CD‐ROM as a library equivalent
| Pages | 223-228 |
| Published date | 01 April 1992 |
| Date | 01 April 1992 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045165 |
| Author | Harold T. Reid |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Brief Communication
CD-ROM as a library
equivalent
Harold
T.
Reid
468
Academy,
Ferndale, MI
48220,
USA
Abstract:
CD-ROM technology has reached
the
point
where just a few discs can equal
the
holdings of a small print
library.
Reference works used
by
libraries in hard copy are
available on
CD-ROM;
encyclopedias, news and
periodicals are also in full
text
on disc. If
the
appropriate
reference is found
on
disc, searchers need go no further
than
the CD-ROM being
examined.
This
article gives a brief overview of a number of CD-ROMs
which the author has bought to create his
own
personal
library.
1.
Introduction
In the late 20th Century, individuals
have more
power
to
access
information than in any other period before. CD-ROM is a
medium that stores information in large quantities, making in-
formation obtainable at lightning speed. CD-ROM can lit-
erally emulate a full library collection in the space of a table
top.
There are products on the market that can provide refer-
ence,
specialized subject matter and general works, all of
which might be found in the stock of a small library. CD-ROM
is no longer just capable of providing citations and abstracts,
but also full text of large amounts of material. For
example,
the
complete War and Peace may be found on a single CD-ROM.
Accessing the information on disc is done by Boolean
logic but the logic is handled in different ways and is some-
times not recognizable as Boolean. Each CD-ROM comes
with its own search engine (software), meaning that not all
CD-ROM software operates the same way. If more than one
CD-ROM product is to be used, searchers will need to
become familiar with either
the
printed or
the
on-disc manuals
that are supplied with the products. The emphasis of this ar-
ticle is given to those products that are available in computer
stores for
the
general
public.
This article will demonstrate that
these products do indeed emulate a library collection and that
in a 12" by 9" space a powerful amount of knowledge can be
stored and accessed.
When one purchases CD-ROM hardware these days, vari-
ous CD-ROM products come as part of the package. These
CD-ROMs form the reference core of a small CD-ROM li-
brary. Microsoft
Bookshelf,
Toolworks Reference Library,
Microsoft Small Business Consultant and Stat
Pack,
and The
New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia are among the exam-
ples studied in this article.
2.
Reference works
2.
1.
Microsoft Bookshelf
Microsoft Bookshelf
is
made to run as a standalone program
or as a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) which can be used
while operating a wordprocessing program. The disc will
work with many types of wordprocessor programs including
Wordperfect, Volkswriter 3 and Wordstar. In the TSR mode
the user can search for a work from the disc and instantly
return to the processor program with a key stroke. It was no-
ticed that in the TSR mode a large amount of RAM was allo-
cated for this purpose, which might cause a problem when
accessing other programs.
The Microsoft Bookshelf contains: The American Heritage
Dictionary; Roget's II Electronic Thesaurus; The
World
Al-
manac and Book of
Facts;
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations;
The Chicago Manual of Style; Houghton Mifflin Spelling
Verifier
and
Corrector;
Forms and
Letters;
US
Zip Code Di-
rectory;
and Houghton Mifflin
Usage
Alert.
The dictionary can also retrieve brief biographies and short
blurbs on geographical locations. If one is using a good word-
processing package then the thesaurus and spell check are
redundant.
The work is geared for writers and contains some useful
information. The package is provided with an extensive user
manual which should be read in order to maximize the poten-
tial use of the software — one cannot sit down and intuitively
use the software just because one may know something about
database searching. Drop down menus are taken from the line
of selections at the top of the screen — some of them deliver
contents and search screens. Once a screen is selected, an-
other line appears at the top of the screen offering information
on what can be done with the database one is in (browsing,
and saving to disc). The spell checker and the thesaurus can
only be used for the words in question — some of the other
databases, such as the almanac, can be looked at for multiple
combinations of
words.
Browsing is another way of finding information. Browsing
lets the user look through the tables of contents for each work
on the disc or use the general index for contents of the whole
disc.
A 'Zoom' function is provided, allowing the user to run
through the hierarchy of
a
particular work. For example, if the
The Electronic Library, Vol. 10, No. 4, August 1992 223
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