India office OPAC?

[banks at vax.oxford.ac.uk]

>Dominik: I saw your posting on the BL.
>
>> I can sit in my office and consult LC, but not the BL which is about two 
>>hundred
>
>I would be very much interested if you could please let us know about this 
>possibility on this net.
>
>kind regards
>Devendra Singh

and:

>Can someone tell me how to access the British library catalogues via INTERNET?
>Actually, their availability comes as  a (pleasant) surprise, since ten years
>ago, the Bodleian for example, did not even have a proper card catalogue. I
>routinely dial into the various American library catalogues, of course.

>Shailendra Raj Mehta
>mehta at mgmt.purdue.edu

There is a very useful (and very long) document detailing precise
instructions on how to connect to over 100 on-line libraries, mostly in the
US, but also including many in the UK, including Bodley.

The document is called "Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases"
and is coauthored by Dr.Art St. George of the University of New Mexico and
Dr.Ron Larsen of the University of Maryland.

To quote from a recent announcement:

----------------------------------

To obtain the revised file [ie. the latest version], send mail or a command
to
LISTSERV at UNMVM.  The body of the mail or command should say
GET INTERNET LIBRARY. This will retrieve the ascii version of
the file.  The Postscript version is obtained by using the
command GET LIBRARY PS.  Because of the size of the PS
file, some users may experience difficulties in retrieving
it.

Both the ascii and PS files are also obtainable via
anonymous FTP and from two sites. From NIC.CERF.NET, cd
to cerfnet/cefnet_info and retrieve files called:

internet-accessible-catalog-nov90-general.ps (Postscript)
internet-accessible-catalog-nov90.txt (ascii)

You can also FTP to ARIEL.UNM.EDU and cd to library.
The files are called:

library.ps (Postscript)
internet.library (ascii)

It is possible to automatically receive updated versions of
this file. For more information, send mail or a command to
your nearest Listserv node or, only as a last resort, to
Listserv at unmvm. The body of the mail or the command should
say INFO AFD.  You will be sent a file called Listafd Memo
which describes the automatic file distribution feature
of the Revised Listserv.


As always, if you have any questions about the List or suggestions
for additions or corrections, please send mail to stgeorge at unmb
or stgeorge at bootes.unm.edu.

--------------------------

I might add, that for those of you with access to a gopher server, I
searched 'gopherspace' with the key words 'library catalogs' (NB US
spelling of catalogue) and turned up dozens of search facilities,
announcements (including the one above), direct access to on-line
catalogues etc. Of them all I have only ever seen and used St George and
Larsen's document, but that contains enough information to keep me going
for the next few years!

I would also endorse Dominik's endorsement of Ed Krol's book ("The Whole
Internet"); Krol explains clearly and simply the arcane mysteries of
gopher, WAIS, ftp, email, and much more in a way that any humanities
scholar should find easy to understand. A word of warning though: he
assumes one starts one's electronic journeys from a unix machine and if
that is not your case you may need to find someone who understands your
system to get you started.

Marcus Banks, Oxford