AGING INFORMATION DISSEMINATION IN RURAL AMERICA USING CD-ROM TECHNOLOGY

THE LONG TERM OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH IS TWOFOLD: 1) IM- PROVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT AGING TO THE ELDERLY AND THEIR FAMILIES AND CAREGIVERS IN RURAL AMERICA, AND 2)CREATEA LARGE TECHNOLOGY BASED COLLECTION OF PUBLICATIONS ON AGINGFOR DISSEMINATION BY RURAL GOVERNMENTS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS. TO MEET THESE GOALS, PHASE I RESEARCH WILL EXPLORE THE FEASIBILITY OF ONE APPROACH USING COMPACT DISC -READ ONLY MEMORY (CD-ROM) TECHNOLOGY. THE AIM WITH THIS APPROACH IS TO DEVELOP A CONDENSED COMPU- TER READABLE STORAGE FORM OF EXISTING PUBLICATIONS ABOUT AGING. ONCE DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO THE CD-ROM FORMAT, THEY WILL BE RETRIEVABLE THROUGH SUBJECT OR KEY WORDINDEXES USING EITHER A NOVICE OREXPERT SEARCH STRATEGY. USERS WILL BE ABLE TO: 1) IDENTIFY SPECIFIC PUBLICATIONS RAPIDLY WHICH MEET THEIR NEEDS; 2) SCAN PUBLICATIONS BY VIEWING THE DOCUMENT ON THE COMPUTER MONITOR; AND 3) PRINT DOCUMENTS OF INTEREST ON-SITE. THIS ELIMINATES THE NECESSITYFOR GOVERNMENT OFFFICES OR LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS TO STORE EXTENSIVE NUMBERS OF PUBLICATIONS, YET PROVIDES THE FACILITYWITH A LARGE COLLECTION OF INFORMATION FOR DISTRIBUTION. INADDITION, SYSTEM USERS CAN DETERMINE DIRECTLY IF DOCUMENTS MEET THEIR NEEDS, THEREBY ELIMINATING COSTLY MISTAKES AND UNNECESSARY TIME DELAYS REQUESTING INAPPROPRIATE DOCU- MENTS.