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Broadcast News consists of transcripts on CD-ROM of news and current affairs programming from ABC, CNN, PBS, and National Public Radio. For IBM PCs, the product requires 510K free DOS memory, 2 MB extended memory, a color VGA monitor, 5 MB free hard-disk space, and a CD-ROM drive with 150 KB/sec transfer rate (MPC). Installation software is on a floppy disk. A printed user's guide accompanies the product, and a toll-free help number is available.

The disc I reviewed covered January 1993 through September 1993. My first look at this product brought some very positive feelings-- an eye-catching, but not overdone initial display; possibly the easiest-to-use (next to Microsoft's Encarta) search interface on a CD-ROM I've seen; simple installation procedures that include options to prevent printing and/or downloading to disk plus password control for an exit to DOS; and eminently useful content. I had a slight twinge of worry when I first ran the program and got an "out of environment space" message even though I have the environment variable set well above what this program should have required. However, even with this message, the program proceeded to load and run.

Before describing some of the good features of Broadcast News, I should mention one problem. In my library system, we find it necessary to run security software to prevent hacking at our public-access microcomputers. Despite sincere attempts by the technical support people at Research Publications, there appears to be no way at present to use the full features of the program while running our security software. The only other specific bug I found was when I started to print something, changed my mind, clicked on "Cancel," and the system crashed. While writing this review, I also found that Broadcast News is flighty if you try to run it as a DOS program under the Windows environment. It's very helpful to a reviewer to be able to switch back and forth from the CD-ROM to review copy, but when I tried this, my video display departed for Mars. Research Publications doesn't recommend running the product in Windows, so this isn't a criticism, but it is a limitation for any library that wants to run the product on a Windows computer.

There are several options for retrieving information from the database. One method, to search by network and show, is a bit confusing in the way that a search is entered, but the context-sensitive help screen explains the process succinctly. I found the options to search by single term (simple search) or combination of terms (advanced search) the easiest to use.

In the simple search mode, the user chooses to search by keyword or full text and then enters a desired term. The advanced search capability adds the options of filling in different fields with search terms. Words are searchable in all fields: Network/Show, Date, Headline, Abstract, Topic(s), Format, and Guests. This means users can find a transcript of a show when they remember only that it was broadcast during a certain date range and featured a specific guest. The advanced screen allows use of a full range of Boolean operators including proximity searches with ADJ and NEAR. The search software is powerful and easy to use but does seem to produce confusing results at times.

For example, I was able to find nine references to gun control on ABC news programs by using the advanced search mode. Two of these references were to Nightline broadcasts. However, doing the same search in the Network/Show mode gave zero hits. Similar inconsistencies occurred in other searches. The user also should be aware that a full-text search of multiple terms in a Boolean OR lookup almost certainly will produce many irrelevant retrievals. I found it annoying that there was no way to jump directly to the occurrence of search terms within a transcript, particularly when many transcripts run to 50 or more pages. And, for some odd reason, when you page through the screens of text, the display will repeat itself once you reach the end, but assign higher numbers to the screens, making it appear as if new screens are being shown.

Another helpful and exciting feature is the "Current Issues" section (this is the one that would not work with our security sofware). This provides "access to significant issues and broad topics frequently found in today's headlines." The disc I reviewed listed approximately 20 issues of the day. One can read an overview, running 5-10 pages or more, see a chronology by choosing "Key Events," or print out a brief bibliography of other print resources (books and articles). The overview includes graphics that can be enlarged to high-quality full-screen images.

There are several indexes to news transcripts that cover CBS and NBC as well as the networks covered by Broadcast News (see the review of Burrelle's Index [RBB N 15 93] for an overview), but this product makes the full text of transcripts available. The above shortcomings are outweighed by the ability to easily access this important body of information and send the results to a file or printer. This excellent product could be useful in high school, public, or academic libraries. Charles Anderson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.