The Oxford Compendium on CD-Rom, The Oxford Reference SHELF on CD-Rom Reference materials for Research Machines, IBM and compatibles and Apple Macintosh, Pounds 79 the pair, Oxford University Press, Electronic Publishing, Walton Street, Oxford OX2, 6DP.
The Collins electronic dictionary and thesaurus, Dictionary and thesaurus on CD-Rom or floppy discs for Research Machines, and IBM and compatibles, Pounds 59 ex VAT (single-user licence. Site licences available) Collins Educational, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB.
To be able to access worlds of information at the click of a mouse button is wonderful. Looking words up in the paper dictionary was almost always too much trouble - now it is simple. Dr Johnson, as always, hit the nail on the head: “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it”.
Dr Johnson did not live in vain. With his dictionary he gave us a world lead and we still retain it. We are good at dictionaries, and thank goodness the publishers are alert to the new medium. The Oxford Compendium on CD-Rom is the writer’s friend. Here you have the Concise Oxford Dictionary, The Oxford Thesaurus, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations all on one CD-Rom.
The software works through Windows and links directly with Word for Windows. It is a delight to use and drives home forcefully what a rich resource our language is with all its nuances and stores of epigrams. The search software is simple and intuitive.
The Oxford Reference Shelf on CD-Rom is a vast work: a combination of 16 texts under various headings. There is the Writer’s Shelf - this includes the Pocket Oxford Dictionary, the Dictionary for Writers and Editors, the Oxford Guide to English Usage, the Oxford Minidictionary of Quotations and A Compact Encyclopaedia. You also have the Business Shelf, The Language Shelf and the Science Shelf. Included in the Language section are dictionaries of French, German, Spanish and Italian. There is a Dictionary of Computing in the science section and a World Gazetteer in the business section. The software, working through Windows, is simple and will do searches on one book or all.
The Collins Electronic Dictionary and Thesaurus is a 190,000-word dictionary with 275,000 synonyms. There is a CD-Rom version and one that comes on floppy discs. There is dual software: you can use it through Dos or through Windows. To install the whole work you will need 12.5 megabytes of space on your hard disc. You do not have to install everything, but the advantage of using hard disc space is that the data can be reached more quickly. The dictionary gives the etymological information, pronunciation and definitions; it even has an anagram search. The program can be accessed quickly if you have set up combinations of key presses.
As a card-carrying member of Information Addicts Anonymous, I am always being reminded by my literary friends of the words of T S Eliot: Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
They can never get the words quite right and they can never remember where the words come from. Friends, the words are right and they are from “The Rock”. Oh yes, and my spell-checker thinks that “T S Eliot” should be “T S Elite”. Who says that computers aren’t intelligent?
Collins Educational stand P18, OUP stand P9.
