ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program ------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 15, 1999 GP 3.16/3-2:20/15 (Vol. 20, no. 15) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ STAT-USA ANNOUNCES NEW NATIONAL TRADE DATA BANK [Announcement supplied by the Department of Commerce.] STAT-USA is working on replacement software for the National Trade Data Bank. We selected software from Enigma, Inc. which will allow us to provide most documents in their original format. Users of the product may extract documents and copy them in their native format or in a format that retains most if not all of the original formatting characteristics. Based upon our survey of all documents, the formats supported by the new software are Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format (RTF), Excel, Frame Maker, and PDF. This change will allow agencies to include highly formatted documents that may contain embedded graphics, etc. The software is not strictly an Internet browser but it does have characteristics similar to browsers. This should minimize the learning curve required to effectively use the new product. The impact of this new software will also be felt on STAT-USA/Internet where we will start distributing formatted documents as well. Our Internet service has been hindered for years by the limitations imposed by the NTDB CD-ROM. These limitations are expected to go away with the advent of the Enigma software. One change that will be felt is that we plan to remove the merchandise trade statistics from the NTDB CD-ROM. Treatment of these data on the USA Trade CD-ROM is superior to any possible format we reviewed. We now encourage customers to obtain the USA Trade CD. USA Trade is already a depository item which many libraries have selected. We will also start to examine a new on-line version of the Ivation software found on USA Trade with the idea of distributing the trade data through the Internet. We expect to make a decision about this option by the end of the year. Timetable STAT-USA will debut a beta copy of the new NTDB in early October. Production will start with the November issue. Because of changes in the content, we hope to accelerate the production to a date much earlier in the month. For example, the November issue should be available within the first week of the month. Questions? For technical questions, please contact Joe Correia . Questions of a more policy nature may be sent to Ken Rogers, Director, STAT-USA .