Online Government Databases — An Analysis

Abstract

Of the 3010 databases publicly available in 1985, 1,926 are classed as word‐oriented. The majority of these databases are available online either in the United States or elsewhere. Many are small and many are little used. Among online databases some 383 were active (used) in the information center/library market in the United States between 1982 and 1985. This market includes sixteen online search services (vendors). Databases accessed through those vendors have been continuously surveyed on a quarterly basis through the Information Market Indicators (IMI) survey since 1982. The vendors included in the survey are the major vendors of word‐oriented databases whose services are purchased by organizations in the United States. They are: BRS, Dialog, Dow Jones, Inform (VuText), ISI (Institute for Scientific Information, no longer active as a vendor), Legi‐Slate, MDC (Mead Data Central), NLM (National Library of Medicine), NYT (New York Times, no longer active as a vendor), Pergamon InfoLine, Questel, STN International, SDC (System Development Corp.), Source, Wilson‐line, and Westlaw. Data in this paper are based on the IMI survey.

Citation

(1986), "Online Government Databases — An Analysis", Online Review, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024218