Library of Congress gopher

[Dick St.Peters <stpeters () bird crd ge com>]

This evening I stumbled across the new Library of Congress gopher, by
accident while wandering the Internet.  One of the items on it says it
only went into service yesterday!

You can find it in gopherspace at host marvel.loc.gov [140.147.2.15]
and the usual port [70].

Unfortunately, the only real on-line LOC information is still the
terminal-oriented LOCIS system, which is awkward and clumsy to use,
but hey, this is a start in the right direction.  Based on the blurb
appended below about MARVEL, they're going to keep going.

../dick

Found on the LOC gopher 7/10/93:

   *******************************************************
   *                                                     *
   *                WELCOME TO LC MARVEL                 *
   *                                                     *
   *            MACHINE-ASSISTED REALIZATION             *
   *          OF THE VIRTUAL ELECTRONIC LIBRARY          *
   *                                                     *
   *******************************************************

The Library of Congress (LC) Machine-Assisted Realization of the
Virtual Electronic Library (MARVEL) can be thought of as a global
information system combining the vast collection of information
available at and about LC with the many electronic resources
accessible through the Internet.  It aims to serve the staff of LC,
the U.S. Congress, and constituents throughout the world. It is
available on the Internet and is built using the Gopher software
from the University of Minnesota.  During the preliminary stages of
development, the posting of information on LC MARVEL will be
coordinated by the "LC MARVEL Design Team" in cooperation with
service units and divisions throughout the Library.  The
Information Technology Services (ITS) service unit has sponsored
this effort in conjunction with recommendations coming from the
staff organization -- The Internet Users Group (IUG).  Once the
initial design of LC MARVEL is complete, the responsibility for
overseeing the system will transition from the "Design Team" to a
more permanent "LC MARVEL Advisory Team."  Paralleling that
transition will be an effort to transfer of responsibility for
publishing and maintaining specific menu items on the system to
"information owners" throughout the Library.

Since the information offered by the system will be viewed by both
staff members and users outside of the Library from workstations
with varying ranges of characteristics and capabilities, the format
of documents on LC MARVEL will, for the most part, adhere to the
"lowest common denominator" -- plain ASCII text.  In some cases
files will be listed that are not in ASCII format (i.e., graphic
images from the Library's exhibits) which can be saved, but not
viewed through LC MARVEL.  It may be possible in the near future to
view images and more richly formatted textual works.

If you would like to consider publishing information on LC MARVEL
or would like to make comments on any aspect of the system, please
contact the LC MARVEL Design Team at the Internet address:

                     lcmarvel () seq1 loc gov

Since LC MARVEL is still in an experimental state, please help us
by reporting any operational or technical problems to the same Internet
address:


Thank you for your interest.



*** Last update 6/24/93 (efm) ***