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The Internet is a rapidly expanding community, adding many new converts daily. Although initially the domain of computer scientists and network engineers, the Internet and Internet‐like services now include users such as accountants, lawyers, demographers, business development people, product planners, and corporate CEOs. In fact, virtually all businesses can find substantial benefit from the use of the Internet. Reaching these decision‐makers and demonstrating the value to their businesses is the task facing anyone interested in the sales of Internet services. Marketing Internet services requires one to practice an ancient art form using new paints and canvases.

Describes the effort to link the US Commerce Department′s Bulletin Board to the Internet. Suggests other government departments can learn from the lessons learnt. Addresses technical, monetary and operational matters.

A national multi‐gigabit‐per‐second research and education network known as the National Research and Education Network is to be established by 1996, according to the High‐Performance Computing Act of 1991 (P.L. 102–194) passed in December 1991. Commonly known as the NREN and referred to as the “information highway,” this electronic network is expected to provide scientific, educational, and economic benefits for the United States and to serve as the basis for an all‐encompassing National Information Infrastructure available to all citizens. The idea of the NREN began in the late 1960s in the Department of Defense and its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the development of ARPANet, the first packet‐switching network. This evolved into the Internet, or Interim NREN, after the National Science Foundation (NSF) linked its national supercomputing centers with the NSFNet. The NSFNet is to be the technological backbone for the NREN, which will continue the networking begun by the Internet. Initially, the NREN is intended to interconnect researchers and resources of research institutions, educational institutions, industry, and government in every state.

As information technologies continue to evolve, reference librarians need to stay abreast of the growing number of state, regional, national, and international information networks currently available.