Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!holleran
From: holleran@Apple.COM (Patrick Holleran)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Remote database services ???
Message-ID: <34890@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 89 18:04:25 GMT
References: <8079@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 39

In article <8079@oregon.uoregon.edu> dsmith@oregon.uoregon.edu (Dale Smith) writes:
>This is certainly not the right forum to pose these questions, but I can
>think of no better one.
>
>I have been doing a lot of thinking about Internet services that would
>attract more interest of the general researcher.  Right now, the most
>useful service provided by the Internet to the general researcher seems
>to be electronic mail for communication amoung colleagues.  A distant
>second and third would seem to be supercomputer access and ftp to obtain
>software.
>
>One service I can think of that would generate a lot of interest amoung
>researchers here at the University of Oregon (and, I suppose, other
>sites as well) would be access to remote database services.  I am
>thinking of pay-for data base services such as BRS, DIALOG, and STN that
>provide access to hundreds of diverse databases, including Chem
>Abstracts, Nuclear Science Abstracts, Biosis Previews, Medline, Geobase,
>Socialogical Abstracts, and Water Resources Abstracts to name a few. 
>
> (more stuff here)...
>
>The key in my mind seems to be that these are commercial services (even
>though some claim to be non-profit) and if they were connected in some
>manner to the Internet, then we would be using the Internet to promote
>selected firms.  However, in the long run it seems that it would save
>everyone money and provide another carrot in the Internet basket to
>recruit new sites.
>

     Dissemination of scholarly information quite often involves
commercial enterprises--for instance, subscriptions to journals are
not free.  I see no reason why access to databases which involve a
subscription fee ought to be prohibited on NSFNet of the Internet.
There definitely needs to be more useful resources to researchers
in a variety of disciplines accessible via national networks.

               Pat Holleran
               Apple Computer, Inc.
               holleran@apple.com