Internet Resources for Guidance Personnel

With tens of thousands of information providers and millions of users, Internet is an enormous and growing resource for guidance counselors and other personnel service professionals. The task for busy professionals is to be able to rapidly identify Internet resources so they can be efficiently incorporated in their work.

In this digest, we identify Internet resources of particular interest to the guidance community. In particular, we identify listservs of interest, identify the offerings of several gopher sites, show you how to access ERIC on the Internet, and describe the AskERIC e-mail service. The novice user is referred to the excellent, well-known electronic books referenced at the end of this digest.LISTSERVSListservs are electronically facilitated discussion forums of participants who share a common interest. You e-mail a thought, question, or response to the forum and the listserv software re-transmits your e-mail to the entire mailing list.

Some listservs of interest to guidance personnel are:

ICN - International Counselor Network--Comprised of counselors, counselor educators, teachers, and graduate students, this listserv contains discussions regarding mental health issues. Subscribe to: [email protected]

YOUTHNET - This is a discussion list for therapists and other service providers working with youth. Subscribe to: [email protected]

BEHAVIOR - Behavioral and Emotional Disorders in Children - This list discusses psychological disorders in children. Subscribe to: [email protected]

VOC-NET - This is the U.C. Berkeley general discussion list and bulletin board on current trends in vocational education. Subscribe to: [email protected]

DSSHE-L - Disabled Student Services in Higher Education--The scope of this list encompasses career counseling for students with disabilities; the removal of barriers, both architectural and attitudinal, for the disabled; testing and other academic accommodations; and legal issues pertaining to the "Americans with Disabilities Act." It is appropriate for all counselors. Subscribe to: [email protected]

TRDEV-L - Training and Development Discussion List - This forum for the exchange of information on the training and development of human resources aims to stimulate research collaboration and assistance in T&D for the professional and academic communities. Subscribe to: [email protected]

AERA-E - American Educational Research Association Division E: Counseling and Human Development--This forum discusses recent research and research ideas. Subscribe to: [email protected]

To subscribe to a listserv, send e-mail to the listserv address with a one-line message: SUB listname your name. For example, to subscribe to AERA-E, you would send e-mail to [email protected]. The one-line message would be SUB AERA-E Liselle Drake. To unsubscribe, the message would be UNSUB AERA-E.GOPHER SITESGophers are menu-driven systems providing access to a wide range of information. Via Internet and Gopher software, you literally connect to computers across the world to obtain information. Often the information is in the form of text files. The information can also be in the form of searchable databases, directories, software, and graphics. Some Gopher sites of interest to the guidance community include:

Arizona State University--Containing the largest listing of educationally relevant gophers, the ASU Gopher is an excellent starting point. There are pointers to the Best of the Internet for Educators and to a large assortment of electronic journals and newsletters, including "Journal of Counseling and Development," "Journal of Distance Education and Communication," "Psychology," and "Rasch Measurement Transactions." Also, by following the path to Electronic journals at CICNET/Electronic Serials/, the counselor can access the full-text issues of the journal, Conflict Resolution Consortium. Gopher to info.asu.edu, select ASU Campus Wide Information/ College of Education/Electronic Journals/.

National Parent Information Network--NPIN provides information and communication capabilities to parents and those who work with them. NPIN offers full-text documents, brochures and other publications which it has gathered from all ERIC components, the National Urban League, the Illinois Parent Initiative, the National PTA, the North Central Regional Education Laboratory, and the Family Literacy Center. NPIN's "Short Items for Parents" are equally suitable for parent educators and counselors in that their scope encompasses issues of discipline, self-esteem, special needs and health of children according to the children's age and developmental levels. The weekly newsletter "Parent News" is another notable offering. Gopher to gopher.prairienet.org, select Education/ERIC/NPIN/.

The U.S. Department of Education's Gopher--USDE posts an extremely large collection of full text material and information. Of particular interest is A Teacher's Guide to the U.S. Dept. of Education, with selections for "Services and Resources" which offers resources for Drug Free Schools and Communities, Bilingual Education/Minority Language Affairs, Special Education Programs and Literacy Resource Centers. Gopher to gopher.ed.gov.

The Child, Youth and Family Education and Resources Network--CYFERNET describes its mission as "...to develop and deliver educational programs that equip limited-resource families and youth who are at risk for not meeting basic human needs, to lead positive, productive, contributing lives." CYFER offers resources for, and statistics about, child-youth-family development and programs, including full-text versions of pertinent journals and newsletters. Gopher to cyfer.esusda.gov.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation--The ERICmAE Gopher features a wide range of current essays about assessment and evaluation, a special Test Locator Service, and pointers to places on the Internet where you can search ERIC databases. Of special interest is the Test Locator (see Doolittle, Halpern, and Rudner, 1994). ERIC/AE, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the Buros Institute, and Pro-Ed (publishing) have collaborated to produce several searchable testing databases. Featured is the ETS Test Collection containing descriptions of over 10,000 educational and psychological measures. Gopher to gopher.cua.edu and select Special Resources/ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment.

The Library of Congress--LC offers the Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic library. Choose: Search LC Marvel Menus/Search LC Marvel Menus using Jughead and enter the search terms of your choice (e.g., dyslexia, cancer). Gopher to marvel.loc.gov

The Cornucopia of Disability Information--CODI offers 22 menu items of services covering a broad range of information for people with disabilities and for those who work with them. Gopher to val- dor.cc.buffalo.edu

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Instructional Technology--AskERIC maintains a large Gopher site providing access to a wide range of material. Of particular interest are the AskERIC Infoguides. Each Infoguide includes pertinent ERIC document citations and various Internet resources, such as appropriate listservs and pointers to gopher/ftp sites. Some relevant titles are School Counseling 1 & 2, AIDS Education, Child Abuse, Disabilities, Disabled Students, HotlinesmHelplines, Sex Education, Special Education, and Vocational Education. Gopher to ericir.syr.edu.

Because Gopher is so popular, most large computer centers make Gopher available to their dial-up users. Often you can access Gopher at the system prompt by typing Gopher and the gopher address. For example, to access the AskERIC Gopher from a VAX computer you would type GOPHER ERICIR.SYR.EDU from the $.ERIC DATABASESERIC Abstracts Database - The entire contents of the Resources in Education and Current Index to Journals in Education are available though several Internet sites. You can Gopher to suvm.syr.edu and select database/ERIC/or gopher to gopher.uic.edu and select Library/Databases/ERIC.

ERIC Digest File--Digests are 1500 word reports that synthesize research and ideas about emerging issues in education. They are designed to help members of the educational community keep up-to-date with trends and new developments. Digests typically either serve as an introduction to a topic, provide current information of a factual nature related to a topic, define and describe a controversial topic, provide specific, concrete examples of how practitioners can apply research results in practical settings, report on the current status of research in an area, or summarize an existing review and synthesis publication. These are one of the most popular items on the entire Internet. Gopher to gopher.cua.edu and select ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment/Search ERIC/, or gopher to gopher.ed.gov and select OERI/ERIC/Search Digests/.

AskERIC E-MAIL SERVICE

AskERIC is a personalized Internet-based service for educators and professionals allied with education support services. E-mail them a question and within 48 hours they will provide you with a response. Responses include full-text resources, ERIC database searches, learned opinions, and pointers to other resources. Send your e-mail to [email protected], P., M. Halpern & L.M. Rudner (1994). The ERIC/AE Test Locator Service. Educational Researcher, 22, 8, pp34-35.

The following Internet references are available electronically by gophering to dewey.lib.ncsu.edu, select NCSU's "Library without Walls"/Reference Desk/Guides.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (1993). Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, [Online]. Available Gopher:vega.lib.ncsu.ed Directory /library/reference/guides, File: Guide.txt

Kehoe, B.P (1992). Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginners Guide to the Internet, (2nd. Ed.), [Online]. Available FTP (Telnet): quake.think.com Directory:pub/etext/1992, File: Zen10.text

Polly, J.A. (1992). Surfing the Internet: an Introduction, (2nd.Ed.),[Online]. Available Gopher:vega.lib.ncsu.ed Directory: library/reference/guides, File: Surfing.txt

Liselle Drake is a User Services Coordinator and Lawrence Rudner is the Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and disseminated. This publication was funded by U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Contract No. RR93002004. Opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions of the U. S. Department of Education, OERI, or ERIC/CASS. Title: Internet Resources for Guidance Personnel. ERIC Digest. Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); Descriptors: Computer Literacy, Computer Mediated Communication, Computer Uses in Education, Computers, Counseling, Counselors, Electronic Mail, Elementary Secondary Education, Internet, Listservs, Online Systems, Reference Materials, School Counseling, School Guidance Identifiers: ERIC Digests

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