Think, for a moment, about the vast resources of published

          material which have been produced in the last hundred years.  And

          think of the spiraling amount of new information being published

          in today's ever increasing number of scholarly journals.  Imagine

          all the time that individuals spend researching and disseminating

          information from this pool of seemingly endless sources.  Now,

          imagine this whole manual process simplified to the extent that

          it could be performed with a few keystrokes on a personal

          computer.  Well, this ability has been realized, and to a much

          larger extent than most of us are aware.  The facility is called

          Information Storage and Retrieval.


            Information Storage and Retrieval Systems are "used to store

          items of information that need to be processed, searched,

          retrieved, and disseminated to various user populations."  [1]

          Presently, there are a few hundred data bases for public use.  In

          order to tap into these computer data bases, the individual must

          have a phone, a computer or a terminal, and a modem.

          Communications software may also be necessary.  A printer is

          desired, but not necessary.  The services are usually set up on a

          ----------

          1. Gerard Salton and Michael J. McGill.Introduction to Modern
                                                 ______________________
          Information Retrieval.(New York: McGaw Hill Publishers, 1983),
          _____________________
          p.  xi.



                                        - 1 -










          subscription basis where the user pays an initial fee, an hourly

          rate, and perhaps a monthly charge as well.  The people who make

          use of these services do so with any number of reasons in mind.

          The few that will be discussed in the following pages merely

          touch on the give an example of the potential of online data

          retrieval.





                                     APPLICATIONS
                                     APPLICATIONS





          Sports
          ______



            A special service went public in March of this year which is

          expected to revolutionize the way in which sports statistitions

          gather, organize, and disseminate information to the public.

          Sports Information Data Base Inc.  claims to be able to offer

          computerized statistics for radio and television, sports

          publishing and public access.  The obvious subsribers to such a

          service are the major broadcasting companies for use as "color

          comentary" during sporting events.  [2]  To think that we, as

          viewers, will be bombarded with trivia to an even greater extent

          than we already are gives Monday Night Football a rather dismal

          outlook for the future, in my opinion.  I recently read a spo