Electronic source searches -Reply Wm. E. Campbell 05 May 1994 15:08 EST
re: Michael Ludwick's question on electronic searches We have used IRIS, SPIN, and The Grants Adviser for electronic searches. We started with IRIS. It is a relatively friendly program, easy to use, has many grant sources in its database (over 7,000, if I remember correctly). However, it's a little clunky. It was invented many years ago to fit the technology of the time. One first looks up keywords in a large paper list of keywords (they call it a thesaurus); then checks the hierarchy of keywords in a another long list (so that researchers interested in frogs will also get information on reptiles and animals, for instance); then enters a list of numbers onto the screen. The result is a printout of possibilities; one can either download it, print it from the screen, or have the IRIS folks in Illinois print it and mail it to you. The biggest disadvantage is of IRIS is that it does not allow Boolean searches. That is, we cannot tell it to search for sources which support x and y and z. We can only ask it for sources which will support x, sources which will support y, and sources which will support z. We recently conducted a search for a very specific and narrow chemistry project, for instance. Under IRIS we could only search for sources which fund physical sciences, chemistry, physical chemistry, mixed-phase chemistry, or surface chemistry. As you might imagine, there were many sources! We frequently get printouts from IRIS searches of more than 100 pages. Someone has to wade through them and pick out the few which might bear fruit--a very time-consuming task. SPIN, on the other hand, will perform Boolean searches. We can ask it to search for sources which support x and y and z; it prints out the few which meet all of the listed criteria. In other words, the program does all of the wading--saves lots of time. It also lists keywords on the screen; we need not page through a printed thesaurus. In short, SPIN makes better use of the available technology. I believe it has approximately the same number of grant sources as IRIS. We subscribed to The Grants Adviser-PC for a year, but found it unhelpful. So unhelpful that I can't remember much about it. I like their newsletter though, and still take it. TGA also sells an electronic CFDA on disk--that is very helpful. One can search it for whatever one wants. I have a query for the net: are there any wonderful databases (or resources of any kind) on CD-ROM? I've been waiting for the 'killer app'--the program I absolutely have to have--on CD-ROM so that I can buy a CD-ROM drive. Anybody know of one? Wm. E. Campbell Director, Grants & Research UW-River Falls xxxxxx@uwrf.edu