Surfing the Internet

Surfing the INTERNET: an Introduction Version 2.0.2 December 15,
1992 c. 1992 Jean Armour Polly. Material quoted from other authors
was compiled from public Internet posts by those authors. No copyright
claims are made for those compiled quotes. Permission to reprint is
granted for nonprofit educational purposes. Please let me know if you
find this compilation useful. This first (much shorter) version of this
appeared in the June, 1992 Wilson Library Bulletin. Please include this
entire copyright/copy notice if you duplicate this document. Updates
may be ftp'd:
ftp nysernet.org (192.77.173.2) login anonymous password
[email protected] cd /pub/resources/guides
Please choose the most current version of surfing.the.internet.
Please send updates and corrections to: [email protected]
Today I'll travel to Minnesota, Texas, California, Cleveland, New
Zealand, Sweden, and England. I'm not frantically packing, and I won't
pick up any frequent flyer mileage. In fact, I'm sipping cocoa at my
Macintosh. My trips will be electronic, using the computer on my desk,
communications software, a modem, and a standard phone line.
I'll be using the Internet, the global network of computers and their
interconnections, which lets me skip like a stone across oceans and
continents and control computers at remote sites. I haven't "visited"
Antarctica yet, but it is only a matter of time before a host computer
becomes available there!
This short, non-technical article is an introduction to Internet
communications and how librarians and libraries can benefit from net
connectivity. Following will be descriptions of electronic mail,
discussion lists, electronic journals and texts, and resources available to
those willing to explore. Historical details about the building of the
Internet and technical details regarding network speed and bandwidth
are outside the scope of this piece.

What's Out There Anyway?
Until you use a radio receiver, you are unaware of the wealth of
programming, music, and information otherwise invisible to you.
Computer networks are much the same. About one million people
worldwide use the Internet daily. Information packet traffic rises by
12% each month.
About 727,000 host computers are connected, according to a January,
1992 report (Network Working Group Request for Comments: 1296)
by Mark K. Lottor. So, what's all the excitement about? What's zipping
around in that fiber and cable and ether, anyway?
On my electronic adventure I browsed the online catalog at the
University Library in Liverpool, England, leaving some "Hi there from
Liverpool, New York" mail for the librarian.
I downloaded some new Macintosh anti-virus software from Stanford's
SUMEX archive.
Then I checked a few databases for information needed for this article,
and scanned today's news stories.
I looked at the weather forecast for here in the East and for the San
Francisco Bay area, forwarding that information to a friend in San Jose
who would read it when he woke up. The Internet never closes!
After that I read some electronic mail from other librarians in Israel,
Korea, England, Australia and all over the U.S. We're exchanging
information about how to keep viruses off public computers, how to
network CDROMS, and how to reink inkjet printer cartridges, among
other things.
I monitor about twelve discussion groups. Mail sent to the group
address is distributed to all other "subscribers". It's similar to a
round-robin discussion. These are known variously as mailing lists,
discussion groups, reflectors, aliases, or listservs, depending on what
type they are and how they are driven. Subscriptions are free.

One of these groups allows children and young adults all over the
world to communicate with each other. Kids from Cupertino to
Moscow are talking about their lives, pets, families, hope and dreams.
It's interesting to see that Nintendo is a universal language!
Teachers exchange lesson plans and bibliographies in another group,
and schools participate in projects like the global market basket survey.
For this project, students researched what foods a typical family of four
would buy and prepare over one week's time. Their results were posted
to the global project area, where they could be compared with reports
from kids all over North and South America, India, Scandinavia, and
Asia. It opened up discussions of dietary laws, staple foods, and
cultural differences.
Other lists explore the worlds of library administration, reference,
mystery readers, romance readers, bird-watcher hotlines, cat enthusiasts,
ex-Soviet Union watchers, packet radio techies, and thousands more.
There is even a list to announce the creation of new lists!
The Power of the Net
A net connection in a school is like having multiple foreign exchange
students in the classroom all the time. It promotes active, participatory
learning. Participating in a discussion group is like being at an ongoing
library conference. All the experts are Out There, waiting to be asked.
Want to buy a CDROM drive? Send one query and "ask" the 3,000
folks on PACS-L (Public Access Computer Systems list) for advice. In
a few hours you'll have personal testimonies