A new company has been formed to promote easier access to online data base searching by casual, untrained end users. Scheduled for introduction in mid-October, the EASYNET service is the first product from Telebase Systems, Inc., a Pennsylva-nia company which includes several former employees of the Institute for Scientific Information, a major producer of hardcopy and machine-readable abstracting and indexing tools. In addition to providing "user friendly" access to online data bases, the system guides the user through the search process, and also provides an innovative approach to the pricing of such searching.
To gain access to EASYNET, the user connects to the system by dialing an 800 telephone number (l-800-EASYNET). After being greeted by the system, the user is asked for a VISA or MasterCard credit card number. The system then verifies card, and if valid, permits the user to continue. The first menu screen asks the user to press one of the numbers 1 through 4 to find information about persons, places, subjects, or organizations. Each choice leads the user to another screen which refines the search further until the system can determine which vendor and data base are most appropriate to search. Once the determination is made, EASYNET then helps the user to formulate a search question (with Boolean operators, if desired) using the same type of menu screens as were used earlier in the pro-cedure. At this point, the system dials out of the EASYNET computer and con-nects to the vendor/data base that the user has chosen. The user is unaware that switching is taking place and sees only a continuous communication with the system. Once the data base is searched, the user is told how many articles were found, and can choose to see their titles or abstracts, print them, have the complete article deliv-ered (overnight or by regular mail), end the search, or begin a new search.
A broad range of information will be available including news, entertain-ment, business, science, medicine, social science, arts and humanities, and public services. As of late Septem-ber, access agreements had been nego-tiated with Dialog, BPS and .SDC, Questel and Pergamon Online, and News- net. Other files and vendors are being added as agreements are completed. Users will also have access to an on-line encyclopedia-the Academic Ameri-can Encyclopedia-which can be searched in place of a data base.
EASYNET claims several major advantages over other data base search services. It is extremely simple to access because public telephone lines are used rather than the private net-works, and credit cards are used rather than passwords. No registration is required; there is no need to keep track of network telephone numbers, which vary with geographical location; nor is it necessary to remember pass-words. The client is billed by the credit; card company in the usual fa-shion. Familiarity with online data bases is-said to be unnecessary be-cause the system selects from the many hundreds of data bases available the one or two most appropriate for the user. The user need not be familiar with search languages because EASYNET automatically translates the search question into the language required by the vendor whose data base is being searched, and EASYNET's simple series of menu screens requires no search language of its own.
The pricing is also innovative, with the basic cost of an EASYNET search being $10.00. This comprises a $5.00 charge for connecting to the EASYNET computer and a $5.00 charge for each external file accessed during a search. There are no other data base usage charges, although additional charges are levied for retrieving abstracts ($2.00 per abstract) and for ordering articles. Requests for the delivery of documents are passed through EASYNET to established document delivery vendors/services. The system displays all charges at the end of the search.
EASYNET is expected to relieve both academic and public library staff from the burden of doing searches for patrons, and will also facilitate chargebacks for searching. On campuses with remote terminals hardwired to the central university computer, searches can be partially or fully subsidized by the university.
Telebase Systems has plans for the development of further services, over and above the addition of more vendors and data bases-including factual files- to EASYNET. Phase II of the development calls for enhancement of the service to allow more informed users to direct the system to connect them to data bases or services of their own choosing, rather than using the system's automatic select capability.
Telebase Systems has been assisted in its development of EASYNET by receiving the sponsorship of the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS), an organization which represents a number of major data base producers and vendors. The initial agreement provides NFAIS member organizations with the exclusive option of having their data bases accessible through EASYNET; it also limits such participation in EASYNET to the data base producers and vendors which are members of NFAIS.
[Contact: Telebase Systems, Inc., 134 North Narberth Avenue, Suite 6, Narberth, PA 19072, (215) 664-6168.]
