It is easier to understand gopher clients if the user understands the basic principles of the gopher. The remainder of this document will describe the basic gopher. If you are using a specific gopher client for your specific computer, you will want to read the client documentation for further assistance. Gopher can automate the remote logon, document retrieval and file transfer activities currently available on the Internet. Instead, the gopher provides menu choices that represent these activities and makes these actions transparent to you.
All gophers are a collection of hierachical menus.
This means that they cascade down from a top level menu so that each underlying choice may contain another sub-menu. The entry called the Electronic Bookshelf contains the Libraries' electronic resources available via gopher. If you choose, you may access the Main Penn State Gopher. The Main Penn State Gopher is organized, in general, by distinguishing between Information Servers At Penn State and Information Servers Outside Penn State. Penn State users configuring their own clients should set the server field to this server.