From lpsmail@access.digex.netMon Aug 12 19:34:16 1996 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 16:18:23 -0700 From: Shipment Reply to: Discussion of Government Document Issues To: Multiple recipients of list GOVDOC-L Subject: ADNOTES: GPO'S SUITE OF PATHWAY SERVICES IS NOW AVAILABLE THE MESSAGE BELOW IS FROM ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES, VOL. 17, #11 (August 15, 1996) GPO'S SUITE OF PATHWAY SERVICES IS NOW AVAILABLE The Library Programs Service (LPS) at GPO is now providing a number of Pathway Services on the Internet via our GPO Access World Wide Web site at the following URL: Pathway Services are designed to provide a variety of useful "pathways" to anyone who uses Government information, and who until now may have felt they were lost in the wilderness of the Information Superhighway without a friendly native guide! Some of our services will be familiar guides, only with a new look and added functionality due to their computerization; some are completely new maps to a wider variety of Government services and information than ever before, only made possible by the online environment. A short description of each Pathway service's focus and intended audience follows: Browse Topics classifies Government and military Internet sites under approximately 170 subjects, based on the subject terms used in GPO's Subject Bibliographies. Also, a brief annotation will describe the general contents of each site. Browse Topics will be useful for anyone who may want an overall knowledge of what is available on the Internet from the Federal Government on one topic, or who may simply want guidance in identifying possible topics and sites for more in-depth research. Browse Pathway GILS provides an alphabetical directory of Government Information Locator Service records prepared by LPS which describe the information policies and provisions of Cabinet-level and other major Federal agencies. The services include hotlinks to agency home pages and agency-specific information locators. Browse Pathway GILS will be useful for anyone who may want to locate agency-specific information sources, or who may be interested in contacting an agency's information specialists. Browse Titles lists electronic Government information products available on Federal Government servers, arranged alphabetically by agency. (Titles will also have a corresponding SuDocs class number and item number, if they have been assigned). Listed are products which may have previously been in the FDLP, or new titles which are only available on the Internet. Browse Titles will be useful for anyone who may want an overview of Government information products available electronically, or who may be looking for a specific online title. Search the Web contains a simple search form which will enable users to query a database of information collected on a regular basis from official Government sites. Be it .gov, .mil, or even part of a cooperative agreement between the Government and an outside partner, the Pathway Indexer will have already searched and indexed the information for you. All you have to do is type in search terms and you receive a list of results ranked by relevance, complete with a list of lines containing the search term(s) and a hotlink to the exact page you need. Search the Web will be useful for anyone who may want to do a very specific search on Government information. Pathway Indexer does what search engines like Yahoo! and AltaVista do, but we have limited it to index selected Federal Internet sites. Search MoCat links you directly to the online Monthly Catalog search page. MoCat has always been a primary bibliographic tool for identifying Government information products and keeping track of the great range of information available in the FDLP, and naturally now it's followed them right out onto the Internet! The online version of the MoCat offers full-text and fielded searches of GPO cataloging records from 1994 onwards; it provides fielded displays of MARC cataloging, identifies any depository libraries which can provide access to the product, and it even hotlinks the user to electronic versions if available. Search MoCat will be useful for anyone who may be looking for a Government information product regardless of format. Paper, microfiche, CD-ROM or online, the MoCat can help you both find it and get it. We hope you will find what you are looking for in our Pathway Services. If you need assistance using this service, contact the GPO Access User Support Team, by: E-mail: gpoaccess@gpo.gov Phone: 202-512-1530 Fax: 202-512-1262 We will be continuing to develop Pathway Services, so if you have any helpful comments or good suggestions as to how to improve usefulness, please don't hesitate to get in contact with GPO's Electronic Transition Staff by: E-mail: ets@gpo.gov Phone: (202)512-1698 Fax: (202) 512-1432