The CD‐ROM market in Catalonia
| Date | 01 April 1992 |
| Published date | 01 April 1992 |
| Pages | 229-232 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045167 |
| Author | Adela d'Alòs‐Moner |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Brief Communication
The CD-ROM market in
Catalonia*
Adela d'Alòs-Moner
DOC6,
Tuset
21,
6è.3a, 08006
Barcelona,
Spain
Abstract: The CD-ROM market has enjoyed strong
growth in recent years in Spain, similar to the experience in
other countries. This article, which gathers together existing
data from other
studies,
gives an overview of the current
situation of the CD-ROM market in Catalonia specifically
and in Spain
as
a whole. Where possible, parallels are
drawn with trends of CD-ROM
usage
in other European
countries. Points covered include
the
general
characteristics of the market, trends in
usage,
titles
published in Spain and comparisons with online information
retrieval.
1.
Introduction
It is common knowledge that CD-ROMs enjoy the largest
share (excluding CD-Audio) of
the
optical disc market.
A
de-
cisive factor contributing to this strength has been the stand-
ardisation of physical dimensions (defined in the
Yellow Book
— the specifications which are now accepted as standards for
CD-ROM discs and drives, developed jointly by Philips and
Sony) as well as a logical configuration (High Sierra standard
and later, ISO 9660).
Ever since the CD-ROM was first introduced in 1985, the
growth in drives installed and titles available has been
tremendous. Few products dedicated to the distribution of in-
formation have enjoyed such success. However, the growth
has been spread somewhat unevenly across international
boundaries. The United States is number one in the publica-
tion and use of discs and together with Canada produces
61%
of all available titles. Europe, on the other hand, produces
only
31.3%
(The CD-ROM Directory, annual publication).
According to the same data, Spain represents 0.9% of the
world
market.
The percentage of this figure which corresponds
to Catalonia is quite
small:
after
the
early appearance of several
discs (Diccionario Médico Marín and La Luz), no other discs
were published in Catalonia until the beginning of 1992.
The growth outlook for the next few years indicates that
the CD-ROM market will continue expanding and that non-
commercial use of CD-ROM will increase considerably,
with institutions using CD-ROM to distribute information
that until recently has only been available on magnetic
media to their branches. Catalonia's present situation and
outlook for the future are only a reflection of what is curren-
tly happening and what
is
expected to happen on the interna-
tional scene in the next few years, since there is very little
quantitative data concerning either Spain or Catalonia and
the CD-ROM market.
In September 1990, DOC6 carried out a study on the intro-
duction of CD-ROM in the Spanish market. The results were
presented in Rome at EuroInfo 90 and later published in Re-
vista española de documentación científica ((D'Alos-Moner
& Keefer 1991) and, with some modifications, in CD Data
Report (Keefer
&
d'Alos-Moner 1990).
In the same year Raitt & Chen also published an article in
Revista española de documentación científica on the uses of
CD-ROM in Spanish libraries, which was the result of an-
other, much broader study (Chen & Raitt 1990) done on the
use of optical discs in libraries throughout the European Com-
munity.
Finally, in
1991,
Maria Josep Recoder, Ernest Abadal and
Lluís Codina published a book (Recoder et al. 1991) which
referred to the CD-ROM situation in Catalonia.
This paper is based on all these studies and includes an
evaluation of
the
latest trends in the CD-ROM field. It refers
to the situation of CD-ROMs in Catalonia as well as in Spain
as a whole, drawing parallels with the situation in Europe
where possible.
It must be kept in mind that these studies only take CD-
ROM products that are marketed to the public into account,
and not products specifically designed for internal use within
a company. The distinction is important because it is esti-
mated that half of all drives installed are for internal use in
companies such as Apple, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, IBM and
Renault, which have been using CD-ROMs to search internal
technical data for many years.
2.
The CD-ROM market
2.
1.
General characteristics
Chen & Rain's 1990 study affirmed that 9.3% of libraries in
Europe and 9.2% of libraries in Spain use CD-ROM. This sug-
gests that Spain and Catalonia rank somewhere in the middle
This paper was originally presented in Spanish at
the
IV Jor-
nades Catalanes de Documentació, Barcelona, January
1992.
The Electronic Library, Vol. 10, No. 4, August 1992 229
To continue reading
Request your trial