 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Online Information Services Major Keary |
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Finding information on the Web is not nearly as easy, or as likely to be successful, as users are led to expect. There are some significant reasons: one is that information of value is often like a needle in a haystack of trivia; another is that many Web publishers misuse metatags and employ other devices that will attract hits, but which leave users with a handful of nothing; a third reason is that much of the world's useful information is proprietary and usually exists in texts protected by copyright.
For those who can justify the cost there are subscription services that either provide access to information of a specific kind, or are search engines that return professional results. Sometimes those search engines take days to complete a task - like the Mills of God, they grind slow, but exceedingly fine.
Two significant online subscription services have recently appeared. One is a general reference service, and the other is computer-oriented. Both rely for their information on published texts, and both are dynamic in that they add new books and update existing ones when new versions are published.
Oxford Reference Online
In March 2002 Oxford University Press (OUP) launched Oxford Reference Online to provide access to one hundred OUP dictionaries and references covering topics that fall within the following categories: General Reference; Language; Science and Medicine; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Business and Professional. Furthermore, the knowledge base will be updated and expanded as new and revised dictionaries and references are published. A list of the dictionaries and references that presently make up the "library" can be viewed - or downloaded as a PDF file - at http://www.oxfordreference.com; there is also a "guided tour" that illustrates search options and results with real-life queries.
The cost of the Oxford service will vary according to client and usage. It is not designed for casual individuals (unless they are well heeled), but anyone with a professional need for access to such an online knowledge resource, and for whom time is money, should investigate this service.
The clients that will benefit most will include public libraries, corporate libraries, parliamentary researchers, government instrumentalities, law offices, newspapers, and educational institutions.
Oxford has been at the cutting edge of data storage and retrieval for a long time, employing the best compression systems for reliability and efficiency. In this instance a lengthy design process involved the participation of users in order to find the most suitable model for searchability, speed (there are over a million entries), and suitability to the needs of a variety of users. A search can be a simple match of a term, a boolean search, or can utilise other advanced features.
An example look-up is a search for future perfect; one of the online references is The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, which contains the following entry that is located and displayed by the search engine:
| Future perfect: Form of verb used of a future action or event, seen as prior to some moment of time which is itself still later in the future: thus, in Latin, venero 'I will have come' (will have come by, eg., the day after tomorrow) as opposed to the 'simple future' veniam 'I will come'. Thence, in English, of forms like will have come. |
Safari
Another comprehensive information retrieval service has been established as a joint venture between O'Reilly
and Pearson. Safari Tech Books Online is computer-centric. It includes texts from O'Reilly and the
Pearson Group and is designed to provide developers and system administrators with fast access to online
technical information. Safari is a substantial, and growing, resource of quality technical information that
should also interest anyone involved in computer science - either as a student or teacher - and the operation
of help desks. More than 600 leading titles are scheduled to come online, with new titles being offered in
conjunction with, or sometimes in advance of, their print publication date.
The Safari search engine is designed to save time by relevancy-ranking search results and making it easy to
view relevant titles, chapters, and sections quickly. The service also allows the user to bookmark, annotate,
and cut and paste code.
For enterprise subscribers the service can be integrated into an Intranet through a co-branded interface. It
is also available as a co-branded service for community sites and portals.
The cost is determined by a points system that enables users to either opt for full access or select a
limited range of titles for as little at US$10.00 per month. More information can be obtained from:
http://safari.oreilly.com,
http://safari.informit.com,
http://safari.informit.com/mainhlp.asp?help=faq
or
http://safari.oreilly.com/tablhlp.asp?help
These ventures suggest the likely future direction of traditional hard copy publishers, many of whom are
finding it necessary to seek new ways of delivering their product. Both services recognise the need for
certain markets to have ready access not only to published resources, but global search capabilities. The
sheer volume of the printed texts makes it impossible for anyone other than large libraries to acquire the
whole collection; the cost of storage and problems of access are other factors that make these services
attractive. Over and above those things, the collections in both the Oxford and Safari services are dynamic;
new and revised titles are being added all the time.
The cost of subscription may seem high -although Safari offers low rates for limited access - but one has to
consider the cost of setting up digital databases of such magnitude, the servers and related hardware, the
delivery mechanisms and software, and the cost of maintaining it all.
These services are important developments that deserve to be made widely known. You may not want - or not
have the wherewithal - to subscribe to either Oxford or Safari, but don't keep them a secret.
Reprinted from the June 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group,
Australia
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