VOL. 17 NO. 2 APRIL-JUNE 1998 - Practical Orientation to Internet : A Report

The relevance of Internet for information professionals cannot be overemphasized. Internet is today the most popular information service offering varied opportunities for information professionals to generate services using the Internet utilities and databases. Internet has made a great impact on information field and warrants for a working knowledge to cope up with the new demands and challenges it presents.

In this context, DRTC organised 30th annual workshop at Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore from 28-30 January, 1998. The workshop was sponsored by National Information System for Science & Technology (NISSAT) with an objective to provide hands-on experience on Internet for library and information professionals. The workshop was categorised into three day sessions. The first day covered the introductory concepts dealing with all the preliminary concepts of Internet and its history and connectivity issues, the second day, `Web Day', covering details of the World Wide Web, its constitution and services. The third day `LIS day' sessions covered the applications of Internet to library and information science and bibliographic services. On each day, the morning sessions concentrated on lectures and the after lunch sessions were hands-on practicals for the participants.

Scope of the Workshop

The workshop included lectures on the following topics and offered extensive practical training in the use of Internet:

  • Introduction to networking and Internet

  • Connectivity Options — Dial up, shell account, SLIP/PPP, TCP/IP, IP addresses, Telnet, FTP

  • Internet Services — Archie, gopher, wais, e-mail, software, Internet mail

  • WWW and search engines

  • Electronic Publishing - HTML, HTML editors, Web page authoring tools, browsers, servers, plug-ins

  • Database Connectivity and OPACs on Internet

  • Sources of Information

  • Multimedia on Internet — ODBC and OLE concepts

  • Information Credibility and Data Security Issues

Infrastructural Facilities

The Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore Centre has a LAN having UNIX OSF/1 (DEC Alpha), Windows NT, Novell Netware servers connected to Internet via 64 kbps leased lines with about 70 end user terminals.

Course Material

The workshop was supported by comprehensive course material. The workshop volume includes thematic papers and detailed exercises for the hands on sessions. Ten thematic papers were contributed by the faculty members of Documentation Research and Training Centre. Practical papers covered step by step `how to' procedures on each of the aspects. The volume includes a bibliography listing important articles and books for reference. A glossary of Internet terminology is also provided.

Special Lecture

Shri Ramakrishna Rao, General Manager, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) gave a lecture on `VSNL and its Internet services in India'. After the presentation there was active discussion on various options for Internet connectivity in India.