Describes the Utlas database with specific reference to its design, file structure, and content. Features discussed include access to the database, products and services supported by the database, interfaces to local systems, the interactions between bibliographic and authority records, and Japanese language processing. (Author/CLB)

Describes current features of the Research Libraries Information Network and ongoing research to enhance the system. Features discussed include access to the central bibliographic database, authority control, nonroman character set support, special databases for search only use, thesauri, videodisk interfaces, and file clustering. (CLB)

When DIALOG introduced DIALMAIL, its electronic mail service, online searchers were encouraged to use it as an alternative delivery method for offline prints. The new method of retrieval was considered to be fast and described in documentation and reviews as being much less expensive than online types. Performed in June 1987, this study compares…

Developed at the beginning of the decade to serve as a union catalog for identifying the holdings in all University of California (UC) libraries, the MELVYL online catalog as of October 1989 contained 10 million holdings for over 5 million monographic titles of print and nonprint materials, and more than 1.2 million periodicals holdings which…

Describes the State of Iowa Libraries Online project (SILO) which was developed to demonstrate new information technologies available to libraries. Focuses on two interlinked components of the project: Web-based union catalog development and statewide deployment of the ANS/NISO Z39.50 information retrieval standard. Includes recommendations for…

Describes how automation has transformed the library and how super-catalogs have affected the process of doing research. Explains how faculty and librarians can work together to help students to use the available databases effectively, by teaching them Boolean logic, standard record formats, filing rules, etc. (DMM)

Electronic databases have grown tremendously in both number and popularity since their development during the 1960s. Access to electronic databases in academic libraries was originally offered primarily through mediated search services by trained librarians; however, the advent of CD-ROM and end-user interfaces for online databases has shifted the…

The library at Phoenix College developed the Controversial Issues Files (CIF), a "home made" card file containing references pertinent to specific ongoing assignments. Although the CIF had proven itself to be an excellent resource tool for beginning researchers, it was cumbersome to maintain in the card format, and was limited to very…