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

-*- Contents

    1. How to Use this Guide
        1. Conditions of Use
        2. How to Get Updates

    2. Networking
        1. Some Mind-Boggling Statistics
        2. Netiquette
        3. Usenet
            1. Newsgroups of Special Interest
            2. Special Usenet Hierarchies and Gated Mailing Lists
            3. Usenet FAQs about Usenet
        4. Listserver Mailing Lists
            1. Commands
            2. Archives
            3. Gateways to Usenet
        5. Other Mailing Lists
        6. Newsletters

    3. Information Archives
        1. Bibliographies
        2. Directories
        3. Software
        4. Data
            1. Systematic Databases
            2. Search Engines
        5. List of Archives
        6. Access Tools
            1. Telnet
            2. Anonymous FTP
            3. Gopher
            4. Archie
            5. Veronica
            6. Wide-Area Information Servers (WAIS)
            7. World-Wide Web (WWW)
        7. Access by E-mail

    4. Commercial Services

    5. Useful and Important FAQs
        1. What's an FAQ and where can I get one?
        2. Does anyone have an e-mail address for X?
        3. How do I find a good graduate program?
        4. Where can I get old newsgroup/mailing list articles?
        5. Where can I find biology-related job announcements?

*   Acknowledgements

    Bibliography

    Appendix. Assorted Listserver Mailing Lists


-*- 1. How to Use this Guide

    If you find this guide difficult to understand, you might want to read
    one of the published Internet guidebooks listed in the bibliography and
    mentioned several times in this guide.  In the interest of brevity, no
    information that is easily obtained elsewhere is duplicated here in any
    detail, thus for a full understanding of the resources and tools listed
    here it is helpful to read the cited material as well.


-*- 1.1. Conditions of Use

    This guide may be freely distributed, provided that the text is not edited
    in any way beyond removal of the headers;  the format may be changed in
    any way that is convenient for printed or electronic presentation.  This
    guide may be freely adapted, provided that the source is acknowledged.
    However, this guide may not be sold for profit, in either the original or
    an adapted form, without permission from the author.

    Virtually every service or resource mentioned in this guide (and this
    guide itself) is the un-paid, voluntary contribution of scientists and
    students, both graduate and undergraduate.  Please give credit where due.

    If you make significant use of any document, data or software provided
    via the Internet, the authors would be grateful if you would cite them or
    otherwise acknowledge their efforts.  Any publicly available material
    should be considered formally published, and cited as such.  You need
    not acknowledge the administrators of archives from which you obtain data,
    software, or other material, but if you find the archive especially useful
    in and of itself, please contact the administrator to ask about the
    prefered form of acknowledgement.

    A suggested citation for this guide is:

        Smith, Una R. (1993) "A Biologist's Guide to Internet Resources."
        Usenet sci.answers.  Available via anonymous FTP and e-mail from
        rtfm.mit.edu as file pub/usenet/news.answers/biology/guide.  35 pages.


-*- 1.2. How to Get Updates

    This guide is updated more-or-less monthly.  The most current version is
    available via Usenet, gopher, FTP and e-mail, as follows:

    - In Usenet, look in sci.bio or sci.answers.

    - Gopher to sunsite.unc.edu, and choose this sequence of menu items:

        Sunsite Archives
                ecology+evolution

      Or, from any gopher offering other biology gophers by topic, look for
      the menu item "Ecology and Evolution [at UNC and Yale]".  The guide is
      stored there in two ways:  as a file for easy retrieval and as a menu
      for browsing.

    - FTP to rtfm.mit.edu.  Give the username "anonymous" and your e-mail
      address as the password.  Use the "cd" command to go to the directory

                pub/usenet/news.answers/biology/

      and use "get guide" to copy the file to your computer.  The file is
      actually stored as guide.Z, which is a compressed binary file, but if
      you specify "guide" it will be uncompressed and translated to readable
      ASCII before it is transfered to your computer.  You can also use
      anonymous FTP to sunsite.unc.edu, where this guide is stored as

                pub/academic/biology/ecology+evolution/FAQ.

    - Send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the text
      "send usenet/news.answers/biology/guide".  Because the guide is long,
      you will probably receive it in parts:  save each part separately,
      delete the e-mail headers, and merge them.

    See section 3.6, Access Tools for more information about retrieving
    information from the Internet.