University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An end user search service with customized interface software

Mischo, William H.; DeSart, Melvin G.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1181

Description

Title
An end user search service with customized interface software
Author(s)
  • Mischo, William H.
  • DeSart, Melvin G.
Issue Date
1987
Keyword(s)
  • Reference services (Libraries) --Automation
  • Online bibliographic searching
  • Database searching
  • Libraries and electronic publishing
Abstract
"Libraries are presently investigating three methods of providing enhanced online access to periodical information. These are: ( 1 ) mounting commercially produced bibliographic databases in local online systems, often using the same software employed in the online catalog; (2) making available fixed-cost searching utilizing optical disc (CD-ROM) databases; and (3) providing an end user searching service utilizing front-end search software and/or the less expensive after-hours commercial vendor systems. Many academic libraries are exploring all three options. There are economic, service, and retrieval advantages associated with each approach. Clearly, the most comprehensive access to the periodical and report literature is through the commercial database vendors with their broad ""information supermarkets"" and sophisticated retrieval software. This continues to be particularly true in the sciences which possess numerous large and complex databases which have not readily lent themselves to optical storage and retrieval technologies. This article describes a project at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Library that has focused on the third option described earlier i.e., providing enhanced access to the periodical literature through an end user searching service which utilizes the commercial database vendors. This demonstration project employs customized microcomputer interface software designed to facilitate the search process for end users. The service offers controlled end user searching as an option within an online catalog interface."
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (24th : 1987)
ISSN
0069-4789
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1181
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1987.

Owning Collections

Faculty and Staff Research - University Library
Research and scholarship of the Library faculty and staff
1987: Questions and Answers: Strategies for Using the Electronic Reference Collection PRIMARY
24th Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (1987). Edited by Linda C. Smith.