COMP: Online Databases



patriciabrooks@coupeville.net wrote:
> 
> Is it true that the R&I is being indexed to be online?  $7 for each
> and every year becomes prohibitive.

and

storylade@aol.com wrote:

> Yes, they are; however, the cumulative lists that comes out every 10 years
> are fairly reasonable and can be carried about much easier.  I accumulated a
> full set through the years and wouldn't do without them.  The index will be
> quick and easy for looking things up, but I'm a hard copy person!  Already,
> I've had problems with the site not working.  Books, to read online, are not
> catching on as people expected so maybe there are more people out there like
> me.

The R&Is are being put online. The '89 is online now, the '79 is almost
ready. We will put up the '99 after it is ready to go to the printer.

The already printed ones have to be scanned and converted to text then
proofed against the book.

For the time being access to the database is free. When the '99
checklist is added to the '89 and '79 there will be a subscription fee
of $10.00 per year for full access to all the databases.

There is a second database that consists of all the registered iris
names from the beginning through and including the '99 R&I. This is of
great use in either searching for an iris name to find the description
(saves searching book by book to find an iris) or searching for a new
name to use for your about to be introduced seedling.

Certainly (for the moment in technology time) it is easier to carry a
book into the garden, to a show etc. and the online database is not much
better than the book if all you want to do is look up the description of
a cv (assuming that you know which book to look in). However, the
database has a search engine associated with it and allows sophisticated
word searches including, for instance, looking for a particular cv in
the ancestry of each iris in the database (that is, each iris for which
the registrant provided ancestry).

It also allows the user to copy the information from the website window
and paste it into another document - say for a list of irises on sale.
If you are as slow a typist as I am, that is a definite benefit.

Certainly there have been times that the database has not been
available, but in my work with it I can say it has been available at
least 99% of the time. When accessing a website there are many nodes in
between that can cause problems. That is not to say that there were not
times in the early stages when there were problems, but to my knowledge
all of the problems that have been reported to me have been fixed expeditiously.




John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.
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USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay) 
Fremont, California, USA 
Visit my website at:
http://members.home.net/jijones

President, Westbay Iris Society
Director, Region 14 of the AIS
Director, American Iris Society
Chairman, AIS Committee for Electronic Member Services

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