June 16, 1993 -- Data Research Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRAI) today announced the availability of an expanded range of information services available over Open DRANET, the company's state-of-the-art data network for resource-sharing among libraries and other information providers. Simultaneously, the company announced that Butler University in Indianapolis and the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library had become the 50th and 51st libraries to subscribe to Open DRANET.
"The rapid growth in Open DRANET subscriptions proves that libraries are eager to embrace the resource-sharing capabilities and economies available to them through networked information access," said Michael J. Mellinger, Chairman and CEO. Mellinger noted that the 51 total libraries now using Open DRANET is roughly double the number that had been using it when Data Research completed its initial public offering last July 1.
The new services include transparent network access to magazine full text and index databases for anyone with standard "client" information search software; Data Research's own standard "client" software package to allow its customers to connect to information "servers" available on the Internet and other telecommunications networks; an add-on service for Open DRANET subscribers that provides multiuser access to the Internet; and the addition of databases from Cambridge Scientific Abstracts to the list of databases accessible on Open DRANET.
The magazine full text and index databases are provided by Information Access Company (IAC) and University Microfilms International (UMI). These were previously available on Open DRANET, but are now connected to "server" software that conforms to the Z39.50 standard implemented by the National Information Standards Organization. Compliance with this standard allows any "client" software that is also in conformance with the standard to search and retrieve information using the standard. Thus the databases are now a more attractive alternative to libraries using automation systems provided by vendors other than Data Research.
The Internet is a nationwide collection of telecommunications networks that connects diverse educational, research and informational resources. The new Open DRANET service allows libraries to gain access to those resources, as well as making their own information resources available on the network. The Queens Borough Public Library in New York is the first customer to subscribe to Internet access via Open DRANET.
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts provides 28 databases grouped in five major subject areas: Environment and Pollution; Engineering and Computer Science; Aquatic Sciences, Marine Biology and Oceanography; Biomedical Sciences; and Conference Proceedings and Market Research.
Data Research, headquartered in St. Louis, is a leading systems integrator, providing its own proprietary information services software as well as third-party software and hardware, networking services and other related services to libraries and other information providers.
