The 1996 Interactive Healthcare Internet Directory contains more than 700 listings of health-related resources found on the Internet. While compiling this directory, I found there were many more resources than I could possibly catalog, so I concentrated on the most useful ones.

As general references I included the following resources: 1) Tutorials that provide you with an overview of the Internet and what it offers; 2) Search Tools that allow you to locate resources on specific topics; 3) Indexes of health-related resources so you would have a few key sites from which to begin your browsing; and 4) Directories which provide online pointers to health-related agencies, associations, hospitals, institutes, libraries, medical centers, medical schools, nursing schools, societies, mailing lists, and more.

More specific resources cover topics in Allied Health, Dentistry, Diseases and Conditions, Education, Health Promotion, Medicine, Mental Health, Nursing, Public Health, and more. The Internet Directory is organized by subject to make it easier to locate particular topics. All online addresses (URLs) that are given in the body of the directory are for use on a World Wide Web browser such as Netscape. Also, most of the listings were current as of May 1996. Obviously, some may change, move, or disappear by the time you look for them.

Helpful Hints. Based on my time spent online, I have a few suggestions to offer. First, in order to lessen the time it takes to upload files, it pays to turn off the graphics in your Web browser so you won't have to wait for all of the decorative pictures to load. It can be turned on again if you encounter a site where graphics are either necessary or desirable. Secondly, I discovered through trial and error that these online addresses are UPPER- and lower-case sensitive. If there is an upper-case letter in the address, you must type it as a capital letter.

Finally, I found that if I could not connect to a particular address, sometimes I
could "back up" the address a bit and try again. For example, if you can't connect at the Yahoo Index: AIDS/HIV site at "hltp://www.yahoo.eom/Health/Diseases_and _Conditions/AIDS_HIV/", then you could knock off the  "AIDS_HIV/" and try again, or just go all the way back to the home page at "http://www.yahoo.com/" and work your way through the menu system. This also is useful if you jumped into a site a a specific page, but want to explore the entire site. In some cases, this method is preferable to typing the entire address. The address to access the 9th Revision Directory of
Scholarly Electronic Conferences is "gopher://gopher.usask.ca:70/00/Computing/Intemet%20Information/Directory%20of%20Scholarly%20Electronic%20Conferences/
Medical%20Practice%2C%20Nursing%2C%20Personnel%2C%20Patients%
20and%20Medical%20Sciences%2C%20Research." Another way to reach this site would be to connect to the main menu at "gopher://gopher.usask.ca/" and work through the menu system by choosing Computing; Internet Info; Dir of Scholarly Elec Conf; Medical Practice, etc. Other Directories. Just a reminder that we also publish software directories that list health-related software delivered on CD-ROM, Videodisc, and Computer-Assisted
Instruction (floppy disk). If you don't already have one of our flyers, please
call, write, or e-mail and we well send one to you.

Submissions. As always, there inevitably will be errors and omissions in this volume. If you have a correction or entry you would like to submit, please send it to my attention at Stewart Publishing, Inc., 4706 Autumn Cove Court, Alexandria VA 22312; 703-354-8155; 703-354-2177 (fax); [email protected].