The SARDIUS experience

SARDIUS is an acronym for Southern African Research Documentation Information User Service. After compiling several bibliographies at Jan Smuts House Library and publishing a bibliographical journal for some years, a database on CDROM seemed the next logical step. Several factors were favourable towards such a move, for instance a sound stock of bibliographical material on Southern Africa, uniformity in style of already published hardcopy bibliographies and a thesaurus, tailormade for our requirements. However, constraints such as lack of money and technical expertise were delaying progress. When the necessary funds were obtained through a grant from the European Union, the publication of SARDIUS became a reality. The first edition of SARDIUS, published in May 1994 and updated in March 1995, comprises approximately 50 000 records on both the Southern African region as a whole and the eleven individual countries — Angola, Botswana, Losotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The focus is on economic, political and social issues, and the database is intended for academics, researchers, students, librarians, policy makers and all those requiring information on the region. Information is derived from the SAIIA's Bibliographical Series, of which 28 volumes have been published; the SA Update, a Bibliographical Journal, now in its eleventh year; and an ongoing indexing service at Jan Smuts House Library. SARDIUS has been compiled with the aim of providing instant information to references on the Southern African region. Searches are conducted on either authors, keywords from the thesaurus; date or text, singly or in combination. Teething problems do occur but are being eliminated. However, these problems are overshadowed by SARDIUS' considerable advantages: obtaining accurate information instantly, its dynamism and ease of use.