PROVIDING MICROCOMPUTER-BASED HELP FOR ASFA CD-ROM SEARCHING The microcomputer supporting ASFA CD-ROM searching at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library has three enhancements that facilitate ASFA CD-ROM instruction. Reduction of the instructional burden presented by ASFA CD- ROM through the encouragement of unassisted searching was a major goal in the Library's plans for its CD-ROM service. Facilitating unassisted searching was deemed desirable due to limited reference staffing and large numbers of ASFA CD-ROM users. The vendor-supplied help for ASFA is necessarily brief and complementary help systems were implemented in order to provide more complete explanation while using the ASFA CD-ROM microcompuer. A printed manual was also developed but microcomputer-based manuals were developed in order to capture the interest of ASFA searchers. Of course, personal attention will always be necessary for some searchers but many are capable of going it alone with a bit of help. Instructional text files for ASFA menu and command searching were written by the author because the online documentation supplied by the vendor is overly brief and lacking in coverage of the menu mode. These files are accessed via menu before the searcher starts searching the ASFA disks. SIDEKICK software's README.COM utility is used to display these instructional files; README.COM supports scanning line- by-line or page-by-page and printing of specific pages or the entire document. This system is described by the author in greater detail (along with other facets of the Scripps Library's implementation of ASFA CD-ROM) in an article entitled "ASFA on CD-ROM at Scripps Institution". Published in LASERDISK PROFESSIONAL (v1n2, July 1988, pp.39-47), reprints are available from the author. The presearch ASFA manuals, while useful, are accessed before an ASFA CD-ROM search software; they cannot be accessed during a CD-ROM search session. Polaris Rescue software was used to make a restructured screen-oriented version of the presearch online manuals accessible during a CD-ROM search session. Polaris Rescue software is a help file utility for the creation and usage of documentation that pops up and displays at a keystroke. Thus help is instantly accessible at any time while searching ASFA CD-ROM. This system is described by the author in greater detail in an article entitled "Online Help for CD-ROM Database Searching". Published in CD-ROM LIBRARIAN (v3n5, May 1988, pp.10-14, photocopies are available from the author. Cambridge supplies its own help system for ASFA CD-ROM. Accessible via ASFA's HELP dot line command or from the HELP option in the main menu, the text of the help system is contained in a file entitled CCA.HLP. It is advantageous to alter this file because you can 1: indicate whom to ask in your library for assistance, 2: refer to the library's search service that can access databases other than ASFA, 3: rewrite the documentation to be more descriptive than that supplied by the vendor and to provide local advice. CCA.HLP can be altered by a wordprocessor or editor that is capable of editing and saving ASCII files with extended ASCII characters. The litmus test is whether your wordprocessor or editor can save the page breaks that are part of the CCA.HLP file. These page breaks occur on one line for every screenful of documentation and are at the right margin outside of the lined box containing the ASFA instructional text. These page breaks are critical to the CCA.HLP file in that the file will scroll by non-stop from beginning to end without them. So if you can edit CCA.HLP, save it, and have it page correctly afterwards, then you can rewrite CCA.HLP. To try editing CCA.HLP, copy the original file onto a backup disk before working with it. Do not tamper with your only copy of CCA.HLP! Edit CCA.HLP a little bit and then save it as an ASCII file. Copy it back onto your microcomputer and then load up the ASFA search software. See if the HELP command displays the help text like it should. If it looks strange or scrolls by non-stop, then your wordprocessor did not save it as a straight ASCII file. If you need assistance in editing CCA.HLP, contact the author. The author will send you the printed text of the Scripps Library version of CCA.HLP. You can red-pencil minor changes in order to convert the Scripps Library version into a version customized for your library. Send the author back the revised text with an IBM-formatted 5 1/4 floppy disk. The revised CCA.HLP file will be mailed to you. Obviously whenever Cambridge revises its online help system for ASFA or revises the features of its ASFA search software, the CCA.HLP file will have to be reviewed for changes.