Newsgroups: bit.listserv.medlib-l
Date:         Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:24:39 PDT
From:         "Bob Watters" <bwatters@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      CDS/ISIS

To:  Katherine Diaz, Information Specialist
From:  Ellen Watters
Date:  October 13, 1992

Your inquiry about CDS/ISIS came to me second hand from
PAUFLICK@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU who has been participating in the Medical
Libraries Discussion List.  I am not currently on the List myself.
(Your individual email address didn't come through on the message
I got, so I'm sending it to the List.)  You don't mention what your
interest is in ISIS or specifically what you want to know, but I am
delighted to find someone in the US of A who is interested.
I spent from 9/89-1/92 in Noumea, New Caledonia working with the
CDS/ISIS databases of the South Pacific Commission there.  When I
arrived none of the staff had mastered the program beyond data
entry.  Their only output was <print screen>.  A few months later
we hired a consultant for two weeks to help us become oriented to
the program.  In September 1990, my boss and I attend a workshop at
the University of the South Pacific conducted by Giampaolo del
Bigio from UNESCO who developed the program.
The program, at first glance, is not user friendly.  As its creator
is quick to state, "ISIS is for intelligent users."  It was
designed for use in developing countries and has been widely
adopted.  At the time of our workshop two years ago, Mr. del Bigio
estimated that there were 10,000 copies worldwide.  They have just
released version 3.0 for microcomputers which will now support a
network system.  The reason for its success is that it is flexible
and powerful.  It is flexible in that it may be adapted to any
number of languages.  (It comes in English, French and Spanish --
all in one.)  Since all database design work and formatting must be
set by the user, it can be adapted to any purpose; although its
primary reason for being is bibliographic.  It is powerful because
of its file structure.  Rather than searching the whole database
when a search is performed (like ProCite), it creates an inverted
file of terms chosen by the user through a formatted "field select
table".  Stopwords may be introduced as well.  Thus the search is
limited to the "meat" of the database speeding up the process
considerably.
A great deal is being written about ISIS now that users are forming
regional user groups, publishing newsletters, holding workshops and
sharing applications.  It is a regular feature in the UNISIST
Newsletter put out by UNESCO and the ASTINFO Newsletter : a UNESCO-
supported Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and
Experience in Science and Technology in Asia & the Pacific, which
carries the "MINI/MICRO CDS/ISIS Corner".  Alan Hopkinson ran a
very informative series of articles in 1990-91 in Information
Development News.
UNESCO has mostly divested itself of distributing CDS/ISIS and has
set up regional distributors.  To get a list of them, contact Mr.
del Bigio, CII/PGI, UNESCO, 7 place de Fontenoy, 75700, France.
Fax: 45 67 16 90.  I bought mine from Maureen Henninger,
Coordinator of Continuing Education, School of Information, Library
& Archive Studies, University of New South Wales, P. O. Box 1,
Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.  It cost AUS$100.00 (about
US$80.00.)  Since then, I have received version 3.0 for the price
of three diskettes.
I will mention that we received a sample of the WHO database on
ISIS (as are catalogs of most UN agencies) and mounted it on our
computer.  We were looking forward to receiving their holdings on
a regular basis at the time that I left New Caledonia.
At risk of making this too lengthy for an e-mail message, I'll stop
with my ID.  I'd be happy to answer in more detail any specific
questions you might have.
Ellen Watters, Globe Public Library, 339 S. Broad St., Globe, AZ
85502, (602) 425-6111; home: (602) 425.4789; internet address:
bwatters@igc.org.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU