A lot of data is easily accessible to a large number of users

Seven years ago, the National and University Library published a new edition of the Slovenian Bibliography, which was a product of a computer-assisted catalog. For those times, it was a revolutionary act. But technology is perfecting with incredible haste. Compact discs (CD-ROMs) are becoming more and more common in the world, as well as in our country, not only in the field of audio recordings, but also in pictorial and textual material.

In the library profession in the international field, opinions on what is better, alt on-line accessibility to the database, which also means a higher cost or the production of CDs, still differ. On-line access to databases usually allows access to more up-to-date data as well as more of it. However, we often encounter difficulties in establishing communication, in setting the correct search parameter, etc.. after all, such information must also be paid for. The CD-ROM, which allows storing a very large amount of data, is certainly more practical, search programs are usually simpler, searching such databases is free, as the only cost is buying a CD-ROM. Beside this we also have to accept that the data on the CD-ROM is not up to date. With the help of the company i-Rose from Laško, the National University Library has published the Slovenian Bibliography on a CD, which is a comprehensive overview of national written creativity. The National and University Library has been producing and publishing the Slovenian Bibliography in a printed form for 50 years. Since 1988, we have been compiling a bibliography in the on-line mutual catalog COBIB (cooperative bibliographic database) of the COBISS system (cooperative bibliographic system and services), which is maintained by the Institute of Information Sciences Maribor (IZUM) in terms of software and hardware.

More than 16 thousand bibliographic units:
The edition of the Slovene Bibliography on a CD-ROM contains lists of books and covers mainly from the year 1989 and onwards. It contains more than 16,000 bibliographic items that we have extracted from COBIB. The data is entered in a machine-readable COMARC structure, which is a partially modified UNIMARC format. The structure is internationally recognized, as this is the only way to exchange information with the world. The Slovenian bibliography on a CD-ROM has several advantages in this form: greater accessibility, easier or friendlier search, lower price and it is a physically small medium. Although around 100 libraries are included in the COBISS system in Slovenia, many libraries and institutions that would need bibliographic data on book production are still outside this system. Many users can search through the bibliography at home or at work without any prior training. Setting up a CD-ROM is just simple. A PC is required (at least 386 and Windows). Through the icons that appear on the screen, we find the desired option: we also always have “help” available.

How to search?
The search is made possible by various parameters. The most common is a search by author or content of the document. Almost all search fields have dictionaries, which usually means an alphabetical dictionary of fields (for example, an alphabetical overview of authors, passwords or publisher names, etc.). In addition to the most common information, such as authors (including secondary authors, translators, editors, illustrators, note writers, etc.), the bibliographic description contains only the following information: title, subtitle, edition or reprint information, publisher and place of publication, year of publication, collection, notes, UDK lines (universal decimal classification), ISBN (international standard book number), language of the text, country of publication and others. All this information is searchable. However, they can also be searched in conjunction with the AND, OR, NOT operators. When searching, we can choose an easier or more demanding version of the search, and for the more demanding version we must already have some prior knowledge, especially about the data structure. The search is relatively fast.

The results can be sorted by four different parameters:

• year of publication,
• author,
• title,
• publishing house.

The program allows four different results to be displayed via icons on the screen:

• standard,
• user,
• ISBD (international standard bibliographic description)
• COMARC (the printout in the entire structure of the record).

The first two printouts are intended primarily for users who do not know the rules of cataloging, and the last two are mainly intended for librarians. The results can be viewed on the screen or printed on paper. We can also transfer them to another medium and design our own database. We can communicate with the program in Slovene or English. Exiting an individual part of the program is simple and fast.

Who it’s meant for?
The Slovenian bibliography on a CD is not intended only for librarians, but for all users who are interested in what is happening in Slovenian publishing and Slovenian books in general, as the Slovenian bibliography also contains books by Slovenian authors published outside Slovenia, cross-border book production and books issued by our emigrants. The Slovenian bibliography on a CD will be updated several times a year. In the future, we would also like to include an inventory of Slovenian newspapers and other periodicals. At the same time, NUK is preparing a retrospective bibliography of articles for the period from 1797 to 1945. This bibliography is now only in catalog form and in very poor condition.

In order to offer this information to the general public, and at the same time secure the catalog, we are preparing a conversion. The retrospective bibliography of articles contains about 500,000 items, and there are now about 60,000 bibliographic items transferred to the computer medium. Articles come from all professional fields of the time. This project is also being carried out in cooperation with the company i-Rose from Laško.