To members of the BIO-SOFTWARE group:
I would like to draw your attention to a database of information on
audiovisuals (all types) that may be used in teaching in the biologocal and
medical fields.
Please feel free to distribute this information, in whole or in part,
wherever you wish. The project is a non-profit venture, started with the
aim of reducing the numbers of animals used in routine student teaching.
Demo discs are available (see below).
Best wishes, Adrian Smith.
NORINA: A NORWEGIAN INVENTORY OF AUDIOVISUALS
The Laboratory Animal Unit, Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, Oslo,
has compiled an English-language database of audiovisuals for use in the
biological sciences. The compilers are Karina and Adrian Smith, in
collaboration with Richard Fosse, Laboratory Animal Services, University of
Bergen. The primary purpose of the database is to offer an overview of
possible alternatives or supplements to the use of animals in student
teaching, at all levels from schools to university. The database consists
at present of around 1300 entries, including computer programs, interactive
video, films and more traditional teaching aids such as slide series, 3-D
models and classroom charts. There is also a section for Contact Persons
who are developing and/or using audiovisuals at their institution, and for
suppliers of audiovisuals. We invite users, developers and suppliers of
audiovisuals to send in details for future upgrades of the database.
NORINA has been written in Filemaker Pro, originally for Macintosh, but
now also available for IBM Windows. NORINA is also available as a
"stand-alone" IBM version that will run on any PC with harddisc, with no
additional software.
Price: US$ 150 (for networks with up to 30 workstations: US$ 750).
NORINA is a non-profit venture (none of the developers receive any
commission on sales) and income from sales is used purely to offset wage
expenses.
A free demonstration floppy disc of the stand-alone IBM version is
available. A free demonstration disc of the Filemaker Pro version, for
Windows or Macintosh computers where the program Filemaker Pro is
installed, can also be ordered. Alternatively, a representative sample
of 10 entries printed from NORINA can be provided. Three files are
available by FTP from wuarchive.wustl.edu in the directory
\doc\techreports\wustl.edu\compmed\mac; these are the demo version for
machines with Filemaker Pro (norina.bin), a text file with information on
NORINA (norina.txt) and a tab-delimited version of the demo version
(norina.tab).
Further details from: Professor Adrian Smith, Laboratory Animal Unit,
Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 8146 Dep., 0033 Oslo 1,
Norway.
Fax: +47 22 96 45 35. Phone: +47 22 96 45 74.
email (Internet): adrian.smith at veths.no
