Subject: AstroWeb: Astronomical Internet Resources

From: "Gerald L. Hanks" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 19:14:44 1000

I am in the process of creating an index of all web links relating to Astronomy and Space Science.  This 
index is categorized by geographical location as well as by resource type (government, education, public, and 
personal).  I would like your permission to include the links that you have in your database along with the 
others that I have collected.
Could you please send an e-mail response to [email-masked]

If you would like to take a look at the start of this project please see http://www.cs.byuh.edu/Astro/

-Gerald Hanks
BYU-Hawaii
[email-masked]
http://www.cs.byuh.edu/~gerald

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From: [email-masked] (Hans-Martin Adorf)
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 08:05:52 +0200

Dear Gerald Hanks,

>Could you please send an e-mail response to [email-masked]

I appreciate your good intentions to build a world-wide index of astronomy
related network resources. However, I think that our AstroWeb index was
created with exactly this idea in mind, and it has become the most complete
index to astronomy on the net in existence. It came into existence by
merging private collections the individuals which make up the AstroWeb
consortium had assembled.

I warn you not to underestimate the effort which is needed not only for the
proper creation of such an index, but even more for the maintenance. The
creation requires judgement which will almost certainly require the
knowledge/cooperation of an astronomer. For instance, with which country do
you want to associate the CFHT observatory, with Canada, or France, or
Hawaii, or all three? Is ESO's observatory at La Silla Chilean?

I should therefore like to ask you to consider applying for a membership in
the AstroWeb consortium, and use your time and effort to help improving the
already existing AstroWeb index, rather than attempting to build another
one on top of the existing one(s). I should like to mention that the master
database on which AstroWeb rests does have a categorization built-in, and
if the categories which you would like to see are not present at the
moment, they could easily be added. Using the AstroWeb database would allow
you to keep your current interface, since each of the half-dozen sites
offering the AstroWeb database does it through a customized UIF anyway.
Each site regularly updates its local copy from the master database which
is currently maintained at the STScI, Baltimore.

>http://www.cs.byuh.edu/Astro/

I had a brief look at your pages and I think that you have come up with yet
another nice idea for an interface to a large database of web resources.
However I have some doubts that I understand what you mean with your
categories "public", "education" etc. At least an explanation is necessary
on the toplevel http://www.cs.byuh.edu/Astro/ page. In what sense, for
instance, is CDS, Strasbourg public? It certainly is not as public as a
public library. Do you mean it is not a privately run research institute?
BTW: CDS is funded by the French government/taxpayer.

Best regards
Hans-Martin Adorf
ST Data Analysis Scientist