Minimum recommended hardware: 386 or better computer, Windows 3.1 or higher, DOS 3.1 or higher (DOS 5.0 or higher recommended), 4MB RAM (8MB recommended), 10MB hard drive space, CD‐ROM drive, with access time of no more than 350 milliseconds (unless double speed or faster), monochrome or color monitor, mouse, Microsoft CD‐ROM extensions.
The Code of Federal Regulations is also available for the Apple Macintosh. The review copy is Windows specific. Check with the publisher for Macintosh information.
To access this data via the Internet, the user must have an Internet connection and a Web browser. A user ID and password are also required.
Installation:
The Code of Federal Regulations uses the standard method for installation. This program uses the Folio 3.1 software which gives the option to run the program from the CD‐ROM, a network, or a hard drive. The program only requires 10 MB of disk space to run from a hard drive. The manual states that the databases themselves normally would run from the CD; but they can be loaded to the hard drive. Copying the infobases to the hard drive takes approximately 100 MB.
Content:
This product contains all fifty titles of the Code of Federal Regulations, the final rule documents from the Federal Register which modified the CFR, and the Folio software to search the databases (called infobases in this product). The data is updated monthly.
Search engine:
The Folio software searches the infobases in the CD‐ROM version. This provides a powerful search engine which should meet any searcher’s needs. The search engine supports the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT, plus exclusive OR. It also allows single and multiple character wildcards in addition to phrase searching. Ordered and unordered proximity searches can also be used. In addition there is a stem search which finds variations on a word, i.e., swear% finds swear, swore and swearing. There is also a synonym feature. These are only a few of the options the user has for searching the database. To list and explain them all would take this entire review.
The Internet version provides a more limited interface, which should be expected. Searchers can indicate whether the software should search any or all of the terms entered on a line. The user can also indicate whether the terms should be searched as an ordered or unordered phrase. Additionally, an indication can be given to instruct the software to search in all of a document or limit the search terms to the heading or body. The AND, OR, and AND NOT Boolean operators are also supported. One nice feature is that search terms are underlined in the results. However, I would like to see some indication of how many items matched my search. The only down side I found to using this interface as opposed to the CD‐ROM product is that the user can only search one title at a time. The CD‐ROM searches all of the titles unless the user limits the scope of the search.
Documentation:
The software comes with a very complete printed manual, extensive online help, and an online tutorial. The manual is specific to the CFR on CD‐ROM. The online tutorial and help facility are for the Folio software. There is no documentation for the Internet site as of this review; but it should be available by the time this review appears.
Evaluation:
While a user can install this program and start searching immediately, in order to take full advantage of the CD‐ROM package, some time will need to be spent with the manual, help file, and tutorial to be able to use all the capabilities of the software. Pay particular attention to how the screens are presented as I found this confusing. As a search is done, new screens are added. I got lost a number of times trying to move back and forth through what I had done. There are aids on the screen to ease this problem.
This program suffers from too much documentation. I believe this is a first. The manual is very thorough. The online help facility and the tutorial explain the capabilities of the search software in great detail. The user can become confused, however, when trying to figure out just which capabilities apply to this program. For instance, field searching is described in detail in the online help; but it is not enabled for the CFR. The online help explains the /paragraph and followed…by commands. There is no mention of this in the manual. I found a mention of a proximity operator in the online help but had to go to the printed manual for an explanation of how the operator worked. Since the Folio software has so many capabilities, I can understand how this can happen.
One advantage to using this resource over the paper manuals is that the latter have no index. Being able to search using a computer greatly enhances the user’s ability to find needed information.
Unfortunately, this product relies totally on full text searching. Every word of every document of every title is indexed. Experienced searchers are used to having a stop list. There is none here. Another problem is the lack of standardization of terminology. Searching for information on the disease AIDS brings up documents discussing finding aids, etc. This makes for a lot of clutter’ in the search results and slows the process of retrieving needed information. I could narrow the search by adding terms; but I wanted to find all the documents which dealt with this disease. The Internet site uses the same metaphor of full text searching.
To end on a positive note, I found the searching extremely fast and accurate. For this review, I ran the program entirely from the CD‐ROM and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the program identified documents containing the term(s) I entered. For individuals who need to refer to the CFR on a regular basis, this is an excellent choice. Users who only need limited access to this resource may wish to search using the Internet. The user will need to be familiar enough with each title in the CFR to make sure all necessary sections are searched since there is no cross title searching.
