The Online World, Odd de Presno [simple ebook reader txt] 📗

CompuServe. They also operate a bulletin board. People from AI Expert Magazine can be encountered in the AI Expert Forum. Dr. Dobb's Journal is in the Dr. Dobb's Journal Forum. The Entrepreneur's Small Business Forum (CompuServe) is managed by representatives from the magazine. Live Sound!, a magazine devoted to the MIDI sound field, occupies section and library 9 of the MIDI B Vendor Forum. Time magazine has a forum on America Online. There, readers can discuss with magazine reporters and editors, and even read the text of entire issues of Time electronically before it is available on newsstands. The Online World shareware book, the one you're reading just now, also has a forum. For information about how to join, send email to LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu (or LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 on BITNET). In the text of your message, write the command "GET TOW MASTER".

Chapter 10: Looking for a needle in a bottle of hay

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Experienced users regularly clip news from online services, and store selected parts of it on their personal computers' hard disks. They use powerful tools to search their data, and know how to use the information in other applications.

Regular clipping of news is highly recommended. It is often quicker and easier to search your own databases than to do it online. Since your data is a subset of previous searches, your stories are likely to have a high degree of relevancy. There are many powerful programs for personal computers that let you search your personal data for information. Read Chapter 14 for more on this. While secondary research can never replace primary information gathering, it often satisfies most information needs related to any task or project. Besides, it points in the direction of primary sources from where more in-depth information may be elicited.

When your personal database fails to deliver

Regular "clipping" can indeed help you build a powerful personal database, but it will never satisfy all your information needs. Occasionally, you must go online for additional facts.

When this happens, you may feel like Don Quixote, as he was looking "for a needle in a bottle of hay." The large number of online offerings is bewildering. To be successful, you must have a sound search strategy. Your first task is to locate useful SOURCES of information. The next, to decide how best to find that specific piece of information online. You must PLAN your search. Although one source of information, like an online database, is supposed to cover your area of interest, it may still be unable to give you what you want. Let me explain with an example: You're tracking a company called IBM (International Business Machines). Your first inclination is to visit forums and clubs concerned with products delivered by this company. There, you plan to search message bases and file libraries. What is likely to happen, is that the search term IBM gives so many hits that you almost drown. To find anything of interest in these forums, your search terms must be very specific. General news providers, like Associated Press, may be a better alternative. Usually, they just publish one or two stories on IBM per week. Don't expect to learn about details that are not of interest to the general public. AP's stories may be too general for you. Maybe you'll be more content with industry insiders' expert views, as provided by the NewsNet newsletters OUTLOOK ON IBM, or THE REPORT ON IBM.

The level of details in a given story depends in part on the news providers' readers, and the nature of the source. The amount of "noise" (the level of irrelevancy) also varies. In most public forums, expect to wade through many uninteresting messages before finding things of interest.

We suggest the following strategy: Step 1: Locate sources that provide relevant information, Step 2: Check if the information from these sources is at a satisfactory level of details, and that the volume is acceptable (not too much, neither too little). Step 3: Study the service's search commands and procedures, PLAN, and then SEARCH.

Start by asking others!

Step 1 is not an easy one. Start by asking other online people for advice. This may be the fastest way to interesting sources.

If looking for information about agriculture and fisheries, visit conferences about related topics. Ask members there what they are using. If you want information about computers or electronics, ask in such conferences.

| When you don't know where to start your search, ask others! |

| Their know-how is usually the quickest way to the sources. |

If this doesn't help, check out GEnie's Home Office/Small Business RoundTable, a hangout of online searchers. Visit CompuServe's Working From Home Forum, which has a section for information professionals (#4), and the section for new librarians in the Journalism Forum.

Patent searchers are a very specialized group. They discuss common problems on Dialog's DialMail. Their bulletin board is named PIUG.

Buy user manuals

Some online services send free user information manuals to their users. Others charge extra for them. If they do, buy! They're worth their weight in gold.

The user manuals from Dialog, Dow Jones News/Retrieval and CompuServe make good reading. The last two also publish monthly magazines full of search tips, information about new sources, user experiences, and more. Dialog distributes the monthly newsletter Chronolog. NewsNet customers periodically receive a printed listing of available newsletters by subject area, and a presentation of their information providers. The NewsNet Action Letter (monthly) is also distributed by mail. On some services, you can retrieve the help texts in electronic form. Doing that is not a bad idea. It is often quicker to search a help file on your disk, than to browse through a book.

Monitor the offerings

Professional information searchers monitor the activity in the online world. They search databases for information about new sources of information, and regularly read about new services.

On most online services, you can search databases of available offerings, and a section with advertisements about their own 'superiorities'. Keep an eye on what is being posted there. NewsNet lets you read and search the following newsletters: Worldwide Videotex Update, Worldwide Databases (#PB44), Online Newsletter, The Online Newsletter, and The Online Libraries and Microcomputers. The last two are also available as a database from Information Intelligence, Inc., (P.O. Box 31098, Phoenix, AZ 85046, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-602-996-2283). You can read the text on NewsNet about one week before it appears in print. These two newsletters can also be read and searched on Dialog and Data-Star, as part of the Information Access PTS Newsletter Database. Information Access is a full-text database with many specialized newsletters for business and industry. On CompuServe, you can get to Information Access through the IQuest gateway to NewsNet. Subscribing to THE ONLINE NEWSLETTER costs US$50.00 per year (10 issues) for companies, and US$35.00 for personal use (1991). For both newsletters, the price is US$75.00. These newsletters are also available on CD-ROM. The disk contains four databases: the Online Newsletter, Online Hotline, Online Libraries and Microcomputers, Major Online Vendors and *Joblines* with more than eight thousand full-text articles from January 1980 until today. The CD-ROM version is delivered with a menu-driven searching program. Each word in every article and headline has been indexed and can be located in all databases. The price for subscriptions of the printed version is US$99.95. Price for nonsubscribers: US$199.95. The September 1991 issue of The Online Newsletter had the following index (partial):

NEW & FORTHCOMING DATABASES

10) MULTIMEDIA CIA WORLD FACT BOOK (CD-ROM) [REVIEW] 11) NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM) [REVIEW] 12) WORLD CERAMICS ABSTRACTS (ORBIT) 13) GENE-TOX (TOXNET/NLM) 14) UK TRADEMARKS (ORBIT) [RENAMED] 15) BRS ADDS DATABASES TO ITS OFFERINGS 16) CURRENT PATENTS (ORBIT) 17) NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM) 18) ALUMINUM STANDARDS DATABASE [AAASD] (STN 19) PLASNEWS (STN INTERNATIONAL) 20) EPIC ANNOUNCES NEW DATABASES 21) DISCLIT: AMERICAN AUTHORS (CD-ROM - OCLC) 22) CROSS-CULTURAL: CRIME AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS (CD-ROM) 23) INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL ABSTRACTS (CD-ROM) 24) RINGDOC (CD-ROM - SILVERPLATTER) 25) CODUS (ESA-IRS) 26) MOODY'S COMPANY DATA (CD-ROM) 27) FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE (DIALOG) 28) INPADOC DATABASE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE IN JAPAN (DIALOG) 29) SOFTWARE CD: DESCRIPTIONS & REVIEWS (CD-ROM) 30) MONARCH NOTES ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM)

An earlier issue of the newsletter reviewed The Encyclopedia of Information Systems and Services, a three-volume "bible" for online users and producers (9th edition):

EISS covers more than 30,000 organizations, systems, services, more than five thousand databases, publications, software products, etc. Their international listing covers 1,350 information organizations in 70 countries, and has 535 pages. Topics: online host services, videotex/teletext information services, PC oriented services, data collection and analysis services, abstracting and indexing services, computerized searching services, software producers, magnetic tape/diskette providers, micrographic applications and services, library and information networks, library management systems, information on demand services, transactional services (new category), document delivery services, SDI/current awareness services, consultants, associations, research and research projects, and electronic mail applications. Contact: Gale Research Company, 645 Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-313-961-2242. Price per set: US$ 420.00.

The European Common Market

Many services bring news and information from the European Common Market. The Common Market's free database service, I'M-GUIDE, is a good place to start.

I'M-GUIDE is available through ECHO in Luxembourg by telnet to echo.lu . At the question "PLEASE ENTER YOUR CODE," enter ECHO and press Return. You can search I'M-GUIDE for information sources, send email inquiries to ECHO, and more. Searches can be done in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese. If you have problems using I'M-GUIDE, call the ECHO Help Desk in Luxembourg at +352-34 98 11.

More sources about sources

The "Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases" report is available by email from LISTSERV@UNMVM.BITNET. Put the following command in the TEXT of your message:

GET LIBRARY PACKAGE

Cuadra/Elsevier (Box 872, Madison Square Station, New York, NY 10159-2101, U.S.A. Tel.: +1 212 633 3980) sells a Directory of Online Databases, which lists databases available around the world. The catalog can be searched on Orbit and Data-Star.

The Online Access Publishing Group Inc. (Chicago) sells "The Online Access Guide." Annual subscription for this printed manual costs US$18.95 (six issues - 1992). The LINK-UP magazine is another interesting source. If living in North America, contact Learned Information Inc., 143 Old Mariton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8707, U.S.A.. If living elsewhere, contact Learned Information (Europe) Ltd., Woodside, Hinskey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, England, if you live outside North America. Tel.: +44 865 730 275. Price: US$25.00 for six issues/year (1993). An online version is available through ZiffNet's Business Database Plus on CompuServe. Two monthly magazines, Information World Review (price: GBP