Prestel in the test trial - an academic library user looks back

Abstract

This article contains the substance of a paper delivered to the SCONUL Advisory Com mittee on Information Services Conference on "Prestel in higher education" held at the University of Aston on 30 January 1980. It is neither an introduction to Prestel for beginners nor a systematic description of the use of Prestel in Aston University Library, both of these aspects having been covered already in the published literature. ¹ Instead the author discusses the philosophy and design criteria behind the system, reviews the test trial from a user's point of view, and highlights the principal advantages and disadvantages of Prestel as a source of information in an academic library context.