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Provides a bibliography of CD‐ROM for librarians, covering case studies, costs, product evaluation guidelines, databases, CDI, downloading/copyright and CD vs. online, for use when making decisions about the adoption of CD‐ROM.

Although many of the CD‐ROM discs produced during 1985 were prototypes or demonstration discs, more than 50 discs were available by the end of 1985. A number of CD‐ROM products were marketed in 1985, and at least 20 of the 1985 prototypes will be marketed during 1986. Possibilities for the use of such an efficient distribution mechanism are fust beginning to unfold.

Preparation of bibliographic data for the production of CD‐ROM public access catalogs (PACs) requires several services: merging records from various vendors or libraries, the elimination of duplicate records, the identification and decoding of holdings information, updating the database (often in an offline mode), and authority control. The nature of specific CD‐ROM catalogs affects the priorities for processing the database. For example, some systems exploit controlled vocabulary and cross references, making subject authority critical. Others provide powerful Boolean searching on key words derived from all parts of the bibliographic record; as a result, the need for quality control checks beyond those typically provided by library vendors is increased. This article identifies the services and processes offered by seven vendors that provide CD‐PACs and one vendor that processes MARC bibliographic databases.

The user interface, in broad terms, is the medium through which the user and the information come together. The types of searches a public access catalog (PAC) can perform are defined by the indexing strategy and retrieval software. The way the user's interest is communicated to the retrieval software and the way the results are communicated to the user is, by a more narrow definition, the interface software. Both the kinds of searches that can be performed by a variety of CD‐ROM PACs and how their workstations are used to accomplish the searches are considered.

The tremendous storage capacity of the CD‐ROM has generated the need for sophisticated search software capable of handling large files. Software previously developed for mainframe computers, laser disk applications, information retrieval of textual files on IBM‐PCs, and other functions, is being modified to meet these needs. Other software is being specifically written for CD‐ROM applications. Vendors of significant information retrieval products are identified, and the characteristics of twelve packages are compared.

The selection and evaluation of CD‐ROM disks are important steps in the planning of a CD‐ROM facility. The choice of databases depends upon, among other factors, the objectives of the library, the projected use of each disk, and financial considerations. In this article we review the literature that deals with these matters. We begin with what is available on disk selection, via both printed directories and in the journals. We next discuss reported methods of disk evaluation. Finally, we cover existing reviews of various CD‐ROM products.

In little more than one year, seven vendors have introduced CD‐ROM‐based public access catalog systems. They vary widely in price, features, and performance. Three scenarios are defined, which represent the requirements of libraries of diverse sizes and groupings. For each scenario, prices of CD‐ROM systems are compared for the first and subsequent two years. The features of the systems are also compared in some detail. The prices and descriptions of features reflect the marketplace as of late summer 1987.

CD‐ROM was first demonstrated in the United States in November 1984. Since then many organizations, including agencies of the Federal government, have embraced the technology, and an increasingly large and diverse product base is emerging. In March 1986, Microsoft Corporation sponsored a major conference on the topic, which was attended by almost 1000 persons. The registration fee of $900 precluded most librarians from attending. David Miller provides a thorough report on the conference, and a complete directory of participants, for the benefit of those who could not attend.

This month, I'd like to share some nifty utility programs I've come across. Every one can be created in just a few minutes, using DEBUG. (Review: DEBUG.COM, which is provided with DOS, provides direct access to the system memory and has facilities for reading from and writing to disk.) For each utility program, I'll provide the sequence of DEBUG commands that will create the program file and a description of how to use the program once you have created it. Let's get to it!

This article reviews areas of common concern between librarians on the one hand and scholars on the other as they each attempt to pursue their work in an era of electronic information. The issues require the attention of both librarians and scholars, and it is argued that both communities need now to talk more extensively with one another in an effort to re‐think the fundamental role of the university library in the coming years. The function and importance of Integrated Scholarly Information Systems (ISIS) are discussed with examples to illustrate the ways in which scholars are likely to acquire and integrate electronic information in the future. The article concludes with reflections on two contradictory trends that are emerging in scholarly research with the expansion of electronic research systems.