ASFA THINK OF MY LIBRARY'S EXPERIENCE IN MORE GENERAL TERMS THAN SIMPLY AS A MARINE SCIENCE LIBRARY WITH A SPECIALIZED COMPACT DISC SET UP IN AN ACADEMIC BRANCH SCIENCE LIBRARY WITH COMPUTER-LITERATE CLIENTELE OF 180 GRADUATE STUDENTS AND 300 ACADEMICS AND ALSO OTHER NON-ACADEMIC RESEARCH PERSONNEL THE INTENT IN PURCHASING ASFA WAS TO MEET CASUAL INFORMATION NEEDS OF A MULTIDISCIPLINARY MARINE SCIENCE CLIENTELE; NEEDED COVERAGE OF MARINE BIOLOGY, MARINE GEOLOGY, MARINE ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, AND BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY; PURCHASE WAS NOT INTENDED TO MEET COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION NEEDS FOR GRANT PROPOSALS OR DISSERTATIONS; ------------------------------------------------------------- DISC COVERS 1982 THRU JUNE 1985; VENDOR CURRENTLY SCHEDULES COVERAGE THRU 1986 ON JUNE 30TH AND THE FIRST QUARTER OF 1987 ON AUGUST 15TH; WHEN THE LIBRARY PURCHASED ASFA IN AUGUST 1986, THE 1986 DISC WAS PROMISED IN FEBRUARY OR MARCH 1987; THE VENDOR IS CURRENTLY REVAMPING THE SOFTWARE AND DISC INDEXES TO IMPROVE THE PRODUCT AND MAKE IT SEARCH MORE EFFICIENTLY; THIS IS A FACTOR ALLEDGEDLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE DELAY CURRENCY SHOULD NOT BE A PRIMARY CONCERN IN CONSIDERING A COMPACT DISC PRODUCT 1982-1986 BACKFILE CURRENTLY COSTS $2250 WITH ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION COSTING $1000 PER YEAR STARTS WITH 1987 AND WILL DELIVER QUARTERLY UPDATES YOU ARE LEASING AND NOT PURCHASING THE DISC I ARRANGED FUNDING FOR THE EQUIPMENT AND THE BACKFILE FROM THE SIO GRADUATE DEPARTMENT WITH THE LIBRARY COMMITTED TO MEETING FUTURE OBLIGATIONS; I HAD APPROACHED THE GRADUATE DEPARTMENT WITH THE PROPOSAL LAST MAY; THE GRADUATE DEPARTMENT HAD END-OF-THE-YEAR EQUIPMENT MONEY WHICH IT WANTED TO SPEND BEGAN PUBLIC SERVICE ON DECEMBER 1ST STARTUP OF SERVICE WAS ADVERTISED THROUGH WORD OF MOUTH, LIBRARY COMMITTEE, FLYERS TO ALL GRADUATE STUDENTS, NOTICE IN SCRIPPS' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER, AND LIBRARY'S NEWSLETTER LIBRARY SET UP A TWO-FLOPPY DRIVE IBM COMPATIBLE MICROCOMPUTER WITH 640K RAM LINKED TO A HEWLETT-PACKARD THINKJET PRINTER AND A PHILLIPS DISC PLAYER; COST WAS $800 FOR THE MICROCOMPTER PLUS $300 FOR THE PRINTER; LEASE PURCHASE OPTION WAS AVAILABLE FOR DISC PLAYER PLUS INTERFACE BOARD; COST $500 PER YEAR FOR TWO YEARS FOR $1000 TOTAL ASFA SEARCHSTATION IS OPEN TO ALL IN LIBRARY AND IS ALWAYS SWITCHED ON; LOCATED IN REFERENCE AREA BY CARD AND ONLINE CATALOGS AND IS NEXT TO REFERENCE SERVICE AREA; DISC PLAYER IS SEPARATE FROM MICROCOMPUTER AND IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A WALL; MICROCOMPUTER AND PRINTER ARE UNSECURED BUT ARE EXTREMELY VISIBLE TO REFERENCE AND CIRCULATION STAFF AND THE PUBLIC; SECURITY IS NOT A MAJOR CONCERN SINCE LIBRARY HAS HAD AN UNSECURED THINKJET PRINTER ATTACHED TO AN ONLINE CATALOG TERMINAL; HOWEVER SECURITY WILL BE INSTALLED THE SEARCH SOFTWARE RUNS FROM A FLOPPY DISC IN THE A DRIVE; SCREEN SAVER SOFTWARE WAS ADDED TO AVOID MONITOR BURN SINCE THE SYSTEM IS LEFT ON ALL THE TIME; ============================================================= BATCH, TEXT AND MENU FILES WERE CREATED TO PROVIDE SEVERAL FEATURES: AN INTRODUCTORY SCREEN STATES WHAT THE DISC COVERS AND SUGGESTS THAT THE SEARCHER CONTACT THE LIBRARIAN IF MORE INFORMATION IS DESIRED; A SECOND INTRODUCTORY SCREEN OFFERS THE OPTION TO PRINT OUT A COMPLETE SEARCH MANUAL FOR THE SYSTEM; I BROUGHT SAMPLES OF THESE TEXT FILES; I FELT THEY WERE NECESSARY BECAUSE THE MANUAL SUPPLIED WITH THE DISC IS TOTALLY INADEQUATE FOR LIBRARY USERS AND I WANTED A LONG MANUAL ON DISC FOR OPTIONAL PRINTING RATHER THAN CLUTTERING UP THE WORKTABLE AND CONFUSING USERS; MOST USERS WANT BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS; EXTREMELY BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS ARE LAMINATED ONTO THE WORKTABLE SURFACE NEXT TO THE MICROCOMPUTER A THIRD INTRODUCTORY SCREEN INFORMS THE USER HOW TO EXIT THE SYSTEM PROPERLY TO LEAVE IT READY FOR THE NEXT USER; THE TIME AT WHICH THE SEARCHER ENTERS THE ASFA SEARCH SOFTWARE AND EXITS IT ARE CAPTURED AUTOMATICALLY TO A DISC FILE FOR LATER ANALYSIS ON THE FREQUENCY AND LENGTH OF SEARCH SESSIONS ============================================================= ASFA SEARCH SOFTWARE HAS BOTH MENU-DRIVEN AND COMMAND-DRIVEN SEARCHING; BOTH MODES HAVE BOOLEAN AND PROXIMITY SEARCHING; PROXIMITY SEARCHING HAS BOTH IMMEDIATE ADJACENCY AND WITHIN A SPECIFIED NUMBER OF WORDS BOTH MODES SEARCH ALL FIELDS AS A DEFAULT AND YOU CAN ALSO SPECIFY SPECIFIC FIELDS LIKE AUTHOR, AUTHOR'S AFFILIATION, SOURCE, DESCRIPTORS, ABSTRACT BOTH MODES ALLOW BROWSING OF THE DICTIONARY, DISPLAYING A HISTORY OF SEARCH STATEMENTS, PRINTING AND DOWNLOADING INDIVIDUAL OR WHOLE SETS OF REFERENCES MENU-DRIVEN MODE IS LIMITED TO BOOLEAN COMBINING OF TWO TERMS; COMMAND-DRIVEN MODE ALLOWS NESTING OF MULTIPLE SEARCH TERMS COMMAND-DRIVEN MODE ALLOWS BACK-REFERENCING OF PREVIOUS STATEMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------- INSTRUCTION IS ORIENTED TO POINT-OF-USE AND THE UNIT IS MONITORED BY STAFF FOR PROBLEMS; ASIDE FROM THE SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE FOR PRINTING BEFORE ENTERING THE SEARCH SOFTWARE, THE SEARCH SOFTWARE HAS ITS OWN ONLINE HELP FOR THE COMMAND-DRIVEN MODE ------------------------------------------------------------- USERS ARE VERY HAPPY WITH IT AND APPRECIATE IT FOR THE REFERENCES IT DELIVERS FOR FREE; THEY WILL TAKE ANYTHING FOR FREE; USERS HAVE STATED THAT THEY OFTENTIMES ONLY NEED A FEW REFERENCES AND CAN TRACE THOSE ITEMS' REFERENCES BACK FURTHER INTO THE LITERATURE THIS SERVICE HAS CREATED CONSIDERABLE EXPRESSION OF HAPPINESS WITH THE LIBRARY; THE LIBRARY LOOKS FORWARD TO CONTINUING ITS COMMITTMENT TO THE PRODUCT IN SPITE OF STARTUP DELAYS BY THE VENDOR NO QUEUEING PROBLEMS YET; THE SYSTEM IS NOT CONSTANTLY IN USE; THE LIBRARY'S SMALL CLIENTELE IS A BLESSING FOR THE SINGLE-USER LIMITATION OF A COMPACT DISC; TYPICAL SEARCH SESSIONS LAST 15 TO 30 MINUTES WITH A RANGE OF 10 MINUTES TO SEVERAL HOURS USERS DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LACK OF TIMELINESS WHICH SURPRISED ME, AND ALSO HAVE EXPRESSED UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRODUCT'S DELAYED UPDATE; USERS OCCASIONALLY ASK ABOUT INCREASING THE PAST YEARS OF COVERAGE; THIS SERVICE PROVIDES AN EXCELLENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR LIBRARY USERS REGARDING BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES AND ONLINE SEARCHING REFERENCE STAFF USE IT FOR READY REFERENCE; ITS VERY NICE TO BE ABLE TO RESPOND TO PHONE CALLS AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH SOME REFERENCES INSTEAD OF PROVIDING NOTHING ============================================================= COMPACT DISC DID NOT LESSEN THE USE OF THE ASFA DATABASE IN THE LIBRARY'S FEE-BASED SEARCH SERVICE; ASFA WAS SEARCHED INFREQUENTLY AND MORE COMPREHENSIVE DATABASES ARE USUALLY SEARCHED FOR SPECIFIC TOPICS STAFF TIME HELPING USERS IS NOT BURDENSOME BECAUSE THE MENU- DRIVEN SOFTWARE HOLDS-HANDS FAIRLY WELL; ILL HAS BEEN AFFECTED ONLY A BIT; USERS SEEM TO SELF-SELECT OUT THE GRAY REFERENCES AND IN ANY CASE ARE PRESENTED WITH THE AUTHORS ADDRESS ON EACH REFERENCE ============================================================= DIALUP ACCESS HAS BEEN TRIED TWICE USING TWO SOFTWARE: REMOTE AND PC-ANYWHERE; IT WORKED WITH PC-ANYWHERE BUT DO NOT TAKE THIS AS MY FINAL OPINION OR RECOMMENDATION UNTIL IT IS SETUP AND IN SERVICE; AN EQUIPMENT REQUEST IS UNDER REVIEW FOR A HARD DISC AND THE PC-ANYWHERE SOFTWARE; PC-ANYWHERE ALLOWS ANY DUMB TERMINAL OR MICROCOMPUTER (INCLUDING APPLES) TO DIAL IN AND SEARCH THE COMPACT DISC; IF AN IBM-COMPATIBLE MICROCOMPUTER DIALING IN USES A CERTAIN PORTION OF THE PC-ANYWHERE SOFTWARE, THEN IT CAN SEARCH THE DISC WITH FULL GRAPHICS AND EXACT KEYBOARD CORRESPONDENCE. THIS SOFTWARE SUBSET WILL BE DISTRIBUTED BY THE LIBRARY FOR FREE AND THIS DISTRIBUTION DOES NOT VIOLATE THE SOFTWARE'S LICENSE AGREEMENT. DIALUP ACCESS IS PLANNNED FOR THE HOURS WHEN THE LIBRARY IS CLOSED SO AS NOT TO CONFLICT WITH DAYTIME ON-SITE USE; DIALUP ACCESS FUNCTIONS IN A SINGLE-USER MODE; PLANS ARE TO DESIGN INTRODUCTORY BATCH, TEXT AND MENU FILES OFFERING DIALUP USERS INFORMATION ABOUT DIALING UP, KEYBOARD CORRESPONDENCE, SEARCHING INSTRUCTIONS, AND DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE SUBSET OF PC-ANYWHERE MULTIUSER ACCESS IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE CONTRACT AND THUS I HAVE NO PLANS FOR IT; I HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH IT ONCE USING ADVANCED DIGITAL CORPORATION'S MULTIUSER PC TERMINAL IN ORDER TO TEST CD-ROM TECHNOLOGY; THE COMPACT DISC DRIVE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE RECOGNIZED BY DOS AS A DISC DRIVE AND THUS I COULD NOT GET MULTIUSER ACCESS TO WORK.