Using dBase III for self‐help information services

Small, specialized libraries are often unable to provide reference assistance at all hours the library is open. A means was sought to give MBA students guidance in locating standard kinds of management information at hours when librarians are not on duty. For this purpose, a self‐help program was written and installed on an IBM PC which allows users to access frequently‐used sources of information. The program is both a menu‐driven text generator and a database file written first in dBase II, later converted to dBase III+. The program provides the user a hierarchical series of menus from which options are selected to identify sources of specific information of a corporate nature, materials on reserve for class preparation, and items useful for career development. General information regarding the library is also included and serial holdings are now being added.