Forestry information resources on the Internet

October, 1994.
Jarmo Saarikko
Finnish Forest Research Institute METLA, EMIT-laboratory,
Unioninkatu 40 A, FIN-00170 HELSINKI, Finland
Jarmo.Saarikko@metla.fi
[previous version]
[This file is http://www.metla.fi/~saarikko/doc/Toronto94-09.htm]
[most recent version is at http://www.metla.fi/guides/forestry-resources.html] Contents:
Abstract
Introduction
The Uniform Resource Locator URL
Books on Internet
What is there?
Netiquette
Discussion groups
Mailing lists
Mailing lists using gateways to Usenet
Newsgroups on Usenet
Bulletin boards
Electronic publications
Newsletters
Electronic journals
Mail based services
Archives and databases
Bibliographies and OPACS
Directory services
Text archives
WAIS databases
Numerical data
Network access tools
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References and bibliography

ABSTRACT

Internet and some specific software tools have provided researchers increasingly easy access to information which has earlier been searched by trained information specialists alone. More and more research institutions are joining Internet, often creating access to new databases and information. American governmental institutions have become a good example of this information sharing. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a virtual network of hypermedia servers which are spread out all over Internet. A document may contain text and figures or it may be a sound or a movie file. WWW provides access to all the earlier Internet tools, such as FTP, gopher, WAIS, Usenet news. Ath the same time new services using the hypermedia capabilities are being created. These include on-line biological collections, free access electronic publications, live simulations of ecological models etc. Scientists are able to post their manuscripts or published works for sharing and commenting. A review of currently available forestry-related information resources is presented.

INTRODUCTION

Internet is currently a decentralised network of national and regional computer networks for research and development. There are over 2 million computers hooked to the Internet, with some 20 million 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). Internet provides fast and inexpensive means and tools for interaction with colleaques and for finding information from various sources. The most common way to communicate is electronic mail, but online searching and browsing of electronic information sources are becoming more and more daily bread for the common user, too. The exchange of electronic messages between local networks or the geographic location of information are no longer obstacles.

Information services over Internet are those produced by the information providers. It is up to the providers in which way they want to offer their information. Until recently, many sources have been rather unorganized, lacking the professional touch of library and information specialists. The exponential increase of Internet usage and information sources over the last two years has forced users to create informative files and directory services to help finding information. Lots of printed and electronic guides are available to help the novice or even an experienced user to navigate in the net. For example, there are files for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), which are usually subject oriented. FYI (For Your Information) files, are user oriented guides to the Internet (manuals, glossaries, etc). An up to date collection of FAQ and FYI files is available on the SWITCH InfoReader by anonymous FTP to "nic.switch.ch", in the directory "/docs" ("ftp://nic.switch.ch/docs"). Another useful collection is the "Clearinghouse of Internet Subject-Oriented Resource Guides" at University of Michigan ("gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu:70/11/inetdirs"). A subject oriented guide for forestry-related resources is available at "http://www.metla.fi/info/Forestry.html" as part of the WWW Virtual Library "http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview2.html".

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The mysterious cryptic codes above are URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses which give the type of resource being accessed and the physical location and path of the file. File servers in the World Wide Web use this common format for locating and requesting files. The syntax is "scheme://host.subdomain.domain[:port]/path/filename". The scheme may be a local file (file:), a file on a FTP-server (ftp:), a file on a hypertext server (http:), a file on a gopher server (gopher:), a telnet-based address (telnet:) for a remote login session, a file on a WAIS-server (wais:) or an Usenet newsgroup from your local newsserver (news:). The port is often optional.

Books on Internet
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 and there are lots of information available on the net. 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. One good example of a printed guide is Hahn & Stout (1993). For a short introduction on Internet tools and the biological resources on Internet, refer to Smith (1993). The most classical reference on Internet is Krol (1992). Some printed books from 1993 have been reviewed in Online magazine (Tuss 1994).

WHAT IS THERE?

Internet has grown to offer an extremely wide variety of information. Earlier on-line connections mainly provided access to commercial databases for information specialists. Now academic users may find job and 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. Quite often the news reach the receiver much sooner than a printed version. Electronic publication of journals and books over Internet will increase dramatically in 1994.

To handle the wealth of information new "web-wanderer", "spider" and "robot"- programs are being created and tested (more information is currently available at "http://web.nexor.co.uk/mak/doc/robots/robots.html" by Martijn Koster). By browsing the Internet resources automatically, they check the hypertext links within files and follow them to check if they are still in existence or if they are new to them. The programs create databases some of which allow keyword searches on them. Subject oriented directories (for example: "http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview2.html" and "gopher://gophe r.switch.ch/11/subject") and powerful search engines (Veronica, Jughead, Archie, WAIS) are also available to a regular user for locating resources of interest to them. This description for electronic resources on forestry in the Internet will never be complete. It is an impossible task for one person alone to discover all changes and additions to the resources on the net. I have omitted all information related to molecular biology and I try to deal with fields closer to forestry. All comments and contributions are gratefully accepted for any forthcoming versions of this guide. Please, send them to Jarmo.Saarikko@metla.fi.

Netiquette

Netiquette (alias " net etiquette") means proper behaviour on network. See Chapter 2.1 Netiquette, from Smith (1993), Usenet netiquette is posted on a regular basis in the newsgroup "news.announce.newusers". If you are not familiar with a newsreader program and want to test postings, do not do it in a discussion group. Instead, use any group, which has and ending ".test".

Discussion Groups

Mailing lists
Scientific special 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. The most common servers are called "listserv", "listprocessor" and "majordomo". Listservers may also provide archiving of earlier messages. Usually these lists are subscribed by mailing commands to the server and not to the list address!. Some Internet mailing lists are maintained by real persons. The lists have a specific administrative e-mail address for receiving the subscribe and unsubscribe messages. These addresses are usually of the form: listname-request@host.domain or listname-owner@host.domain. Messages which are to be distributed via 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 quotations of the previous message to an absolute minimum necessary. Also, please consider directing your reply to the author of the message in question, instead of replying to the whole list.

There are hundreds of mailing lists for almost any topic you can imagine, but only few are concerned with forestry related topics, which are listed below. A more complete collection of academic discussion fora has been collected by Diane K. Kovacs and is available for example at "http://www.austin.unimelb.edu.au:800/1s/acad".

Table 1. A collection of forestry-related mailing lists.

List address
List topic and the address for the subsribe message:
agric-l@uga.cc.uga.edu
Various fields of agriculture, including tropical forestry listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu
agris-l@@irmfao01.bitnet
agricultural information, also forestry (FAO) listserv@irmfao01.bitnet
biodicen-l@ucjeps.berkeley.edu
Discussion concerning US National Biodiversity Information Center listserv@ucjeps.berkeley.edu
biodiv-l@ftpt.br
Discussion on Int. Biodiversity Network (BIN21) listserv@ftpt.br
ecosys-l@vm.gmd.de
ecosystem theory and modelling listserv@vm.gmd.de
dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov
Dendrome forest tree genome mapping digest Send all subscription requests and submissions to the editor: dendrome@s27w007.pswfs.gov
ecol-econ@csf.colorado.edu
Ecological Economics List LISTSERV@csf.colorado.edu
ecolog-l@UMDD.umd.edu
Ecological Society of America listserv@UMDD.umd.edu
ESRI-L@esri.com
Arc/Info listserv@esri.com
firenet@life.anu.edu.au
Fire in landscape ecology listserv@life.anu.edu.au
fmdss-l@pnfi.forestry.ca
Forest Management Decision Support Systems listserv@pnfi.forestry.ca Administrator's address: lserver@pnfi.forestry.ca
forest@lists.funet.fi
All fields in forestry mailserv@lists.funet.fi
forestgen@metla.fi
Forest genetics and tree breeding majordomo@metla.fi More information at http://www.metla.fi/~haapanen/forestg.htm
forest-net@esusda.gov
Distribution list of all Extension Foresters with an e-mail address. To subsribe to forest-net send the following two-line message:
set address your-e-mail-address
subscribe forest-net
to: almanac@esusda.gov
GIS-L@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Geographic information systems listser@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
iopi@life.anu.edu.au
Int. Organization for Plant Information
itrdbfor@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
Dendrochronology Forum listserv@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
natreslib-l@cc.usu.edu
Natural Resources Librarians and Information Specialists annhed@cc.usu.edu
nwfor@psg.com
Pacific North West Forests mailing list lserv@psg.com The subscribe command (include the brackets): subscribe nwfor Your Name
micronet@vm.uoguelph.ca
Fungus and root interaction listserv@vm.uoguelph.ca
plant-taxonomy@mailbase.ac.uk
Plant Taxonomy mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
photosyn@taunivm.bitnet
photosynthesis research photosyn@taunivm.bitnet
popal-l@vm.uoguelph.ca
pollination and palynology listserv@vm.uoguelph.ca
res-econ@unixg.ubc.ca
Land and Resource Economics Conference To subscribe, send a message to "res-econ-request@unixg.ubc.ca", and use the Subject: "subscribe to res-econ". The main body of the message should be: "firstname lastname"
STAT-L@mcgill1.bitnet
Statistics listserv@mcgill1.bitnet
Sylvanet@ncsu.edu
Quarterly newsletter listserv@ncsu.edu
wood-net@esusda.gov
Wood products To subscribe to wood-net send the following two-line message:
set address your-e-mail-address
subscribe wood-net
to: almanac@esusda.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 to the mailing list or to the newsgroup in question 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 the 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 main 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. Table 2: The Usenet news major categories. 

Name	Topic 
alt	Alternative topics from all aspects of life 
comp	Computer oriented newsgroups
misc	Miscellaneous topics, not fitting to other groups 
news	News network and software 
rec	Arts, recreational activities and hobbies 
sci	Scientific discussion groups for research or applications 
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 the discussions in a newsgroup for a while before posting a message. There are only few newsgroups dealing directly with forestry or plant related topics. Table 3. lists some examples. More thorough explanations and more lists are described in the following electronic articles: (Smith 1993, da Silva 1994)

Table 3. Examples of forest-related usenet newsgroups. 

	 
bionet.agroforestry     Agroforestry research 
rec.arts.bonsai		The art of bonsai 
sci.agriculture		Agriculture and related topics 
sci.bio.ecology		Ecological Society of America 
			Linked to mailing list ecolog-l@umdd.umd.edu)  
sci.econ		Economics 
sci.geo.satellite-nav	Satellite navigation systems 
sci.image.processing	Scientific image processing and analysis 
sci.research.postdoc	Postdoctoral studies, including offers 
sci.stat.consult	Statistical consulting

Bulletin Boards
Bulletin boards are computer services for which you have to make a connection to a specific computer (usually by telnet, dialling-up with a modem or by a packet-network connection [X.25]). The messages on bulletin board discussion groups are not broadcast out of the bulletin board system. Many links for a telnet-connection to bulletin boards are available on the Internet gopher and World Wide Web services. Some bulletin boards are accessible with an account and password only. Bulletin boards for agriculture may often contain forestry information. Bulletin board systems usually provide a personal mailbox, access to databases and bibliographies etc. Some bulletin boards are free and some require a fee for their use.

CIESIN
Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network
Conference information, full texts of treaties, Many documents are available via gopher, too. TELNET to "sirius.poly.edu", login as "gp".
CENET
Cornell Cooperative Extension Net including FORnews bulletin board. TELNET to "empire.cce.cornell.edu" and login as "guest". Guests may not post to bulletin boards but are able to send their messages by e-mail to "fornews-bb@cce.cornell.edu" (do not include attached file to messages). More information from "eetg@cce.cornell.edu".
CUFAN
(Clemson University Forestry and Agricultural Network)
TELNET to "eureka.clemson.edu", login as Public.
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.
EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency bulletin board system for air pollutants etc. TELNET to "ttnbbs.rtpnc.epa.gov".
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 (including ALF Agricultural Library Forum).
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 from "mdesmond@forestnet.com".
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".
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. More information by e-mail: "uneprolac@igc.org".

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:

American Society of Plant Taxonomists Newsletter
The ASPT Newsletter is published quarterly by the American Association of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT), and hard copy is distributed with the Society's research journal, Systematic Botany. Available at "gopher://nmnhgoph.si.edu/11/.botany/.aspt". Editor: Laurence J. Dorr, mnhbo059@sivm.si.edu.
CEDAR Newsletter
CEDAR, the Central European Environmental Data Request Facility is administered by the International Society for Environmental Protection (ISEP). Available at "gopher://pan.cedar.univie.ac.at/1".
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/".
DATABITS
Long Term Ecological Research network (LTERnet) Data Management Bulletin. Available with gopher at "gopher://lternet.edu/1". If you do not have gopher you can TELNET to "LTERnet.edu" or use anonymous FTP to "ftp.LTERnet.edu".
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/".
ERINYES (ERIN Newsletter)
Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN), Australia. Available with gopher at "gopher://kaos.erin.gov.au/11/newsletter".
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.e du".
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".

Electronic journals
Some refereed journals have already published material in the World Wide Web.

Complexity International (ISSN 1320-0682)
A refereed electronic journal for scientific papers dealing with any area of complex systems research. at "http://life.anu.edu.au/ci/ci.html"
Flora Online (ISSN 0892-9106
) A peer-reviewed electronic journal for systematic botany. Available through Internet anonymous FTP and gopher at huh.harvard.edu ("gopher://huh.harvard.edu/11/newsletters/flora.online"), and through subscription on MS-DOS-formatted diskettes. Editor: Richard H. Zander, visbms@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu.
Tree Physiology (ISSN 0829-318X)
An international journal. Provides tables of contents in hypermedia at URL: "http://sol.uvic.ca/treephys". Editor: Dr. Rozanne Poulson, rpoulson@uvvm.uvic.ca.

Mail based services

EDEX
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.

There are also some databases available. 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". Send e-mail with a message "send catalog" to any of these to get a listing of information content.

Table 3.U.S. extension service network almanac servers. 

 
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

Archives and Databases

Bibliographies and OPACS
There are many other services accessible with remote login (TELNET) on the Internet. The difficulty is that if you are 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 below is a list of 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.

BUBL
British Bulletin Board for Libraries provides library oriented access with gopher and hypermedia at "gopher://bubl.bath.ac.uk:7070/1", or "http://bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBLHOME.html". The BUBL gopher has a UDC subject tree at "gopher://bubl.bath.ac.uk:7070/11/Link/Tree".
FS INFO (MELVYL)
The MELVYL Catalog, Univ. of California provides the only access from Intenet to the U.S. Forest Service Information system and its FS INFO bibliographic database. TELNET to "melvyl.ucop.edu". After giving your terminal type and login to MELVYL system, type "USE FS INFO". (Important note: when you want to quit, type "LOGOFF" at any FS INFO search prompt, not at the FS Info Database Main Menu. MELVYL has also many other services available.
CARL
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, cover over 17,000 journals. TELNET to "pac.carl.org". They also provide a free e-mail delivery service of journal table of contents. It is called UnCover. The subscribers may also order copies of articles which are then delivered by fax (for a fee). You may browse the database without giving a password. Just follow the instructions when you login. You may quit the connection with "//EXIT" command. If you have difficulties e-mail to "database@carl.org".
EPA OLS
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Online Library System (OLS) may be accessed by TELNET to "epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov". Select "Public Access" and "OLS" to see a list of available databases.
HYTELNET
program 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" (URL: "telnet://hytelnet@access.usask.ca/"). HYTELNET information has also been transferred to some gopher servers, e.g. "gopher://gopher.isnet.is/11/hytelnet".
Library of Congress
has its card catalog and other information available at "gopher://marvel.loc.gov/11/" or with TELNET access to "marvel.loc.gov" login as "gopher".
Library On-Line Catalogs
A very good list covering over 400 research libraries with their access information and indexing software may be found from University of Texas Dallas at "ftp://ftp.utdallas.edu/pub/gopher/Libraries" or at "gopher://gopher.utdallas.edu/11/Libraries".
Minnesota Forestry Library Gopher
at University of Minnesota, provides access to bibliographies in Social Sciences in Forestry and other topics at "gopher://minerva.forestry.umn.edu/11/".
OLIS
In Europe, one can access the Plant Scienes Library of Oxford, via OLIS, the Oxford University Library System.TELNET to "library.ox.ac.uk".
University of Washington Library
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".
University of Helsinki Forest Library
To access the catalog of the libraries at the University of Helsinki. TELNET to "hyk.helsinki.fi", Login as "HELLO your-addr,USER.CLAS02". This is a VTLS library. To exit, use the command "/quit". The Forest Library collection number is 2500.
Directory services
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 through gateways at gopher or World Wide Web hypermedia servers. The directory services are all hierarchically linked to a world wide system. Usually the searcher has to know the organization where the target is located before reaching the contact information.

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. The network of Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), which index files in a standard format, has over 500 databases available for searching. Many gopher servers also use WAIS indexing to allow searching in their file-archives.

Table 5. A very small list of servers which provide access to texts of interest to forestry.

Topic:
Source URL:
Australian Environment Portfolio
http://kaos.erin.gov.au/portfolio/portfolio.html
National Agricultural Library
gopher://locus.nalusda.gov/1
Institute of Forest Genetics
gopher://s27w007.pswfs.gov/
Forest genetics
gopher://picea.cfnr.colostate.edu/1
USDA Extension Service
gopher://esusda.gov/1
International law and conventions
gopher://gopher.law.cornell.edu/11/foreign/1
International treaties
gopher://wiretap.spies.com/11/Gov/Treaties/Treaties
CIESIN Global Change Archives
gopher://infoserver.ciesin.org/1
Ecological Data EXchange
gopher://gopher.yale.edu/1
LTERnet
gopher://lternet.edu/1
U. Minnesota Forestry Library
gopher://minerva.forestry.umn.edu/1
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/
FAQ and FYI files
ftp://info.switch.ch/doc

WAIS

A alphabetical list of all WAIS-databases which may be searched with a gopher client is at "gopher://gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu/11/WAISes/Everything". A hypertext list of WAIS databases by net domain is available at "http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/WAIS/ByHost.html". Here are four examples of WAIS databases.

NOAA_Environmental_Services_Data_Directory.src
UNEP-GRID
agricultural-market-news.src (USDA)
usdacris.src (USDA Current Research Info System CRIS)
To search the CRIS database with gopher or WWW-client, use the following URL: "gopher://gopher-gw.micro.umn.edu/7waissrc%3a/WAISes/Everything/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, in America you can TELNET to "sunsite.unc.edu" and in Europe to "info.funet.fi".

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. However, some statistics are available via gopher, see e.g. USDA Economic Research Service information at "gopher://oldal.mannlib.cornell.edu/1". There are more than 140 agricultural datasets available in Lotus 1-2-3 format (.wk1).

Software repositories
There are no archives for software in forestry. Appropriate software may be found in University and Research Institute archives. e.g. Petawawa, Canada by anonymous FTP to "pi19.pnfi.forestry.ca", the directory is "/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 is given as the password when logging in.

Because there are millions of files available a network tool called "Archie" has been created to automatically search the location of a program in the FTP archives. A list of hypertext Archie servers is available at "http://web.nexor.co.uk/archie.html". TELNET to "info.funet.fi" also allows access to Archie.

NETWORK ACCESS AND NAVIGATION TOOLS

Here are very short explanations to some of the Internet tools mentioned earlier and links where to obtain the software (see EARN 1994, Hahn and Stout 1994) or see a gentle primer to WWW by Nathan Torkington at "http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-primer.html". Several of the network tools are available for interactive testing. In Europe, TELNET to "info.funet.fi" and in America TELNET to "sunsite.unc.edu".

Anonymous FTP

A FTP server may be set up to provide free access to a restricted group of files on a host computer. When logging in the visitor's answer to the User: prompt is "anonymous", "guest" or "visitor". For a password request the visitor should give her e-mail address. Links to anonmous FTP sites are available at "http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ftp-interface.html". Some anonymous FTP servers for FAQ files are listed here:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/usenet/news.answers/
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

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".

Browsers for hypertext and hypermedia in WWW

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 hypertext browsers, which have versions for several operating systems. 
 
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

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP software has been used for years to allow a direct connection between two computers for moving text and binary files between them. FTP server software is available at "ftp://ftp.uu.net//networking/ftp/wuarchive-ftpd/".

Gopher

Gopher 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/". The gopher protocol is documented in RFC 1436.

HTML HyperText Markup Language

To find out more about hypertext documents over Internet see the following sources:
HTML Quick Reference
"http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLQuickRef.html"
A Beginner's Guide to HTML
"http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/html-primer.html"
Internet Draft version 1.2 for HTML
"http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/HTML.html"
Glossary of Hypertext Terms
"http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Terms.html"

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).

News

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

TELNET

provides a live online connection to another host (remote login). The name of the software providing this service may also be something else (e.g. such as "sethost").

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. Links to all WAIS databases are available also at "gopher://dewey.lib.ncsu.edu/11/library/reference/indexes/WAIS". WAIS software for various operating systems is available at "ftp://ftp.wais.com/pub/freeware/" and for MS-DOS at "ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/wais/DOS". CNIDR freewais is available at "ftp://ftp.cnidr.org/pub/NIDR.tools/freeWAIS-0.2.tar".

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 at "gopher://sipb.mit.edu/". Two other common directory services are called CSO and X.500. See X.500 gopher gateway at "gopher://umich.edu:7777/" or TELNET to "paradise.ulcc.ac.uk" login as "dua". A list of CSO directories is available at "gopher://gopher.nd.edu/11/". See the menu "Non-Notre Dame Information Sources/Phone Books--Other Institutions".

WWW - World Wide Web

WWW was started as an initiative of the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN), and has now expanded into a worldwide universe of network accessible information. The project description is at "http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html". The future of World Wide Web will be coordinated by the W3 Organization which is a consortium of collaborating institutes. More information at "http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Organization/Consortium/W3OSignature.html".

CONCLUSIONS

Internet activity has been growing exponentially since 1993 and the growth has continued 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 international agencies and networks which collect and provide forestry information, such as CGNET, FAO, UN/ECE, CABI and others, would gain remarkably by using this information highway in an increasing manner in the future. There is a clear need for a central directory service for providing the forestry community a clearinghouse of the multitude of services accessible via the Internet. Some pilot projects are already under development.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The help and knowledge of Alois Kempf, WSL Birmensdorf, has been indispensable during the preparation of this paper. Thank you to John LeBlanc, Tom Moore and Richard Porter for providing additional information and links to sources of information.

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

A plaintext version of this paper is to appear in the 
Proceedings of the Decision Support - 2001 conference.  
with the title "Forestry information resources 
on the World Wide Web".