Nobel Laureate Sir John Kendrew supervised the compilation of this fine encyclopedia with over eight hundred illustrations and hundreds of articles covering every aspect of molecular biology. The introductory articles of less than one hundred words offer short definitions that are then cross referenced to more comprehensive entries of one thousand to three thousand words offering in‐depth explanations. There are over 5500 signed articles, good bibliographies, multitudes of cross references and hypertext references. In fact, there are so many hypertext references, it is difficult to read a complete article without wanting to click on a hypertext link to see where it leads. You have to discipline yourself to finish one thing before going on to explore another.
The encyclopedia appears to be complete and comprehensive up to the publication date (1995) though this field moves very rapidly. The encyclopedia is aimed at the student and professional in the field of molecular biology, though it can be useful for the informed layperson who needs information in this field.
This is the CD‐ROM counterpart to the paper copy. It contains all the information in the paper encyclopedia with the added value of hypertext and search software as well as a notepad feature which allows you to add other documents and personal notes to the encyclopedia.
The software offers a choice of several search options. They include choosing from a list of topics (long or short entries) as well as full text searching of your choice of all topics, long topics, short topics, and current topic only. Truncation is allowed with an asterisk. Boolean search operators AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT are supported and can specify the degree of “nearness,” i.e., you can specify within how many words the search terms must appear. Complex phrase searching uses parentheses and quotation marks.
The search engine performs quickly and efficiently. Even a full text search of “DNA” that returned nearly 900 entries was finished nearly instantly. After recently sitting through some long search sessions on the Internet, it was a pleasure to work with something that replied so swiftly. Using the hypertext connections and pulling up the articles, tables, and figures is also quick and easy. After spending so much frustrating time on the Internet, I had nearly forgotten what a pleasure it can be to search a database that is available locally.
Each article is filled with hypertext references including figures and tables. A “back” button would be a nice feature in this software. It’s easy to get lost after following a long list of hypertext references and so many hypertext applications incorporate the “back” button feature that I found it unusual that it was missing. There is a “history” on the menu option that serves much the same purpose; but I still miss the ease and simplicity of the “back” button. The “back” button is used in the “About the Encyclopedia” section of the disc that includes the preface and introduction to the work. A “back” button feature would be particularly nice for the return trip to the article after calling up a figure or table. Instead, you have to close or minimize these to get back to the article.
The minimum PC requirements are 5 MB free hard disk space, 4 MB RAM, a 386DX 33MHz processor, Windows 3.1 (compatible with Windows 95), DOS 5.0, and a VGA monitor. Setup and installation are quick and easy. The user interface is simple and uncluttered, easy to understand and powerful
The software permits printing and exporting to disk. You can print or download an entire article at the click of a button. To print only a part of an article, you must select the portion you want, copy it to the clipboard, and then print from the clipboard or paste the selection into a word processor. This can be a bit awkward and time‐consuming if you want to print or download several selections. It is much easier to simply choose to print or download the whole article.
In addition to downloading from the disk, you can also add annotations that remain on your hard drive and are linked to the article you chose to annotate. For a personal copy of the encyclopedia, this is an excellent feature, but in a library setting this is just one more security problem if you want to make the encyclopedia available on a public access computer. I would like to see an option to make this feature unavailable. A short documentation booklet is included that contains clear and easy instructions for setup and use. There is no toll‐free support line; but you can email the support desk. The support desk is in the UK so for those of us outside the UK, email is probably the cheapest support solution. However, you must remember to register the software. According to the documentation, you will only receive support if you have registered using the appropriate registration certificate.
No online help is available though there is a “hints” screen with examples for searching using the various Boolean operators. Though frankly, I usually find help screens less than helpful, it would be a nice thought to put in a short and searchable help section if only as a backup to the documentation booklet.
I did wish for a help screen at one point. The web page advertisement for the CD‐ROM (http://wwwdnt.blacksci.co.uk:4711/products/books/3734.htm) makes reference to “a Bookmark feature [that] allows you to return to any point on the CD‐ROM whenever you wish.” This feature doesn’t seem to be in the documentation or on the CD‐ROM, though without a help screen, I was not able to easily search for information about it. I emailed technical support about this question but I never received an answer. (I hadn’t registered yet, so perhaps that is why.)
This CD‐ROM encyclopedia is well worth the price. Highly recommended for academic libraries and special libraries in the field of molecular biology and related disciplines such as medicine.
