ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- In response to requests from consultants and small businesses, the
American Geological Institute's GeoRef Information System is now offering the CD-ROM
version of its entire bibliographic database (more than 2 million records) at a substantially
reduced rate to companies employing 10 or fewer professional staff members. Professional
staff members include scientists and librarians. Until now, all for-profit organizations paid
the same annual fee for the CD-ROM version of the database. Beginning this January,
subscription rates for small businesses are being reduced by 80 percent. For users outside the
United States and Canada, the annual fee will be 10 percent higher.
Since 1990, SilverPlatter Information, Inc. has made GeoRef available on CD-ROM. An annual subscription includes six bimonthly updates, search software, support
documentation, and toll-free customer assistance. SilverPlatter Information, Inc. also supplies
the GeoRef database to subscribers over the Internet through the World Wide Web and
through their network ERL service.
GeoRef, covering the geology of North America from 1785 and the geology of
the rest of the world from 1933 to the present, is considered the most comprehensive
geoscience bibliographic database in the world.
References to geoscience journal articles, books, maps, conference papers,
Master's and doctoral theses, and reports are indexed in approximately 40 languages. The
database also includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey.
References are indexed by subject, author, publication, source, and geographic location.
GeoRef covers 30 fields of interest to geoscientists -- ranging from paleontology and
extraterrestrial geology to petroleum exploration, ground water, glacial geology, and
earthquakes.
The GeoRef staff recently concluded a multiyear program to integrate older
data from major print bibliographies into the database and is beginning a study that will
result in systematic, ongoing coverage of data sources from the Internet.
To order a 30-day trial subscription, users should contact SilverPlatter
Information, Inc. at (800) 343-0064 or by fax: (617) 769-8763. All orders for the GeoRef
CD-ROM at the reduced price must first be approved by the American Geological Institute
(AGI). For more information, contact Kay Yost at AGI: (703) 379-2480. Fax: (703) 379-
7563. E-mail: kyost@agiweb.org.
The American Geological Institute is a nonprofit federation of 29 geoscientific
and professional associations representing more than 80,000 geologists, geophysicists, and
other earth scientists. In addition, 115 colleges and universities are AGI Academic
Associates, and approximately 20 private companies are AGI Corporate Members. Founded
in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared
interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and
strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in mankind's use of
resources and interaction with the environment.
