Libros en Venta is published in the USA from a database compiled by Melcher Ediciones, a Puerto Rican company. Installation was easy and trouble free. The disc, in its seventh print edition, contains over 225,000 titles in print and over 23,000 recently out of print ones. AU types of literature are covered, and the publisher directory includes (as well as the usual name, address and telephone number) e‐mail and web addresses, names of distributors and sales outlets, though during my searches I only managed to find one mention of a supplier/distributor in England. Information is provided on material from the 20 Spanish speaking countries of the world, and Spanish language titles from 16 other non‐Spanish‐speaking countries.
As a non‐Spanish speaker I was initially rather daunted at having to try and review a CD of books in Spanish. But on viewing the disc I realized that, as with other discs produced by NISC, there were interfaces in other languages; in this case English was an option. As well as a language choice the disc has three levels of search: novice (blue screen), advanced (black screen) and expert (red screen). Novice level provides easy retrieval of information, with a simple screen layout and few fields; advanced is more versatile, allowing one to search each field separately, or in any combination. Expert is the most complex, but the most specific search method to operate. Revision and combination of previous searches is possible, and the search screen is differently presented from that of novice and advanced, with searching being done by search line, creating related searches which are then combined.
Another feature of this series of discs is the Autodex. As one types the Autodex appears, showing the nearest match. Words and phrases from the Autodex can be inserted into search statements, and one can use the index to find related terms and variants. The number of times a word or phrase has been indexed is listed as a hit. This may be useful in some searches, but it is only an indicator of quantity, not quality. Records can be searched for by 13 different criteria, and can be viewed in a number of formats, for example short bibliographic citation (full is available), MARC, catalogue card and full record. All can be downloaded or printed.
As one who is a relative novice at CD searching I found this disc comparatively easy to use. Screen help is clearly displayed and by reading the information one can proceed with a search and achieve results. I think that it would not be too difficult to become proficient at using this database with practise. The disc contains a large amount of information and costs £675 per annum which is not exorbitant when one looks at the cost of some printed materials. I found it extremely difficult to find any English addresses in the various listings and think, therefore, that it may prove difficult to obtain material mentioned. The database would find most use in a special (as opposed to a general and/or public) information service where there is a demand for Spanish literature, or possibly in a university library.
