Have you ever traveled the Internet, going from site to site and source to source, and wondered if there's any real information out there? How about full-text biographies of over 90,000 authors, directory information for some 120,000 international and national associations, or detailed descriptions of the activities of more than 30,000 research centers around the world?

This information is now at your fingertips through an online information service called GaleNet, subscribed to by the University Libraries. GaleNet provides UB students, faculty, and staff access to the electronic versions of three of Gale Research's most highly regarded reference tools: Contemporary Authors, the Encyclopedia of Associations, and a collection of Research Centers and Services Directories.

Contemporary Authors covers an impressive list of modern writers including poets, novelists, journalists, playwrights, essayists, editors, and screenwriters. Individual entries provide you with the author's name and any pseudonyms, genre, biographical data, publications, works in progress, critical reviews, memberships, awards, and honors, as well as a lengthy essay on the author's work, and in some cases excerpts from interviews.

The Encyclopedia of Associations contains information on national and international as well as regional, state, and local U.S. organizations covering all fields of human interest and endeavor-everything from cybernetics, social justice, and neural networks to Jane Austen, Lyme disease, and Esperanto. In addition to contact information, you get a description of the organization's membership, activities, publications, affiliations, and meetings.

Research Centers and Services Directories rounds out your virtual reference collection with detailed directory-type information for U.S., Canadian, and international organizations and agencies with established programs of research in a wide range of disciplines.

Access to these fully searchable databases is through the University Libraries Homepage at http://wings.buffalo.edu/li braries/. Select "Online Resources," then "Electronic Subscriptions from UB," and make your choice from there. When you link to any of these resources you will be asked to accept the licensing conditions. This licensing agreement simply asks that you respect Gale's copyright policy. Once you click on the "Accept" button, you'll find yourself inside GaleNet, with the databases directly in front of you. These resources are available free to members of the UB community. The GaleNet server will only allow you access if you connect through your UB computer account.

To apply for a UB computer account or for help with using the World Wide Web, contact the CIT Help Desk at 645-3542.

-Loss Pequeno Glazier and Nancy Schiller, University Libraries