Search

This paper describes the techniques for implementing a full-screen, custom SPIRES interface for a public-use library database. The database-independent protocol that controls the system is described in detail. Source code for an entire working application using this interface is included. The protocol, with less than 170 lines of procedural code, can be used virtually without modification with any SPIRES subfile for which appropriate full-screen formats have been designed. The interface enables end users with no knowledge of SPIRES, and with no training on the system, to conduct complex Boolean searching across data fields. The user does not need to issue any commands. Rather, all necessary actions are initiated by pressing a function key after entering keywords on a full-screen search form. A help system presents necessary explanations and enables easy browsing of indexed keywords and authority terms. The system is illustrated with examples from Newspaper-Index, a public use database now in use in the libraries at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The appendices to this paper contain the complete source code for the Newspaper Index application as it was working in the Virginia Tech Libraries on 9/24/92 using SPIRES version 89.03 under IBM's CMS operating system. (Author/KRN)