Search results

The cost of online bibliographic searching depends on how it is done. What is paid is the means and not the result. Yet there is no correlation between the price of the means and the value of the result. To achieve a satisfactory balance between means and results as well as a good quality/price ratio, an attempt must be made to optimise searching along the following two axes: the strategic approach and the conceptual approach. But the elements that have to be taken into consideration are rarely known by the occasional user. This is why a new category of specialist has come into being, i.e. the systems expert, who knows everything about all the databases and search procedures. The more online searches he makes, the more skilled he becomes and the more he is asked to make, whereas the occasional user moves in the opposite direction (‘Matthew’ effect).

There are different levels in elaborating a search strategy. The ideal formulation requires good knowledge of the relevant subject area, of the online system being used, and of the relevant files. A number of sample questions in the chemical field are taken up, and it is shown why some questions can be answered only by a skilled online intermediary searcher, whereas other searches can be performed satisfactorily by either the skilled online expert or by the end user.

This article takes the form of a checklist of the problems and pitfalls that can arise in setting up an online retrieval facility. The problems of both users and vendors are considered. Physical, economic, technical and social constraints are analyzed in the case of the vendor and each component in the chain — database producer, online vendor and telecommunication network — is considered separately. The user's problems are analyzed from the viewpoints of both the intermediary and the end user, and the effect of the changeover to a new system is considered.

The use of databases and microcomputers enables almost anyone to analyse a scientific field. Forecasting scientific production is a way of estimating trends in various countries, patents, thresholds of investment, etc. This analysis of trends can be used to determine research policy. Fundamental research and R&D must obviously be developed with full regard to results present in the international scientific literature. Moreover, it is important to view the various human and financial potentials involved in certain areas. The aim of this paper is to show how, with an information tool such as the Chemical Abstracts database, it is possible to carry out various analyses of scientific subjects. The authors present a real‐life case study developed at the laboratory of the Centre de Recherche Retrospective de Marseille; the work was closely related to the analytical work on various liquefaction products from the French coal liquefaction pilot plant. The database used was Chemical Abstracts. Two periods corresponding to two files have been considered: CA 77 (from 1977 to 1981) and CA 82 (from 1982 to date). The software used allows most types of search, and the mathematical analysis and trends were determined with an Apple II/e computer using the programs Vitrend, Visiplot and Appleplot.

New field for Infomart. Infomart, SDC's agent in Canada, recently announced that it had entered the field of electronic publishing with an influx of $6 million from two of Canada's largest communication companies, Southam Inc. and Torstar Corporation. Infomart recently hosted an international forum on the future of videotex in Canada.