Back in the old days -- say 1993 -- Cornell University agriculture students surfed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economics and Statistics System gopher site at the university's Albert R. Mann Library for the latest in crop and farm information. Well, that was then. Now, the USDA site has jumped onto the World Wide Web.

To help students, faculty, growers and farmers prosper, Mann Library began providing Internet access to USDA statistical data from the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) about two years ago. These files included crop, livestock and agricultural economic statistics from the United States and other countries. Last year, the system was expanded to include reports from the ERS, NASS, and the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB). These include weekly, monthly, and quarterly forecasts and estimates on crop production, dairy outlooks, wheat forecasts, and many others. But in a short two years, easy-to-use, graphical web browsers have revolutionized using the Internet. "In the early 1990s, when the library was creating this system, Gopher technology was the leading Internet access method," said Oya Rieger, Cornell public services librarian. "During the last two years, the World Wide Web became the preferred Internet protocol. This upgrade enables the library to improve the user interface substantially, making it much easier to locate related information."

Beginning in October 1995, a group headed by Rieger performed the technical upgrades necessary to convert the ERS, NASS, and WAOB data and reports into the World-Wide Web environment. Although this new, improved delivery mechanism is now available, the gopher remains to continue service to sites where Web access is difficult.

Much of this Web upgrade project was funded by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. Since January 1994, the system has hosted more than 150,000 users -- an average of more than 200 users a day -- with user support provided by Mann and USDA staff.

Mann Library will continue Gopher, Telnet and FTP sites, too, so that those users with limited hardware/software settings can continue to use the resources. For Gopher access, connect to: . For telnet access, connect to: and log in as . No password is needed for telnet access. To use the anonymous FTP protocol, connect to and log in as with your ID name or e-mail address as your password. Then, change the directory with . Internet users with access to the World Wide Web may use the address: .

For questions about accessing this information through the Internet, contact the Mann Library Reference Desk at (607) 255-5406, or send e-mail to . Albert R. Mann Library supports the instruction, research, and extension programs of Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Human Ecology, Division of Biological Sciences, and Division of Nutritional Sciences. A land grant library for New York, Mann is open to the general public. Mann is one of the Cornell University Library system's 19 unit libraries.