Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

4. Session / Séance. Strategies for Links with Historical Research / Stratégies de Communication envers la Recherche historique - Gonzalez, Pedro: Data Bases and Long Distance Communication. A Spanish Éxperience / Bases de données et information a distance. Une expérience des archives espagnoles (english 319 - français 343)

4. Session/Séance: Gonzalez, Data Bases and long distance Communcation

Reading Room or the production of instruments of description and, finally, for creating data bases with archival information9.

3. Remote Access versus CD-ROM

Since the arrival of the new systems of electronic publishing in optical medium, a certain confrontation is taking place between remote access to data bases and data bases used directly from any PC through CD-ROM publications10.

CD-ROM basically uses the same technology used to make music compact disks, able to store 600 Mb of digital information (text, photographs, graphics) in a disk of only 12 cm. CD-ROM was defined as regards its physical format through an agreement by Philips and Sony in 1985 - and as regards its logical stmcture - by a group of representatives of the industry in the so-called „High Sierra proposal“ which led to the ISO 9660 standard. New developments in the DC-ROM are in the market (CD-I, CD-ROM, XA, DVT), making it possible to include video, audio, text, graphics and data simultaneously which may be used interactively.

The large quantities of data which may be included in a simple CD-ROM at a very acceptable price, and with the possibility of direct consultation from any PC, has given birth to a new publishing industry in optical medium, which offers positive alternatives to the traditional forms of on- line look-up. Today there are thousands of data bases distributed in CD-ROM format which may be used directly with one’s own personal computer, thus avoiding traffic on communication lines.

In the future both forms of access will probably coexist, each one with its advantages and disadvantages, which are basically the following:- lower cost in the mass use of CD-ROM than in online look-up,- greater simplicity in general in the user inter-faces provided by CD-ROM;- greater advantage in online access for frequent updates of the data bases.

4. The Spanish Archives’ Experience. The CIDA DATA BASES

The first experience of remote information transmission in Spanish archives was carried out from the Centro de Informaciön Documental de Archivos (CIDA).

This centre began functioning in 1978 with a twofold objective of collecting information on the documents which form part of the Spanish national heritage, and professional bibliographical information on the archives.

9 The advance towards standardization was one of the most exceptional guidelines at the last International Congress on Archives held in Montreal in September, 1992. The paper by Richard J. Cox, entitled „Standardization of archival practices: an instrument for the information era“ was worthy of note. The approval of the above-mentioned Declaration of Principles relating to Archival Description was also an important feature of this Congress.

10 Nowadays there is an abundant bibliography on the comparative study of online access systems as opposed to the use of the CD-ROM. To give some references: Huang, Samuel T.: CD-ROM Database searching vs traditional online database searching, in: Proceedings of the 12th National Online Meeting, New York, May 7-9, 1991, and Clark, Katie: A Practical commentary on the selection of CD-ROM vs online databases, in: CD-ROM professional, 4 (July 1991), p. 115-116.

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