Department: Online Information and Networking

New Items

A new version of the American Printing House for the Blind's bibliographic database is now being made available to users. The new catalog, _CARL et al_, will eventually contain holdings information for a number of national providers of books available in braille, audio, and e-text formats. The new CARL database uses NOTIS and is in standard US MARC format. _CARL et al_ is currently available only as a dial-in service, however, and users must pay access charges to utilize the catalog. If you are interested in using the database, you can call APH toll-free at 1-800-223-1839 and ask for more details.

Available Databases on the Internet

A new user interface is now online for the National Distance Learning Center. The new system has been improved to allow greater searching capability and easier methods to download information.

The National Distance Learning Center is a centralized electronic information source for distance learning programs and resources. The NDLC provides users with detailed listings of available courses. The NDLC contains listings of K-12, Higher Education and Continuing Education courses as well as Teleconferences. To reach the NDLC database, telnet to: ndlc.occ.uky.edu login: ndlc

Be sure to read the online documentation. If you have any questions or have difficulty connecting to the database you can call NDLC at 502-686-4556.

Although not a new database, ABLEDATA BBS can now be accessed by way of the St. John's University (New York) gopher. This Internet service allows you to telnet to a government computer which will then use a modem to access the ABLEDATA system for you. To get to the ABLEDATA database, gopher to: sjuvm.stjohns.edu

Take the following route from the root menu:

• Disability and Rehabilitation Resources
• EASI: Main Menu
• EASI's List of Other Disability Info Access Organizations
• ABLEDATA Database

ABLEDATA is an extensive and dynamic database listing information on assistive technology available both commercially and non-commercially from domestic and international manufacturers and distributors. The ABLEDATA project is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.

New Listserv

A new Internet discussion list that may interest some ITD readers is called OCR -- Optical Character Recognition. OCR is open to any discussion relating to the automatic reading of a text by a computer. One of the goals of this mailing list is the creation of a standard suite of TIFF files for benchmark OCR software. To subscribe to the OCR mailing list, address an e- mail message to: ocr-request@phil.ruu.nl

Since the list is not currently processed by automatic means, your mail need not follow a standard form for subscription. You will be added to the list by the list owners.