A longitudinal profile of a national database search service

摘要

The paper presents a performance analysis of the retrospective database search service operated by the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET) between April 1982 and May 1985. During the 38-month period, the service executed 4,965 searches, accessing nearly 100 U.S. databases. Because of the unavailability of packet-switched telecommunications, the service operated in a “delayed online” mode; search queries, prepared in Egypt, were forwarded to the U.S. and executed at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The paper tabulates extensive statistics regarding service demand trends, characteristics of searches and their results, usage of U.S. databases, service turn-around time and costs. As all of the searches were monitored throughout the period, this case study provides empirical data profiling the evolution and performance of a specific national information service in a developing country.