You can probably find almost anything on the Net if you look hard enough-including Alice in Wonderland. Using the Net is frequently rewarding. But just as often, it can be intensely frustrating because searches tend to pull up scores of Web sites. Some of them are just what you are looking for; while others are totally irrelevant. For those of you who know Lewis Carroll, you may feel just like Alice after her first encounter with the Cheshire Cat:

This brief guide is not meant to be an exhaustive list of e-mail and online resources. Instead I have limited myself to a few reliable sources of information, as a way of providing you with more guidance than puss gave Alice. Some of the information resources described below are gender specific; others incorporate gender issues within their brief but do not focus on gender specifically. But before beginning, many of the gender-related information resources available on the Net are US- or European-centric, concentrating heavily on the priorities of feminists in these countries. Africa and developing country concerns are not represented as broadly as one would want, and this is an issue of concern to many of us.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE BY E-MAIL

WOMENSNET. The Institute for Global Communications (IGC) has pioneered services for organizations using computer networks for information sharing and increasing women's rights. WomensNet, which is a part of the IGC community, provides e-mail accounts, Internet access, WWW publishing, consulting, and training. Most important for our purposes, WomensNet also offers electronic conferences, but they are only available to its members. A few of the most relevant conferences include:

• hr.women. Information and materials on human rights issues specific to women.
• women.dev. Information relating to local/regional/international development issues.
• women.events. Information related to events/programs/courses/conferences organized by or for women.
• women.sci+tech. A forum to exchange information and experiences on how science and technology impact on women's lives.

GENNET (GENDER NETWORK). A South African discussion group to promote communication between individuals and groups who wish to communicate on issues relating to gender. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@und.ac.za, with the message SUBSCRIBE GENNET

GENDER-CG. The Gender Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) runs an e-mail network, gender-cg, dedicated to news sharing and discussion with respect to gender and intrahousehold analysis in the areas of agriculture, natural resource management, food security, and nutrition. There are currently 200 subscribers from 40 countries. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@CGNET.COM, with the message <SUBSCRIBE GENDER-CG>.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the discussion group host, also ran an e-mail conference between June 1995 and March 1996 on gender and property rights. Proceedings are available upon request. For further information, contact Lynn Brown: lbrown@cgnet@cgnet.com.

You can also access the Gender Research Network Newsletter online by going to http://www.cgiar.org/ifpri/gender/gender.htm

INTERNATIONAL GENDER, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIGEST. In 1996 the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS) inaugurated the International Gender, Science and Technology Digest as part of its Gender, Science, and Development (GSD) program. The digest, which is available by e-mail, circulates first-rate information on activities, research, and other items of interest to groups and individuals interested in the relationship between gender and science and technology. For further information and to be placed on the Digest mailing list, contact Sophia Huyer at IFIAS: shuyer@ifias.ca. And for those of you with full Internet connectivity, the IFIAS home page is located at http://www.ifias.ca/.

PRA-L. Many organizations working on gender issues use participatory research/rural appraisal methodologies. PRA-L is an e-mail discussion group devoted to the topic of participatory community development. It was initiated in 1993 at the University of Guelph by a group of postgraduate students interested in discussing the practice of participatory development techniques in their communities, at home and abroad. To subscribe to PRA-L, send an e-mail message to listserv@listserv.uoguelph.ca, with the message <sub pra yourfirstname yourlastname>. If you have problems or questions, contact the list owner, Susan Rimkus srimjus@uoguelph.ca. The PRA list is also affiliated to the Participatory Initiatives home page at http://tdg.uoguelph.ca/~pi, a WWW site listing resources on participatory approaches to change.

PHNFLASH. PHNFLASH is another information resource, not strictly focused on gender issues, but of possible relevance. It is a weekly electronic newsletter on key population, health, and nutrition issues, produced by the Human Development Department of the World Bank. PHNFLASH serves as a bulletin to announce new technologies, new publications, project updates, conference and training information, job vacancies, grant opportunities, and information on other related electronic services and resources available on the Internet. To subscribe to PHNFLASH, send an e-mail message to listserv@tome.worldbank.org, with the following message: <subscribe phnflash yourname>.

RESOURCES REQUIRING ONLINE INTERNET CAPABILITY

I. USING SEARCH ENGINES
Some of you may have already used the free search engines that come with your Internet browser. My favorites are Infoseek and Lycos, but there are others that you may prefer. Using search engines can be complicated, however, and as an appendix to this guide I have included an article by Terry A. Gray of the Palomar College Library called "How to Search the Web: A Guide to Search Tools." It is also available online at http://daphne.palomar.edu/TGSEARCH/.

In addition, Internet Scout, which is located at the University of Wisconsin Computer Center, maintains an excellent home page with a section on "Searching the Internet:" The Internet Scout Home Page is at http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/toolkit/index.html.

And finally, there is a search engine just for gender called WWWomen.

This search engine is a little limited, however, because it searches a relatively small number of sites. You may want to check it out, though, at: http://www.wwwomen.com/.

II. MULTIDICIPLINARY CATALOGUES AND DIRECTORIES
In addition to using search engines, you can go directly to multidisciplinary catalogues and directories, many of which provide summaries and direct links to relevant home pages. A few good gender-related information resources are listed below.

INTERNET RESOURCES ON WOMEN: USING ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION
Internet Resources on Women by Joan Korenman is a book, and it is only available in print form. It includes information on using e-mail and e-mail discussion groups for gender studies, online searching, and good Web sites organized by discipline. The book, which costs $20 ($30 for institutions), can be ordered from the National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources on Women at Towson State University, 8000 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21252-0001. The e-mail address is ncctrw@towson.edu.

Almost as important for our purposes, there is an Internet Resources on Women home page with updates and links to Web sites:

Internet Resources on Women is located at: http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/updates.html.

UMBC WOMEN STUDIES HOME PAGE
http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/

The University of Maryland/Baltimore County has its own Web site which is actually how I found the Korenman book, and it is well worth looking at, for it led me to a number of good information resources when I clicked on "resources outside UMBC".

III. SUBJECT SPECIFIC WEB SITES
The multidisciplinary catalogues and directories listed in the previous section of this guide will lead you to excellent information resources, but I want to mention a few additional sites, one of which I located through an Infoseek search.

BEIJING CONFERENCE
http://wn.apc.org/women/bjglst.htm

The Fourth Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, raised critical issues to organizations working on gender issues and produced many important documents. SANGONET (discussed below) maintains an excellent Web page on "Beijing 95," with links to other good Web sites.

DEVLINE: Development Information Online
http://www.ids.ac.uk/index.html
DEVLINE is the public networked information service of the Institute of Development Studies and the British Library for Development Studies. A wide variety of development-related information is accessible through DEVLINE. Most pertinent for our purposes, DEVLINE has a long and comprehensive listing of electronic sources on gender, with descriptions of and links to more than 50 organizations and publications http://www.ids.ac.uk/eldis/gender/gen_lele.html. In addition, DEVLINE maintains bibliographic databases. I did a search on "gender and development," and pulled up 42 citations, many of them full-text:

GENDER AND THE LAW
http://www.udayton.edu/~gender/
Gender and the Law is an excellent Web site that "examines the intersection of gender, sex, and the law." It contains full-text articles, links to other Web pages-including the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy-and much more.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
http://iisd1.iisd.ca/
The Canadian International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) maintains an excellent Web site for anyone interested in the intersections between sustainable development and gender. A search on gender pulled up 170 records.

UN DIVISION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
The UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) maintains a WEB site with, among other things, a full archive on the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1979.

And, as a possible model for other countries, South Africa has mounted on the Web its CEDAW report, which can be found at http://www.sacs.org.za/gov/welfare/docs/cedaw1.htm

WOMEN INK
http://www.womenink.org
Women Ink was created in 1992, with a two-year grant from the UN Development for Women (UNIFEM), and has two main objectives: marketing and distributing women and development resources worldwide, especially those from the South. The Women Ink collection consists of approximately 200 titles from over 70 publishers. Titles are selected by an Acquisitions Committee. A few titles are available free of charge or at a discounted price for organizations in the South.
Women Ink and its partner, Women's Bookshelf http://womenbooks.com, could drain an acquisitions budget in a flash.

WORLD BANK
http://www.worldbank.org/
The World Bank Poverty and Social Policy Department is creating a network to promote an exchange of information, experience, and opinions on gender-related issues and strategies among Bank staff. The gender network includes a newsletter GENDERNET, announcements, information on recent publications and projects, and more. I found GENDERNET (http://www.worldbank.org/html/gendrnet/gnet2.html) by carrying out an Infoseek search.

But when I tried to find more issues of the newsletter and other documents being collected by the Gender Network, I had great difficulty because the Gender Network does not have its own URL within the World Bank home page. In the end, I carried out a search on the World Bank server, using "gender," as a key word, and pulled up many relevant documents.

IV. AFRICA ON THE NET
SANGONET
http://sn.apc.org/
As I stated earlier, there is very little information about Africa or coming from Africa on the Net-in gender studies or any other discipline. SANGONET, the South African APC-affiliated Internet Service Provider has created a Web page for women, including links in Southern Africa.

Most of these links are still to South African Web sites, but it's a beginning and we all hope that SANGONET will be able to develop these linkages still further.

AGENDA
http://www.oneworld.org/agenda
And last, but certainly not least, Agenda, the South African feminist journal, which is about to celebrate its tenth year of publishing, has a Web site, with information about the organization and its publications, including the contents of each issue of the journal.

SOME TENTATIVE THOUGHTS
THE NEED FOR A DEMAND-DRIVEN APPROACH

• whether this wealth of information is relevant to Ford Foundation grantees
• whether it is easily accessible;
• whether there are any gaps; and
• how to promote better dissemination of African information, which is being addressed in part by the SANGONET Web site.