BCK2SKOL Lesson 13: GOPHER, PART 2: GOPHERIN'

A Class on the Net for Librarians with Little or No Net Experience

LESSON 13: GOPHER, PART 2: GOPHERIN'

"The best thing about animals is that they don't talk much."
-- Thornton Wilder, _The Skin of Our Teeth_, 1942

LET'S GO GOPHERIN'

The first thing you'll encounter when you access a gopher site is a root menu. Following is a facsimile of the USC gopher server's root menu (gopher.sc.edu), as I see it using the gopher client on my USC CMS mainframe account:

 
   <menu>         About this gopher
   <menu>         Desktop Reference
   <menu>         Frequently asked questions
   <menu>         Guides to the Internet
   <menu>         Libraries & Electronic Books
   <menu>         Newspapers, Newsletters & Journals
   <menu>         Other gophers & information servers
   <menu>         Phone books and email addresses
   <menu>         Resources by subject
   <search>       Search for items on this gopher
   <menu>         WAIS Databases
   <menu>         Weather

(NOTE: USC no longer supports its gopher site.)While the design of gopher root menus will vary from server to server, many will contain similar pointers to information in gopherspace.

Let's take a moment to look at what some of these options contain:

"About this gopher" -- supplies facts about the host server and provides answers to frequently asked questions about the gopher software.
"Desktop Reference" -- links you to various general references, including such information as U.S. 1990 Census data, foreign currency exchange rates, factbooks, a dictionary, a thesaurus, directories of area codes, zip codes, World Country & Area Telephone Codes index (excluding U.S. and Canada), U.S. cabinet and congressional directories, Periodic Table of Elements, weights and measures, and What time is it in ...
"Frequently Asked Questions" -- contains a collection of answers to frequently asked questions about all aspects of the Internet which have been gathered from a variety of sources around the Net.
"Guides to the Internet" -- serves up a collection of links to Internet guides (always check to see when these were last updated).
"Libraries & Electronic Books" -- points to a collection of resources relating to libraries and including online books, reference materials, research databases, guides to accessing library catalog systems, telnet connections to online library catalogs, etc.
"Newspapers, newsletters and journals" -- supplies connections to online publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Academe this Week" and access to the Electronic Newsstand, which posts excerpts from several dozen popular print periodicals (e.g., The New Yorker, National Review, etc.)
"Other gopher and information servers" -- points to your escape route out into gopherspace; access to submenus, organized geographically, of gopher servers running at hundreds of other sites worldwide. A link to the gopher search tool Veronica is included on the USC server at this juncture -- you may find it linked directly from the root menu at your site -- more about Veronica in Lesson 16.
"Phone books and email addresses" -- links you to a variety of software tools enabling lookups of email directories and phone books on the Internet; lookup tools usually include links to NETFIND, WHOIS, CSO White Pages, and the X.500 directory gateway.
"Resources by subject" -- provides access to additional Internet information sources arranged by subject (e.g., Art, Business, Education, Environment, Law, Library, Literature, Medicine, Music, Religion, Science & Technology, Women's Studies, etc.) Many gophers include such locally constructed "subject trees" to Net resources, and some are definitely broader and better maintained than others; we'll look at good ones to visit in our next lesson.
"Search for items on this gopher" -- provides for keyword searches against the titles of all documents stored on the host server. This type of search tool, called Jughead, makes it possible for the gopher administrator to allow searches of local materials; more about Jughead in Lesson 16.
"WAIS databases" -- allows keyword searches against information in WAIS-based databases (more information about WAIS in Lesson 16).
"Weather" -- connects to lots of weather-related resources.

Many gophers will also include a "What's New on this Gopher" link (or something similar) which points to recent changes and updates (since a lot of gophers are out-of-date, these days, if this option is offered, check it out for clues on how current the site is).

Having read all of this, it shouldn't take you long to realize the tremendous amount of information available via gopher; often links from "your own front door" or local gopher server will provide opportunities for useful information gathering. However, don't depend on the administrator of your local gopher server to include links to all that glitters on the Net! Take the plunge via "Other Gophers" (or a similar option from your root menu) to survey the Net on your own. You can spend hours navigating through multi-menus and finding wonderful gopher holes. And, you'll actually begin to enjoy yourself along the way -- the trip itself is half the fun!

Let's start right now. Open your gopher client and point it toward the "Mother Gopher" at the University of Minnesota. You'll find lots of interesting information linked from the original gopher hole! Here's how to get there:

From your root menu, select the "Other gophers ..." link. It's one that is displayed on most root menus and it points you out into gopherspace. Then follow the geographical path outlined for gopher servers:

-->region -->country -->state -->institution -->department

For example, from the USC gopher menu, I select the following sequence to arrive at the University of Minnesota's gopher:


   Other gophers and information servers
       --> North America
           --> USA
               --> Minnesota
                   --> University of Minnesota

This isn't the fastest or most direct route, for it takes me through a number of screens that aren't of particular interest to me... However, I'll only need to follow this path one time; when I reach my gopher destination, I'll be able to "snatch" the gopher hostname from my computer screen where it will be displayed. Most gopher clients display the name of the gopher host for each connection made, so that all of us can determine easily where menus and documents actually reside. As you explore gopherspace, make a note of the hostnames (or better yet, set a bookmark -- see lesson 14) you encounter (that seem especially interesting or appealing so that you can return to them later. Do the same when you arrive at the University of Minnesota (it's gopher.micro.umn.edu) and the next time you want to return, you'll be able to cut your travel time to seconds by making a direct connection.

My gopher client allows me to travel directly to a specific gopher hostname when I open gopher; yours should, too. For example, I can go directly to the University of Minnesota gopher root menu by using the command I use to open gopher and specifying the specific host. This is what I type:

gopher gopher.micro.umn.edu

The first "gopher" is the command I use to open my gopher "client" and the "gopher.micro.umn.edu" is the hostname of the University of Minnesota gopher server. If you have a graphic gopher client, check your pull-down menus for an "Open Gopher..." option or something like that.

In our next lesson we'll cover another gopher feature, called "bookmarks", which will make your gopher voyages even easier to retrace.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU MAKE A WRONG TURN

If, despite all your good intentions, you incorrectly enter an address or try to access a site that has moved, temporarily down, or defunct, you may be presented with one of the following error messages on your screen. In most instances, try again, later, to see if service has been restored.

"Connection refused" -- The gopher server is not answering; it may be down for repairs, or overloaded. (Try again later.)
"'Hostname' is unknown" -- Maybe the server no longer exists, or maybe you didn't enter the name properly. (Try again and see what happens.)
"Connection timed out" -- There's a problem with connecting to the remote gopher machine. (Most clients are programmed to wait a minute or two before cancelling out if no connection takes place. Try again later.)
"File not found" -- Even though old menus might still refer to it and pointers still point to it, the information has evidently been moved to another location or just removed. (Look for it elsewhere.)

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Go to the University of Minnesota gopher (remember, it's at gopher.micro.umn.edu) and check out their Library links.
If you really want to learn everything there is to know about gopher (and then some), you can read all about it in:
_Let's Go Gopherin'_
a pioneering free online course written by Richard J. Smith and Jim Gerland, and offered several times during 1992-93 over the Net. You'll find the 25 archived lessons of _Navigating the Internet: Let's Go Gopherin'_ at:
gopher hostname: cwis.usc.edu
follow the path --> Other gophers and information resources --> How to use Gopher (free course)

ELECTRONIC WEB RESOURCES:

If you have access to a web browser, the direct address for the "Gopherin'" workshop is: gopher://cwis.usc.edu:70/11/Other_Gophers_and_Information_Resources/Gopherin

"BCK2SKOL" is a free electronic library classroom created by Ellen Chamberlain, Head Librarian, University of South Carolina Beaufort, and Miriam Mitchell, Sr. Systems Analyst, USC Columbia. Additional support is provided by the Division of Libraries & Information Systems, University of South Carolina Columbia.

Your feedback and support for BCK2SKOL are appreciated; please email link updates, suggestions and comments to: eechambe@gwm.sc.edu

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Links checked 6 January 1999. See the BCK2SKOL homepage for course update details.
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URL: http://www.sc.edu/bck2skol/fall/lesson13.html