The project proposed by Professor Delcher will explore the use of the new compact-disk read-only-memory (CD-ROM) technology for cross-disciplinary archival searches for recent research results. During 1986 the leaders of the engineering societies were assembled by the Engineering Directorate at NSF to explore ways the profession could adapt to the challenges of the next decade. One working group analyzed new methods of dissemination of research results which could speed innovation by U. S. engineers. A key finding was that CD-ROM technology offered an exciting opportunity to provide unprecedented access to all the archival research papers of the societies including graphical data with full text searching that would ease cross-disciplinary research. In the current project, abstracts of papers appearing in the leading engineering society journals will be encoded onto a CD-ROM disk along with an index that will speed full text searches on a personal computer. Graphical information may be included and possibly the full text of research papers. Software for searching will be provided. The CD-ROM disk produced by this project should serve as demonstration to the engineering societies of the feasibility of their providing date in this new medium. The overall objective is to speed innovation in the engineering disciplines.
