I agree with all that Michael has written about SPIN.  I would like to
add that Infoed, the company that manages SPIN has been wonderful to work
with.  There were many instances, while using the program, that I and my
colleage thought "it would be nice if the program would..." , we would
make the suggestion and viola, it would be in the next update.  SPIN is
very user friendly and Infoed is very much tuned in to the needs of its
clientele.

==============================================================================

Susan Rausch                                    Phone:  (501) 575-3845
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs         Fax:  (501) 575-3846
University of Arkansas
120 Ozark Hall
Fayetteville, AR  72701                 E-mail: xxxxxx@comp.uark.edu

==============================================================================

On Fri, 2 Jun 1995, Michael Ludwick wrote:

> 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
>
>
> **********************************************************************
>
>                                                     {=>
>  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                 |_____________=====_____________|
>
> **********************************************************************
>