INFORMATION-RETRIEVAL STRATEGIES IN MCGRAW-HILLS MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY

The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Mammalian Biology CD-ROM was published by McGraw-Hill in September 1992. It has been designed for use primari ly at undergraduate level. Text, images, sound and movie clips and num erical information (data) can be accessed on the disc. In this article the concept of Resource Priority, allowing priority to be given to an y one of these media types, is described. The principal methods of usi ng die Encyclopedia (Browse and Search) are described. The working of the four hierarchical Browsers is outlined, together with the operatio n of 'Linked mode'. The methods used to index the data to the Browsers is also discussed and examples of how the disc may be used are given. The text search features available on the disc are also described. Th ese include simple text search, using boolean operators, and the abili ty to search the disc not according to die text itself, but using the indexing structures which underpin the Browsers. Attention is drawn to the implications of this approach for structuring information and upo n the costs of developing commercial titles.