Marshall, Elizabeth L. A Student’s Guide to the Internet: Exploring the World Wide Web, Gopherspace, Electronic Mail, and More! Millbrook Press, 1996. ISBN 1-56294-923-3. $16.90. 159 pp. C 6-12 NF Reviewed by Sandra L. Tidwell Marshall introduces secondary and high school readers to all phases of the Internet, including e-mail, news groups and mailing lists, gopher, ftp (file transfer protocol), and the World Wide Web. Publishing on the Internet and cautions about using the Internet for research are also covered. The attractive world map used in the back of the text and at the first of each chapter emphasizes the scope of the Internet. Grayed-in boxes in the text highlight important information and examples of Internet experiences and searches. There is an adequate glossary and index. The book does have some drawbacks for today’s Internet user, however. Gopherspace was given two and a half times the page coverage the WWW received. Web search engines were only briefly mentioned. I learned some interesting things about gopher searching, but I wonder how useful it is for today’s student. After all, the WWW is where it’s at! I tried some of the gopher URLs listed in the Internet Resources chapter. I received responses that ranged from Server returned no data,” Discontinued 5/5/97, and Use the Web Site. For example, the gopher server for the Library of Congress is no longer maintained as the main source of information. This site refers users to the Web for the most current information. Obviously, it is difficult for authors to publish anything about the Internet before the information becomes outdated; the Internet is truly a constantly changing access point to information. Although Marshall’s pages on gopher space are of historical importance, the evaluation of Internet sources needed more thorough coverage. For example, the importance of a working knowledge of the three-letter abbreviations used within the URL, (i.e., edu., gov., mil., com.) was not covered by Marshall.
