billy@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (06/26/91)
Hi, Another release of the "UNT's Accessing On-line Bibliographic Databases" handout is now complete. I know it was only about a month ago that I had my last release. That much has changed lately. The real credit for this release should go to Joe St. Sauver (numerous corrections and new entries), John Sadler (for his list of Canadian libraries), and Peter Scott (for numerous reasons and morale support). Included at the end of this letter is the answer to some questions that have popped up on numerous occasions. Further discussion should take place on the PACS-L or LIB_HYTELNET mailing lists. ================================================================================ Billy Barron Bitnet : BILLY@UNTVAX VAX/Unix Systems Manager THENET : NTVAX::BILLY University of North Texas Internet : billy@unt.edu SPAN : UTSPAN::UTADNX::NTVAX::BILLY ================================================================================ Some commonly asked questions: How do I acquire the files? The files are available on vaxb.acs.unt.edu (129.120.1.4) via anonymous FTP in the library directory. The files are: LIBRARIES.TXT - ASCII version LIBRARIES.PS - Postscript version LIBRARIES.WP5 - WordPerfect 5.1 source (transfer in binary mode) LIBRARIES.ADR - Numeric IP addresses of Internet libraries LIBRARIES.CONTACTS - Contacts for some of the Internet libraries NETWORKS.HLP - VMS help file source for a wide area networks help topic, which includes a section on library systems. [this file is out of date on the library side right now]. Detailed Description by Roy Tennant (rtennant@library.berkeley.edu) [edited by Billy Barron]: Please note that these instructions are only for Internet sites. Users with access only to BITNET should send a mail message to BITFTP@PUCC with HELP at the first and only line of the message. The response will give you instructions on using the Princeton BITFTP server, which provides a mail interface to the FTP portion of the TCP/IP protocol suite. TO RETRIEVE: At your system prompt, enter: ftp vaxb.acs.unt.edu or ftp 129.120.1.4 When you receive the Name prompt, enter: anonymous When you receive the password prompt, enter your Internet address. When you are at the ftp> prompt, enter: binary [only if you need binary mode] At the next ftp> prompt, enter: cd library Then enter: get FILENAME As an absolute last resort, the files may be requested via email (note: some networks such as UUCP may file size limits that may prohibit the transfer of these documents through electronic mail). Why is there UNT's guide and the Art St. George/Ron Larsen guide? Art St. George and I have some differences of opinion in the area of formatting and what should be included in an Internet library guide. Though I could just use the St. George guide, I need to format the information into an easy to use form for novice computer users for my on-campus users. It is not much harder to provide it to the Internet at large and also gather my own information. Joe St. Sauver, the author of the VAXbook, on PACS-L put forth a rather good argument for the case that two guides are actually a benefical thing. Where do I send updates? Send all new information, updates, and deletions to BILLY@UNT.EDU (more details on first page of guide). If you are using a TELNET/TN3270 package not listed in the appendix, please send me the information on it. Also, if you have instructions for a library software package not yet described, please send them to me and give me at least one example where it is in use. I have problems printing the PostScript file. I found a problem at my end that was causing 75% of these problems. I have not yet resolved what is causing other people difficulty. The evidence right now is pointing to the fact that *some* FTP packages are stripping out CRs when they are not supposed to (WIN/TCP on VMS is an example of this). Also, you must have 8" by 11" paper to print it. If you use A4 or some other paper size, you will be to get the WordPrefect version and change the paper size. The text version is all on one line. How can I fix that? The following is the combination of a couple of mail messages from Scott Robinson, CMU (she@opel.ece.emu.edu). Thanks, Scott! The problem is probably due to the fact that the UNIX ftp(1) (at least the one under Ultrix) strips Carriage Return charaters during file transfers. Use the 'cr' command to toggle carriage-return stripping. With stripping off, you will have the necessary delimiter. Then use tr(1) or your favorite editor to convert your Carriage Returns into the appropriate character. I used the following to convert files I retrieved (and later renamed to get rid of the ';#' stuff.) #!/bin/sh for i in README libraries.adr libraries.contacts libraries.ps libraries.txt networks.hlp do mv $i foo tr -d '\015' < foo > $i done