Serials - Vol. 5, No I, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access

Introduction

Although the concept of information technology in libraries and access to Access to Bibliographical information resources from libraries is Databases becoming firmly established particularly in areas like OPACs (Online Public Access The concept of access to databases is well Catalogues), automated management established within library and information systems, stand alone and networked settings. Their original format consisted of CD-ROMs and online searching there is a printed abstracts and indexes which are still current development which is likely to have extremely important. From the mid 1970s a profound effect on the role of libraries the development of computer technology and information centres and their personnel allowed the establishment of computerised and on the status of the end-user. This development is BIDS, the Bath databases which are now extremely diverse (University Computing Services) IS1 and popular. In 1977 there were 15 (Institute for Scientific Information) Data identified online search services available Service, which is a networked data service to including BRS, Lockheed Dialog, OCLC over 50 academic sites, available over and SDC (now ORBIT). The development JANET (The Joint Academic Network) and of these services has grown dramatically comprising a range of IS1 databases leased since to the extent that there are now 4869 on behalf of the academic community by online databases, 2120 database producers, CHEST (Combined Higher Education 718 online services and 99 gateways (I). Software Team). The popularity of locally available This is the first time that virtually databases is a fairly recent development and unlimited end-user access to a nationwide has been due in large part to the dataset has been established anywhere in the introduction of CD-ROM products. These world. Technologically the concept is became a viable and popular medium relatively simple but the breadth of the between 1985 and 1987. The capacity of a development is likely to induce a paradigm CD-ROM disc is currently 550 Mb but shift in the role of the library/information production of higher density discs is being centre and librarian/information pursued vigorously. The portable database professionals and the nature of dataset products include 409 on CD-ROM, 66 on access. diskette and 180 on magnetic tape (2). It re-emphasises the primacy of Although there is still a large gap between information technology within a modern the number of these databases and the library and information service, the efficacy 1 number (cf above) of remotely-located ones of inter-disciplinary cooperaton in effecting (the classic online databases) this gap is the establishment of such services, the narrowing quickly and will continue to do wonderful potential of JANET and the so. The attraction of portable products is emerging primacy of the end-user. that they are physically tangible, easily Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access accessible and easy to use although they are preprint/anti-preprint database as well as a limited technologically and quite expensive. citations database. Despite these drawbacks CD-ROM products A mailserver has been developed at the have prompted both information Computer Science Dept. of University of professionals and end-users to look for Saarbruecken in Germany which allows more access to more databases. access to a large database of bibliographical Local area networks (LAN) of CD-ROMs data of articles in the field of artificial are popular but the expense of substantial intelligence. This mailserver is a by-product networking of CD-ROMs is not really worth of the LIDO bibliographical information it. Access to locally mounted large system and allows searching via electronic bibliographical databases on mainframes mail by author@), title and year of (magnetic tape products) has never been publication. popular especially within the academic In America and Canada some universities community in Britain although some have negotiated with commercial hosts and commercial organisations are enthusiastic vendors to allow access to database products advocates of such systems. Certainly this for their students and staff at reduced or form of database access is more popular zero rates for the end-user. Such schemes within the academic community in the US. are operated by Mead Data who made The lack of custom-built menu-driven LEXIS available to law students over ten interfaces is one of the main reasons for years ago, by BRS who offer their 'BRS such lack of interest but this should not after dark' scheme (which is the one with have been the limiting factor. This is also the most appealing name at least) and by true of the online products where cost and DIALOG. The Lippincott Library of the unfriendly interfaces are the main reasons Wharton School, University of for the restriction of access. BRS were one Pennsylvania is one of many campuses of the first commercial vendors to introduce where such schemes operate (3). See a reasonable menu-driven interface Dempsey (4) for further examples. although it is still far from ideal for Others have obtained products on inexperienced end-users. For that reason, in magnetic tape and mounted these locally. the current BIDS project, there was a lot of Rensslear Polytechnic Institute in NY thought and work put into the creation of a mounts the IEEE (The Institute of user interface that would allow a complete Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc) computer-novice end-user to access the IS1 file. Five years of MEDLINE and Current databases and to effect meaningful searches. Contents are accessible to the nine There are a number of bibliographical *Universityof California campuses. The databases in existence in specialised subjects Georgia Institute of Technology mounts such as computer science and artificial INSPEC locally. Carnegie Mellon intelligence which are available to the University has a range of IAC (Information academic community in Britain and these Access Company) databases as well as a are usually maintained by local section of the INSPEC database. professionals as a service to the academic In Europe the commercial host STN has community. BIBLIO (The Birbeck offered free access to Chemical Abstracts to Computer Literature Database) indexes a 14 institutions in Germany. STN also offers range of periodicals in the field of computer access to Chemical Abstracts on very science and related topics and is accessible favourable terms to academic centres in over JANET. The Durham-Rutherford HEP Britain who subscribe to the printed (High Energy Physics) Data Archive Chemical Abstracts. available over JANET includes the SLAC In Illinois there is access to the CARL (Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre) (Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries) Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution In Database Access

Uncover database which contains over a the Natural Environment Research Council million articles from 10,000 unique serial (NERC). Its establishment allowed the titles with two or three thousand added coalescing of ten existing networks into one daily. There is access to 38 member libraries joint network. JANET is a private network, and to the headquarters of each of the funded directly from the Computer Board state's 18 regional multitype library systems and is administered by the Network through the ILLINET Online network. Executive from the Rutherford Laboratory There is also access via 11 public dial access (near Oxford). In April this year the nodes that are maintained across Illinois. Computer Board was reconstituted as the Later this year they hope to have ERIC Information Sub-committee of the UFC (Educational Resources Information (Universities Funding Council) with more Centre) databases (over 700,000 records) direct responsibilities for libraries and their available across ILLINET Online network funding. For the purpose of this paper this using BRS Search software. body will be referred to as the Board. The aim of the network is to facilitate Prime Movers Behind the BIDS access to academic computing resources across Britain in the interest of teaching and research. As well as encouraging this by Among library professionals in Britain there technical means it also invokes the were a few notable exceptions to the general philosophy of effective 'free' access for end- inertia in regard to the provision of end-user users. access to large bibliographical databases. The trunk network comprises four central These included Derek Law of King's switches at Rutherford Laboratory, London, College London, Peter Stone of University Manchester, and Daresbury Laboratory of Sussex and John Lambe of the University (near Warrington) and four Packet of Bath. They were inspired for example by Switching Exchanges at Bath, Belfast, the success of access to large datasets over Cambridge and Edinburgh. Each academic LANs in American Universities, as outlined or research site LAN for example is then above, and the realisation that end-user connected to the nearest switch so that access is the next major development in JANET constitutes a network of networks. information resource provision. The fact There are currently 150 sites, representing that the basic electronic framework, over 30 operating systems and supporting JANET, necessary for the effective over 20,000 terminals. implementation of such a service had been Cambridge University Site for example in place for some years was also a major has 850 direct terminal links to the CUDN motivating factor. Recent direct access to (Cambridge University Data Network), the commercial bibliographical database 30-40 connections of a suitable speed for hosts DIMDI and STN (and DATASTAR in PADS (one X.25 port for example has 7 the near future) across JANET is another PADS), 50-60 PADS with up to 16 terminals example of how this network is, and is going per pad and 15 Ethernet PADS with nearly to be, a key element in the future of 200 terminal ports. The Macintoshes on the database access. PWFs (Personal Workstation Facilities) are currently connected via CUDN and PAD terminal lines. In addition there are over 100 JANET was established in 1984 by the machines on MEDLAN at the clinical Computer Board (for Universities and school as well as quite a number of large Research Councils), the Science and multi-user departmental machines Engineering Research Council (SERC) and connected to the network (8). 'see refs 5.6 and 7 Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access

dialogue which is an extremely powerful information technology tool, particularly The three types of service of interest to for libraries. library and information professionals The services.availableover JANET in this available over JANET are: category include: Electronic mail OPACS including those on software in Connection to a remote computer NISSPAC. File Transfer Reference Databases: BIBLIO, BLAISE- LINE, OCLC, CURL, SLS, BIDS; STN & DIMDI via 1x1; DIALOG, ORBIT etc via PSS and IPSS. Electronic mail allows the transmission of messages within the network and to the US Source Databases: DATALIB, ESRC and Europe through gateways. It is fast, Archive, NPDSA, Oxford Text Archive, does not depend on receiver presence, allows UMRCC (inc. Cambridge Crystallographic detailed response, is economical, can be Data). used for one on one communication or for Systems for Information Exchange and multiple transmissions which forms the Delivery basis of e-mailing lists. Text files may also Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS) be easily transmitted by this means. Bulletin Boards-JANET. NEWS, Many library routines which are currently NISSBB, HUMBUL, BUBL. administered by mail, telephone and direct human interaction could be replaced by e- mail provided there was a good distribution of terminals. These include ILL requests, File transfer involves the transfer of data reference questions and book requests and files from one computer to another across a reserves. communication network such as JANET. The impact of e-mailing lists is hard to Files can be taken from a remote machine or quantify but it certainly seems to be pushed to a remote machine. Within the significant. In relation to the initiation of library community the CURL project is one the BIDS deal and later at the front-end famous example of file transfer where menu design stage for instance the e-mail catalogue records may be added to, and facility proved of great value in abstracted from, the large database of such correspondence between the various records held in the host computer at groupings involved in these deliberations. * Manchester. Other examples include In the current project e-mailing lists are NPDSA, OCLC, SLS, and BLAISE- being used as a forum for discussion by RECORDS. Local file transfer allows files users of the data service and by the various to be transferred to and from your own working groups involved in the design and microcomputer from and to the local implementation of BIDS. The e-mail facility mainframe or minicomputer. The use of is also being used in the downloading of software such as KERMITS and Rainbow in results of end-user online searches. conjunction with these transfers is well known. JANET and Connection to a Remote Computer

Connection to a remote computer on The potential of JANET within library JANET is possible from any network environments may be seen from the services connected terminal. It allows interactive listed above and its utility has been Serials - Vol. 5, No I, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution In Database Access recognised for some time but the BIDS UK Office for Library Networking project is an ideal one for expanding its role (UKOLN) and accessibility within the academic community and perhaps beyond. The primary goal of UKOLN has been set Project JUPITER was established in as the production of a common strategy for February 1989 and it exists to promote the use of networking by the UK Library JANET to academic libraries in Britain. It and information community (9). A common owes its funding to the Universities Funding strategy is desirable in this area particularly Council and is based in Glasgow University since preliminary investigations indicate that Library. JUPITER stands for JUGL Project UK libraries have adopted a variety of for Information Transfer, Education and approaches to networking. A series of Research. workshops are to be held this year JUGL is the JANET User Group for culminating in a major conference in 1992 Libraries which was established in 1987 as a which will act as the final stage in the formal JANET Special Interest Group for production of a recommmded networking Librarians. Through Project Jupiter they strategy. In the US the Coalition for have published a Guide for Libraries on Networked Information (CNI) was recently JANET which is a very concise and very formed by the ARL (Association of readable publication and should be in every Research Libraries) and EDUCOM library (5). They have established the (Interuniversity Communications Council) electronic bulletin board BUBL to to influence the development of the complement other bulletin boards National Research and Education Network. HUMBUL, NISSBB and JANET. NEWS The primary aim of CNI is to effect a available over the Network. situation where 'researchers will use JUGL have also encouraged the use of computers and networks to access a vast electronic mail, in particular by launching a array of information resources (functioning new series of mailing lists. They have utilised as a) virtual library'. The BLRDD and a mailserver set up by the JANET Networked UKOLN will be closely monitoring progress Information Services Project (NISP) based with CNI. at Newcastle called MAILBASE which is a All these developments emphasise the mailing system to manage electronic mail growing importance of networks and trans- distribution lists and files (5). network links and will influence greatly how The EARN-RELAY provides a gateway data is managed and accessed in the future. (for mail and send only file transfer) between JANET and EARN, BITNET, CHEST (Combined Higher NETNORTH and GULFNET which are Education Software Team) technically a single network. The NSFNET- 8iiwirmllHtllilllll RELAY provides a gateway for mail, file Another major catalyst in the realisation of transfer and interactive access between this service was CHEST which was JANET and Internet in the USA. established in 1988 along with its sister Through the JANET gateway, JANET- organisation NISS (National Information PSS (Packet Switching Stream), databases on Software and Services) with funding such as SCISEARCH, COMPENDEX, from the Computer Board. INSPEC2, BIOSIS PREVIEWS and The primary aim of CHEST is to arrange MEDLINE can be interrogated via a host and administer deals with suppliers of good such as DIALOG and this constitutes the quality commercial software on behalf of basis of online searching services with which the academic community while NISS is most library and information professionals concerned with the provision of a are familiar. permanent information service for the Serial.. - Vol. 5, No I, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access academic community over JANET and to input of librarians such as Peter Stone and act as a focal point for the exchange of Derek Law, the team of people at BUCS information by means of easily-accessible such as John Simmonds, the project online services. Towards this end it manager, who was responsible for much of established a major Public Access Collection the design of the data handling and Terry (NISSPAC) which is a collection of datasets Morrow who is a very effective front line of interests to members of the academic person responsible for publicity and training community who use computers. The and the very generous sponsorship of ICL installation of a user friendly Gateway to who donated a processor, to the value of NISS services resulted in much higher use of one million pounds sterling, which was the various services offered by NISS which needed to load the data and run the service. demonstrates how a well designed interface encourages large scale end-user interrogation. The CHEST-IS1 Deal The value added to the community by CHEST activities is well over 60 million CHEST have signed an agreement with IS1 pounds sterling. An agreement with to lease some of their databases on behalf Manchester Computing Centre (MCC) was of the higher education community in finalised to provide low cost documentation Britain for a period of 4 years from April as well as being the centre for the 1991. This is a world first for nationwide, distribution of software on behalf of CHEST. 'free' end-user access to significant database The CHEST directory of software is now holdings. The impact of this event may not a well established source for both the be realised for some time but it is likely to academic community and commercial have a profound effect on the provision of vendors who vie with each other for information and of the role of information inclusion. A very notable development in and library professionals in particular. 1990 was in the area of dataset acquisition. The databases concerned are the The first was the Bartholomews Digital Map equivalents of the printed Science Citation data for Britain, Europe and the World and Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index the other was the Bibliographical reference (SSCI), Arts and Humanities Citation Index data from ISI. This latter deal forms the (A&HCI) and the Index to Scientific and basis of the data service. Technical Proceedings (ISTP). Research CHEST acknowledge the considerable Fronts from 1983 will also be available. In assistance of the Computer Board who the initial service which was launched on provided the financial backing for leasing Feb lath, 1991 ISTP was not available but the data and establishing the service, data for the other databases for the current CHEST'S own steering committee, SISC, year and 1990 were and these are updated (The Software and Information Services weekly. By the summer it is hoped to have Committee), the IUSC (Inter-University ISTP available back to 1982 and the others Software Committee) which is a sub- back to 1981. Cited-Author searching is not committee of the IUCC (Inter-University available as part of the initial service but Committee on Computing) and provides a this is also scheduled to be included by the lot of technical advice, evaluations and late summer as are saved-searched sessions, guidance to CHEST. Similar close ties with an SDI (Selective Dissemination of a matching sub-committee on hardware are Information) service, a Keywords Plus expected as the significance of hardware facility and a research front searching acquisition becomes more important in the facility by subject rather than number. A coming years. hundred simultaneous sessions are available In the formulation of the BIDS project at the moment and eventually this will be they also acknowledge the considerable increased to 300. Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution In Database Access

Scisearch is the machine readable version Subject coverage includes archaeology, of the printed Science Citation Index with architecture, arts, classics, dance, film, additional coverage from the Current history, humanities, language and Contents series of publications. The linguistics, literature, music, Asian studies, journals which are indexed are carefully philosophy, poetry, radio, religion, selected on the basis of several criteria, television and theatre. Coverage includes including citation analysis, resulting in the articles, letters, editorials, notes, meeting inclusion of 90 percent of the world's abstracts, discussions, errata, music scores, significant scientific and technical literature. poems, short stories, plays, excerpts from Second, citation indexing is provided which books, chronologies, bibliographies and allows retrieval of newly published articles filmographies plus review books, films, through the subject relationships established music and theatrical performances that are by the author's reference to prior articles. It published in the journals indexed. It fully contains bibliographical references of , indexes over 1,300 journals worldwide. articles, reports, papers, discussion, Selected items from over 5,700 science and editorials, notes, reviews and other items social science journals are also included to from over 4,500 journals in the field of life provide multidisciplinary coverage. This sciences, physical sciences, chemistry, earth amounts to approximately 115,000 articles sciences, agriculture, biology, environmental per year. sciences, biomedicine, clinical medicine, ISTP Search is the machine readable engineering, technology and applied version of the printed Index to Scientific sciences. Each year contains about 700,000 and Technical Proceedings. Each year about articles. 10,000 conferences are held and about three Social Scisearch is the machine readable quarters of these are published. Of these, version of the printed Social Science IS1 index the most significant ones. In 1990, Citation Index. It provides bibliographical 4,186 published proceedings were indexed references to significant items from over (2,540 as books and 1,646 in journals) 1,500 journals in the behavioural and social corresponding to 158,382 papers, 449,904 sciences. Selected items from over 4,500 authors and editors spanning 127 categories journals in the natural, physical and (from acoustics to zoology). biomedical sciences are also included to The concept of the Research Front provide multidisciplinary coverage. Subject Speciality (FRS) was developed by IS1 as a coverage includes anthropology, method of identifying the core literature in archaeology, area studies, communications, areas of intense research activity and rapid community health, criminology and advance. Through citation analysis, ISI's penology, ethnic group studies, research staff has claimed to show that demographics, economics, education, current articles can be organized into geography, geriatrics and gerontology, subject areas according to the clusters of history, information and library science, older papers they cite in common and that international relations, law, linguistics, current articles that cite these clusters management, marketing, nursing, correlate with active research specialities. A philosophy, political science, psychology, search by RFS would correspond therefore psychiatry, sociology, statistics, substance to a citation search on the papers in the core abuse and urban planning and development. literature of the speciality so that you This amounts to approximately 130,000 retrieve a bibliography of current articles articles per year. which cite papers from the core literature. Arts and Humanities Search is the The concept of citation indexing is the machine readable version of the printed main selling point of most IS1 products. Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Almost all authors of published items cite Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access previous publications in order to refute or end-user. Searching is done a year at a time support previous findings or perhaps to and a database at a time but this is a minor provide background bibliographical drawback especially when the search information for readers (usually scholars of strategies are saved and can be transferred to some description). Through these citations other years and across databases. an author seeks to identify subject The input from the computing services relationships between the author's own team in BATH in the launch of the initial paper and the cited documents. Other service (Feb 18th) was tremendous. They current papers by various authors that cite had to write the software to manipulate the the same documents may have subject data, design the user interface, set up a help relationships with each other. desk, hold demonstrations for the academic In 1990 Keywords Plus was introduced community, administer the distribution of for diskette products and Focus on: Global usernames and passwords, liaise with ISI, Change. The basis of this facility is that it CHEST and The Computer Board, supplies additional search terms extracted negotiate with ICL for the delivery of the from the titles of articles cited by authors in processor needed to run and mount the data their bibliographies and footnotes. So it is and perform the myriad of other technical not based on key words in the title or the and administrative duties involved in the key words supplied by the author and in launch of such a comprehensive service. effect has no author input. The feature is Any queries about the service should be on based on an algorithm which identifies how they were able to achieve so much in recurring words or phrases appearing in the the short time they had to launch the live paper's list of cited references. service. The service is being run from Bath The Bath IS1 Data Service (BIDS) is at University Computing Services and is the disposal, for non-commercial use, of all running on an ICL Series 39, Level 80 students and staff at sites which have signed processor with 3 nodes. ICL donated the an agreement for the provision of the third node (processor) and it is expected to service. exploit a unique feature of ICL equipment The funding within each site for the in the implementation of the full service. service which is £6,000 + VAT per year per The data occupy 80 Gigabytes of memory site has been dependent on local and are mounted under STATUS free text circumstances. Some sites have paid for it retrieval software running under VME with from central resources, some from libraries, a menu driven interface which sits on top. some from computing services or The user interface is cleverly written and .computing departments and some from the printed documentation is quite clear. A departmental contributions. Participation in local help screen is available giving site this major development in information contacts and other local news. Online provision within the academic and research documentation and help facilities are to be environment of University of Cambridge upgraded with the release of the new was considered essential and it was version. Funding has been provided by the sponsored in full for this site by The Computer Board to design a set of University Librarian, West Road, instructional material which Terry Morrow Cambridge. has undertaken. Within many sites there has been Searching is by word(s) in the title, extensive cooperation between computing author, institution, journal, Research Front centres and libraries in the establishment of Number, cited patent or combinations of the service. This was certainly true of these. Output can include all these fields Cambridge where the committment and plus cited references as determined by the technical expertise of Computer Services Serials - Vol. 5, No I, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution In Database Access and the Computer Laboratory were strands of separate initiatives to produce a invaluable in bringing the service to united focus for a national initiative on Cambridge. Close ties were in place for dataset acquisition the SCONUL (Standing some time already because there has been Council of National and University close cooperation with the automation Libraries) Advisory Committee on section of the UL and the BIDS project is Automation Policy invited Mike Johnson to likely to be the first of many major joint a meeting to discuss such developments. ventures. As a result CHEST initiated discussions with IS1 in Britain (Spring 1989) to lease a range of their databases on behalf of the academic community. After successful There was interest for some years in initial discussions with IS1 in Britain doubts mounting major databases such as began to be expressed by the parent SCISEARCH, MEDLINE, BIOSIS- , company in the US but after further PREVIEWS, INSPEC and COMPENDEX discussions with the parent company in the on a campus wide or inter campus wide US these misgivings were allayed (Oct 1989). basis within Britain. This is in contrast to Two key factors were regarded as essential commercial companies which tend to be in both the selection of the IS1 databases enthusiastic advocates of such locally and the way the dataservice was offered. mounted databases both in Britain and The first factor was that the IS1 databases abroad. In the US academic community span a very broad range of discipline there is more support for intra and inter- interests and the second was that the aim of campus bibliographical database access. the service is to enable direct end-user access Approximately three years ago Derek Law with little or no help from intermediaries. at the University of London was actively CHEST then approached its funding investigating the possibility of establishing body, the Computer Board, to recommend an intra-University of London based scheme adoption of this project. A letter sent to the accessing Science Citation Index. At academic community outlining the approximately the same time The Radcliffe proposed project was greeted Science Library in Oxford were considering enthusiastically with about 30 sites replying the networking of similar datasets positively and this response was presented to throughout the University. The Librarian at the Computer Board as part of the the University of Bath, John Lambe was submission. also considering an initiative to purchase the The Computer Board provided funding tapes for the South West region and needed and the Software and Information Services five participating institutions to realise this. Committee (SISC) established the NlYTG He consulted Derek Law, Peter Stone and (National Datasets Task Group) to evolve a others and as a result, a public meeting was policy for this and further dataset called in Bath to discuss dataset provision initiatives. Part of their remit was to assess and to set up a consortium of sites to fund a the future needs for national database and regional service. During the course of the dataset services, funding, potential use by meeting, Mike Johnson, the director of Polytechnics, Further Education Colleges CHEST, had the idea of a nationwide and Schools and to review access and service rather than a regional one. delivery mechanisms. A range of library and other professionals They agreed that the Board continue to also began informal discussions to devise a spend a lot of money on data for the policy in relation to dataset provision and following three years (at least), that there networking. should be a review of the options for service In an effort to pull together the varied delivery, that the IS1 service be monitored, Serials - Vol. 5, No I, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution in Database Access that the group or a successor be used to increased tremendously since the mid 1970s continue examining the issues and that sites allowing access by small organisations and be solicited about bidding to be hosts for research teams to TR packages of other dataset deals. significant power. The management of All sites participating in the CHEST-IS1 structured text information is now a well deal are paying a fee per year. This is likely established discipline within academic and to be the norm for further dataset provision commercial information professionals. especially those regarded as mainstream. Many of the software packages were For more specialised datasets participating developed by the producers of online sites are likely to have to pay more, basically databases such as BRS/SEARCH. Other because there are likely to be fewer of those. notable packages include Assassin, CAIRS, Personally I feel that datasets such as Pro-Cite, Headfast and STATUS. There are BIOSIS, MEDLINE, INSPEC and currently over a hundred text retrieval COMPENDEX should be regarded as packages available (10). mainstream. Bath University Computing Services have CHEST drafted the basic specifications used STATUS in the BIDS project. The for the required data service which was version they use under the VME operating refined by the NIYTG and issued to a system (which is the operating system of number of sites who had expressed interest ICL computers) is very different from the in providing the service and Bath University Harwell version. Computing Services were offered the contract (late Spring 1990) to provide the service for CHEST to the academic community. CHEST handles the financial The access to the IS1 databases over JANET and contractual issues but the data service is promotes the primacy of the end-user. Even run independently with its own steering computer novices experience little difficulty committee to advise it on how that service is in accessing the databases, negotiating the best provided. menus and effecting meaningful searches. The most recent trend in end-user on-line searching is likely to have a major impact on the role of the information professional Database management systems are used in a especially within the academic environment. variety of applications from manipulation The traditional role of the librarian as the and management of numeric data at one custodian of knowledge which he sometimes end of the spectrum to free text at the other. reluctantly imparts to the masses needs to The best known software packages for data change to accommodate the needs of the management are those devoted to numerical end-user. and tabulated data such as dBase, Oracle The recent debate over the impact of and and Paradox while at the other extreme the appropriateness of CD-ROM software for the management of barely technology (11) may be obscuring a more structured text include Dayflo and ZyIndex. fundamental development which is that access by end-users to the databases on Text Retrieval these machines has whetted their appetite for more of the same. They are likely to be The early TR packages were based on more demanding of mediated on-line mainframe computers and were usually searching. The CHEST IS1 deal is going to written in-house and reflected the increase the confidence and the demands of organisations particular TR needs. The the end-user for other databases, for text development of micro-based systems has retrieval software and for increasingly Serials - Vol. 5, No 1, March 1992 BIDS: The Revolution In Database Access

sophisticated search facilities through both Dempsey, L. Libraries, networks and expert and novice menu driven interfaces. OSI: A review with a report on North The relative inaccessibility to online American Developments. Bath: databases has been mostly due to the cost of UKOLN, 1991. these services which meant the mediated Guidefor Libraries on JANET. searches were the only viable solution unless Glasgow: Project Jupiter, 1990. agreements with the commercial vendors Stone, P. JANET a report on its use could be formulated to allow 'free' end-user for libraries. (British Library Research searching on payment of an annual fee. Paper no. 77). London: British Some librarians and information Library Research & Development professionals fear that they are likely to Department, 1990. become de-professionalised as end-user Buxton A. JANET The Joint searching becomes more widespread. Academic Network. LIBS. 1989 (11). Although 'disintermediation' may Stratford, R. Private communication become a reality de-professionalisation is May 1991. not inevitable. It will require a different Smith, J. The UK Office for Library focus but the increased numbers of end-user Networking: primary goal and related searchers will probably entail collateral activities 1991-92. Libr Ass Rec 1991; support in training, guidance, ancillary 93 (4): 214-215, 217. services such as ILL requests and reference Text retrieval: a directory of software. enquiries (12, 13 & References therein), Ed Robert Kimberley. 3rd edition. dealing with vendors and investigating new Aldershot: ISI. 1990. products and a fall in mediated online McSean T., Law D. Is CD-ROM a searching (13 and references therein). In transient technology? Library addition end-user searching is not for Association Record. 1990; 92 (11): everybody; controlled vocabularly is 837-840. anathema to many, inter-database searching Salisbury L., Toombs H. S., Kelly E. is not likely to become a reality for some A., Crawford S. The effect of end- time and will need the intervention of user searching on reference services: competent intermediaries. (14) experience with MEDLINE and Acknowledgements Current Contents. Bull Med Libr ASSOC1990; 78(2): 188-191. 13. Bellamy L. M., Silver J. T., Givens I wish to acknowledge the considerable M. K. Remote access to electronic assistance of the following. Mike Johnson, Derek Law, Terry Morrow, Peter Stone, library services throughout a campus Andrew Gosling, Sam Motherwell, Ann network. Bull Med Lib Assoc Stow and Margaret Jocelyn. 1991;79(1):53-62. 14. Peaffenberger, B. Democratizing Information: Online Databases and the rise of end-user searching. 1. Directory of Online Databases. 1991. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990. 12 (1 & 2) NY. 2. Directory of Portable Databases. 1990 1 (1) Cuadra/Elsevier. NY. 3. Bell, S. J. Making end-users: does student online searching make a difference? ONLINE 1989 13 (6): 37-42.