Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing (PEP) has been moving at lightening speed on its CD-ROM project. More than eight hundred CD-ROM discs have been sold, and many orders are being processed in response to the enthusiasm resulting from live demonstrations at analytic meetings around the world.
The beta disc will be distributed globally to PC users by the end of February. The Mac version will be released with the final production disc. This delay was caused by our decision to offer Mac users the same improved search program, Folio Views (version 4), which was recently rereleased in PC format only. Folio Corporation, which manufactures Folio Views, assures us that the Mac version will be ready in time for the June 1997 CD-ROM distribution. Those with the beta version will help to fine-tune the design and alert us to any bugs or other imperfections. Where possible, we will incorporate suggestions into the final production disc. Following that release, another demonstration will take place at the 40th IPA Congress in Barcelona, July 27 to August 1.
The PEP project directors have been using E-mail to conduct an asynchronous and virtual meetings to make most decisions about the production and promotion of the CD-ROM. Since May, when this current board of directors was put together, we have logged thousands of messages, actually filling up our E-mail file cabinets a few times. As a way to hold expenses down, there has been little infrastructure other than that provided by the directors and some consultants. If a director has a question or point, it's broadcast to the others in a keystroke, and feedback can be received in minutes.
Each director has specific tasks. Paul Mosher, our technical director, has been working around the clock since June attending to details such as specifications for digitization and customization of the search engine.
Director David Tuckett has helped Mosher ensure that the CD-ROM is user-friendly for all levels of users. Board President Judith Schachter has worked to coordinate the various executive and administrative tasks, along with Ellen Fertig, administrative director of The American; Martin Miller, our secretary; and Peter Fonagy, treasurer. Directors Nadine Levinson and David Tuckett have coordinated global marketing and sales. Another benefit of using computers and E-mail is that there is no jet lag or travel expenses. I believe the efficiency of PEP will result in the same efficiency and convenience that users will find in the CD-ROM disc and its powerful Folio Views 4 search engine. This search engine works identically on PCs and Macs.
Why should you buy the CD-ROM disc? Here are two possible scenarios:
Imagine sitting in your own library or office. Soon you will be a discussant on a panel, and later you hope to publish a paper. You do not own a computer. (Or you own one and do not have the PEP disc.) You think to yourself, “I would like to research a topic,” say, on erotic transference and how that topic may impact acting out. You also think, “Where are those articles I read awhile back and those notes I wrote in the margins?” You look up at your bookshelf, which lacks space for even one more journal. Frustration, impatience, and helplessness sets in with your anticipation of the work ahead. Hours later, you know only what material you have or lack. You never found the notes, and your best ideas are forgotten. You still have to go to the library, and it's snowing.
Or, you have a computer and the PEP disc. You load up your PEP CD-ROM with the journals (JAPA, IJPA, IRPA, PQ, and Contemp. PSA) going back to each beginning volume. You use your Folio Views search engine, built for either a Mac or PC user. With just a few keystrokes to query your topic, you can search more than 73 million words and 125,000 pages of digitized information from 1920 to 1994. You can access full text, including all papers, reviews, proceedings of meetings, panels, and editorial comments. In no time at all, you have an incredible bibliography as well as being able to paste to your clipboard any relevant quotes or passages.
Such features of the CD-ROM were demonstrated in December at the meeting of the Academy of Psychoanalysis in Phoenix and at the American Psychoanalytic Association meeting in New York. The interest and enthusiasm after seeing what this CD-ROM could do was phenomenal. At The American meeting, various searches for a variety of topics were demonstrated for a standing-room-only audience. Everyone became aware of how the Folio Views search engine could search different topics and put together references and text, heretofore impossible by trying to search physically, say in a library.
For example, one analyst requested a search in an area he was very familiar with, having contributed to much of the literature himself. We were all surprised to be told by him that the search revealed a number of papers he had not realized were related to his topic. He saw that he easily had the makings of a new paper just to explain the various connections that had gone unnoticed.
Searches can be done by topic, author, journal, keyword, or phrase. The results can be stored as bibliographies or references for future work. Hypertext links
within the journal collection connect papers to other references for easy access.
Journals can be scanned for contents with a keystroke. The possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to read the text and create your own permanent personal file that annotates an article you read. Sections of text can also be highlighted in different colors. These personalized notes are stored in your own “shadow file” and can be incorporated in subsequent searches. Articles can be printed and excerpts of articles can be copied to a clipboard to be used as needed. We will demonstrate all of this in San Diego at the May Meeting. Come see for yourself.
PEP CD-ROM is on the cutting edge of communications and computerization. Beyond the important research and scholarship issues, our literature will be digitized and stored indefinitely in a medium that will keep psychoanalysis in step with the future and future generations. For information contact:
Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, c/o The American Psychoanalytic Association, 309 East 49th Street, New York, NY 10017 (fax: 212-593-0571); or c/o The Institute of Psychoanalysis, 63 New Cavendish Street, London, W1M 7 RD, England (fax: 44-171-323-5312).
Please visit our Web site forum at to learn news about the disc or to ask questions at our PEP Forum: . The prepublication price is $645 for individuals, $1,045 for institutions (prices effective until April 15, 1997). After April 15, the CD-ROM will be available at full price: $695 for individuals, and $1,095 for institutions.