THE days of searching an office for a current telephone directory, only to find that someone has torn out the page with the number you need, are over at least for computer users.
It is now possible to type into your computer the last name of the person whose number you seek, along with a first name or address, and come up with the number, as the first Irish telephone directory on CD ROM becomes available Telecom Eireann yesterday launched its CD ROM containing the 775,000 listings which previously took up over 3,300 pages in six telephone books, weighing some 6.64 kilograms. It does not include the separate Yellow Pages for the Dublin area or the Yellow Pages parts of the other directories.
The single CD may weigh a lot less than all the phone books but it will cost more £22.95 for a single user licence, more for multiple users.
The commercial director of Telecom, Mr Michael Sheridan, said the disk was mainly aimed at the business customer who could be spending up to £100 a year on directory inquiries.
The new disk will not, however, be of use to all computer users. It will need a CD ROM drive, which is standard on most new computers, and it needs four megabytes of memory.
It runs on IBM compatible PCs and it can also run on the latest Macintosh, the Power Mac, but not on earlier versions of the Apple Mac. PC owners will not need the latest version of Windows Windows 95 as it will run on Windows 3.1 or later versions.
The new directory will contain information on international dialling codes, emergency information and details of Telecom services.
However, Mr Sheridan stressed that reverse searching, whereby an address can be obtained by typing in a number, will not be possible. Ex-directory numbers will remain ex-directory. There are also safeguards to ensure that it cannot be used to compile marketing databases.
Updated versions will be available yearly but more frequent updates may be made. Mr Sheridan said there was sufficient space on a single disk to continue to cater for the whole country for the next five years.
The disk is now on sale from local Telecom offices or from TE Directory Sales.