In 1986, the College placed itself at the forefront of cooperative extension technology with the introduction of the Pennsylvania Extension Network (PEN), a computer network that connected Penn State Cooperative Extension offices with electronic messaging services at University Park. It also gave county agents access to PENpages, the College's electronic library of consumer and agricultural information. PENpages became one of the largest electronic collections of extension-related documents in the world and remains a valuable resource today.

Now the College is providing county extension offices with access to the Internet as well. "County agents can turn to the worldwide collection of documents available through the World Wide Web and other Internet services when looking for information they can use to help their clients," says Art Hussey, director of computer services. "Along with access to the Web, a new Internet-based electronic mail system gives counties easier electronic access to University Park faculty and staff."

Peg Cingel, Internet liaison for computer services, works with Internet guides in each county office. "The guides are trained to install, configure, and use hardware and software for the Internet, and they help others in the office learn to use the new services," she explains. "One of the features that has become available to agents is the ability to exchange computer files with specialists at University Park or colleagues at other universities. This will be invaluable as we move forward in this information age."

"Now that we're up to speed with using the Internet, we've really come to appreciate the rapid turnaround time on e-mail and the ability to retrieve information quickly," says Sam Crossley, extension director in Potter and McKean Counties, who serves as an Internet guide. "When people stop by with questions and I don't have the right material in the office, I can get it from Internet sites maintained by Penn State, Cornell, and other land-grant universities. So many aspects of the new technology are really exciting, and it's great to provide some of the benefits to our clients."

The tremendous amount of data available on the Internet can make it difficult to find just the right piece of information. To offer newcomers to the Internet a starting point in their search for useful documents, computer services has published an electronic directory of ag-related information and services on the World Wide Web. "There is so much information available that it can be difficult and time-consuming to find the best sites," explains Ann Devlin, who compiled the guide. "We want to assist county Internet users in their initial searches for valid, reliable information in their subject and program areas, so we developed an organized collection of sites to simplify the process." Users can access the directory by following the link on the College of Agricultural Sciences home page at http://www.cas.psu.edu/.

PENpages, the innovative document database the College established more than a decade ago, now is accessible through the Internet. Users can search its more than 10,000 documents with the click of a mouse by pointing their Web browsers at http://www.penpages.psu.edu/www/searchall.html.


–Eston Martz