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TITLE: MARVEL ("Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic Library")

SCOPE: A gopher server of truly mammoth and impenetrable proportions, containing (almost exclusively) ASCII text documents on an almost infinite variety of subjects, many of them government publications. The abbreviated list of gopher menu headings in the structure alone fills a file of more than 474 kB.

DATES: various.

CONTENTS: Even the Govt. publications sections of MARVEL are too full of material to summarize here, except in representative samples. It includes gopher and web versions of the U.S. Code, current legislation, Congressional phone numbers, the Monthly Catalog, the Government Manual, the Federal Register, and much more, including telnet links to GPO Access. A representative sample taken from the gopher menu list includes:

Level Name                    
2   Congressional Gophers                    Dir    marvel.loc.gov
3     House Gopher                           Dir    gopher.house.gov
3     Senate Gopher                          Dir    ftp.senate.gov
3     C-SPAN Gopher                          Dir    c-span.org
3     Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Gopher    Dir    gopher.cqalert.com
3     Legi-Slate Gopher                      Dir    gopher.legislate.com
2   Congressional Directories                Dir    marvel.loc.gov
3     Congressional Directory, 1995/96 (U Mi Dir    una.hh.lib.umich.edu
3     Congressional Committee Assignments, 1 Dir    una.hh.lib.umich.edu
3     Search Phone and Fax Numbers for Congr Index  gopher.ucsc.edu
3     Government Manual: Legislative Branch  File   una.hh.lib.umich.edu
3     House Directories (from House Gopher)  Dir    gopher.house.gov
3     House Email Addresses (from House Goph File   gopher.house.gov
3     Congressional E-Mail Addresses, 1995/9 File   una.hh.lib.umich.edu
2   Federal Legislation and Congressional Pu Dir    marvel.loc.gov
3     How Our Laws Are Made (by section)     Dir    gopher.house.gov
3     Congressional Record (Searchable) (via Dir    gopher.house.gov
3     Federal Legislation (Search Bill Text  Dir    marvel.loc.gov
3     Legislative Resources (House bills, am Dir    gopher.house.gov
3     McGeachy's Bibliography of Senate Hear Dir    dewey.lib.ncsu.edu
3     Resolution Adopting the Rules of the H File   marvel.loc.gov
3     U.S. Code (Search via GPO ACCESS Depos Dir    marvel.loc.gov
3     U.S. Code (Search via GPO ACCESS, Texa Index  link.tsl.texas.gov
3     U.S. Code Gopher (U.S. House of Repres Dir    hamilton1.house.gov
2   Guide to US Government Legislative Docum File   marvel.loc.gov
4       Americans With Disabilities Act      Dir    scilibx.ucsc.edu
4       Bibliography of Senate Hearings, McG Dir    vega.lib.ncsu.edu
4       Budget of the U.S. Government, 1996  Dir    sunny.stat-usa.gov
4       Copyright Information Resources      Dir    marvel.loc.gov
4       Disability Legislation & Legal Issue Dir    sjumusic.stjohns.edu
4       Executive Branch Agencies            Dir    marvel.loc.gov
4       FEDIX experimental gopher            Dir    fedix.fie.com
4       Federal Docs (GPO ACCESS free) (logi Telnet swais.access.gpo.gov
4       Federal Docs - Cong. Record, Fed. Re Dir    marvel.loc.gov
4       Federal Register (through Counterpoi Dir    gopher.counterpoint.com
4       Federal Register - Daily Contents/Cu Dir    gopher.nara.gov
4       Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): G File   wiretap.Spies.COM

AUTHORITY: Library of Congress, but includes links to sites of widely divergent provenance.

INDEXES: includes some searchable indexes, but none that covers the contents of MARVEL itself. If the object of one's search is known, it is possible to thread the gopher maze to the appropriate location, especially since many items can be reached by several routes. An alternative is to do as I have done: download the entire list of menu entries for local searching using some local search software (even the venerable LIST will serve).

PURPOSE AND ASSESSMENT: MARVEL pushes the gopher system to very nearly its limit of complexity and bulk. It contains a truly impressive amount of material, but not always in a way that is readily accessible, or that gives one confidence that it is the most up-to-date version. Especially when taken together with THOMAS and the other L of C resources, MARVEL is more a continent to be explored and to become gradually familiar with than a resource to be quickly used and forgotten. It is concerned with documents, not with sites, and should be considered by anyone in search of government documents, but probably not as a first choice.