🚀 go-pugleaf

Some time ago on this list there was a question regarding information on 
WAIS, of which I have no experience. But I thought some info on Gopher wight 
be of interest. Due to the vagrancies of electronic distribution my first 
try didn't reach the LISTSERV list, only NetNews, but I try a new posting - 
and cross my fingers.

I have not either tried WAIS, but I would like to point out an other system
for accessing information on the Internet: GOPHER. This system is
being developed by the University of Minnesota and the software is
available by anonymous FTP from BOOMBOX.MICRO.UMN.EDU. Both server and
client software is available, clients exists for PC, Mac, NeXT and other
Unix platforms. The aims of Gopher seems to be comparable to WAIS, but
without the the powerful search and filter mechanisms of WAIS. Gopher has
some search capabilities, but the most powerful aspect in my view is the
ease of connecting new servers to the structure. You will have the
opportunity to look at and download text files, and connect to remote
systems. Of the latter I've found the catalog of the US Library of
Congress and the NSF projects and grants database. Take a look at it,
this could be of interest to the social science data community.

  -Lars W. Holm
   Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD)