A WHOLE UNIVERSITY AT THE FLICK OF A WRIST ... WITH OR WITHOUT A COMPUTER

Imagine a special Welcome Center stationed on the Information Super Highway. Imagine, too, that this Welcome Center can give you information not only about the place you are visiting, but can answer questions that may have stumped you at home, work or school. Try to imagine a one-stop information shop that covers such subjects as college course offerings, job opportunities, spiders, snakes, poisonous plants, basketball schedules and how to continue your education through distance learning.

Then ... imagine that this magic Welcome Center on the Information Super Highway can be accessed by a click of a mouse, and you don't have to imagine anymore. You have just entered the virtual halls of North Carolina State University's home page on the World Wide Web. Here's the address:

Once there, you can tap into the resources of one of the most prestigious land-grant universities in the country N.C. State as well as the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. In the convenience of your own home or office, you can find useful information about such subjects as gardening, manufacturing, continuing and professional education, computer training, alumni events, environmental issues and more. Through a special feature on N.C. State's home page, "Ask NC State," you can discover how the university is serving you locally and who to call, write or e-mail if you have questions.

But ... if you don't have access to a computer or to the World Wide Web, what then?

Not to worry. In each and every one of the 101 county centers of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service throughout the state, field faculty and staff can access the Web for you. A local phone call or a visit to your county center can put you in touch with three valuable resources at once; the World Wide Web, the university, and an honest-to-goodness human in Cooperative Extension who can help take you where you want to go.

"People of this state can and do benefit immensely from the direct linkup between N.C. State and the local centers of the Cooperative Extension Service through this home page," says Dr. Everett Prosise, assistant to the associate vice chancellor of Outreach and Extension at N.C. State. "Our 101 county centers and other regional offices are information hubs that can put people in direct touch with the knowledge and resources of a major university without their having to travel to Raleigh, make long-distance phone calls, or deal with delays in the mail."

Prosise says that, with this advanced technology, extension field faculty can take the university right to people who might not have access to computers or software.

"N.C. State is fortunate to have a strong combination of technology and competent field faculty and staff in each county to make sure this up-to-the-minute information is available to every citizen who needs it."

For more information, please contact your county center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.