From lpsmail@access.digex.netFri Dec 22 14:17:46 1995 Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 11:25:01 CST From: Shipment Reply to: Discussion of Government Document Issues To: Multiple recipients of list GOVDOC-L Subject: ADNOTES: READERS EXCHANGE: WWW PAGES PROMOTE DEPOSITORIES ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- THE MESSAGE BELOW IS FROM ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES, VOL. 16, #17 (Dec. 15, 1995). Readers Exchange World Wide Web Pages Promoting U.S. Government Depository Libraries By Marek Baxter Waterstone The O'Quinn Law Library University of Houston The purpose for these pages is to assist the public and other library patrons in the Houston area in the task of identifying and locating Federal government information which is provided through the Federal Depository Library Program in electronic and other formats. The pages aim to telescope users out to the world and to bring them back to focus on the Houston area sources where possible. The URLs for the Homepages are found as the last line of text at the bottom of the pages. The underlined terms on each page indicate a hypertext link. There are three Homepages. The "Flagship" page is the single page of links identified as follows: University of Houston The O'Quinn Law Library A Federal Depository Library >From Online Access to Congressional Information provided by GPO to a map for locating the Houston GPO bookstore to the Villinova site for linking to specific Federal agencies and beyond including search engines and, lastly, to a form for asking me a question by e-mail, this page is a primary, government web intersection for our patrons. I have chosen the links for this page because, in my opinion, they provide the best one page set for beginning to fulfill the purpose stated in the first paragraph. I intend to promote this page through traditional public sources of information distribution such as local newspapers. In addition, from this Flagship page, a person can access the HANDI Homepage. HANDI is the Houston Area Network of Documents Information, the group of Federal and Texas depository libraries in the Houston area. The HANDI pages are still under construction, but at this time the public can find out the location and contact people at the various libraries. Finally, from the Flagship page, a person can tap into the Homepage for the Government Information Services Department of the O'Quinn Law Library. Our Web site at the University of Houston Law Center Library is not the most developed site. It is young and growing rapidly; it is still hungry for input. This means that there is opportunity to produce local depository library information that is very welcome. The site is accepting all we can produce right now. I am assuming other libraries are in similar situations. At this time, in the library we have one World Wide Web terminal running Netscape in a public area. We have several terminals that run Netscape and others that access LYNX, a WWW textual interface, for the use of our primary patrons. I am finding that a surprising number of public patrons who request information from me have Internet access and are eager to learn useful URLs. In the future, I expect our library to increase the number of terminals in the public areas that will have WWW access and the Law Center to increase accessibility to faculty and students. We librarians will be continuing to work to provide direction to those who have specific need for government information. The hypertext Web world is one of the important tools in this endeavor. I am providing the print of the the O'Quinn Law Library Homepage screen, below, for publication in Administrative Notes so it might encourage and assist people who are looking for this way of promoting the depository library program in their areas. I would be happy to communicate with anyone seeking further information. Marek Baxter Waterstone (formerly Mary Shearer) Government Information Services The O'Quinn Law Library University of Houston MBCMW@UH.EDU 713/743-2335 http://www.lawlib.uh.edu/faculty/MWaterstone.html