More sources about sources ————————————— The "Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases" report is available by email from LISTSERV@UNMVM.BITNET. Put the following command in the TEXT of your message:
GET LIBRARY PACKAGE
Cuadra/Elsevier (Box 872, Madison Square Station, New York, NY 10159-2101, U.S.A. Tel.: +1 212 633 3980) sells a Directory of Online Databases, which lists databases available around the world. The catalog can be searched on Orbit and Data-Star. The Online Access Publishing Group Inc. (Chicago) sells "The Online Access Guide." Annual subscription for this printed manual costs US$18.95 (six issues - 1992). The LINK-UP magazine is another interesting source. If living in North America, contact Learned Information Inc., 143 Old Mariton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8707, U.S.A.. If living elsewhere, contact Learned Information (Europe) Ltd., Woodside, Hinskey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, England, if you live outside North America. Tel.: +44 865 730 275. Price: US$25.00 for six issues/year (1993). An online version is available through ZiffNet's Business Database Plus on CompuServe. Two monthly magazines, Information World Review (price: GBP 30/year) and FULLTEXT SOURCES ONLINE from BiblioData Inc. in the United States, is also available through Learned Information. (BiblioData, P.O. Box 61, Needham Heights, MA 02194, U.S.A.) FULLTEXT SOURCES ONLINE publishes their listing of full-text databases twice per year. The price is GBP 50 GBP per booklet or GBP 90 per year. The newsletter SCANNET TODAY (c/o Helsinki University of Techn. Library, Otnaesvaegen 9, SF-02150 ESBO, Finland) presents news of Scandinavian databases by country. Subscription is free. Computer Readable Databases from Gale Research is available both in print and online through Dialog. Write to Gale Research Company, 645 Griswold, Detroit, MI 48226, U.S.A. Many electronic journals and newsletters are available through the Internet, covering fields from literature to molecular biology. For a complete list, send a message to LISTSERV@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA with the following commands in the BODY of your text:
GET EJOURNL1 DIRECTRY GET EJOURNL2 DIRECTRY
Practical hints about online searching ——————————————————— We cannot give a simple, universal recipe valid for all online services. What is the best approach on one service, may be useless on others. Most services offer full online documentation of their search commands. You can read the help text on screen while connected, or retrieve it for later study. Make a note about the following general tricks:
In conferences and forums: ————————————— Many services have commands for selective reading of messages. For example, on CompuServe you can limit your search to given sections. You can also select messages to be read based on text strings in the subject titles. The command
rs;s;CIS Access from Japan;62928
displays all messages with the text "CIS Access from Japan" in their subject titles starting with message number 62928.
Online searching often starts by selecting databases. The next step is to enter search words (or text strings), and a valid time frame (as in "between 1/1/90 and 1/1/91").
The following sample search terms are used on NewsNet: