One of the most eagerly awaited CD-ROM products is INSPEC, an index and full-ext data base containing information in all areas of physics, electrical engineering, electronics and computers. It covers not only journals, but conference proceedings published since the start of 1988. IEEE Standards also are included. Positive feedback from twelve beta test sites resulted in a three-way agreement among the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the British Institution of Electrical Engineers (producers of the INSPEC data base) and University Microfilms International. INSPEC is similar to the UMI BPO--Business Periodicals Ondisc. The user enters a search, which can be a single word, a phrase or keywords in a Boolean search statement. Retrieval is displayed as a list of titles. Clicking on a title brings up a full citations with abstract from the INSPEC data base. The user then has the option of displaying the entire article, which ay reside on another disk--there are 30 to date. The user is prompted to insert the correct disk and a page image is displayed on the screen. The user can enlarge the image, page through the document or print the article on a laser printer. The printed copy is virtually identical to a photocopy made from the journal; all information--equations, line drawings, graphs, even photographs--is right there.
The contracts have not yet been signed, nor have prices been set, but the product is expected to be available in late 1990.
[Contact: University Microfilms, Inc., 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; (313) 761-4700.]
