DATABASE Magazine

On The Nets: The DIALOG Home Page

by Greg Notess

DATABASE, April 1995
Copyright © Online Inc.

The Internet has moved from its research and education roots into
the commercial domain. With that move there has been a mad scramble
in the commercial sector to develop a presence on the Internet. And,
with the vast surge of Net use moving toward the World-Wide Web,
developing a home page is often the first move of a corporation in that
direction. DIALOG has had a presence on the Net for a few years,
offering telnet access to its search service and Internet e-mail
delivery of search results. Now DIALOG has made a brave foray into the
Web with the introduction of its home page (http://www.dialog.com).
DIALOG's home page is a welcome addition to the many other ways in
which they offer information about their products and databases. A
wide variety of DIALOG publications are available through the home
page, and this substantial amount of information certainly qualifies
the home page as a database for information about DIALOG. While it is
an excellent beginning, it could use some more organization and
further development.
At first glance, it is not clear for whom DIALOG intended the home
page. Some information will only be useful to current users, while
other portions are targeted at potential new customers. CD-ROM
product information is mixed in with searching tips for the online
service and information about DialogLink. While it would be nice to
have the information separated more clearly, at least there is
something there for everyone.

A ROAD SIGN
In keeping with the latest DIALOG advertising campaign, the images
on the home page are road signs (Figure 1). From these road signs,
DIALOG offers a substantial amount of textual information. They have
organized the information in four general categories: FAQs,
publications, databases, and commands, features and services.
For those with a graphics-capable Web client, these four options are
presented as signs within an image map (as seen in Figure 1). Click on
any of the four signs to get to that topic. However, to their credit, in
the main text of the home page a bit further down, are hypertext links
that can be used by text-based clients, such as Lynx, to get to the
same four categories. The language used is slightly different, but it
still takes the user to the same place.
While the majority of the documents are organized within the four
main categories, some other links are available from many different
places within DIALOG's Web. A telnet connection to the DIALOG online
service is available from many points. There is another image map on
the bottom of the home page (and many other pages) that offers a quick
jump back to the home page, a telnet connection to DIALOG, the ASAF
order form, the PLServer search, a subscription request for their
listserv, and the feedback form.
FAQS
In the frequently asked questions page, DIALOG has melded their
information retrieval world with the vocabulary of the Net to provide a
decent collection of questions and answers. One link answers the
question about how to get connected to DIALOG. Four other categories
of answers are listed: business information, general information,
science information, and technical information.
The FAQs are not done in the formalized style of Usenet FAQs but
are presented in a basic question and answer format. Questions range
from, "Where can I get news of an initial public offering?" to, "What is
DIALOG?" Answers range from short one-liners to more detailed
explanations with search examples. There is some worthwhile
information here, but it would be easier to navigate if the questions
were listed first, with hypertext links to the answers further down in
the document.

PUBLICATIONS
DIALOG publishes a substantial number of documents, from
Bluesheets to the _CHRONOLOG_. Many are available here in hypertext
format, but there are important documents that are not available. Most
significantly, neither bluesheets nor the white pages are directly
available.
Even without these major resources, there are plenty of other
publications available. DIALOG categorizes them in 11 subject areas.
These include Quick Guides, the _Pocket Guide_, the _CHRONOLOG_, and
Quick Reference Cards.
The _CHRONOLOG_ entry is disappointing. As of January 1995, only
three issues were available: the July/ August, September, and October
1994 issues. While it is not surprising that older issues are not
available, at least the November/December 1994 issue should be
included. After all, that is the issue that had the first announcement of
the DIALOG home page (p. 303). The other problem is that the three
issues that are available are not marked up in hypertext. While there is
a bit of formatting in the text, it primarily consists of one long text
file. Adding some additional hypertext markup would help greatly.
In contrast to the lack of hypertext markup for the _CHRONOLOG_,
the _Pocket Guide_ demonstrates how a little bit of hypertext can
make browsing the publication so much easier. Choosing the guide
retrieves the table of contents at the top, with hypertext links to each
of the sections. Moving around in the _Pocket Guide_ is a simple
matter of finding the pertinent section and choosing that link.
With the large-scale change in pricing last summer, the availability
of the price list (at http://www.dialog.com/dialog/publications/price-list.html) is quite convenient. Pull up the price list in one window
while searching in another, and you have ready access to the basic
costs in each file. My only complaint (which has always bugged me
with the printed price list as well) is that it does not include the full
pricing for each format. Of course that can be retrieved online, but why
not have the full pricing information available on the price list as
well--especially now that the display fees are higher.

ASAF
Many of the documents seen on the Web page also can be retrieved
with the As-Soon-As-Faxable option. According to their
documentation: "Our ASAF service provides an easy way to order many
DIALOG publications and receive them by fax. All you need to order a
document via ASAF is the document number (which appears in
parentheses next to the document title on the DIALOG WWW pages) and
a fax number." The ASAF service is not only available on their Web
page, but documents can be requested by phone as well.
There are hundreds of DIALOG publications available through the
ASAF service, including all the Bluesheets. The ASAF presence can also
be seen in many places in the DIALOG pages. There is often a four-digit
number after publications that shows the availability of the document
from the ASAF service. Choosing that number will take you directly to
the ASAF order form, with the number already filled in on the
appropriate spot.
ASAF is a very effective way of delivering publications. And, since
it is free, the price is certainly right. However, for those using a
graphic-capable Web browser, the constant ASAF offerings get rather
annoying. There is no technological reason that the image files sent
out to a fax machine could not be converted to a gif or jpeg format.
Then they could be accessible directly from the DIALOG home page. Or
the documents could be converted to Adobe Acrobat format (pdf) as the
IRS has done (see the latest tax forms at
http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/ bureaus/irs/taxforms.html).
Whichever way would be easiest, these ASAF documents should be
available in html format and directly accessible from DIALOG on the
Web.

DATABASES
The third major signpost points to DIALOG's databases. This is an
html version of the 1994 database catalog. The catalog is one of the
highlights of these Web pages. Each section of the catalog has a
separate hypertext link. There is a section for DIALOG databases by
broad category and subject access to DIALOG databases. The database
descriptions are available in alphabetical order, and there is a
hypertext alphabet to allow quick jumps to the appropriate part of the
catalog. It has the exact same information as that available in the
printed catalog, including the prices. At press time, since the catalog
is still the 1994 one, the prices do not reflect the changes made in the
summer of 1994. To check for current charges, the price list should be
consulted.

PLServer
Both the Publications and the Databases categories can also be
searched using the PLServer search tool, developed by Personal Library
Software. This is a natural language search engine, and according to
the company's own press release, PLServer is "the first commercial
product to provide robust, scalable, natural language searching on the
World-Wide Web." From both the Publications and Databases
categories, there is a PLServer search option. Figure 2 shows how the
search screen appears.
Either the publications or the databases or both can be searched. A
regular search looks for the terms included on the "Search words" line.
The concept search looks for the search terms and other terms that are
statistically related (based on co-occurrence) to the search term. The
advisors will offer these "statistically related" terms that can be
chosen for inclusion in the search or not. A plain search on "biology" in
the publications and databases resulted in 11 hits. A concept search
for the same term resulted in over 50.
So what are some of these statistically relevant terms that are
included automatically? Try a search using the advisors to find out. On
the "biology" search, some of these additional terms made sense, such
as "cancer," "marine," and "sciences." But other terms, such as "agents,"
"tables," "theses," "tukey," and "early," while they may make statistical
sense, make little sense in this context. It may be best to avoid the
concept search, unless the advisors are used to determine what the
additional terms will be. Most of us who search DIALOG are used to
Boolean searching. It is interesting and intriguing to see an application
of natural language searching with relevance ranking. However, given
the diverse kinds of information available in the databases and the
relatively few words in some of the publications, using PLServer
across all the publications and database descriptions produces some
curious and not always helpful results.
Boolean searching is possible with the PLServer, but do not expect
an implicit "and" between search terms. A search of the databases on
"chemical and analysis" pulls up four records that have both terms. A
search on "chemical analysis" pulls up the same records, but also a
couple of dozen other ones. However, the additional records only have
one of the terms. So if a Boolean operator is not specified, assume an
implicit "or" with the results ranked by perceived relevance.
Another problem with the PLServer turns up for Lynx users. Single-
term searches produce the same results in Lynx as they do with other
forms-capable clients, but multiword searches do not work the same
in Lynx as they do in Mosaic or Netscape. A Boolean search on "chemical
and analysis" in the databases using Netscape returns four records. But
with Lynx, the same search retrieves dozens of hits. The problem is
that, according to the PLServer results, the actual search was on
"chemical%20and%20analysis." The %20 gets added to the search
instead of spaces.

COMMANDS, FEATURES, AND SERVICES
The last of the four signs offers a collection of searching aids and
other miscellaneous information. For the DIALOG searcher, there are
sections on "Search Features and Commands," "Current Awareness," and
"Delivery Options." This is also where DIALOG offers information about
DialogLink, DIALOG OnDisc, and Data-Star (which has its own home
page at http://www.rs.ch/www/rs/datastar.html).
Many of the links from this section point back to publications--the
_Pocket Guide_ or the Quick Reference Cards. However, this signpost
provides one more way to track down an answer to a question about
search commands or DIALOG services.

OTHER OPTIONS
The telnet to DIALOG option is conveniently located at many places
within DIALOG's pages. An advantage to using this option is that the
telnet session could be run in one window while the price list, a Quick
Reference Card, or some other document is readily available in another
window.
DIALOG asks for feedback on their Web pages, looking for comments
on their structure and suggestions for improvements and other items
to include. They have established a simple html form that can be used
to send feedback, but they also give an e-mail address for sending
suggestions.
Finally, DIALOG provides a listserv list for providing "information
on what is new…databases, important database reloads, database
changes or removals, and new system features." Again, DIALOG offers a
form to fill out to get signed up for the list. This is a nice change of
pace from the usual e-mail subscription process.
DIALOG has made an excellent beginning with their World-Wide Web
pages. They make available a wide selection of documents and offer a
chance to experiment with the PLServer. While I have outlined some of
the problems with the pages, that should not detract from the valuable
services that their Web pages offer. Take a look at what is there and
be sure to fill out the feedback form to suggest improvements.
_Editor's Note: On January 1, 1995, Dialog Information Services
became Knight-Ridder Information, Inc., but the online service is still
known as DIALOG, and the home page was using the DIALOG name when
Greg prepared this column. --PH_

Communications to the author should be addressed to Greg R. Notess, Montana State University Libraries, Bozeman, MT 59717-0332; 406/994-6563; greg@notess.com ; http://www.notess.com.