Plant genetic resources in cyberspace
Information on the internet
The Internet is a vast collection of information, which ha' been described as a huge library with all the books thrown or the floor. This makes it difficult to obtain information quickly even with the increasingly sophisticated search engines ant web crawlers that are available. Below are listed some inter eating address related to genetic resources, botany, etc. Please send information on other interesting sites via Email to the Managing Editor of the Newsletter ([email protected])
The addresses given here were operating at the time of this issue of the Newsletter going to press (May 1996), but as the Internet is a volatile medium, they may not continue to be accurate.
The World Resources institute has a new World Wide Wet site at http://www.wri.org/wri/. It includes links to:
· information about WRI programme activities.
· New reports.
· A link to WRl's gopher site (gopher://gopher.wri.org:7018/)
· WRI publications catalog.
· WRI Biodiversity Site, the first of several WRI 'thematic sites to be posted.
· Additional thematic areas will be added in the future (Environmental Education, World Resources Report, Maps and Statistics).
Comments are welcome and should be sent to Philip Lanks, information Coordinator, World Resources institute, 1709 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006; telephone: 202/638-6300; facsimile 202/638-0036; telex: 64414 WRI WASH; E-Mail: [email protected]
The Base de Dados Tropical (Tropical Database) at the Fundação Tropical de Pesquisas e Tecnologia 'André Tosello' in São Paulo, Brazil, includes a database of names of bacterial species at http://www.ftpt.br/cgi-bin/bdtnet/bacterianame.
Web site http://www.literature.org/works/ named the 'Online Literature Library', is an electronic library that is being developer as a personal project of Peter Galbavy, an Operations Manage with an American commercial firm. He is building up a library a out-of-copyright classics, which includes the complete text c Darwin's 'Voyage of the Beagle' and 'The Origin of Species'.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada presents a pilot project to develop a national directory to facilitate remote access to Canadian agriculture and agri-food information resources or the internet and other electronic sites in Canada. A team of librarians and information professionals maintains a directory of Canadian information resources in the field. This directory is available on ACEIS, the Department's new electronic information service: http://aceis.agr.ca/agriweb/agriweb.htm.
AgriWeb Canada is a user-friendly, interactive application. The site maintains alphabetically arranged listings for resources, both linked (WWW, ftp, Gopher) and unlinked (BBS, listserv, Usenet, library catalogues, electronic publications). These listings are updated each month. For the benefit of regular visitors the site maintains a separate listing containing only the new sites added for the current month. An accessible archive of past monthly 'new site' listings will be added to the application
The Global Agricultural Biotechnology Association is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting agricultural biotechnology around the world through international information exchange and strategic communication. The site http://ww.lights.com/gaba/ is an attempt to concentrate agbiotech-related internet resources in one place for easy access. Links are updated regularly. Additional services provided directly by the Association are added as they become available.
The Sustainable Development Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established the site called 'Sustainable Development Dimensions' at http:/www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/Welcome_.HTM. It provides news, analytical articles and other information resources divided into four major thematic areas:
1. People;
2. Institutions, including land tenure, rural administration and rural cooperatives
3. Knowledge, including research and technology, extension and education, development communication
4 Environment, including remote sensing, geographic information systems, environmental policy, planning and management, and renewable energy.
The Center for Plant Conservation is headquartered at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. CPC coordinates the growth and maintenance of the US National Collection of Endangered Plants, and its associated conservation, research and education programmes. This Web Page(http://www.mobot.org/CPC/office.html) gives full details of its programme, but it also has a series of useful links to participating institutions in the USA.
