RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
6.4 CD-ROMs
A CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) can hold the same amount of
data as about 550 floppy disks or 300,000 pages of paper. CD-ROMs are
therefore very popular for storing databases and full-text materials. Many
databases containing details of medical, health or development materials are
available on CD-ROM – for example, African HealthLine, AIDSLine, Medline,
and POPLINE (see section 6.9.5 for other useful examples). Most CD-ROM
databases are updated regularly. The only cost is an annual subscription. An
increasing number of free CD-ROMs contain collections of full-text documents
such as e-Talc, and the Humanity Development Library (see section 6.9.5 for
other examples). No special software is needed to use CD-ROMs. Using CD-
ROMs to distribute and access information is useful in situations where using the
Internet is costly, unreliable or unavailable.
Advantages of CD-ROMs:
• can provide access to large databases
• easy to search
• fast to use
• easy to transport
• durable; not easily damaged
• can be used on any computer with a CD drive
• available in multimedia (containing sound and movement) on a computer
with multimedia facilities
• no telephone/internet service costs
• no reliance on telephone/internet access/availability
• fixed subscription cost.
Disadvantages of CD-ROMs:
• data may not be completely up-to-date
• subscription cost can be high.
10 SECTION 6: COMPUTERS, ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND DATABASES