CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by Ellen Hoffman/Merit

Minutes of the User Documents Revisions Working Group (USERDOC2)

Introduction

The Group's Charter was described and mailing addresses were reviewed.
Subscriptions to the mailing list should now be sent to
user-doc-request@merit.edu.

Bibliography for New Users Completed

The final version of the short bibliography was distributed.  This has
been submitted to the Area Director as the first step in finalizing it
as an FYI RFC.

The on-line documents listed in the soon-to-be FYI are all collected in
an archive available from four servers on the Internet for anonymous FTP
called ``Introducing the Internet.''  Two sites have email servers
(nic.merit.edu and nisc.sri.com).  Gopher and WAIS servers are available
at Merit.  Four additional sites expressed interest in mirroring the
archive.  The documents can also be reached via dialup services at Merit
for those with a modem and communications software.  For more
information, send an email message to nis-info@merit.edu with the text:
send access.guide.

To provide an ongoing source of information about new documents for the
FYI, a file will be kept in the ``Introducing the Internet'' archive
listing new materials aimed at beginning Internet users.  The Working
Group recommends updating the FYI itself in a year.

First Draft of Comprehensive Bibliography Distributed

A nine-page draft bibliography was distributed as a first step in
updating RFC1175.  The Group discussed goals and directions for the
document.  The Group agreed that the new bibliography would supplement,
rather than obsolete, the existing RFC. It will cover hardcopy and
on-line documents about the Internet from 1990-93.  With nine pages in a
very incomplete listing, it was also agreed that abstracts for all
listings would make the bibliography too long, so some form of keywords
would be developed to help provide content information.

The Group agreed to work on developing the list on-line through the
mailing list, and to try to have a final version for approval at the
July meeting.  A suggestion was made to develop an on-line version that
would allow navigation to each of the electronic documents, and it was
agreed this would be discussed at the next meeting.  There was also
interest in having a document that could have ``icons'' that would make
it easy to identify different subject areas.  Creating a tool useful to

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librarians was another area of interest.  A previous bibliography done
by OCLC was presented as a possible source tool.

Input was solicited on corrections and additions to the document.  A
revised version will be submitted as an Internet-Draft and Working Group
members were asked to send suggestions to the mailing list or authors.

Revised Goals and Directions

A brief discussion was held of new and future projects for the Working
Group.  A possible FYI aimed at those who are not yet connected, which
had been mentioned in the earlier User Services Working Group meeting,
was suggested as a project.  With the Group having taken on introductory
materials as part of the short bibliography, it was agreed that this was
a reasonable project.  A couple of authors said they had already written
materials on this and offered to send them to the mailing list for
consideration.  There was continued interest in creating a ``living
document'' to keep the bibliographies updated, and a locator resource
for documentation on the Internet.  More work will be done on these
topics on the mailing list.

Attendees

Robert Beer              r-beer@onu.edu
Jodi-Ann Chu             jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
James Conklin            jbc@bitnic.educom.edu
Naomi Courter            naomi@concert.net
Brent Curtiss            bcurtiss@magnuss.ocs.ohio-state.edu
Martyne Hallgren         martyne@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu
Deborah Hamilton         debbie@qsun.att.com
Susan Harris             srh@umich.edu
Ellen Hoffman            ellen@merit.edu
Susan Horvath            shorvath@merit.edu
Lenore Jackson           jackson@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov
Erik Jul                 jul@oclc.org
Edward Krol              e-krol@uiuc.edu
Hock-Koon Lim            lim@po.cwru.edu
Gary Malkin              gmalkin@xylogics.com
April Marine             april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Jerry Martin             jerry+@osu.edu
Bruce Nelson             bnelson@novell.com
Marsha Perrott           mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu
Joyce K. Reynolds        jkrey@isi.edu
Jennifer Sellers         sellers@nsipo.nasa.gov
Charlie Smith            crsmith@osvi.edu
Patricia Smith           psmith@merit.edu
Craig Todd               ctodd@desire.wright.edu
William Yurcik           yurcik@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov



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