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Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 23:30:28 -0700 (PDT) From: "Steve K. Grant" <sgrant@eis.calstate.edu> Subject: We need _both_ mmedia _&_ text-only CD-ROMs To: lm_net@suvm.syr.edu To anyone interested: Robin Gardella posted a request for personal evaluations of CD-ROM encyclopedias other than Information Finder, specifying that ("for now") she(he?) was only considering non-multimedia, since the encyclopedia is made available over a network. This prompted me to consider the following: While hardware and software advances are now making multimedia over a network possible, my impression is that--since it's still pretty cutting-edge technology--it is not yet exactly "plug-'n'-play" easy to implement successfully, and it requires hardware most of us don't have and can't afford to go out and buy (100 megabit-per-second Ethernet cards, for one...though I may well be wrong about this.) And while multimedia over the Internet is _possible_ (Mosaic supports sound and photos, I know...I'm not sure about video), my understanding is that one has to access the net over either a LAN connected directly to an Internet node (no modems in the link), or over an ISDN-type phone line (which requires not only the line--which phone companies are scrambling to provide, usually at a price, though Pac Bell in So. California will install one to a school for free with one year free use; after that, you pay.) And multimedia is threatening to overload the bandwidth the Internet currently makes available. But I digress (as usual.) It seems to me that providers of CD-ROM-based information sources likely to be used in a school library media center setting for research should consider making those sources available in _both_ multimedia _and_ text-and-graphics-only formats. Even if we're fortunate enough to have workstations for patrons which are all '386 or '486-class (or multimedia-capable Macs)--and a CD-ROM server ("tower") which allows multiple simultaneous access of CDs, chances are we don't have (and won't have for some time) network hardware which can handle delivering full-motion video and sound to those workstations simultaneously. Developing a separate text-and-graphics-only version of a program would undoubtedly incur additional development costs, which would drive up the price of the program. But as more and more LMCs (not to mention public and college/university libraries) acquire CD-ROM servers and network their CD-ROM-based information sources, perhaps there will be sufficient demand for alternative, "non-multimedia" versions of things like _Time Compact Almanac_ and electronic encyclopedias which contain the most up-to-date information. One more thing I'd like to see from CD-ROM programs that _do_ contain multimedia elements is the ability to save photo, sound clip, and video files to a diskette in some file format that would allow import into popular multimedia-presentation preparation applications. The National Geographic Picture Atlas of the World developers thought of this, in that the user can save a photo (and they're _beautiful_, Geographic-quality photos) or map to diskette. Only problem is, it saves them in a file format that is only importable into IBM's Linkway Live. If your school makes Linkway Live available to students (say, in a lab, or even on the same machine they use to explore Picture Atlas itself), then they're in business. But what if they're using different hardware or software to create their presentation (either at home or at school)? What's needed is a file format standard for all the major multimedia presentation preparation programs for photo graphics, sound, and video files. I know there are already a number of formats for each, and that many presentation programs include import capabilities for many of them, so the problem is probably not so much on the end of those presentation preparation program developers, but on the end of our CD-ROM research information program developers. A number of times I've had a student viewing/hearing a multimedia "item" relevant to his/her in-process report/project ask me, "Is there any way I can save this to use it in my report?" In every case (at least at my site), the answer is effectively "No." CD-ROM publishers...Are you listening? Steve Grant, Library Media Teacher La Jolla High School (619) 454-3081 x228 sgrant@ctp.org