Tracy Kay Mulvaney wrote:
>
> Dear All
>
> This is an email received from our european colleagues. Do any of
> UKOLUG members know the "official" answer?
>
> **************************************
> Dear Eurolug members!
> Does anyone know what database was the first one
> (bibliographic or other)? The first one we could search in batch before
> online? NASA was early, and I think CAS and NLM had electronic databases
> before 1970, but I should like to know the first one. Somebody here said
> METADEX, but I don't think that is correct. And what are the names of the
> first ones we could search online? Maybe that was NASA too? I could not
> find this information in Martha E. Williams' article in Gale's directory or
> in the database Lisa, but maybe I did not use correct words in the search.
>
> Best regards,
> Aud Lamvik
> NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
> NTNU Library
> IT-SECTION, INFOSOK
> N-7491 Trondheim
> Norway
>
> Phone: + 47 73 59 51 07
> Fax: + 47 73 59 60 97
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> http://www.ub.ntnu.no
Cc: wvm64
Subject: Re: FW: (Fwd) First database
--------
This is from my colleague Val Metanomski at CAS:
According to Charles T. Meadow's compilation (DATABASE,
vol. 11, No.5, October 1988, pp. 23-31):
First pre-online database searchable by computer:
1954 First information retrieval system on a general
purpose computer (IBM 701) by Harley Tillet, at
U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake,
California.
First major online system:
1956 SAGE, for air defense application, developed
by academic-industrial group at MIT for the
U.S Air Force.
SAGE stands for SemiAutomatic Ground Development
That preceded SDC' experimental Protosynthex (1960),
MEDLARS (1964), RECON/NASA (1965), ORBIT (1965), etc.
These, however, were not exactly publicly available.
Val
Wendy
--------
--
Dr Wendy A Warr
Wendy Warr & Associates, 6 Berwick Court
Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 7HZ, England
Tel/fax +44 (0)1477 533837
[log in to unmask] http://www.warr.com
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