The number of worldwide CD-ROM titles in print continues growing rapidly, almost doubling each year. If the present trend continues, we would expect about 5,000 titles to be available by mid-1993. This will still not quite match the number of online database titles available, but can be expected to surpass these sometime towards the end of 1993 (Nicholls, 1993).

In Mexico, the CD-ROM titles produced since 1987 continues to grow rapidly too, and the Mexican CD-ROM market, including local and foreign titles sold, has grown steadily. Online industry and services, on the other hand, is alive (Levison and Reynel Iglesias, 1993) and has a promising future.

2. ONLINE INDUSTRY AND SERVICES IN MEXICO

The main Mexican online users can be grouped, in order of importance, in the following sec-tors: financial, private, academic and research, government, individuals, and others. The financial group members usually have accounts for direct connect to the provider host. Almost all the other online service users make its connections through SECOBI, the Information Banks Consulting Service, established in 1976 by CONACYT, the National Council of Science and Technology.

Online Financial Information In Mexico

American and European firms with online and CD-ROM products have not ignored the growth of the Mexican market. The first to arrive were the sellers of real-time financial data. Telerate and Reuters currently lead the market (Reynel Iglesias, 1992c).

Telerate Financial Information Services is the Mexican representative of the Dow Jones subsi-diary, Telerate Systems. The service offers subscribers up to 40,000 pages of real-time news and financial information covering areas such as currencies, precious metals, commodities, and stock indexes and economic indicators. Data can be delivered to clients via a direct satellite link from New York or relayed to Mexico City and transmitted to the users by a special radio frequency signal. Telerate has about 50 percent of the overall market in Mexico and 70 percent in banks and brokerage houses. In 1992 revenues were over $360,000 ( Reynel Iglesias, 1992c).

Reuters provides 24-hours news and financial information covering currencies, stocks, bonds, raw materials and fuels. Information arrives to Mexico via satellite link from New York or dedicated phone line.

On the other hand, INFOSEL, Selective Information, a company created by the publishers of the influential newspaper El Norte in 1985, with offices in the Mexican cities of Monterrey, Guada-lajara, Puebla, Tijuana, Hermosillo and Mexico City, provides national news, statistics and real-time financial data to over 1,000 subscribers via satellite. Subscribers, who pay $600 a month for the service, are investors in the Mexican stock market, corporate treasures and executives in banks and financial institutions. The system is menu-driven and works with any PC running Windows. A current awareness service is also available.

Online With SECOBI

The SECOBI is a key institution in Mexico's online services. SECOBI acts as a "super service," or overall gateway to the major national and international online databases. SECOBI has contracts with DIALOG, BRS, ORBIT, DRI, Telesystemes Questel and ESA-IRS. Most Mexican online searchers do not have individual accounts with these services -they connect through SECOBI. This was vital for the growth of online in Mexico. It lowered the "up- front" costs for financially strapped universities and businesses and allowed them to pay in pesos rather than dollars. Since foreign exchange was frequently scarce and expensive during the 1980's, most online searching of U.S. and European systems would have come to a screeching halt for several years without SECOBI's intervention. SECOBI have near 390 "terminal" users, of which 39% are from the private sector, 34% academic and research, 15% governmental, 10% individuals, and 2% others. Moreover, SECOBI attends 10 "desk" users a day on average. Usually, SECOBI connects foreign databases through INTERNET or TELEPAC, a Mexican packet- switching network ( Reynel Iglesias, 1991).

DIALOG is now represented in Mexico by the firm Asesores Especializados en Informacion y Documentacion (AEID), which has offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. AEID provides training sessions and customer support for existing users as well as seeking new sales. BRS and ORBIT has recently begun to compete more aggressively in the Mexican market. It is represented by a Mexico City firm called Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica.

Key Mexican Online Databases

SECOBI also provides access to the major Mexican databases. Several of the most important are: SIE-BANXICO (time series from the Bank of Mexico), SECOFI-NOM (citations to official Mexican standards), BANAPA (patent index), UNAM/JURE (citations and the full text of Mexican federal and state governments legislation), BIBLAT (index to papers worldwide published by Latin American authors), PERIODICA (index to scientific and technological literature published in Latin America's journals), CLASE (index to sociological and humanistic literature published in Latin America's journals), and MEXINV (index to researches and researchers in Mexico).

Getting Online To Mexico

Accessing Mexican databases often requires a hacker's tenacity to navigate the hurdles that must be overcome to search Mexican sources online. First, it is necessary to select the packet-switching networks to get data to and from Mexico. Until recently there was little choice on the Mexican side of the border. The Mexican telephone company's packet switching network, TELE-PAC had a monopoly. It was only necessary to arrange the cross-border connection with a U.S. telecommunications company and set up a TELEPAC account with the Mexican Secretaria de Comu-nicaciones y Transportes. Today several packet-switching networks are competing to provide data services in Mexico. The number of options that must be considered is substantially greater.

Second, it is necessary to master the database search language used on SECOBI databases. The system, known as MINISIS or Mini-Micro CDS/ISIS is a down-sized version of the CDS/ISIS database retrieval program used on Hewlett Packard minicomputers. It was developed and distri-buted by UNESCO's Library Division in 1985.

There are several search intermediaries and brokers in Mexico. They are oriented toward providing services inside the country, however, rather than operating internationally. The National University (UNAM), the National Politechnic Institute (IPN) and several other universities have information centers that provide search assistance to their faculty and students. Specialized informa-tion retrieval services also do online searching for particular professions or industries. The National Center for Health Information and Documentation (CENIDS) serves Mexican doctors and the medical community (Reynel Iglesias, 1992b).

Infoconsultores, S.C., the publisher of INFORMATION Magazine, provides a variety of services for American firms and information professionals through offices in Mexico City and Atlanta. These include information brokerages, referral and matchmaking services for U.S. firms, and export of Mexican CD- ROMS's.

3. MEXICAN CD-ROM INDUSTRY AND MARKET

In 1987 the first Mexican CD-ROM title was produced. Since then, near 80 databases have been produced up to now. There are about 3,000 installed CD-ROM drives, and total sales, includ-ing local and foreign discs, reach the US $3,000.

Mexican Databases On CD-ROM

A key player in the production of Mexican databases on CD- ROM is the State University of Colima (Reynel Iglesias, 1992b). In 1989 the University's library development office received a grant to set up a facility to produce CD-ROM versions of databases held at institutions around the country. They have produced 23 CD-ROMs, some of the most important are: DIALEX (Index to Mexican Legal Dispositions), ARGENA (Index to the National Archive), JURISPRUDENCIA DE LA SUPREMA CORTE DE JUSTICIA DE LA NACION (Index of the Decisions and Working Documents of the Mexican Supreme Court), MUSEOS (art and culture), IRESIE (education), BANCOS BIBLIOGRAFICOS MEXICANOS I & II (collections of about 30 databases ranging from biology and medicine to literature). Moreover, they are producing 12 titles more, next to be published.

The University of Colima is not the only producer of CD- ROMs, however. The Center for Humanitic and Scientific Investigation (CICH) also makes available its databases BIBLAT, CLASE, PERIODICA, and MEXINV, along with several others, on a single CD-ROM. Another CD-ROM product with particular application to business is IBCON. This is the electronic version of a series of print catalogs and directories produced and sold by a private company. The disc includes direc-tories of government functionaries, large importers, large exporters, volume purchasers and infor-mation centers. A significant resource is CDPRESS, a quarterly collections of news stories culled from over 50 Mexican newspapers. Records include the full text of all articles, and text can be searched as well as displayed. Discs containing back-files for 1991 and summaries or articles from 1987-1991 are also available.

The Mexican CD-ROM market is already in high gear. The forecasted sales for 1992 were 1,000 databases to be bought by 190 institutions; however, surprisingly the sales almost doubled that forecast (Olea, 1993). CD-ROMs in Mexico are distributed and sold by a group of specialized companies that also obtain books and periodicals for Mexican universities and corporate libraries. Two of the most important CD-ROM distributors are NyE Omicron and Difusion Cientifica. A real battle is in CD-ROM market. Sales have grown explosively and substantial room remains, how-ever, for further growth. The main foreign CD-ROM companies competing in the Mexican market are DIALOG OnDisc and Siver Platter. The 1992 Silver Platter sales in Mexico were US $459,700, and they hope to double it for 1993. There are many opportunities for U.S. CD-ROM producers, especially for those who forge alliances with Mexican partners who can guide them in the market.

Online And CD-ROM Community In Mexico

In the United States, users of online services form a genuine community, one held together by periodic training sessions, annual online and CD-ROM meetings, publications like ONLINE and DATABASE, and by special interest groups that meet as part of larger associations like the ALA or through online forums like PACS-L.

In Mexico this infrastructure is conforming. There are very few of the sources of support existing in the U.S. The largest single group of online and CD-ROM users in Mexico are university librarians. The major library organizations, however, like AMBAC (the Mexican Library Associa-tion) and ABIESI (Association of Librarians in Universities and Research Institutions) do not have any organized groups or programs dedicated to online searching.

There is only one publication in Mexico specifically aimed to the information professional, INFORMACION, published in Mexico City. Last march was carried out the first Online Meeting sponsored by UNAM (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Learned Information Inc., hopefully to be held annually. Currently exist a CD-ROM Conference, organized annually by the firm Difusion Cientifica, which is now in its fourth year.

Aside from DIALOG sessions, training programs available for online searchers are those offered by SECOBI. These provide instruction on search techniques for national and foreing databases and also on the use of the SECOBI system itself.

The community is moving. SECOBI, by example, has announced four strategic policies for online and CD-ROM development: a) reinforce and enrich online services, b) publish new CD-ROM titles, c) support a National Databases Comitee, and d) enhance the academic data networks in Mexico.(Reynel Iglesias, 1993).

4. TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE ONLINE FUTURE IN MEXICO

The key for the development of Mexico's online industry and services is the modernization program of the telecommunication system now underway, largely based on the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, USA and Canada, hopefully to be applied next year. An important component of the agreement is a unique chapter on telecommunication services and standards, as well as generic provisions throughout the agreement that will have an impact on telecommunication trade.

The underlying telecommunications objective of NAFTA was to liberalize trade in services and equipment to the greatest extent possible among the three nations, and in so doing provide a reliable tool that all sectors could use as a vehicle to do business more effectively. Negotiations focused on the provision of value-added network (VAN) services and use of leased lines for intra-corporate communications. Basic telecommunications, in contrast, had only recently begun to be considered as a subject for trade debate, albeit a very politically sensitive one.(Shefrin, 1993).

Certain of NAFTA's provisions will have an immediate impact on the structure of Mexico's market and North American telecommunications in general. In particular, the lifting of investment restrictions on the provision of telecommunication services will spur US-based firm to invest new resources in Mexico's VAN data services market, estimated to grow to $100 million by 1995. A regulatory process invigorated by NAFTA will help put Mexico in place as a prime contender for corporations needing a telecommunications hub in Latin America. While no such hub now exists, as most international transmission facilities run east-west across the high-volume Atlantic route, the situation is clearly changing as North American carriers compete for fast- growing Latin American traffic.

Telmex owns shares in the aptly named Columbus II Trans-Atlantic submarine fibre-optic cable linking Mexico with the USA, South America and Europe. The project, scheduled for com-pletion by late 1994, will place Mexico in strong contention for Latina American hub traffic. The Solidaridad satellite system will provide Mexico with significant cross-border communications capabilities. And a highly digitized Telmex network and ISDN capability, coupled with the freedom to build and operate private networks on the most efficient terms available, will combine to make Mexico a very attractive place for companies to locate their telecommunications operations for the hemisphere and Latin America.

As such, market an technologies forces are likely to move the countries of Latin America towards policy reform much more quickly than political pressure to negotiate a regional NAFTA- like telecommunications agreement. The agreement would create a diverse, transparent network of high-speed data services across Latin and North America, greatly facilitating the conduct of business and enhancing economic prospects for the entire region.

In this context, online industry and services have a promising future for Mexico, as well as for the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions are:

Levison, A. and Reynel Iglesias, H., "The Online Industry In Mexico," Online, May 1993, pp.116-119.

Nicholls, P.T. CD-ROM Buyer's Guide & Handbook. Eight Books, 1993.

Olea, M., "El Impacto del CD-ROM en el Mundo y las Experiencias en Mexico y America Latina," INFORMACION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 3 (1): 8-14 (1993).

Reynel Iglesias, H., "El Centro Nacional de Informacion y Documentacion en Salud," INFORMA-CION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 2 (2): 28-29 (1992). [1992b]

Reynel Iglesias, H., "El Servicios de Consulta a Bancos de Informacion (SECOBI) del CONACYT: Cuatro Movimientos Estrategicos para su Desarrollo," Interview to Sergio Flores Flores, Director of Information and Sistems (CONACYT), INFORMACION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 3 (1): 35-38 (1993).

Reynel Iglesias, H., "La Red Publica de Transmision de Datos TELEPAC," INFORMACION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 1 (1): 17-21 (1991).

Reynel Iglesias, H., "Servicios de Informacion Financiera en Tiempo Real," INFORMACION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 2 (4): 26-28 (1992). [1992c]

Reynel Iglesias, H., "Automatizacion de Bibliotecas: Aportaciones de la Universidad de Colima," INFORMACION: Produccion, Comunicacion y Servicios, 2 (1): 30-33 (1992). [1992a]

Shefrin, I.H., "The North American Free Trade Agreement: Telecommunications in perspective," Telecommunications Policy, Janu/Feb 1993, pp.14-26.