Downloading for PC Users; Part I: The U.S. Government Experience

by Donald F. Harrison W. Jon Heddesheimer National Archives and Records Administration' various ways of writing data on diskettes, formatting considerations (DBMS or ASCII) are discussed. Past and fixture changes in the cost, speed and capacity of micros are stressed. Program details such as pricing and contractor versus inhouse production of floppies are mentioned. The point is emphasized that Federal downloading is restricted almost entirely to small, simple files formatted in a DBMS because agencies do not consider the flexible diskette suitable for storing large amounts of data. Major statistical producers expect mass storage devices like the CDROM to become generally available to micro users. They fiirlher anticipate thai soon the average PC user will be able to download and manipulate large ASCII files. The authors discuss various electronic data communication systems, such as the Nav/s DIF and ISO 821 1 as alternatives to media transfer. This leads finally to a discussion of digital commumcalion methods such as BITNET. NETNORTH and EARN. The authors conclude with predictions of the effect on the future operations of data archives.