Gilreath, 'Network Access to CD-ROM Databases', NCSU Libraries Newsletter v20n03 (October 1992)
 
_The NCSU Libraries Newsletter_
Volume 20 no. 3
October 1992
Gilreath, Charles L.
"Network Access to CD-ROM Databases"


In the past, access to the library's compact disc services 
required users to come into a library facility and conduct a 
search at one of the machines there.  During the fall semester, 
however, the Libraries began initial testing of a pilot service 
that makes two databases available on the campus network.  
The two databases, _Applied Science and Technology Index_ 
and a _McGraw-Hill Science and Technical Reference Set_, are 
mounted on equipment in the library that can be accessed by 
any terminal with X-windows and capable of communicating on 
the campus network.

Although these resources are potentially accessible by any 
user on the network, the equipment on which they will be 
mounted can accommodate only one user on the system at a 
time.  To reduce the frustration of users vying for access to 
the indexes, senior design students in the Department of 
Electrical and Computer Engineering worked with library staff 
through the year to implement a scheduling program that will 
enable users to reserve search time as much as two weeks in 
advance.

The usefulness of this project will be monitored as part of the 
library's efforts to make CD-ROM information more widely 
available to users.  If it is successful, the NCSU Libraries will 
investigate moving other databases into the network 
environment.