An introduction to CD‐ROM networking in libraries
| Published date | 01 April 1995 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040579 |
| Date | 01 April 1995 |
| Pages | 3-5 |
| Author | Steve Brown |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
An introduction to
CD-ROM networking
in libraries
by Steve Brown, The Information
Partnership
Introduction
Compact Disc — Read Only Memory (CD-ROM)
was launched as a commercial product in 1985. It
offered a high-capacity, robust, reliable data
storage and distribution medium, which conformed
to a series of internationally-agreed technical
standards. The rise in the number of CD-ROM
titles published commercially has been rapid.
From just 12 titles in 1985, there are at least
10,000 available today. Many libraries and infor-
mation services have therefore had to confront the
problem of
loading,
managing and updating large
numbers of CD-ROM discs in a way that
allows access by a range of different users. The
attachment of CD-ROMs to a Local Area Network
(LAN) is one way in which this can be ap-
proached.
The current issue of VINE is therefore timely in
addressing the technical and managerial issues that
arise out of CD-ROM networking. This opening
article forms an introduction to the more detailed
material that follows, and will provide the inter-
ested information professional with an overview of
those approaches to attaching CD-ROMs to a LAN
which are currently commercially available.
Why network CD-ROMs?
The benefits to an organisation of giving access to
CD-ROM information using a LAN have been
well rehearsed. Several of them are particularly
relevant to the situation of a library or information
service:
• several users may have concurrent use of the
same CD-ROM disc;
• library users may connect to a number of
different titles (within the library or from
their own desktop
PCs),
without having to
handle CD-ROM discs;
• spending on CD-ROM licences and
hardware by the organisation may be
reduced;
• D-ROM discs and drives are protected
from vandalism and theft;
• D-ROM database titles may be updated
centrally.
Each of these benefits will be of more potential
value in some libraries than others. Physical
security of equipment, for instance, may be more
important in a public access situation than in a
corporate information centre.
The user acceptability of
networked information
resources
Unfortunately, the mere existence of electronic
information resources such as reference files and
databases on a LAN does not guarantee that LAN
users will utilise them nor find them of
value.
A
number of conditions are necessary for them to be
accepted, and these include the following:
• users must be aware of the existence and
relevance of the resources;
• users must understand how best to access
and use the resources;
• the information retrieval systems provided
must perform, in terms of the time taken for
users to get what they want.
It is the last of these three factors which should be
of particular concern to the information profes-
sional seeking
to
network CD-ROMs; many
CD-ROM databases suffer from extremely poor
response time performance. The reasons for this
are explored below.
The performance of databases
on CD-ROM
CD-ROM is based upon compact
disc
technology,
VINE 101 (December
1995)
—3
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