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January 1998
Trends, Guide to the Internet, 1997.
Louise Walsh, Editor;
Elsevier Science, New York, 1997.
No abstract available
Continually constrained in time to devote to multiple interests, I have found the Elsevier Trends Journals to be of great value in synthesizing some the fields in which I have a continued experience and interest, including life sciences, biotechnology and cardiovascular medicine. As a subscriber to some of these commercial offerings, I was interested to receive a copy of a collection, entitled "Guide to the Internet".
Since everyone reading this review must be somewhat literate in the ways of the internet, I thought this article might be of interest to at least some of our readership. While many of us may be very interested in what the internet can do, we may not have a strong command of the subject. As the editor of this periodical points out, "The world has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the number of people using the internet. From its beginnings in 1969 as an experimental network used by the US Department of Defense, it now links universities, companies, libraries institutions and home users across the globe. An incredible 50 million individuals now access internet services, taking advantage of the almost unlimited possibilities for information transfer, communication, publishing and advertising. But where do you start if you are new to the Net? This guide begins by taking you through the early steps-the history, jargon, basic facilities and software."
This source of orientation provides links to their Web site (click here to visit the site). The purpose of this review is to not only understand the mechanics of the Net, but also to gain an appreciation for how best to use it efficiently in accessing the information you seek, how to use multimedia applications, as well as how best to display the results of searches.
This guide also includes a useful poster that lists sites relevant to many aspects of science, medicine, and technology. This source has created a gateway to many of the sources to these sites, which they call the Purple Pages.
The "Guide to the Internet" begins with a discussion describing the evolution of the Net, followed by a discussion of basic internet facilities, in which the fundamentals of the principles of the Net are presented: communication, discussion, news gathering and information transfer. Consistent with the style of the "Trends" series, each component of this compilation of articles is written by an individual from academic or industrial sector positions-all highly qualified and experienced in the area they have been asked to present.
The next section, "The Web: towards 2001" reviews the information building blocks, and how they may be used today and even as they are presently evolving. Once these principles are presented, the review shifts to "net publishing", describing the manner in which net-publishing has gone beyond the realm of gimmickry, and now deals with publishing, at relatively low-cost and high efficiency, "stand alone" journals, document delivery systems, all leading to "virtual journals in virtual libraries", with multiple layers of information and presentation formats.
Other entries in this collection relate to "creating a home page", "newsgroups", and "fetching files by ftp" (you know what software is out there-programs, documents, images, video, sound-but how do you download them?--The key is ftp!).
Two final entries in this publication relate to "How to connect?", which addresses how to choose a service provider, and what hardware and software s needed, and "bookshelf" which offers thoughtful recommendation for appropriate published sources for further help in using the internet. Anyone who considers him/herself less than expert at the use of the Internet will find a great deal of new knowledge and sources of reference in this publication.
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