps 20 millions of users. In 1993, an estimate of 10000 biologist are reading Usenet newsgroups. There are some 250 newsgroups and 100 mailing lists with interest to biologists ( Smith 1993).

Information services over Internet are those produced by the information providers. Thus they are often a widely unorganized collection. It is up to the providers in which way they want to offer their information. However, the exponential increase of Internet usage and information over the last two years has forced users to create informative files and directory services to help finding the information. For example, there are FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) files and FYI (For Your Information) files, user oriented guides, and subject oriented collections of services (subject trees). A collection of FAQ and FYI files can be found, among other sites, on the SWITCH InfoReader by anonymous FTP to "nic.switch.ch", in the directory /docs). A useful starting point for a specific topic is the Clearinghouse of Internet Subject-Oriented Resource Guides with gopher or hypermedia .

The hypertext documents in the World Wide Web use a common format for locating files in other servers. An URL (Uniform Resource Locator) gives the type of resource being accessed and the path of the file. The syntax is "scheme://host.domainÄ:portÅ/path/filename". The scheme may be a local file, a file on a hypertext server, a file on a gopher server, a telnet-based service, a file on a WAIS-server or an Usenet newsgroup. The port is often optional.

Due to the distributed production of information the directory services are not always up to date. Especially many printed books on Internet resources may often be out of date even before printing. However, these books cover the usage of the net tools. There are also several good electronic sources already available. Thus the tools will be covered very superficially here. A good strategy to gather information on Internet resources is to learn to use the Internet tools yourself. For an introduction on Internet tools and the biological resources on Internet, please refer to Smith (1993). The most classical reference is Krol (1992). Some printed books from 1993 have been reviewed in Online magazine (Tuss 1994).

To handle the wealth of information new "spider" and "robot"-programs (e.g. the World Wide Web Worm, Jumpstation etc) are currently being developed. By browsing the Internet resources automatically, they check if previous files and servers are still in existence or search for new information. These tools will also allow keyword searches.

Internet has grown to offer an extremely wide variety of information. For academic users there are job announcements, conference announcements, calls for papers, important notices on recent events, publication announcements, journal tables of contents, online bibliographies and dictionaries, weather maps, library catalogs etc. Scientific interest groups are able to maintain electronic discussion groups, directories, deliver digests and newsletters for which Internet provides a fast method of delivery and quite often the news reach the reader much sooner than the printed version. Electronic publication of journals and books over Internet will increase dramatically in 1994.

This is a preliminary outline and description for the electronic resources on forestry in the Internet. A more complete electronic version of this information will appear at here in the latter half of 1994. Updating this kind of information is a never-ending task. It would be almost an impossible task for one person alone to discover all changes and additions to data on the net. Thus all comments and contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Please, send them to the current editor: webmaster@metla.fi ( Jarmo Saarikko).

2. Forestry information on the Internet

2.1 Discussion Groups

Mailing lists

Scientific interest groups (e.g. IUFRO working groups) are able to maintain electronic discussion forums in several different ways. Anyone who can send electronic mail to a mailing list is a potential user of these services. Electronic mailing lists are usually run by specific server software which sends any message sent to the list as multiple copies to all subscribers of the list as well as maintains the subscription service. Two common servers are called "listserv" and "majordomo". Listservers may also provide other facilites such as file archiving. Usually these lists are subscribed by mailing commands to the server.

Some Internet mailing lists are maintained by real persons. These lists have usually a specific administrative e-mail address for receiving the subscription messages. The addresses are usually of the form: listname-request@host.domain or listname-owner@host.domain. Messages which are meant to be published in the list are then sent to listname@host.domain. Please, note that the subscription messages and other administrative requests are NEVER sent to a list itself.

You should always save the instructions which you receive after subscribing to a list so that you will know how to unsubscribe from the list when your address changes or when you are not going to check your mail for a while (e.g. during vacation).

Also, when sending messages to a mailing list, please remember to design your Subject:-line well, because in the current flood of information messages are selected to be read only on the basis of this line. Thus, a single word saying " help" is not at all helpful or informative and will probably not elicit much response. When responding to a message, try to limit quotings of the previous message to an absolute minimum necessary. Please, consider also directing your reply to the writer of the message instead of replying to the list.

There are hundreds of mailing lists for almost anything you can imagine, but only few concerned with forestry related topics:

List address:: List topic and subscription address:

Forest@lists.funet.fi: Discussion of all fields in Forestry listserv@lists.funet.fi
fmdss-l@pnfi.forestry.ca: Forest Management Decision Support Systems listserv@pnfi.forestry.ca
Sylvanet@ncsu.edu: Quarterly newsletter listserv@ncsu.edu
itrdbfor@asuvm.inre.asu.edu: Dendrochronology Forum listserv@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
ecolog-l@UMDD.umd.edu: Ecological Society of America listserv@UMDD.umd.edu
agric-l@uga.cc.uga.edu: Various fields of agriculture, including tropical forestry listserv@uga.cc. uga.edu
micronet@vm.uoguelph.ca: Fungus and root interaction listserv@vm.uoguelph.ca
iopi@life.anu.edu.au: Int. Organization for Plant Information
firenet@life.anu.edu.au: Discussion of fire in landscape ecology
plant-taxonomy@mailbase.ac.uk: Plant Taxonomy mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov: Dendrome forest tree genome mapping digest Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor: dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov

Mailing lists using gateways from listserv to Usenet:

Some mailing lists have all their messages automatically copied to the Usenet newsgroup system. This copying occurs in a specified computer which is called a "gateway". Often the gateway is bi-directional so that all messages and their follow-ups posted on one system are automatically sent to the other system.

Newsgroups on Usenet

Usenet news, or netnews as it is also called, is a system where electronic messages are sent in standard format around the world, in an interconnected network of computers. It is a decentralized discussion system. The messages are grouped into categories, which are called newsgroups. Each message contains information about who sent the message and where and to which newsgroup it was posted. This information is presented in so called "header"-lines. The newsgroups may be distributed locally, nationally or world-wide. The international newsgroups are divided into a few major categories, which are listed below. The categories are further divided into the newsgroups. Currently there are over 2000 newsgroups in worldwide distribution. New newsgroups in the major international categories (except alt) are started only after an official voting procedure.

Some of the Usenet news major categories.

alt        Alternative topics from all aspects of life
comp       Computer oriented newsgroups, both professional and hobbyists
misc       Miscellaneous topics, not fitting to other groups
news       News network and software
rec        Recreational activity and hobbies
sci        Scientific discussion groups
soc        Social issues and socializing
talk       Discussions and debates on various topics
--------   The following groups have a smaller distribution:
bionet     Biological topics
bit        Gatewayed BITNET LISTSERV mailing lists
biz        Business topics
sfnet      Finnish discussion groups
fj         Japanese discussion groups

There are now thousands of sites sharing the Usenet news. Protocols and software for reading the news are available to many different platforms, such as MS-Windows, Macintosh, VAX-VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, Unix etc. Check with your network administrators if your site has Usenet access. If not, many of the newsgroups are linked to mailing-lists. Many files, which appear periodically in the newsgroups are available by e-mail from "mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu". For instructions, send a message with the subject: HELP.

Most client software offer the same possibilities: subscription to a selection of newsgroups to make them immediately accessible without browsing through thousands of groups; reading messages and responding to them; posting new messages. There are certain rules about what kind of messages should not be posted on the newsgroups. See more about this "netiquette" from Smith (1993) and the newsgroups "news.announce.newusers" and "news.newusers.questions", where netiquette information is posted on a regular basis. For a new user it is wise to follow discussions in a newsgroup for a while before posting a message.

There are only few newsgroups dealing directly with forestry related matters. Here are two examples:

sci.bio.ecology: Ecological Society of America Linked to mailing list ecolog-l@umdd.umd.edu
bionet.agroforestry: Agroforestry research More thorough explanations and more lists are described in the following electronic articles: (Smith 1993, da Silva 1994)

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards are computer services for which you have to make a connection to a specific computer (usually by telnet or by a packet-network connection). The messages on bulletin board discussion groups are not broadcast out of the bulletin board system. Many links for the telnet-connection to bulletin boards may also be found from the Internet gopher and World Wide Web services. Some bulletin boards are accessible with a password only. Bulletin boards for agriculture may also contain forestry information. Bulletin board systems may also provide a personal mailbox, access to databases and bibliographies etc. Some bulletin boards are free and some require a fee for their use.

FedWorld: A free bulletin board service of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), USA. TELNET to "fedworld.doc.gov" to access FedWorld and several other U .S. governmental services (e.g. ALF Agricultural Library Forum).
CUFAN: TELNET to "eureka.clemson.edu", login as Public
UNEPNET-LAC: (United Nations Environmental Program Network - Environmental Information Exchange System for Latin America and Caribbean). International packet network address (X.25): 033409060009000. Direct Internet access will be provided later. E-mail: uneprolac@igc.org
EcoNet: TELNET to "igc.apc.org"; new users sign in as "new". This service is not free. Internet access costs about USD 3.00 per hour. E-mail: econet@igc.apc.org. EcoNet is located in the USA and claims to have 10,000 users.
Greennet: TELNET to "apc.org". E-mail: support@gn.apc.org. Greennet is located in England and claims to have 15,000 users.
LTERnet: Long Term Ecological Research network includes bibliographies, databases, newsletters and mailboxes. TELNET to "LTERnet.edu".
ForestNet: A commercial bulletin board system in Canada, have announced to start in August 1994. ForestNet will provide buying and selling forums for timber, technical discussion forums etc. Currently only DIAL-IN service at 1-503-344- 5321. More information by e-mail: mdesmond@forestnet.com

2.2 Electronic Publications

Newsletters

Newsletters are usually electronically distributed versions of printed newsletters. The distribution methods are variable: mailing lists, almanacs, anonymous FTP, gopher etc. Terms are still overlapping. Here is a small collection of newsletters and directions how to obtain them.

CEDAR Newsletter: CEDAR, the Central European Environmental Data Request Facility is administered by the International Society for Environmental Protection (ISEP). Accessible with at "gopher://pan.cedar.univie.ac.at".
Sylvanet: is a quarterly publication of the International Forestry Programs in the College of Forest Resources at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. This list is the electronic version of the hard-copy newsletter begun in 1986. Sylvanet is available with gopher at "gopher://dewey.lib.ncsu.edu/11/ library/stacks/sylvanet" or by e-mail subscription from "listserv@ncsu.edu".
ERINYES (ERIN Newsletter): Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN), Australia. Available with gopher at "gopher://kaos.erin.gov.au/11/info/news".
DATABITS: Long Term Ecological Research network (LTERnet) Data Management Bulletin. Available with gopher at "gopher://lternet.edu". If you do not have gopher you can TELNET to "LTERnet.edu" or use anonymous FTP to "ftp.LTERnet.edu".
Taiga News: Quarterly newsletter of Taiga Rescue Network. Available with gopher " gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org/11/environment/forests/trn/tn09". Electronic version may appear a week or two before the printed version (available from Roger Olsson, " rogols@nordnet.se".
Earth Negotiations Bulletin: A daily report on the second session of the Intergovernmental Committee on the Convention of Biological Diversity (ICCBD) published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Available at "gopher://igc.apc.org/11/environment/Earth Negotiations Bulletin/".
Climate Change Bulletin: Quarterly bulletin published by the interim secretariat for the UN Climate Change Convention, the Secretariat of the UNEP/WMO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the UNEP/WMO Information Unit on Climate Change (IUCC ). Available at "gopher://gopher.undp.org/11/ungophers/newsletters/".

Electronic journals

Flora Online: A peer-reviewed electronic journal for systematic botany. Available through Internet anonymous FTP and gopher at "huh.harvard.edu", and through subscription on MS-DOS-formatted diskettes. Editor: Richard H. Zander, visbms@ubvms.cc. buffalo.edu.

Mail based services

Ecological Data EXchange (EDEX) and Jointly Accessible Research Samples (JARS) (Forest Ecology). More information by e-mail from goforest @gopher.yale.edu.

Almanacs are designed for communication by e-mail. They are usually used for distributing newsletters and text files, when a one-way service is called a "Server", but they also run mailing lists, which are called "Forums". The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Extension Service is running an almanac server at almanac@esusda.gov. Their forums are usually restricted to the extension employees.

For example, the Research Results Database (RRDB), contains brief summaries of recent research from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Economic Research Service (ERS). For details, send the e-mail message "send rrdb catalog" to almanac@esusda.gov. To receive notices of new RRDB titles, send the message "subscribe usda.rrdb". Other U.S. extension service network almanacs are listed below. Send E-mail with a message "send catalog" to any of these to get a listing of information content.

   Address                         Location
   -------                         --------
   almanac@oes.orst.edu            Oregon State University
   almanac@ecn.purdue.edu          Purdue University, Indiana
   almanac@acenet.auburn.edu       Auburn University, Alabama
   almanac@empire.cce.cornell.edu  Cornell University, New York
   almanac@twosocks.ces.ncsu.edu   North Carolina State Univ.
   almanac@silo.ucdavis.edu        Univ. of California at Davis
   almanac@ext.missouri.edu        Univ. of Missouri at Columbia
   almanac@joe.uwex.edu            Univ. of Wisconsin

2.3 Archives and Databases

Bibliographies and OPACS: There might be many other services accessible via the TELNET-command on the Internet. The difficulty is that if one is not aware of the existence of a special collection or the coverage of a general university library, useful resources are not taken into account. What follows are only a few examples of Online Public Accessible Catalog Services (OPACS) with a certain relevance to forest sciences. Many library catalogs are also accessible with gopher.

The MELVYL Catalog, Univ. of California

gives access to the FS INFO database. TELNET to "melvyl.ucop.edu". Here MELVYL is used as a gateway to the U.S. Forest Service Information system and its FS INFO bibliographic database.
University of Minnesota Gopher,

provides access to bibliographies in Social Sciences in Forestry and other topics at "gopher://minerva.forestry.umn.edu/11/".
The Forest Resources Collection

at the University of Washington has been mentioned as a special forestry collection. TELNET to "uwin.u.washington.edu/", select LIB, UWLIB or LCAT.
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL)

have excellent collections. TELNET to "pac.carl.org".
the Plant Scienes Library of Oxford,

in Europe, is accessible via OLIS, the Oxford University Library System. TELNET to "library.ox.ac.uk".
The catalog of the libraries at the University of Helsinki.

TELNET to "hyk.helsinki.fi", Login as "HELLO TUNNUS,USER.CLAS02". This is a VTLS library. To exit, use the command "/quit". The Forest Library collection number is 2500.
The ETH Library in Zurich

offers also a fee-based online ordering system. TELNET to "ethics.ethz.ch".
The Library of Congress

has its card catalog and other information available at "gopher://marvel.loc .gov/" or with TELNET access to "marvel.loc.gov" (login as "gopher").
A very good list covering over 400 research libraries

with their access information and indexing software may be found at " ftp:// ftp.utdallas.edu/pub/gopher/Libraries" or at " gopher://gopher.utdallas.edu/11/ Libraries".

The program HYTELNET,

provides connect information to a number of OPACs and other collections. You may test an Unix client with TELNET to "access.usask.ca", login as "hytelnet". HYTELNET information has also been transferred to some gopher servers, e.g. " gopher://gopher.isnet.is/11/hytelnet".

Directories: Several different directory services for finding people are available over Internet. Phonebooks (WHOIS, CSO, X.500) or so called White Pages are software which have their own clients but are also accessible via gopher or the World Wide Web software. The directory servers are all hierarchically linked to a world wide system. Usually the searcher has to know the organization where the searched is located before reaching the user information. If you do not have access to a client of these directory servers, there are several gopher-servers which provide gateways to these directories.

Text archives: Several types of text archives which include a multitude of topics are currently found. The most common types accessible via Internet are FTP file archives, gopher file archives and World Wide Web hypertext archives. A network of Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) which index files in an agreed form has over 500 databases available for searching. Some gopher servers also use WAIS indexing for their file-archives.

Topic:                            Source URL:
--------------------------------  -----------------------------------------
Australian Environment Portfolio  http://kaos.erin.gov.au/portfolio/portfolio.
html
National Agricultural Library     gopher://locus.nalusda.gov/
Institute of Forest Genetics      gopher://s27w007.pswfs.gov/
Forest genetics                   gopher://picea.cfnr.colostate.edu/
USDA Extension Service            gopher://esusda.gov/
International law and conventions gopher://gopher.law.cornell.edu/11/foreign/
CIESIN Global Change              gopher://infoserver.ciesin.org/
Ecological Data EXchange          gopher://gopher.yale.edu/
LTERnet                           gopher://lternet.edu/
U. Minnesota Forestry Library     gopher://minerva.forestry.umn.edu/
Populus genetics                  ftp://poplar1.cfr.washington.edu/
Missouri Botanical Garden         ftp://mobot.org/
EcoNet 			          ftp://igc.org/
FAQ-files of Usenet newsgroups    ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet/

Examples of WAIS-databases which are also searchable with a gopher client:

NOAA Environmental Services Data Directory
- USFWS Region 9 Info Resource Management Data Administration agricultural market news (USDA)
- USDA Current Research Info System (CRIS) To search CRIS database with gopher or WWW-client, use the following URL: "gopher://infoserver.ciesin.org/7waissrc:/catalog/Agriculture/usdacris". CRIS/USDA contains information on ongoing research in USDA and state university research programs. These include project summaries, progress reports and recent publications.
To experiment a WAIS client for searching WAIS databases, you can TELNET to " sunsite.unc.edu" (login as "swais").

Numerical Data
Most numerical databases in forestry are not yet accessible via Internet, but require packet network connections or have restricted access. FedWorld bulletin board system provides access to many U.S. statistical databases.

Software repositories: There is no special archive for software in forestry. Special software may be found in University and Research Institute archives. e.g. Petawawa, Canada by anonymous FTP to "pi19.pnfi.forestry.ca", directory is /pub. The URL to this service is "ftp://pi19.pnfi.forestry.ca@pub/". More and more computer software are available at the so called Internet anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers. These servers allow anonymous login and usually the users e-mail address should be given as password when logging in. FTP-software may also be used for text or binary file transfers between any two computers connected to the Internet. FTP-archives may be automatically searched for a particular program name with so called "Archie" programs.

2.4 Network Access and Navigation Tools Äonly short descriptionsÅ

Here are short explanations to some of the tools mentioned earlier and links where to obtain the software (see EARN 1994, Hahn and Stout 1994).

TELNET: provides a live online connection to another host. This kind of a service is sometimes provided with other programs, such as "sethost".
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): provides a direct connection between two computers for moving text and binary files between them.
Anonymous FTP: A FTP server may be set up to provide free access to a restricted group of files on a host. When logging in the visitors answer to User: is "anonymous", " guest" or "visitor". For a password request the visitor should give her e-mail address. Some European anonymous FTP servers for FAQ files are listed below:


   ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/FAQ
   ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net/pub/newsarchive/news.answers
   ftp://grasp1.univ-lyon1.fr/pub/faq
   ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/usenet/news.answers
   ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet

Gopher: Gopher software is a distributed file delivery service. It allows the users to browse files in different locations as if they were all local. The information is provided as a series of nested menus. The following types of items are possible to identify: a subdirectory, a text file, a binary file, a sound file, an image file, a phone book (directory information), an index search , a telnet session. Gopher clients may be found with Internet anonymous FTP at " ftp://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/gopher/".
Archie: is an information system which allows the user to locate information in the international TCP/IP network (Internet). Archie databases in Europe are maintained at (if you use TELNET, login as "archie"):

   archie.univie.ac.at       Austria
   archie.funet.fi           Finland
   archie.th-darmstadt.de    Germany
   archie.doc.ic.ac.uk       Great Britain
   archie.unipi.it           Italy
   archie.luth.se            Sweden
   archie.switch.ch          Switzerland

A local client may be obtained at the archie sites with anonymous FTP in the directories "/pub/archie/clients" or "/archie/clients".

Veronica: is a search tool with which you are able to make a keyword search over all gopher titles at one time. It is also possible to limit a search to the directory type of menu titles only. You can access a veronica server with your gopher client. In Europe, a good Veronica server is at University of Bergen, Norway: "gopher://veronica.uiub.no:2347/7" and another at University of Koeln, " gopher://veronica.uni-koeln.de:2347/7". The original information and instructions written by Steven Foster may be found at University of Reno: " gopher://veronica.scs.unr.edu:70/00/veronica/how-to-query-veronica". Another program which does similar searches as Veronica is called "Jughead".
WAIS: is a distributed information retrieval system which helps searching databases over the network. WAIS uses natural language queries to find relevant documents.

   System:                   Source location:
   Various operating systems ftp://ftp.wais.com/pub/freeware/ 
   MS-DOS                    ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/wais/DOS

WWW - World Wide Web hypertext and hypermedia: More and more information over Internet is posted in hypertext or hypermedia format and it is delivered with HTTP (HyperText Tranfer Protocol), instead of gopher, ftp or Telnet. Here are links to sources to some of the most common browsers, which have versions for several operating systems.

   Software:                 Source location:
   ---------                 ----------------
   NCSA Mosaic               ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web 
   X Mosaic for VMS          ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/bin/vms 
   Lynx                      ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/lynx 
   Cello                     ftp://fatty.law.cornell.edu/pub/LII/Cello 
   Emacs hypertext browser   ftp://moose.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3

News: Usenet news client software are freely available for most computer systems:

   Software:                 Source location:
   ---------                 ----------------
   rn  (Unix)                ftp://lib.tmc.edu/
   trn (Unix)                ftp://coe.montana.edu/
   nn (Unix)                 ftp://dkuug.dk/
   tin (Unix)                ftp://ftp.germany.eu.net/
   ANU-NEWS (VMS)            ftp://kuhub.cc.ukans.edu/
   News (Mac)                ftp://ftp.apple.com/
   Trumpet (MS-DOS)          ftp://ftp.utas.edu.au/

Hytelnet: A hypertext tool which provides access information to over 1400 services on the Internet, including libraries (OPACS). The software is available with anonymous FTP from "ftp.usask.ca" in the "/pub/hytelnet" directory, or from "ftp .eff.org" in the "pub/Net_info/Guidebooks/Hytelnet directory" (Scott 1992).
WHOIS: provides directory service to network users. This is a good way of finding electronic mail addresses and telephone numbers. There is also a gateway between gopher and whois directory services. Two other common directory services are called CSO and X.500.

3. Future

Future of forestry information

Internet access has been growing in exponential figures since 1993 and the growth seems to continue during 1994. More and more different types of services are appearing. This year will probably be also the year of commercialization of the Internet. The agencies and networks which provide forestry information, such as CGNET, FAO, UN/ECE, CABI and others, are probably bound to use this information highway in an increasing manner in the future.

Need of a central directory server

There is a clear need for a central directory server for providing the forestry community a clearinghouse of the multitude of services accessible via the Internet. Pilot projects will appear probably during this year.

Acknowledgements

The help and knowledge of Alois Kempf, WSL Birmensdorf, has been indispensable during the preparation of this paper.

References and bibliography

EARN Staff 1994. Guide to network resource tools, RFC 1580, FYI 23. EARN Association, Network Working Group, March 1994. 101pp. (read with gopher or retrieve with ftp).
ES Almanac Administration 1994. Primary topic catalog. Revision 08 Feb 1994. US Department of Agriculture Extension Service, Washington D.C.
Goffe, B. 1993. Resources for economists on the Internet. Available at "ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net/pub/newsarchive/news.anwers/econ-resources-faq.Z" ( 26 Oct 1993)".
Hahn, H.; Stout, R. 1994. The Internet complete reference. Berkeley CA, Osborne McGraw-Hill. 818 pp.
Krol, E. 1992. The whole Internet user's guide & catalog. Sebastobol, California, USA. O'Reilly & Associates Inc. 376 pp.
Lawrence, DC 1994 . Mailing lists linked to Usenet news. URL: "ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net/pub/newsarchive/news.answers/mail/news-gateways/".
da Silva, S. 1994. FAQ of mailing lists over Internet. (19 March 1994), URL: "ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net/pub/newsarchive/news.answers/mail/mailing-lists/". (Information used with permission from the author).
Smith, Una 1993: The Biologist's guide to Internet resources, v1.7, 10 Nov 1993. URL: "gopher://calypso-2.oit.unc.edu/11/../.pub/academic/biology/ecology%2bevolution/bioguide".
Scott, P. 1992. "Using HYTELNET to Access Internet Resources" The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3(4): 15-21. (To retrieve this article, send the following message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU: GET SCOTT PRV3N4 F=MAIL or use gopher at URL: "gopher://info.lib.uh.edu/00/articles/e-journals/uhlibrary/pacsreview/v3/n4/scott.3n4").
Tuss, J. 1994. Roadmaps to the Internet: Finding the best guidebook for your needs. Online, January 1994: 14-26.