Gulf War

!D esen‘ Storm:
The War in the Persian Gulf(CD-ROM)

Warner New Media

In association with TIME Magazine. Burbank, CA: Warner

New Media 1991. $49.99 DOS, $49.99 MPC, $39.99 MAC.

Review by
Barry J. Hammel
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

( T h e immediacy of CD-ROM publishing takes another step with

TIME magazine’s production of this disk released within a few days
of the end of the Gulf war. Correspondents’ reports, eyewitness ac-
counts, photographs, audio recordings, maps, charts, research and
key documents that were gathered by the editorial staff of TIME
magazine are all contained on this disk. (TIME adds to its own name
the subtitle ”The First Draft ofHisfory” on the disk.)
Deserf Storm is an interactive CD-ROM program, which gives
the “reader” control to navigate through an extensive amount of ma-
terial by merely clicking on choices with a computer mouse. A
graphic time line of the eight week war allows the reader to click on
one week for a summary of happenings.
By means of graphic menus and interface controls for hypertext
and hypermedia, the reader can branch off to peruse incoming re-
ports from correspondents, weapons’ specifications, an interview
with a soldier in the trenches, a tactical map, a photograph with a
Winter 1 993

sound annotation, a TIME magazine article, or a sound clip from

radio Baghdad.
To introduce the reader to the available array of information
and to navigation methods, there is a well-designed guided tour, an
automated tutorial that starts at a click of a button. It does an excel-
lent job of instructing even the most naive computer user in the use
of this interactive version of Desert Storm.
The range and depth of information is truly impressive. There
is, for example, a comprehensive list of aircraft, armor, missiles, and
so forth, used by both sides with scaled drawings and specifications,
and at a click of a mouse button the reader has the full text of the
fourteen related United Nations resolutions or one hundred and
eight articles of the Geneva Convention relating to the treatment of
prisoners.
To give one a sense of the immediacy of the war, the daily dis-
patches and incoming photos from TIME correspondents all over the
world are presented in full text exactly the way they originated in the
news bureaus. Over four hundred dispatches are accessible. Reac-
tions to the events of the Gulf conflict in numerous countries can be
gauged from these daily dispatches. Correspondents from Beijing
and Brussels or Tokyo and Tel Aviv can be read word for word. And
with a click, the reader can see the finished article that appeared in
that week's issue of TIME, a distillation of all the input from the
field.
Over 150 photographs, indexed by subject and by the eight-
week time line, can be accessed. Each photograph is accompanied by
a n audio description which is context sensitive to the time line; for
example, a pro-Saddam rally in London, anti-war protesters in San
Francisco, a nighttime rocket attack.
Biographies of key individuals, for example, Tariq Aziz or Peter
Amett, the CNN correspondent who broadcast from Baghdad, pro-
vide background. The full text of speeches made by George Bush and
Saddam Hussein during the conflict can be examined. Profiles of
neighboring countries provide a ready reference for someone unfa-
miliar with the geographic area.
Sound recordings of numerous individuals give a true feeling
for the drama of the moment. A few examples: Senator Tom Harkin
debating in Washington, a reporter in a rocket shelter, General
Schwarzkopf at a press briefing, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-
Shara, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens, and King Hussein.
This is a unique source of multimedia information, well orga-
nized and indexed for easy access by the reader. However, one must

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 Gulf War

be cautioned that the bulk of the information has been sourced and
filtered by a single publishing entity, TIME magazine.
This CD-ROM represents the equivalent of text, graphic, and
audio information found on five hundred computer floppy disks.
This disk is available for both PC (MPC standard suggested) and
Macintosh computer platforms that include appropriate CD-ROM
players.

THE NEW BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA

A Link in the Historical Chain of Cultural Continuity
Revised edition 1991
Mohammed M. Aman, Ph.D.
School of Library and Information Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
UWM-SLIS Occasional Paper 3
This revised edition is the story of the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina
in Egypt, starting with its vanished ancient predecessor. Dr. Aman is a
member of an international team of consultants for the new Library.
Proceeds from the sale of this publication will go to the University of

m
Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s efforts in the United States toward support of the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina. $10.00 prepaid.
ISSN 1050-8147
Payable to UWM-SLIS.
Send order to: Occasional Papers
UW-Milwaukee School of Library and InformationScience
P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 U S A .
Tele: 414-229-4707 FAX 414-229-4848 Internet: aman@convex.csd.uwm.edu

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