Multisensory Public Access Catalogs on CD‐ROM

The capabilities of CD‐ROM‐based public access catalogs are evolving very rapidly. It is now possible to add sound and graphics to create a multi‐sensory interface between the catalog and user. The incorporation of artificial intelligence techniques also increases the precision with which the catalog can be searched. Users of the Intelligent Catalog will be able to locate resources even if they do not know how to conduct a search or describe their specific needs. CD‐ROM catalogs now can be updated frequently, and inexpensively, by linking hard disk (magnetic) drives to CD‐ROM optical drives; the retrieval of information from either or both drives will be transparent to the users.