PLEASE COPY THIS DISK -- UPDATE 8/1/93 from: The B&R Samizdat Express PO Box 161 West Roxbury, MA 02132 [log in to unmask] (Reminder -- We're the folks who are making public- domain Internet information available on disk, primarily for teachers who have no access or limited access to the Internet. We encourage you to make as many copies of these texts as you need to share with your colleagues and students. If you would like to receive a list of our current offerings, please send us email requesting it. If you didn't see our initial message, where we explain what we're doing and why, and who we are, just let us know and we'll send you a copy of that as well.) It's been a busy week: 1) All our offerings are now available for Macintosh as well as IBM PCs. 2) The United Nations Department of Public Information has given its support to Global Education Motivators (GEM) in our joint project to make on-line U.N. information available in our PLEASE COPY THIS DISK format. 3) Your suggestions and requests pointed us to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) as a possible source for a whole series of disks about teaching techniques and educational issues, as well as lesson plans. 4) One of you let us know the importance of books on disks for the blind, many of whom have equipment which can "read" such material aloud to them. 5) We've added six new disks. 6) We've learned that in the summer, with people away, obtaining permissions from sources can take a while. 7) We've been delighted by the enthusiastic response we received. 8) We learned that there simply isn't enough time in the day to personally respond to everyone. (Please accept our apologies, and our thanks for your helpful suggestions.) We'd appreciate your help in finding sources of information to meet the particular needs of people who have responded to us. We are looking for public-domain on-line sources for: 1) Chaucer, 2) current information on Africa, and 3) history c. 1850 of importation into the U.S. of castorbean plants (source of the toxin Ricin, which is possibly linked to Lou Gehrig's disease) and its use in fertilizer. The information resources available on the Internet and from the United Nations are immense. We need to target our efforts to provide maximum benefit. For now, we're basing our decisions on the assumption that some of you would like to use these like textbooks (having students make their own copies), that others would like to assemble your own anthologies, and that still others are interested in government reference tools to encourage students to become informed and active citizens. Please let us know as specifically as you can what information would be most useful for you and your colleagues to have on disk. Please send your suggestions as well as your requests to be added to our distribution list to: [log in to unmask]