Philip Abelson, Editor of Science Magazine told attendees at the American Society for Information Science meeting in Knoxville that Mead Data, the producer of LEXIS and NEXIS, is the only data base proprietor making a profit at this time. The company now has more than 30,000 searches a day against its full-text files. Negotiations are underway to mount Science on the Mead service, although there is a problem in getting the software to accommodate tables and diagrams.
Abelson expects the demand for full-text services to increase because access to information online increases the productivity of professional and managerial staff. He forecasts much greater utilization of online data bases in business than in academic institutions because of the much greater emphasis on productivity in the for profit environment.
