After comparing SPIN and IRIS we recently chose SPIN.  I haven't seen
IRIS since we demoed it last year, but IRIS was not very user-
friendly.  You had to browse through a huge theasarus and enter codes
to run a search.  To get the results you had to go through an
elaborate ftp process.  Unless things have changed (and you should
check and see) SPIN is much easier to use.

We have subscribed to SPIN Micro, which is sent to us on disk and
loaded into a computer in our office.  With SPIN Micro we can do
very precise searching using limiting parameters such as deadline
date, award type, keyword, geographic restrictions, applicant type,
etc.  For campus-wide use, we also subscribed to SPIN Gopher.
Anyone on campus can access SPIN Gopher to search for grants, but
the search engine is not as powerful; boonlean searching is the best
you'll get.  But it allows your independent faculty members--you may
have a few of those :-) --to run searches on their own and then come
to you for more information.

We also have started using SPIN Micro to create a list of upcoming
deadlines for our newsletter.

SPIN's phone# is 1-800-727-6427.  Good luck with whatever you choose.

Mike

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 {=>
 Michael Ludwick                                    / \
 Associate Director of Sponsored Programs ___  __   |o|   __  ___
 Grants and Research Administration    ___| |__||___| |___||__| |___
 College of William and Mary          /                             \
 P.O. Box 8795                       /   # # # # #  /o\  # # # # #   \
 Williamsburg, VA  23187-8795        |   # # # # # / # \ # # # # #   |
 email: xxxxxx@grants.wm.edu           |   # # # # # |===| # # # # #   |
 phone: 804/221-3485                 |             | H |             |
 fax:   804/221-4910                 |_____________=====_____________|

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