A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources
                        Version 1.5, 13 July 1993

        Una Smith       Department of Biology           smith-una@yale.edu
                        Yale University
                        New Haven, Connecticut  06511


-*- 4. Commercial Services

    The three most common types of commercial services are (1) restricted-use
    computer accounts allowing Internet access (e-mail or full access) via
    modem from personal computers, (2) on-line bibliographic databases that
    can be searched via modem or over the Internet, and (3) access via modem
    or the Internet to private Usenet-style special-interest networks, but
    only e-mail access to the rest of the Internet.  This third type of
    service is rapidly disappearing as vendors add full Internet access to
    subscribers to keep them from going to another service vendor.

    For the benefit of people without full Internet access (telnet and FTP
    in addition to e-mail), Peter Kaminski maintains a list of commercial
    access providers (Kaminski 1993).  E-mail requests for this list can be
    sent to info-deli-server@netcom.com:  use "send PDIAL" as the subject.

    The best sources of information about Internet resources, for readers
    who do not have access to the Internet, are the books on the Internet
    listed in the bibliography, and many other published literature with the
    words "Internet", "online" or "database" in the title.  There are many
    such books available now, as publishers everywhere realize that money
    can be made on the new Electronic Frontier.

    However, much of the information in these compendium books is out of date
    even before the book appears in print.  Also, it is generally compiled by
    people who are not well acquainted with the materials, and thus poorly
    organized.  Much of the information was gathered by soliciting data from
    administrators or suppliers of databases.  This data, in current form,
    is best gathered directly from the source, via the Internet.  The best
    strategy is to learn to cruise the Internet yourself, with the help of a
    a "tool" book such as Kehoe (1992) or Krol (1992; or if you can't find
    those at your local bookstore, some alternatives are Goldman 1992, Lane
    and Summerhill 1992, LaQuey and Ryer 1992, Malamud 1992 or Tennant et al.
    1993) and learn where in the Internet to look periodically for notices
    about resources of interest to you.


-*- 5. Useful and Important FAQs

    You will learn a great deal about the Internet and what it has to offer
    if you read some of these FAQs.  If you still want to know more, browse
    around in Usenet.  Also, a number of books have been published recently
    that give a very thorough guide to the Internet;  see the bibliography
    and check your local academic bookstore or university library.

    The files below are stored in pub/usenet/news.answers/ in the anonymous
    FTP archive on rtfm.mit.edu, and are posted frequently to the Usenet
    newsgroups news.answers, comp.answers and sci.answers, as appropriate.
    See section 3.6.2, Anonymous FTP for help retrieving these FAQs via e-mail
    or FTP.  See section 2.3.3, Usenet FAQs about Usenet for a list of titles.

               Title                            Archive filename
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

                        General resources

    Gopher [FAQ]                                gopher-faq
    comp.infosystems.wais FAQ                   wais-faq/getting-started
    WAIS FAQ                                    wais-faq/sources
    FAQ: College Email Addresses                college-email/part[1-3]
    FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses  finding-addresses
    FAQ: International E-mail accessibility     mail/country-codes
    How to Get Information about Networks       network-info/part1
    Public Dialup Internet Access List          pdial
    Updated Internet Services List              internet-services
    Mailing Lists Available in Usenet           bit/gatelist
    How to find sources                         finding-sources
    Anonymous FTP List - FAQ                    ftp-list/faq
    Anonymous FTP List - Sites                  ftp-list/sites[1-3]
    Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list     mas-software

                        Scientific resources

    A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources   biology/guide
    Biological Information Theory               biology/info-theory
        and Chowder Society
    Computer Science Technical Report           techreport-sites/list
        Archive Sites
    Computer Graphics Resource Listing          graphics/resources-list/
                                                    part[1-3]
    FAQ in comp.ai.neural-nets                  neural-net-faq
    Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ          weather-data
    Space FAQ                                   space/* [15 parts]


    Amos Bairoch has assembled a very useful list of Molecular Biology
    Archives and Mailservers which is available on many FTP sites, and in
    the Usenet newsgroup bionet.announce.

    Paul Hengen has written an FAQ about new methods in molecular biology for
    the bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts newsgroup.  It is available via anonymous
    FTP on ncifcrf.gov in pub/methods/FAQlist.

    Virgil Sealy and Lisa Nyman have written an FAQ for comp.infosystems.gis
    (and the gated GIS-L mailing list).  You can also get this FAQ by sending
    e-mail to gis-faq-request@abraxas.adelphi.edu (no message necessary), or
    you can get it via anonymous FTP from dg-rtp.dg.com in the file /gis/faq.
    Bill Thoen has written "Internet Resources for GIS/CARTO/Earth Science",
    which is available via anonymous FTP from csn.org in the COGS/ directory.

    Ken Boschert keeps The Electronic Zoo, a list of mailing lists, archives,
    and dial-up BBS systems that have something to do with animals (including
    humans).  The most recent version can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from
    wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/techreports/wustl.edu/compmed/elec_zoo.txt.
    The list has many items not mentioned in this guide.

    Lee Hancock keeps Internet/Bitnet Health Sciences Resources, a document
    that can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from ftp.sura.net, in the pub/nic/
    directory, file name medical.resources.<version>.  In the same directory
    is Wilfred Drew's Not Just Cows, a guide to Internet resources in
    agriculture and related sciences;  get the file named agricultural.list.


-*- 5.1. What's an FAQ and where can I get one?

    There are now hundreds of Internet documents, including this one, written
    expressly to answer frequently asked questions.  They are often refered
    to in the Usenet community as FAQs.  You will find them in the Usenet
    newsgroup news.answers (and subsets in sci.answers, comp.answers, and
    news.answers.newusers).  The Usenet FAQ repository is an anonymous FTP
    archive on rtfm.mit.edu (RTFM stands for Read The <bleep> Manual), in
    the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/.  See section 3.6.2, Anonymous
    FTP, for details, including instructions for retrieving any Usenet FAQ
    via e-mail.


-*- 5.2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?

    Please, don't ask this in a newsgroup or mailing list.  It's rude!

    The quickest, most efficient way to answer this is to call or write to X
    directly.  If anyone can help you with this, it's X.  To date, most
    biologists don't have e-mail addresses, or if they do, they don't read
    their e-mail very often, so you really are better off contacting them
    directly.  If you must try to find this information via the computer
    networks, please start by reading Kamens (1993a) or Lamb (1993) or the
    relevant section of one of the books listed in the bibliography.  Also,
    you can check for the latest strategy in bionet.users.addresses.  But
    wait, there's more:  many gopher servers listed in this guide have
    searchable directories of biologists (see section 3.2, Directories).


-*- 5.3. How to find a good graduate program?

    Go talk to the undergraduate or graduate advisor in your department,
    if you're a college student.  Start browsing through the scientific
    journals, and the new book stack in the library.  Ask your favorite
    professors for advice.  Sadly, the Internet can not be all things to all
    people, and questions about how to pick graduate programs generally
    do not get satisfactory replies.

    One way you can use the Internet to explore graduate programs is by
    browsing through campus information directories via gopher.


-*- 5.4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?

    All the biology-related Usenet newsgroups (since 1991) are archived for
    searching via gopher, WAIS, and anonymous FTP on ftp.bio.indiana.edu, in
    the directory /usenet/bionet/.  The bionet newsgroups (some dating back
    to 1987) are archived for WAIS and anonymous FTP on net.bio.net.  Browse
    through gopher land for additional Usenet newsgroup archives.

    Most listserver mailing lists are archived on the computer where they
    are administered.  To subscribe and get an index of log files on the
    listserver archive for the ECOLOG-L mailing list, for example, send
    e-mail to listserv@UMDD.umd.edu with the text:

        subscribe ECOLOG-L Your Name
        index ECOLOG-L


-*- 5.5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?

    The bionet.jobs newsgroup is a good place to start, but you might also
    want to check the ECOLOG-L listserver mailing list, which is run by
    the Ecological Society of America and carries many job announcements.
    Most other newsgroups and mailing lists carry occasional job notices.
    The American Physiological Society offers announcements appearing in
    The Physiologist via gopher on gopher.uth.tmc.edu (port 3300).  Usenet
    has several newsgroups devoted to jobs:  misc.jobs.*.


-*- Acknowledgements

    This guide is Santa Fe Institute Working Paper # 93-06-038.

    This guide would not have been written without the financial support and
    intellectual tolerance of Duke and Yale Universities;  it was organized
    (or organized itself) during the 1992 Complex Systems Summer School of
    the Santa Fe Institute.

    Many, many thanks to

        James Beach, Harvey Chinn, Dan Davison, Reinhard Doelz,
        John Garavelli, Don Gilbert, Rob Harper, Dan Jacobson,
        David Kristofferson, Francis Ouellette, Renato Sabatini,
        and Tom Schneider,

    who have provided substantial ideas and material for this guide and/or
    advice on related issues.  Harvey Chinn has served as my editor, and
    many improvements of organization were suggested by him.  Additional
    material and suggestions were contributed by:

        David Bridge, Steve Clark, Jemery Day, Josh Hayes, Tom Jacobs,
        Andy Johnston, Jonathan Kamens, Jim McIntosh, Dean Pentcheff,
        Jon Radel, Ross Smith, Roy Smith, and Christophe Wolfhugel,

    and many, many readers of earlier versions of this guide.  Thank you!

    There exists a (mostly anonymous) cast of thousands who have made very
    large, even enormous voluntary contributions to the resources mentioned
    in this guide, and who are largely responsible for the thing we call the
    Internet in its broadest sense.  They must all be very proud of what
    they have helped to create.


-*- Bibliography

    Anonymous (1993) "Total traffic through uunet for the last 2 weeks".
        Usenet news.lists, 8 July.  Posted by newsstats@uunet.uu.net.

    Barr, D. and M. Horton (1993) "Rules for posting to Usenet".  Usenet
        news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename posting-rules/part1.

    Brader, M. and J. Schwarz (1993) "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
        about Usenet".  Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename
        usenet-faq/part1.

    Crepin-Leblond, O.M.J. (1993) "FAQ: International E-mail accessibility".
        Usenet comp.mail.misc.  FAQ archive:  mail/country-codes.

    Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993a) "Anonymous FTP List - FAQ".
        Usenet comp.misc.  FAQ archive:  ftp-list/faq.

    Granrose, J., M. Jones and T. Czarnik (1993b) "Anonymous FTP List - Sites".
        Usenet comp.misc.  FAQ archive:  ftp-list/sites[1-3].

    Fotis, N.C. (1993) "Computer Graphics Resource Listing".  Usenet
        comp.graphics.  FAQ archive filename graphics/resources-list/part[1-3].

    Garavelli, J. (1992) "Announcements of the Protein Information
        Repository".  Usenet bionet.molbio.proteins, December.

    Goldmann, N. (1992) "Online Information Hunting".  Windcrest, Blue Ridge
        Summit, PA.

    Harris, R. (1993) "Computer Science Technical Report Archive Sites".
        Usenet comp.doc.techreports.  FAQ archive:  techreport-sites/list.

    Kahin, B. (1992) "Building Information Infrastructure:  Issues in
        the Development of the National Research and Education Network".
        McGraw Hill, New York.  432 pages.

    Kamens, J.I. (1993a) "FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses".  Usenet
        comp.mail.misc.  FAQ archive filename finding-addresses.

    Kamens, J.I. (1993b) "How to find sources (READ THIS BEFORE POSTING)".
        Usenet comp.mail.misc.  FAQ archive filename finding-sources.

    Kamens, J.I. (1993c) "How to become a USENET site".  Usenet
        news.admin.misc.  FAQ archive filename site-setup.

    Kamens, J.I. (1993d) "Introduction to the news.answers newsgroup".
        Usenet news.answers.  FAQ archive filename news-answers/introduction.

    Kamens, J.I. (1993e) "Mail Archive Server (MAS) software list".
        Usenet comp.mail.misc.  FAQ archive filename mas-software.

    Kaminski, P. (1993) "Public Dialup Internet Access List (PDIAL)".  Usenet
        alt.internet.access.wanted FAQ archive filename pdial.

    Keen, G., G. Redgrave, J. Lawton, M. Cinkosky, S. Mishra, J. Fickett,
        and C. Burks (1992) "Access to molecular biology databases".
        Mathematical Comput. Modelling 16:93-101.

    Kehoe, B.P. (1992) "Zen and the Art of the Internet:  A Beginner's
        Guide to the Internet", 2nd Edition (July).  Prentice Hall,
        Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  112 pages.  The 1st Edition, (February)
        is available in Postscript format via anonymous FTP from
        ftp.cs.widener.edu and many other Internet archives.

    Krol, E. (1992) "The Whole Internet:  Catalog & User's Guide".
        O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA.  376 pages.

    Lamb, D. (1993) "FAQ: College Email Addresses".  Usenet soc.college.
        FAQ archive filename college-email/part[1-3].

 Lane, E.S. and C.A. Summerhill (1992) "An Internet Primer for
        Information Professionals:  A Basic Guide to Networking Technology".
        Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT.  ~200 pages.  In press.

    LaQuey, T.L. (1992?) editor, "The User's Directory of Computer Networks".
        Digital Press.  ~1000 pages.

    LaQuey, T.L. and J.C. Ryer (1992) "The Internet Companion:  A Beginner's
        Guide to Global Networking".  Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.,
        Reading, MA.  208 pages.

    Lawrence, D.C., G. Woods and G. Spafford (1993) "How to Create a New
        Usenet Newsgroup".  Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive:
        creating-newsgroups/part1.

    Leech, J. (1993) "Space FAQ".  Usenet sci.astro.  FAQ archive space/*.

    Malamud, C. (1992) "Exploring the Internet:  A Technical Travelogue".
        Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  376 pages.

    McIntosh, J. (1993a) "NetNews/Listserv Gateway Policy."  Usenet bit.admin.
        FAQ archive:  bit/policy.

    McIntosh, J. (1993b) "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet."  Usenet
        bit.admin.  FAQ archive:  bit/gatelist.

    Prechelt, L. (1993) "FAQ in comp.ai.neural-nets".  Usenet
        comp.ai.neural-nets.  FAQ archive:  neural-net-faq.

    Reid, B. (1993a) "Usenet Readership Report for January 1993".  Usenet
        news.lists.

    Reid, B. (1993b) "Usenet Readership Summary Report for January 1993".
        Usenet news.lists.

    Schneider, T. (1993) "Biological Information Theory and Chowder Society".
        Usenet bionet.info-theory.  FAQ archive:  biology/info-theory.

    da Silva, S. and C. Von Rospach and G. Spafford (1993) "Publicly
        Accessible Mailing Lists".  Usenet news.lists.  FAQ archive:
        news.lists[1-4].

    Smith, Una R. (1993) "A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources."
        Usenet sci.bio.  FAQ archive:  biology/guide.

    Spafford, G. (1993) "USENET Software: History and Sources".  Usenet
        news.admin.misc.  FAQ archive filename usenet-software/part1.

    Spafford, G. and R. Atkinson (1992) "How to Get Information about
        Networks".  Usenet news.admin.misc.  FAQ archive:  network-info/part1.

    Spafford, G. and M. Horton (1992) "Introduction to news.announce".
        Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename
        news-announce-intro/part1.

    Spafford, G. and A.J. Offutt VI (1992) "Hints on writing style for
        Usenet".  Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename
        usenet-writing-style/part1.

    Spafford, G. and C. Salzenberg (1992) "What is Usenet?".  Usenet
        news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename what-is-usenet/part1.

    Spafford, G. and C. Von Rospach (1992) "A Primer on How to Work With the
        Usenet Community".  Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive
        filename usenet-primer/part1.

    Stern, I. (1993) "Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ".  Usenet
        sci.geo.meteorology.  FAQ archive filename weather-data.

    Templeton, B. (1991) "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on
        Netiquette".  Usenet news.announce.newusers.  FAQ archive filename
        emily-postnews/part1.

    Tennant, R., J. Ober and A.G. Lipow (1993) "Crossing the Internet
        Threshold:  an Instructional Handbook", 1st Edition.  Library
        Solution Press, San Carlos, CA.  134 pages.

    Thomas, E. (1993) "Revised LISTSERV System Reference Library".
        Listserv@BITNIC.educom.edu, release 1.7c.  Retrievable from any
        listserver using the mail message "send listserv refcard".

    UofMN Gopher Team (1993) "Gopher Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)".
        Usenet comp.infosystems.gopher.  FAQ archive:  gopher-faq.

    Wohler, B. (1993) "NN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers".
        Usenet news.software.nn.  FAQ archive:  nn-faq.

    Woodbury, G.W. (1993) "UNIX BBS Software FAQ with Answers".  Usenet
        comp.bbs.misc.  FAQ archive:  unix-faq/bbs-software.

    Yanoff, S. (1993) "Updated Internet Services List".  Usenet
        alt.internet.services.  Available from rtfm.mit.edu FAQ
        archive as filename internet-services.