Step 3: Study the service's search commands and procedures,
PLAN, and then SEARCH.
Start by asking others! ———————————- Step 1 is not an easy one. Start by asking other online people for advice. This may be the fastest way to interesting sources. If looking for information about agriculture and fisheries, visit conferences about related topics. Ask members there what they are using. If you want information about computers or electronics, ask in such conferences.
| When you don't know where to start your search, ask others! |
| Their know-how is usually the quickest way to the sources. |
If this doesn't help, check out GEnie's Home Office/Small Business
RoundTable, a hangout of online searchers. Visit CompuServe's
Working From Home Forum, which has a section for information
professionals (#4), and the section for new librarians in the
Journalism Forum.
Patent searchers are a very specialized group. They discuss
common problems on Dialog's DialMail. Their bulletin board is named
PIUG.
Buy user manuals ———————— Some online services send free user information manuals to their users. Others charge extra for them. If they do, buy! They're worth their weight in gold. The user manuals from Dialog, Dow Jones News/Retrieval and CompuServe make good reading. The last two also publish monthly magazines full of search tips, information about new sources, user experiences, and more. Dialog distributes the monthly newsletter Chronolog. NewsNet customers periodically receive a printed listing of available newsletters by subject area, and a presentation of their information providers. The NewsNet Action Letter (monthly) is also distributed by mail. On some services, you can retrieve the help texts in electronic form. Doing that is not a bad idea. It is often quicker to search a help file on your disk, than to browse through a book.
Monitor the offerings ——————————- Professional information searchers monitor the activity in the online world. They search databases for information about new sources of information, and regularly read about new services. On most online services, you can search databases of available offerings, and a section with advertisements about their own 'superiorities'. Keep an eye on what is being posted there. NewsNet lets you read and search the following newsletters: Worldwide Videotex Update, Worldwide Databases (#PB44), Online Newsletter, The Online Newsletter, and The Online Libraries and Microcomputers. The last two are also available as a database from Information Intelligence, Inc., (P.O. Box 31098, Phoenix, AZ 85046, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-602-996-2283). You can read the text on NewsNet about one week before it appears in print. These two newsletters can also be read and searched on Dialog and Data-Star, as part of the Information Access PTS Newsletter Database. Information Access is a full-text database with many specialized newsletters for business and industry. On CompuServe, you can get to Information Access through the IQuest gateway to NewsNet. Subscribing to THE ONLINE NEWSLETTER costs US$50.00 per year (10 issues) for companies, and US$35.00 for personal use (1991). For both newsletters, the price is US$75.00. These newsletters are also available on CD-ROM. The disk contains four databases: the Online Newsletter, Online Hotline, Online Libraries and Microcomputers, Major Online Vendors and *Joblines* with more than eight thousand full-text articles from January 1980 until today. The CD-ROM version is delivered with a menu-driven searching program. Each word in every article and headline has been indexed and can be located in all databases. The price for subscriptions of the printed version is US$99.95. Price for nonsubscribers: US$199.95. The September 1991 issue of The Online Newsletter had the following index (partial):
***************************** *NEW & FORTHCOMING DATABASES* *****************************
10) MULTIMEDIA CIA WORLD FACT BOOK (CD-ROM) [REVIEW] 11) NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM) [REVIEW] 12) WORLD CERAMICS ABSTRACTS (ORBIT) 13) GENE-TOX (TOXNET/NLM) 14) UK TRADEMARKS (ORBIT) [RENAMED] 15) BRS ADDS DATABASES TO ITS OFFERINGS 16) CURRENT PATENTS (ORBIT) 17) NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM) 18) ALUMINUM STANDARDS DATABASE [AAASD] (STN 19) PLASNEWS (STN INTERNATIONAL) 20) EPIC ANNOUNCES NEW DATABASES 21) DISCLIT: AMERICAN AUTHORS (CD-ROM - OCLC) 22) CROSS-CULTURAL: CRIME AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS (CD-ROM) 23) INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL ABSTRACTS (CD-ROM) 24) RINGDOC (CD-ROM - SILVERPLATTER) 25) CODUS (ESA-IRS) 26) MOODY'S COMPANY DATA (CD-ROM) 27) FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE (DIALOG) 28) INPADOC DATABASE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE IN JAPAN (DIALOG) 29) SOFTWARE CD: DESCRIPTIONS & REVIEWS (CD-ROM) 30) MONARCH NOTES ON CD-ROM (CD-ROM)
An earlier issue of the newsletter reviewed The Encyclopedia of Information Systems and Services, a three-volume "bible" for online users and producers (9th edition): EISS covers more than 30,000 organizations, systems, services, more than five thousand databases, publications, software products, etc. Their international listing covers 1,350 information organizations in 70 countries, and has 535 pages. Topics: online host services, videotex/teletext information services, PC oriented services, data collection and analysis services, abstracting and indexing services, computerized searching services, software producers, magnetic tape/diskette providers, micrographic applications and services, library and information networks, library management systems, information on demand services, transactional services (new category), document delivery services, SDI/current awareness services, consultants, associations, research and research projects, and electronic mail applications. Contact: Gale Research Company, 645 Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226, U.S.A. Tel.: +1-313-961-2242. Price per set: US$ 420.00.
The European Common Market ————————————— Many services bring news and information from the European Common Market. The Common Market's free database service, I'M-GUIDE, is a good place to start. I'M-GUIDE is available through ECHO in Luxembourg by telnet to echo.lu . At the question "PLEASE ENTER YOUR CODE," enter ECHO and press Return. You can search I'M-GUIDE for information sources, send email inquiries to ECHO, and more. Searches can be done in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese. If you have problems using I'M-GUIDE, call the ECHO Help Desk in Luxembourg at +352-34 98 11.