Menu-Driven Interfaces Simplify Online Database Searching

In order to stay abreast of important developments in his field, University of Pittsburgh biologist Craig Peebles used to scan the table of contents of some half-dozen different journals each week. Every time he spotted something of interest, he would make a copy of the article and then add it to one of the stacks of papers he kept in his office for ready reference. While online services with easy-to-use, menu-driven interfaces offer researchers one avenue of access into the world of databases, CD-ROMs present another. CD-ROMs (short for "compact disk--read-only memory") are capable of storing 680 megabytes of laser-readable data, roughly equivalent to the complete text of a 20-volume encyclopedia. Couple this tremendous storage capacity with some menu-driven search software, and you have a terrific tool for data retrieval. Since the technology's debut in the mid-1980s, about 2,000 databases have been published in the CD-ROM format. To some extent, however, the sciences have lagged behind other areas in terms of database availability, according to Peter Jacso, a library scientist at the University of Hawaii and author of CD-ROM Software, Dataware & Hardware: Evaluation, Selection & Installation (Englewood, Colo., Libraries Unlimited, 1992). Jacso attributes this to publishers' concerns "that they will be cannibalizing their own revenues" if they issue CD-ROM versions of their online databases. But Jacso predicts publishers will soon begin rushing to publish CD-ROM versions, and the steady increase in the number of scientific databases appearing on disk within the last few years supports his forecast. Recent additions include Biological Abstracts on Compact Disc, available from Philadelphia-based Biosis, and Beilstein Current Facts in Chemistry from New York-based Springer New Media. Companies have also started producing CD-ROM products derived from their huge, multidisciplinary databases but that carry a narrower focus. For instance, Dialog Information Services Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., now publishes EI Chem Disc, EI EE Disc, and EI Energy and Environment Disc, each of which contains a subset of the information found in Compendex Plus, the online version of Engineering Index. The great advantage of CD-ROM databases, say Jacs" and other information specialists, is that there's no meter ticking in the background as the search is conducted. Thus, the user is free to experiment with different search combinations without the fear of squandering dollars in the process. Of course, purchasing a database on disk still involves a substantial outlay of money, depending on the scope of the product. At the upper end of the cost spectrum, the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information charges $10,950 for the compact disk edition of its Science Citation Index (SCI), with subsequent copies costing less, while the average CD-ROM product tends to fall into the $2,000-$4,000 range. (ISI offers discipline-specific specialty indexes in this latter price range.) In the final analysis, the question of cost-effectiveness depends on how much a user community relies on a given database, not to mention the value of what it contains. But there are several other points to keep in mind when comparing CD-ROM databases with their electronic counterparts. The first is currency, says Barbara Quint, editor of the magazine Database Searcher. Most CD-ROM databases are updated on a quarterly basis, while the online versions may be revised as frequently as every month or even every week. The other key issue is depth, says Quint. For all of their immense storage capacity, CD-ROM databases typically offer records encompassing a much briefer time span than the online files. For example, SciSearch, the online version of SCI, contains bibliographic references going back to 1974, while each disk in the CD-ROM version contains only a single year's worth of data. Thus, with the online version the user can access, during a single search, references covering multiple years, while with the CD-ROM product, each search covers just one year. However, the cost of searching the online service is proportionate to the time the user spends and the number of records he or she retrieves; the CD-ROM version, on the other hand, can be searched for as long as necessary. The verdict, according to Quint and Jacs", is that databases on compact disk certainly represent a viable alternative to online databases, but by no means are they a complete substitute. --J.S. But times have changed. Now, through an online information service called After Dark from BRS Information Technologies of Mc-Lean, Va., Peebles conducts his literature reviews right from his computer. With just a handful of keystrokes, he can delve into database collections containing millions of bibliographic records and article abstracts from thousands of scientific journals. All he needs to do is log on to After Dark and specify the topic and group of databases he wants to search, and within minutes the computer will come back to him with a readout of literature referencing the subject. For scientists with far-ranging research interests, database vendors, such as BRS and Dialog Information Services in Palo Alto, Calif., represent a resource of immeasurable value. Basically, the companies are the electronic liaisons to hundreds of databases. Even absolute neophytes will now have little difficulty extracting the information they want, thanks to the new generation of common-sense interfaces companies have set up exactly for this type of user. It hasn't always been so easy. Although electronic databases have been around since the early 1970s, online searching traditionally has been the province of the information specialist: the librarian or professional searcher conversant with the complicated--and, many would say, arcane--protocols for retrieving data. Even today, for the nonexpert using a command-language system, trying to understand how a particular database's search commands work "is like learning another language," says Sherry Willhite, a chemistry librarian at the University of California, San Diego. "You have to learn the proper way to phrase things and what the vocabulary words are," she says. But that's not the half of it. Users who plan on consulting a variety of sources must be "multilingual" as well, because the command languages vary from database to database and sometimes even differ among batches of records within the same file. What's more, just as the learning curve is daunting, so are the associated costs. Connect charges for accessing a database range between $35 and $185 an hour. And since even a slight mistake in phrasing or a typographical error can completely sabotage a search, it is all too easy to rack up a big tab with little to show for both the effort and the expense. "There are masses of stupid rules, regulations, and forms," warns Barbara Quint, editor of Database Searcher magazine. "If you don't remember all of the rules, you'll go home with an empty sack. But you still pay the hunting license fee [the connect charge] whether you caught anything or not." To a large extent, database vendors still cater to the search librarians. But, according to Quint and other experts within the industry, companies are also making a concerted effort to woo the individuals known in online parlance as the end-users--namely, those who will actually be using the data they retrieve. "The entire online database industry is clearly aiming itself at the end-user. They're the only new source of funding around," says Quint. As part of a bid to make their services more attractive to end-users, vendors have started to offer menu-driven interfaces as an alternative to the complex command protocols. Designed explicitly with the novice in mind, the menus guide the end-user with prompts through the process of selecting a database and defining the terms of a search. While command-language systems confront users with a blank screen awaiting an input, menus simplify the whole procedure by making it highly interactive. Vendors and services that accommodate the scientist end- users who are not information specialists include: * Dialog: One of the giants in the online business, boasting more than 400 databases spanning a range of subjects, from business to biotechnology. About 75 percent of these databases can be searched via Dialog Menus, the end-user interface that the company introduced in the mid-1980s. Among the scientific databases accessible in menu mode are such utilitarian resources as the online version of the index portion of Chemical Abstracts from the American Chemical Society, and Sci-Search, the online version of the Science Citation Index from the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). * EasyNet: This is not an online vendor per se, but a service from Telebase Systems Inc. of Wayne, Pa., that acts as a gateway to databases operated by Dialog and 12 other major information providers. With EasyNet, users can tap into more than 850 databases overall, including several hundred in science and technology. Willhite says the real advantage of the setup is that the interface "makes things transparent for the user. You log on and pick out what kind of search you want to do. Then EasyNet picks the database and vendor for you, does the search, and comes back with the answers." EasyNet is available through a variety of networks, although it's often marketed under a trade name. For instance, EasyNet goes by the alias of IQuest on CompuServe, while it's called InfoMaster on AT&T Easylink Services. * Life Science Network: A customized version of EasyNet marketed by Philadelphia-based Biosis for researchers in the life sciences. Subscribers have access to more than 80 databases, several of which, including BioBusiness and Biology Digest Online, are produced by Biosis exclusively for this service. Otherwise, information retrieval on the Life Science Network follows the same, easy-to-use format as found on EasyNet. * STN International: A network of more than 120 scientific and technical databases, and the only source for the complete online version of Chemical Abstracts. (The CA database available from other vendors includes bibliographic and indexing information, but not article abstracts.) Its interface is command-driven, but the company sells a software package called STN Express (list price: $460) that assists users in performing document queries, as well as in designing structure searches, which are normally very difficult to do in command language. Columbus, Ohio-based STN International has also set up a new menu interface for use with its materials and chemical properties data files. * BRS Colleague and After Dark: Colleague, designed primarily for health care professionals, provides access to files in the medical, biological, chemical, and physical sciences. BRS also offers the aforementioned After Dark. As its name implies, After Dark databases are available only after business hours and on weekends, but subscribers enjoy a substantial discount over normal rates. For example, users pay $80 to $90 per hour to search Biosis Previews on Colleague, but only $30 on After Dark. To access any of these services, all it takes is a personal computer, a modem with almost any type of telecommunications software, and a user's ID, which the user receives when opening an account with a particular vendor. Academic and government-based scientists whose institutions are wired into Internet, the NSF telephone computer access system, can access Dialog, Life Science Network, and STN International directly from their terminals, although they still need to contact the vendor to obtain a password. For those who do not have access to Internet, local phone networks such as SprintNet provide a low-cost means of connecting to the database vendors. But how does one go about choosing the service that is right? "The first decision you have to make is: What are the files that you will need the most?" advises Quint. "This is much easier to do in the scientific and technical areas because there are so many megabases: massive arrays of millions of records that comprehensively cover the bibliographic output in dozens of disciplines." However, difficulties arise when you start comparing vendors, because there is a large degree of overlap in terms of the databases each has to offer, according to Quint. Many of the most prized megabases, such as Biosis Previews and the National Library of Medicine's Medline, are available through almost any major online service. For the consumer, then, trying to sort out the differences among vendors can be highly confusing, says Helen Atkins, a product development analyst at ISI. But she also points out any dilemma created by this duplication of databases is something of an illusory one. "With most vendors, the password is free and you only pay for the time you use," she explains. "So you do not have to be tied into one service." The advantage of these services is that they presuppose little or no prior experience in database searching. But the user-friendly interfaces they provide are not without their limitations. "Frankly, like a lot of other things, you begin to trade off," says Peter Rusch, vice president of the chemical and patent information division at Dialog. The problem is that in order to make a menu system practical, a vendor has to make a lot of choices for the end-user in advance. As a result, the user begins to trade off some detail and specificity compared to the sort of searches that can be conducted with a traditional nonmenu search, he says. Nonetheless, for scientists without the training in the more powerful command-language protocols, resorting to a menu- driven interface to carry out a search is still the next best thing to enlisting the services of an experienced librarian. And sometimes it's even better, says Daniel Harvey, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, San Diego. "We often prefer to do the searches ourselves," Harvey says. "Very often we need the information [as soon as possible], and if the librarian is out of town or unavailable, it can delay you for several days." Harvey estimates he runs four or five searches himself using STN Express for every one that he asks a university librarian to conduct. "I'm a synthetic organic chemist, so I'm usually looking for information on specific reaction types or references to specific compounds," he says. For all of the strides vendors have taken in making their databases accessible to end-users, however, it seems unlikely that search professionals such as Willhite and Quint will become obsolete any time soon. "For the foreseeable future, there will be information specialists who will perform a valuable service in understanding the deeper need on the part of a customer and the deeper nuances of the databases," says Dialog's Rusch. At the same time, he adds, "It's wonderful how much people can do for themselves with just their own intuition and an easy interface." Jeff Seiken is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh.

Menu-Driven Interfaces Simplify Online Database Searching

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