CD- ROM and its application to libraries and school media centers

Abstract

There are a few questions circulating among the professionals in the library media field these days. One of the big topics of conversation today has to do with the question of the CD-ROM. The librarians want to know what all this CDROM business is, in which direction it is going, and what impact it is going to have on libraries and how they function. They want to know how it will effect current developments in the adaptation of new technologies in school media center programs. School media centers facilitate access to formal knowledge. Computer data storage and software assist the media specialist in providing access to that portion of formal knowledge available in machine readable form. Computer data storage mediums are now undergoing a dramatic reduction in cost and increase in capacity. This is accomplished by combining laser technology and digital encoding techniques, that connect from one system of communication into another, to record, store, and retrieve computer data. The most promising and cost effective of the new laser data storage mediums for school media center use is the CD-ROM. One of the first things needed to be done to approach this topic of the CD-ROM