By JOSH JACOBS
Courier Staff Writer
The latest periodicals you need
are now just a few key strokes away,
and you wonft have to wait in long
lines or worry about missing pages.
The newest addition to the
library's academic index is "Academic ASAP," a periodical file on
CD-ROM which contains the full
text of 220 magazines^ including
Time and NewsweeKTThe collec-
tion is available from all 30 computer stations iriSide the library, and
allows students to print the full text
from articles. Currently, students
can print the text at no charge only
from the computers in the library
which are attached to dot matrix
printers. A small fee will be charged
when a higher quality laser printer
will be accessible. Alternatively,
students can download the text to
their diskette, also at no charge.
* | ';. ■
"This system provides fast access
to information, and will benefit all
students, including the inexperienced
ones," said Joanne Kim, acquisitions librarian. She said more titles
are more accessible now than ever
before.
"Our goal is to make PCC students, library infprmation literate,"
so they will know how to use information to get ahead in life.
, Kin^ said that because* the CD%
ROM system provides the complete
text but not the pictures, the school
still subscribes to some .of the most
popular and best illustrated magazines. The new service, updated
monthly, provides issues published
in the last three years. Older articles
are kept on microfilm or microfiche.
Subscription to the service cost
$5,000 annually. It is provided by
Information Access, the same company that provides indexing services,
for another $4,500 a year. Kim said
JFWfc^fo## *
that the library could afford the system thanks to a grant from the Associated Students' Fund and donations
from the PCC Foundation. The foundation is donating $52,000 for five
years to the library for book purchase.
"Thanks to these generous donation, we were able to buy this system, together with a lot more books,"
Kim said She added that the school
has also applied for^a$ IU-million
grant from the State wMcK*will alr**|
low the Shatford Library to drastically improve the quality of the services it offers. However, Kim said
that the chances of getting that grant
are "very slim."
The new system was loaded with
the supervision of Bob Cody, assistant dean of instructional computer
services.
"This makes research much
easier, and students really get to see ;
the complete text of an analysis,"
Cody said. He will also help load the
new files to the library.
To improve the quality of the
services it offers, a survey will soon
be conducted to identify those areas
where improvements are needed,
Kim said.
"We hope a lot of students participate. They come here to learn,
and we want to help them out," Kim
added.
