How easy is the installation process?
• Will the installation process have to be repeated regularly? • Does the search software coexist well with network software? • Does the search software try to write files to potentially write protected volumes? • What’s the documentation like? • What’s the technical support like? Note that this list doesn’t even include considerations of how easy the CD-ROM is to use for the end user, how consistant the user interface is with similar products already in use in the library and what the data quality of the contents of the CD-ROM is like. As these are the issues which the end user and librarians are probably most concerned about they are obviously going to be very important in the evaluation of new products. In choosing CD-ROM products for a library it is obvious that technical issues are only one part of a larger equation. It has to be said that dealing with networked CD-ROMs is something of a black art still in some cases. The potential benefits of allowing access the wide variety valu
