Results of query about usefulness of Index Kewensis CD-ROM

[Leonard Krishtalka]

On Wed, 22 Dec 1993, Leonard Krishtalka emailed the botanical community via
Taxacom:

>         I am canvassing the botanical community for an evaluation of the
> strengths and weaknesses of the electronic Index Kewensis, and whether users
> have found the $1500 investment to have been worthwhile.

        Here are the answers received.

__________________________________________________________________
    #5          22-DEC-1993 10:37:12.27
NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"aceska at CUE.BC.CA"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Re: Index Kewensis CD-ROM

From: Adolf Ceska <aceska at CUE.BC.CA>


Index Kewensis should be made accessible on a gopher, the same
way the Gray Herbarium Index is. Even if $1,500 investment were
worthwhile, many botanists with their lean budgets would not be
able to buy it.

Adolf Ceska
Curator of Botany
Royal British Columbia Museum
Victoria, B.C., Canada
*********************************************************

    #1          22-DEC-1993 12:09:11.01
NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"TWILSON at MU-SUPPORT.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Re: Index Kewensis CD-ROM

From: "T.K. Wilson" <TWILSON at MU-SUPPORT.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>
>
> Index Kewensis should be made accessible on a gopher, the same
> way the Gray Herbarium Index is. Even if $1,500 investment were
> worthwhile, many botanists with their lean budgets would not be
> able to buy it.
>
> Adolf Ceska

Amen to this!  After all, this is what Gopher and the Internet are
for: provide access to information that would otherwise not be
available because of our "lean budgets."

------------------------------------
Thomas K. Wilson
Dept. of Botany
Miami University             ! Miami was a University before Florida
Oxford OH 45056              !   was a state !
USA
************************************************

    #4          22-DEC-1993 11:36:04.86
NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"boufford at huh.harvard.edu"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Re: Index Kewensis CD-ROM

From: "Dave Boufford" <boufford at huh.harvard.edu>
Message-ID: <1403.boufford at huh.harvard.edu_POPMail/PC_3.2.2>

Kris,

We have not purchased it yet because of the high cost.  It would be
worthwhile, but at a lesser price -- and over the Internet.  In our case
we're fortunate in having a cut-and-pasted version of the Index, which has
all the entries for each genus next to each other, supplement by
supplement.  Our feeling has been that it is still cheaper and easier to
check the latest supplement than to buy the electronic Index.

I've heard that updates will cost about $400 annually, and that the old
cd/rom has to be returned.

Dave
**********************************************************************
#2          22-DEC-1993 11:21:22.53                                  NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"sbswilsn at READING.AC.UK"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Re: Index Kewensis CD-ROM

From: "Rupert G. Wilson" <sbswilsn at READING.AC.UK>

We thought about it but frankly the price is a bit steep for us.  I know
that the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford, UK have a copy ....
Quentin, Denis any comments?

Could you post a summary of your responses?

Regards,
Rupert Wilson
***********************************************************************
    #10         27-DEC-1993 12:57:47.05
NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"ICLRL at asuvm.inre.asu.edu"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Index Kewensis CD-ROM-

From: "Les Landrum, Arizona State University" <ICLRL at asuvm.inre.asu.edu>
Message-ID: <01H6YZSL6EXI8Y4XYD at asu.edu>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT

 I would hope that Index Kewensis would be made available to all through
E-mail, just as
the GHI is now.
*******************************************************************

    #5          22-DEC-1993 11:51:57.14
NEWMAIL
From:   MX%"BEAMAN at msu.edu"
To:     KRISHTALKAL
CC:
Subj:   Kew Index on CD

From: "John_H.Beaman" <BEAMAN at msu.edu>

Dear Dr. Krishtalka,
   About a month and a half ago we ordered the Kew Index cd for the Michigan
State University Herbarium, but it still has not arrived.  Therefore, I cannot
give you any direct comment on it.  However, Kew allowed me to use the Index
database for my Kinabalu project just after it was put into electronic form
about three years ago.  We read the data from their Prime computer into a
dBASE database, and it worked beautifully.  If we had had more time and had
better understood what we were doing, we could have obtained even better
results, but as it was we were able to obtain the original references for
probably about 4000 names relevant to the Kinabalu flora.  If we had done this
manually, even with Kew's wonderful cut up hard copy, it would have taken
weeks, maybe even months.
   So I am enormously looking forward to the CD.  We were able to get a $1300
AIBS meetings rate, but at $1500 this may be one of the bargains of the
century.  Anyone who has had to dig through the 20 or more supplement issues
can appreciate this.  I think it is unfair to say that the Index should be
made available free on the Gopher.  Kew has invested over 100 years of two
peoples time in compiling this index, and they need some return on that
investment. They, like most other herbaria in the world, are scraping for
every penny to keep in business.  I don't know for sure, but I think the
annual subscription for keeping up-to-date will be $100-300.
  I know of no other presently available botanical database that is likely to
be of more value to more users than the Kew Index.

John Beaman


[Krishtalka note: Note that this evaluation is not based on the CD-Rom,
with its download limitations, but on the Prime Computer version at Kew, which
had no such limitations.

Are there any other users familar enough with the CD-ROM IK to evaluate the
product?  Thanks in advance for your response.

Leonard Krishtalka
Asst Dir, Carnegie Museum
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
USA