ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


438/C&RL News

internet
Reviews

S ara A m a to , editor

CancerNet. Access: go 
pher://gopher.nih.gov:70/
11/clin/cancernet; gophei 
gopher.nih.gov; #3. Health 
and Clinical Information; #1.
CancerNet Information. Pro­
ducer: National Cancer Insti­
tute. Contact: Cheryl Burg 
c h eryl@ icicb .n ci.n ih .gov 
(301) 496-8880.

A question asked by ev­
ery Internet navigator is 
“H ow  reliable is this infor­
mation?” With CancerNet. 
the National Cancer Institute 
(N C I) has set a high standard. Arranged by can­
cer type, site, and patient age, 100+ state-of-
the-art summaries are prepared by a board o f
oncology experts, peer-reviewed by other ex­
perts, and updated monthly, if indicated. Writ­
ten at both physician and lay levels, most are
available in English and Spanish. Additional re­
sources include Supportive Care Statements (14)
on topics like nutrition, pain management, and
nausea; Cancer Screening Summaries (10) for
breast, cervical, skin, and other frequent sites;
and investigational drug documents (11) with
taxol and tretinoin among those listed. Couple
this with document delivery via downloading,
electronic mail, or telefacsimile and the poten­
tial o f the Internet becomes apparent. These
summaries make up the PDQ Cancer Informa­
tion File available from online vendors. Future
CancerNet plans call for adding other NCI in­
formation as well.

And there’s more, lots more. Over 100 Fact
Sheets from NCI’s Office o f Cancer Communi­
cations organized into broad areas such as can­
cer risk factors, prevention, and rehabilitation
are available.

That’s not all, but hopefully enough to en­
courage further exploration. CancerNet can be
found on the NIH gopher noted above in the
Health and Clinical Information directory and
through several other gophers worldwide. For
a Table o f contents and instructions on using
C a n cerN et, sen d  an e-m a il m essa ge to
cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov with the w ord
“HELP” as the body. For those with only e-mail
access to the Internet (via CompuServe for ex-

Sara Amato is systems librarian at Willamette Univer­
sity, Salem, Oregon; e-mail: samato@willamette.edu

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ample), the item codes re­
turned can be used to sub­
mit document requests. Al­
though a two-step process, 
the server is responsive and 
documents have been sent 
to o v e r  40 cou n tries. 
CancerNet information is the 
Internet at its best.— Greg 
Pratt, Texas Medical Center 
Library

EDGAR. Access: WWW: 
http://town.hall.org/edgar/ 
edgar.html.

Detailed financial information has come to 
the Internet in the form o f EDGAR (Electronic 
Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval). This 
controversial database presently contains over 
8,300 annual and quarterly reports (8-K, 10-K, 
10-Q, N-SAR, etc.) filed electronically with the 
Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) by 
publicly traded companies. Over the next two 
years approximately 15,000 companies will file 
electronic reports. The Internet version o f 
EDGAR is currently maintained by the N ew  
York University School o f Business, along with 
the Internet Multicasting Service, through a two- 
year National Science Foundation grant.

Though growing, EDGAR is actually not in­
tended as a permanent database; the service 
will discontinue upon expiration o f its grant 
after 1995. Rather, the purpose o f EDGAR is to 
demonstrate the feasibility o f archiving and dis­
tributing large data collections at reasonable 
cost over the Internet.

The best access point for EDGAR is World 
W ide Web, using a sophisticated browser such 
as Mosaic, which permits online, keyw ord 
searching. A  resourceful alternative is through 
Washburn University Law School’s' telnet site 
at: acc.wuacc.edu. Login as washlaw and go to 
the Federal Government Information/(EDGAR) 
SEC Filings directory. Regardless o f  access 
method, users should expect to wait as long as 
5-10 minutes for retrieval o f EDGAR’s large (up 
to one Mb) data and index files.

EDGAR is also available directly via ftp and 
e-mail from: town.hall.org. T o ftp records o f 
individual U.S. companies, first download the 
index file /edgar/full-index/company.idx to 
determine each report’s unique numerical iden­
tifier. Searchers should also retrieve the help

mailto:cheryl@icicb.nci.nih.gov
mailto:cancernet@icicb.nci.nih.gov
mailto:samato@willamette.edu
http://town.hall.org/edgar/


file general.txt in the /edgar directory. Note 
that many gophers allow searching o f ftp sites, 
with the opportunity to retrieve files via go- 
pher-mail (e.g., marvel.loc.gov in the Internet 
Resources/Archie and ftp directory).

To mail the company index send the fol­
lowing message to mail@town.hall.org: send 
edgar/company.idx. After identifying specific 
companies, request individual reports with the 
message: send edgar/datal/xxx/xxx.txt where 
xxx represents a multidigit code from the in­
dex. T o retrieve just one or a few  records, the 
search command provides the most efficient 
method for identifying file names. As with go­
pher, WAIS, and WWW, Search allows keyword 
and boolean queries. Send as mail, for example: 
search Douglas and McDonnell to find several 
pages o f report identifiers for the McDonnell 
Douglas Corporation.

Regardless o f difficulty, EDGAR boasts high 
usage. As o f March up to 20,000 documents 
were transferred each week, amounting to over 
17 gigabytes o f data. System administrators be­
lieve the service will eventually reach 200,000 
users. But this success must be measured by 
the realization that EDGAR serves primarily as 
a demonstration project, not as an archival trea­
sure chest.— Larry Schankman, Mansfield Uni­
versity

The Center f o r  Advanced Space Stud­
ies. Access: W W W : http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/ 
CASS_home.html or telnet: cass.jsc.nasa.gov. 
Login: cass, password: online. Terminal Emu­
lation: vtlOO, X-windows.

Established 25 years ago under the auspices 
o f the National Academy o f Science, the Uni­
versities Space Research Association is a con­
sortium o f 76 colleges and universities that sup­
port graduate programs in the space sciences 
and aerospace engineering. The Center for Ad­
vanced Space Studies (CASS), located in Hous­
ton near the Johnson Space Center, is one o f 
USRA’s principal research facilities and a major 
conference center. Built in 1991, CASS is home 
to the Exploration Science Institute, Division 
o f Educational Programs, Division o f Space Life 
Sciences, and the Lunar and Planetary Institute. 
These agencies support space and planetary 
research through project coordination, educa­
tional programs, conferences, publishing, and 
computer networking.

CASS’ menu-based online system reflects its 
collaborative mission. A common interface per­
mits users to move easily among the center’s

diverse collection o f resources. However, users 
must contend with minor command and dis­
play variations within individual tools and da­
tabases. Online help is readily available. The 
system’s downloading feature supports e-mail, 
ftp, X, Y, and Z modems.

Students, researchers, and the public can 
keep abreast o f current research and explora­
tion projects in the LPI Bulletin, a quarterly pub­
lication o f the Lunar and Planetary Institute, 
and on the Mars Exploration Bulletin Board. A 
conference and workshop schedule lists up­
coming meetings and seminars.

The Lunar & Planetary Bibliography, Library 
Catalog, and Meeting Abstracts provide access 
to an extensive collection o f literature on space 
and planetary research.

Planetary science researchers will be inter­
ested in CASS’ Image Retrieval & Processing 
System, a database containing information about 
planetary images. Each record includes: mis­
sion, spacecraft, and imaging instrumentation; 
time, date, latitude, and longitude when taken; 
the geometry o f the spacecraft, planet and sun; 
and ordering information. Additional planetary 
data and information are available in the USGS 
Index to Planetary Maps, Venusian Impact Cra­
ter Inventory, and USGS Gazetteer o f  Planetary 
Nomenclature. The latter is a browseable index 
o f hundreds o f named geographical features.

CASS’ World Wide Web homepage contains 
links to its online system, NASA’s W W W  docu­
ment and the Planetary Data Institute. H ow ­
ever, as o f this review, the link to the center’s 
online system failed to connect properly.

CASS is an excellent resource for the pro­
fessional researcher or student interested in the 
exploration and mapping o f the solar system. 
However, its easy to use interface and current 
news items will appeal to the general science 
student and space enthusiast.— Michael White, 
Loyola University ■

Clarification
The acquisition notice on the Los Ange­

les riot collection at the University o f South­
ern California in the May issue implied that 
the Christopher and Webster materials are 
part o f that collection. However, they are 
part o f the Special Collections Department 
and their access is restricted. The editors 
regret the confusion.

July/August 1994 / 439

mailto:mail@town.hall.org
http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/