Explains the capabilities of Bibliographic Retrieval Services' CROSS database index, a "postings only" file which serves as a presearch aid to training and database selection, and as a tool for ready reference and interlibrary loan verification. Limitations of the aid are noted, and a specification table summarizes operating information.…

The first of a three part series, this review covers the online bibliographic and numeric databases of physics, mathematics, and computer science. Two database directories are mentioned, and a table listing databases, producers, major subjects, and starting dates is appended. Fifteen references are provided. (EJS)

This overview of 47 online sources for physics information available in the United States--including sub-field databases, transdisciplinary databases, and multidisciplinary databases-- notes content, print source, language, time coverage, and databank. Two discipline-specific databases (SPIN and PHYSICS BRIEFS) are also discussed. (EJS)

Describes the background, document and subject coverage, access points, indexing, and other features of the online version of Energy Bibliography and Index (EBIB). A set of nine figures illustrate such things as a sample EBIB record, searchable fields in the EBIB database, and searching EBIB by index terms. (JL)

Describes the characteristics of System Development Corporation's (SDC) online index to its database, "Database Index," and presents the results of various test searches to demonstrate the limitations and benefits of the new online file. (JD)

Describes the free advisory service available to both users and potential users of chemical and biological databases in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Three specific areas are discussed in which queries about Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry Numbers have been received: isomers, replacing registry numbers, and mixed compounds. (JD)

Presents third installment of directory published in four parts in June and August issues of "Database" and July and September "Online." Description, company, compatibility, type of laserdisk, search and retrieval software, interface with magnetic media, conditions of usage, price, and status information are given for 11 products. Company names…

Discusses database design concept termed "normalization" (process replacing associations between data with associations in two-dimensional tabular form) which results in formation of relational databases (they are to computers what dictionaries are to spoken languages). Applications of the database in serials control and complex systems…

Provides an overview for searching the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database on Lockheed's DIALOG system, noting changes during its 11-year history. Background, focus, overlap with other files, vocabulary, full text searching, truncation, search saves, search tips, search examples, superselect, full text backup, and search aids…

Describes the automatic indexing project undertaken in 1978 to convert by means of a "bridge vocabulary" the terms in the ABI/INFORM database to index terms of a controlled vocabulary. Components of the bridge vocabulary are explained, and examples demonstrating the process of conversion are provided. (JD)

Reports on AV-ONLINE (file 46 on DIALOG), the database of the National Information Center for Educational Media (NICEM), which provides an index to annotated bibliographic descriptions of audiovisual materials of an educational or informational nature. Recent changes in the areas of record design, index vocabulary, coverage, and market are…

Provides descriptions of 14 databases that contain citations to audiovisual instructional materials: AGRICOLA, AVLINE, AVMARC, BIOETHICSLINE, CATLINE, CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT, DRUG INFO, ERIC, EXCEPTIONAL CHILD EDUCATION RESOURCES (ECER), LIBCON, NICEM, NICSEM/NIMIS, NIMH, and OCLC. Information for each includes subject content, update frequency,…

Introduces the reader to the Food Science and Technology Abstracts, a data file that covers worldwide literature on human food commodities and aspects of food processing. Topics include scope, subject index, thesaurus, searching online, and abstracts; tables provide a comparison of ORBIT and DIALOG versions of the file. (JD)

Profiles the new bibliographic database devoted solely to scholarly articles of political science. Two "searchguides" compare the Lockheed/DIALOG and SDC/ORBIT versions of the file. (JD)

Reviews ART MODERN, an on-line data base which provides comprehensive coverage of current worldwide literature on modern art and design since 1800. Areas described include scope, coverage, arrangement of printed and on-line indexes, characteristics of basic index and code searching; also search hints, search negotiation, searchguide, and data base…