From: Judi Clark Subject: NSF's On-Line Dissemination System (fwd) Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 09:11:32 -0700 (PDT) STIS The Science & Technology lnformation System at the National Science Foundation What is STIS? STIS is an electronic dissemination system that provides fast. easy access to National Science Foundation (NSF) publications. There is no cost to you except for possible long-distance phone charges. The service is available 24 hours a day, except for brief weekly maintenance periods. What Publications are Available? Publications currently available include: The NSF Bulletin Program announcements and "Dear Colleague" letters General publications and reports Press releases NSF organization charts and phone books NSF vacancy announcements Award abstracts (1989 now) The goal is for all printed publications to be available electronically. Access Methods There are many ways to access STIS. Choose the method that meets your needs and the communication facilities you have available. Electronic Documents Via E-Mail. If you have access to Internet or BITNET E-mail, you can send a specially formatted message, and the document you request will be automatically returned to you via E-mail. Anonymous FTP. Internet users who are familiar with this file transfer method can quickly and easily transfer STIS documents to their local system for browsing and printing. On-Line STIS. If you have a VT100 emulator and an Internet connection or a modem, you can log on to the on-line system. The on-line system features full-text search and retrieval software to help you locate the documents and award abstracts that are of interest to you. Once you locate a document. you can browse through it on-line or download it using the Kermit protocol or request that it be mailed to you. Direct E-Mail. You can request that STIS E-mail you a weekly summary of all the new documents on STIS. You can also sign up to get the full text of all documents added to STIS. WAIS. If your campus has access to the Wide Area Information Servers, you can use your local WAIS client to search and download NSF publications. Getting Started With Documents Via E-Mail Send a message to stisserv@nsf.gov (Internet) or stisserv@NSF (BITNET). The text of the message should be as follows (the Subject line is ignored): Request: stis Topic: index You will receive a list of all the documents on STIS and instructions for retrieving them. Please note that all requests for electronic documents should be sent to stisserv, as shown above. Requests for printed publications should be sent to pubs@nsf.gov (Internet) or pubs@NSF (BITNET). Gettinq Started with Anonymous FTP FTP to stis.nsf.gov. If you cannot connect, try 128.150.195.40. Enter anonymous for the username, and your Email address for the password. Retrieve the file ftpindex. This contains a list of the files available on STIS and additional instructions. Getting Started with the On-Line System If you are on the Internet: telnet stis.nsf.gov. If you cannot connect, try telnet 128.150.195.40. At the login prompt, enter public. If you are dialing in with a modem: Choose 1200, 2400, or 9600 baud, 7-E-I. Dial 202-357-0359 or 202-357-0360. When connected, press Enter. At the login prompt, enter public. Getting Started with Direct E-Mail Send an E-mail message to stisserv@nsf.gov (Internet) or stisserv@NSF (BITNET). Put the following in the text: Request: stis Topic: stisdirm You will receive instructions for this service. Getting Started with WAIS The NSF WAIS server is stis.nsf.gov (128.150.195.40). You can get the ".src" file from the "Directory of Servers" at quake.think.com. For More Information For additional assistance contact: E-mail: stis-request@nsf.gov (Internet) stis-req@NSF (BITNET) Phone: 202-357-7555 (voice mail) TDD: 202-357-7492 NSF 91-10 Revised 3/30/92