By Ellen Fox
BCR is excited to announce a new online database publishing project. We are
partnering with the Association of Christian Librarians to produce the electronic format
of the Christian Periodical Index. BCR will also handle the electronic
distribution of the database. Subscribers will be able to enroll on BCR's web site and
will be assigned either password or IP access to the database for their institutions. We
will use SilverPlatter's Partner Publishing software to produce the database and
SilverPlatter's ERL technology to distribute it to subscribers.
The paper version of the Christian Periodical Index has been published since 1956.
Currently it indexes more than 100 selected publications ranging from education and
health, the social sciences and humanities. All major doctrinal positions within
evangelical Christianity are represented.
The editorial content of the CPI is provided by the Association of Christian
Librarians (ACL). BCR's role is to convert the data to ERL-compliant format,
make it available to our member libraries and provide reliable access to the database for the library community. We will use our Sun Ultra Enterprise 2
server and a 52-gigabyte file server from Network Appliance to house the database.
BCR will also be producing the CD-ROM version of the CPI, which will be
accessible using SilverPlatter's WinSPIRS or MacSPIRS client software.
"It has always been ACL's intention for the Christian Periodical Index to reach a wide
audience, and with BCR's strategic presence in the marketplace this can happen," said
Clement C. Guthro, electronic format coordinator for ACL. "BCR was chosen as a
partner because ACL was looking for an organization that had the technological
expertise, people skills and track record to produce a quality poduct. The SilverPlatter
interface was highly desirable, and BCR had the wherewithall to make it all come
together."
The CPI will be inter-searchable with other SilverPlatter databases. If a library subscribes to ATLA, for example, the
CPI searches can be seamlessly integrated with ATLA searches, providing an effective and
comprehensive search experience for users.
Pricing for the CPI is currently estimated to run between $500 and $2,000 annually,
depending on the access method and number of simultaneous users. Final pricing will not be available
until later.
For more
information about the content of the Christian Periodical Index, visit
wwww.acl.org/publications.htm, ACL's web site. For
more
information about BCR's Partner Publishing program, visit BCR's web site,
www.bcr.org/~randd/partpub.html, or contact Ellen Fox at
efox@bcr.org or (303) 751-6277.
