System requirements: IBM PC or compatible computer (386 or above preferable); 4 MB of RAM for Windows 3.1, 8 MB of RAM for Windows 95; CD‐ROM drive, drivers, and MS‐DOS CD‐ROM extensions version 2.0 or greater.
G.K Hall’s Women’s Studies on Disc is an electronic version of their print Women’s Studies Index, which indexes over 125 general and scholarly women’s magazines and periodicals. The CD‐ROM extends back to 1988. It also includes electronic versions of the following:
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1An Index to Women’s Studies Anthologies, Research across the Disciplines, compiled by Sara Brownmiller and Ruth Dickstein, which indexes the tables of contents of approximately 1,200 anthologies published between 1980 and 1989, including collected essays, proceedings, and primary research.
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2Women’s Periodicals and Newspapers from the 18th Century to 1981, edited by James P. Danky, with archival information on nearly 1,500 titles received in the Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and other libraries in the greater Madison (Wis.) area.
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3Barbara Ryan’s The Women’s Movement References and Resources, an annotated bibliography of some 1,200 basic reference sources on the women’s movement from 1848 to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 (published in 1996).
The periodical titles indexed by this product are an eclectic mix, ranging from general magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook to scholarly titles such as Signs and Women’s History Review. Currently there are at least three other subscription women’s studies electronic resources available: Women’s Resources International (WRI), which indexes primarily scholarly journals and includes Women’s Studies Abstracts, and Gender Watch and Contemporary Women’s Issues, both full‐text databases. For scholarly material, Women’s Resources International indexes more journals than Women’s Studies on Disc.
The majority of periodical titles not in WRI are for general women’s magazines, which are already well‐covered by indexes like Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature. The inclusion of Brownmiller & Dickstein is a plus, since using these in print can be somewhat time consuming and very few products index anthologies (although KVINSAMM, produced by the Women’s History Collections Dept at Gothenburg University Library, does index chapters of books as well as periodical articles, and is currently free http//www.libris.kb.se/english/special.database.DAKS.html). The inclusion of the other resources is nice but not extraordinarily useful. Most collections interested in purchasing Women’s Studies on Disc will probably already own the monographic titles.
Women’s Studies on Disc provides the standard searchable indexes: Name (searches both author and person as a subject), Title, Subject, as well as Date, Material Type, Source, Data Source, and two fields specific to Danky’s Women’s Periodicals and Newspapers from the 18th Century to 1981.
The software’s default is to search all the databases; but one can limit to a specific database by combining a search on the Data Source index field with another search. The keyword search (the default search) is called an Anyword search, which searches the entire record, including abstracts when available. Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT may be used, as well as operators useful for date searching, such as < (is before) and > (is after) and THRU (used to specify a range with beginning and ending terms). The user can combine words in the Search Command Window or combine sets after searching various words. The software provides powerful truncation: left as well as right truncation, and also middle‐of‐ the‐word truncation. One can truncate for both a single character and for multiple characters.
Trying to narrow a search using the index fields is a multi‐step procedure. The user clicks on View Indexes which retrieves a box with a pull‐down menu, then selects the desired index, types the beginning of the term, and either highlights the appropriate term and clicks on the Add to Cmd button to add the term to the Search Command Window, or double‐clicks on the desired term. Finally the user clicks on Search, which performs the search and adds the results to the History Window. The user can then click the Display button or choose the Add to Cmd button to combine with another search.
The Anyword option retrieves the best results. Limiting to the Subject field omits too many likely titles (the application of subject headings is neither as extensive, nor as consistent, as most librarians would like). An example is a query for information about dowries in India. “India and dowry” as a subject‐specific search yields only one result ‐ but as an Anyword search, it retrieves 11, many with likely titles, such as “Attitudes of Youth towards Marriage, Partner Selection and Dowry” and “Dowry, Bride‐Burning, and Female Power in India.” Also, a subject specific search is a subject phrase search, not a subject word search. Combining two separate subject searches, one for Dowry and the other for India, does not retrieve records with the subject heading Dowry‐India.
Online help is available, as well as a paper Technical Reference brochure, which explains installation (very easy and simple) and provides information on how to search, display, print, and export. There is also a toll‐free technical support number.
For libraries that already have a good index for scholarly women’s studies journals, Women’s Studies on Disc does not provide enough different titles or adequate indexing to make it a worthwhile purchase. For collections looking for a resource that brings together, in one place, a variety of material, both general and scholarly periodicals as well as essays in anthologies and book/periodical literature about the women’s movement, this is a possible resource, recommended with reservations.
