Page 43 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Information Technology and Application

Notes CDS/ISIS is an acronym which stands for Computerized Documentation Service/Integrated Set of
Information Systems. In 2003, it was stated that “This package is accepted by libraries in the
developing countries as standard software for information system development”.
The original CDS/ISIS ran on an IBM mainframe and was designed in the mid 1970s under Mr
Giampaolo Del Bigio for UNESCO’s Computerized Documentation System (CDS). It was based on
the internal ISIS (Integrated Set of Information Systems) at the International Labour Organization
in Geneva.
In 1985, a version was produced for mini and micro-computers programmed in Pascal. It ran on an
IBM PC under MS-DOS. Winisis, the Windows version, first demonstrated in 1995, may run on a
single computer or in a local area network. A JavaISIS client/server component was designed in
2000, allowing remote database management over the Internet from Windows, Linux and Macintosh
computers. Furthermore, GenISIS allows the user to produce HTML Web forms for CDS/ISIS
database searching. The ISIS_DLL provides an API for developing CDS/ISIS based applications.
The OpenIsis library, developed independently from 2002 to 2004, provided another API for
developing CDS/ISIS-like applications.
The most recent effort towards a completely renewed FOSS, UNICODE implementation of CDS/
ISIS is the J-Isis project, developed by UNESCO since 2005 and currently maintained by Mr. Jean
Claude Dauphin.
CDS/ISIS is menu-driven generalized information to rage and Retrieval system designed
specifically for the computerized management of structured non-numerical databases. One of the
major advantages offered by the generalized design of the system is that CDS\ISIS is able to
manipulate an unlimited number of databases each of which may consist of completely different
data elements. Although some features of CDS/ISIS require some knowledge of and experience
with computerized information systems, once an application has been designed the system may
be used by persons having had little or no prior computer experience. For advanced users having
access to computer professionals, CDS/ISIS offers an integrated programming facility allowing
the development of specialized applications and/or the functional extension of the software as
originally provided. It has the largest installed base of about 1390 installations and is a PC version
available on a number of platforms like Windows 95, Windows NT, DOS, Claris etc. It has a
number of fields, records, alternate scripts, multimedia capability, and Web interface. Many
specialized application products have been developed around CDS\ISIS (Sanjay and Trishna library
software packages, for example). Besides in libraries, the package can be equally used to create
databases. An ideal software package for small and medium-size libraries, it was distributed free
of charge initially; now it is priced at 15001. The package performs a variety of operations related
to information storage and retrieval with powerful search capabilities and flexible database
management. It allows interlinking records from more than one database, use of more than one
data sheet, and conforms to 180-2709. The major functions provided by CDS\ISIS allow you to:
Define databases containing the required data elements Enter new records into a given database
Modify, correct or delete existing records Automatically build and maintain fast access files for
each database in order to maximize retrieval speed Retrieve records by their contents, through a
sophisticated search language Display the records or portions thereof according to your
requirements Sort the records in any sequence desired Print partial or full catalogues and/or
indexes Develop specialized applications using the CDS\ISIS integrated programming facility.
Database Menu: The bottom part of the menu normally contains the list of the most recently
opened databases. You may open any one of them by simply clicking on the corresponding entry.
It also allows you to import data from external files recorded according to the 180-2709 standard
format for information interchange and also to extract a database or a portion thereof normally for
transmitting it to other users. You may also use this command to perform some reformatting of
the records of a database and then use the import function to store the reformatted data into the
original or a different database. It also allows you to print the output of a given query and/or to
print a selected range of records.
Browse Menu: It allows the whole database to be browsed or edited independently from any
search performed; displays the list of searches performed so far, from which you may select the
one desired. It also facilitates in displaying the record (according to the currently selected format)
or displaying either the current format or the current record in ASCII.xt format.

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