CDROM & LOCAL DATABASES WORKSTATION NOTES Peter Brueggeman Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library University of California San Diego HARDWARE ARC turbo PC (8088) clone boots up into turbo mode automatically via ARC turbo utility always switched on EGA monitor: color is very important for readable display bibliographic information & highlighted terms stand out clearly use screensaver option of EGA board's software HP Thinkjet printer: quiet but ink reservoir too small and jets prone to clogging Philips CM100 CDROM player: trouble-free for 2 years, 10 months public load the compact disks into player themselves signage stating where to insert disk; before signage, 3 users loaded compact disks into floppy disk drives multiple floppy disk formats supported for downloading IBM 360K 5 1/4 and 720K 3 1/2 floppy disk drives Macintosh 800K and 400K via 3 1/2 drive and Copy II PC Deluxe Option Board located where easily seen by reference and circulation staff HARD DISK MANAGEMENT files organized into functional directories minimal files in root directory; many software are accessed via PATH browse files on hard disk every few months to delete orphan files downloaded from CDROM DIRectory MAGIC for managing files: public domain software from PC MagNet make and remove directories; make hidden directories; set file attributes; copy, move, and delete single and multiple files takes up minimal disk space; Norton Utilities for better disk performance: make files contiguous on disk (unfragmented) put heavily-used files first on hard disk eg CDROM search software hard disk backed up with Fastback Plus when new release of CDROM search software and disk received, keep old software and compact disk for at least one month to ensure that new software version and disk works. Copy old software to a separate directory to keep it safe and available for quick recall. file attributes: critical files are read-only hidden directories: software not used by public is hidden where DIR cannot see it eg wordprocessor, utility software park hard disk heads: parking disk drive heads avoids damage to disk when micro is bumped utility software parks heads after 5 minutes of no usage TROUBLESHOOT/MAINTENANCE After observing downloading problems during normal CDROM usage and tracing it to a corrupted COMMAND.COM file, AUTOEXEC.BATch made to copy a fresh COMMAND.COM into root directory during each bootup. MEMORY: public domain software that quantifies the micro's available RAM memory; used to diagnose memory conflicts clean CDROM disks occasionally keep duplicate copies of AUTOEXEC.BATch and CONFIG.SYS hidden away in a directory; when experimenting or loading new software, you may need an unrevised copy of them SOFTWARE Execution of AUTOEXEC.BATch file hidden from users by putting CTTY NUL at beginning and CTTY CON at end of AUTOEXEC.BATch. Users do not need to see what is going on during booting. AUTOMENU: menu software controls usage of CDROM & other software on micro no option or access to DOS prompt for access to DOS, CTRL-C aborts batch file invoked by AUTOMENU early version of Scripps' system described in LASERDISK PROFESSIONAL, 1(2):39-47, July 1988. AskSam: text management software converts ASCII file into searchable database goal: make bibliographic databases in differing formats searchable through one search interface! received SciMate and DBASE databases; converted into ASCII bibliographies; merge with other ASCII bibliographies into one or more AskSam databases BROWSE: public domain file-viewing software for looking at the contents of downloaded files; used to assist users with their downloads Norton Control Center: one of Norton Utilities change CDROM display colors from default vendor settings make color display more vivid; draw attention with brighter color to most important information onscreen, eg bibliographic citation, reverse-video highlighted terms. SBREAK: public domain software which splits large downloaded files into user-specified file sizes use DOS' COPY + command to merge them. used to assist users with their downloads. SLICE/SPLICE: Slice distributes large downloaded files onto 360K floppies; Splice merges then into one file on another hard disk. Public domain software from PC MagNet; used to assist users with their downloads. TED: public domain word processor from PC MagNet which takes up minimal disk space TIMEPARK: public domain utility software which parks hard disk drive heads after a specified period of inactivity; parked heads=safe disk. TRAINING & USE BY STAFF & PUBLIC printed how-to manual located next to CDROM micro its orange cover alerts reference staff that the person looking at the manual may need assistance however, onscreen help is frequently more appealing than printed help menu option to browse how-to manual before beginning to search CDROM; manual is browsed using Sidekick's READ-ME.COM software. CDROM search software has its own HELP command which accesses an inadequate vendor-supplied ASCII help file; this ASCII HELP file was rewritten to be more descriptive and include local relevant examples popup help manual accessed at any time by hot key Polaris Rescue software uses approx 25K RAM review: CD-ROM LIBRARIAN, 3(5):10-14, May 1988. unobtrusive keystroke recorder to examine enduser searching & playback keystrokes for CDROM search demonstrations Total Recall software uses approx 65K RAM review: CD-ROM LIBRARIAN, 4(6):12-16, June 1989. usage logging CDROM user status and CDROM entry/exit times logged with batch files; 582 hrs in 1988 and 617 hrs in 1987; Scripps is 50% of users and 43% of time. Time logging accomplished with Norton Utilities' TIMEMARK software. TIMEMARK runs from the DOS prompt; CDROM software has to be entered and exited for TIMEMARK to execute before entry and after exit. Logging system described and data presented in LASERDISK PROFESSIONAL, Nov 1989, in press.