Target: Information CDs

[MarjorieP@AOL.COM]

     I am very interested in the search engines in informational CD-ROMs.
 Recent efforts to acquire these have raised a concern.  Although the
electronic encyclopedia production companies seem to be competing for the
award of most unique and greatest number of options in their search engines,
a growing number of content specific CDs have been released with either no
search engine or one that is very limited.  I strongly suspect that the
producers see the home market as the most lucrative and are busily developing
informational CDs that are equivalent to coffee table books with no index.  I
am all in favor of giving young people opportunities to explore and discover
but at some point they must focus and gather information related to a
 specific topic. That is tough to do in a CD that has access only through hot
spots and buttons.
     I would be interested in your perceptions in this area.  Of the
information CD-ROMs that you have purchased over the past year, what
percentage would you estimate have a search engine that enables analytical
and hierarchical searches?
     Please reply to me directly and I will post a hit.
Marjorie Pappas
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls
319-273-2578
Email: marjoriep@aol.com