THE CUTTING EDGE: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : CD-ROMs: A Must for Business

A CD-ROM player is a necessity for business computing these days, not a frill.

The wealth of business data available on CD-ROM discs is growing at near exponential rates. And it is increasingly popular for software publishers to sell their wares on a CD-ROM instead of on multiple floppy disks.

For instance, OS/2 Warp, IBM’s latest incarnation of its 32-bit operating system, comes on CD-ROM. So does Windows NT Advanced Server network operating system. And Scan/US, a geo-marketing analysis program with which businesses can view the demographics of potential customers, comes with two CD-ROM data discs. Transamerica Corp. publishes its real property records complete with location-mapping software on CD-ROM.

There are several catalogues of CD-ROMs listed in Books in Print, which you can find at the public library or at most bookstores. One that I’m familiar with is “CD-ROMs in Print 1995,” published by Mecklermedia Corp. (Westport, Conn., (203) 226-6967) for $130. It includes a CD-ROM version, as well as the book, which is nearly 2 1/2 inches thick.

The CD-ROM is much more usable than the book, which I proved by taking just a couple of minutes to discover that it lists 200 separate categories of CD-ROMs, ranging from 93 adult entertainment titles to 27 zoology titles.

In between are 657 business titles; 154 on finance and financial information; 255 with government information; 439 on law; 218 newspapers, periodicals or books; 63 parts and product catalogues; 466 photo archives, and six real estate and property information discs.