PRODUCT REVIEWS
 
 

COMPACT CAMBRIDGE MEDLINE OFFERS
REFERENCE UPDATE AND ONLINE CON-NECTION TO PROVIDE THE MOST CURRENT INFORMATION ON CD-ROM

Barbara Rogoski

Compact Cambridge European Office
1075 AJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Keywords: Compact Cambridge MEDLINE, MEDLINE, Reference, Online. CD-ROM. Compact Cambridge, an American based publishing firm, produces 14 different databases that deal exclusively with biomedicine, environmental and pollution sciences and marine scien-ces. The most popular CD-ROM database available is Compact Cambridge MEDLINE from the National Library of Medicine. It is the premier source for biomedical literature including resear-ch, clinical practice, administration, policy issues and health care services. Now it is possible to have the most current information on CD-ROM on a monthly basis, or have a single step con-nection to online searching.

Compact Cambridge has made an agreement with Reference Manager to include REFE-RENCE UPDATE on the MEDLINE CD-ROM. It sometimes takes three months for the abstract to appear on the CD-ROM because of all the steps necessary to go from printed copy to CD. Until now, this has been a problem with MEDLINE on CD-ROM because it is necessary to have very current information in the medical field. The REFERENCE UPDATE database citations normally appear on a floppy diskette within a few days of publication and is mailed out weekly. Now, this information is added to our CD-ROM database monthly to provide the most current version of MEDLINE available on the market today. At this moment, only the biblio-graphic information is available from REFERENCE UPDATE but we hope to have the abstracts soon. Also included are citations from nearly 200 journals not scanned by NLM form Medline, making it possible to keep in touch with related fields, such as biochemistry and biotechnology.

Another breakthrough from Compact Cambridge is the use of an ONLINE CONNEC-TION to the CD-ROM. The search software allows CD-ROM users to go online to obtain the most recent data from the NLM MEDLARS database and then simply return to the CD-ROM. In a few easy steps, one can search the CD for information, get the connection to the online host, automatically execute the search and then return to the CD software. ONLINE CON-NECTION also allows access to other important databases in the NLM MEDLARS system such as TOXLINE and AIDSLINE. It is easy as well as economical because one can develop and refine the search strategy in the CD-ROM format before switching to online. Therefore the costly online time can be used with the maximum efficiency.

In conclusion, Compact Cambridge is a key producer of MEDLINE on CD-ROM. The new features, such as REFERENCE UPDATE and ONLINE CONNECTION, allow users access to the most up to date and easy to use medical database available on the market today.

BEILSTEIN CURRENT FACTS IN CHEMISTRY ON CD-ROM

Monika Schrimpf

Deptartment New Media/Handbooks
Springer-Verlag
Heidelberg, Germany

Keywords: Beilstein, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, CD-ROM, Electronic Publishing.

Beilstein Current Facts in Chemistry on CD-ROM is a CD-ROM Series, beginning 1990.

On each CD-ROM you will find topical information on organic chemistry. At the Beilstein Institute structures, data and facts are excerpted from the more than 80 leading journals and published quarterly on a CD-ROM. The excerption of the data and the production of the CD-ROM takes only 5 months. Thus topical information is ready for your perusal within a very short period of time. Current Facts offers 300,000 structures and corresponding data, reac-tions, preparations, chemical and physical properties. Stereo-selective structure searching and complex factual searches are possible.

Search Options: Compounds can be searched via their structures and according to chemi-cal and physical facts. For each compound there are various identification data. Citation data can be searched as well.