Veterinary medicine on the information superhighway.

The Internet, the world's computer-networking backbone, links thousands of networks on every continent and is used by over 25 million people. This "information superhighway" is much more than its physical interconnection of computers. It is also an efficient and, convenient global interconnection of people, institutions, and businesses that facilitates communication and information exchange. It is important to understand the main communication methods and information-retrieval tools currently used on the Internet. This overview examines various Internet tools and their importance, particularly ones most useful to veterinarians and other animal-related professionals. The major Internet communication tools are those that send and receive electronic mail, connect and run programs on remote computers, transfer computer files, and search databases for information. Recently, two navigation tools, Gopher and the World Wide Web (WWW), have revolutionized ways of finding information on the Internet. Gopher uses a text-based menu of choices, whereas the WWW has a point-and click interface combining text, graphics, sound, and video. The WWW is undergoing explosive growth, both in terms of new servers and new users accessing WWW servers. In the fields of veterinary medicine and animal welfare, a similarly rapid expansion of internut resources is occurring. One experimental project to collect these resources and make them centrally available is NetVet Veterinary Resources (http:// netvet.wustl.edu/). From this site, many other veterinary. Internet services are easily located. This discussion will provide details about the Internet's communication tools and utilities and demonstrate several relevant veterinary and animal-related computer sites.