Nine-track tapes continue to be the backbone of computer-assisted reporting. For 30 years, these trusty old reels have been the storage medium of choice for both mainframe and minicomputer users.

But, while nine-track reels remain popular, other media including CD-Roms, tape carts and others are now challenging their dominance. Knowing what to buy depends on your budget and your needs.

CD-ROMS

There is no reason why any news organization should not have a CD drive. They are cheap and easy to use. Double-speed drives cost about $160 and CDs hold 680 MB of non-corruptible data. Quadruple-speed drives available for about $900 can move data at a respectable rate of 600 KB/sec.

Some government data providers (notably the Environmental Protection Agency and the Census Bureau) are releasing data on CDs and more will be available in the future. In addition, private companies offer national phonebooks, business databases, industry directories, and other useful reference materials on CD.

But don't expect to get away with just CDs. Government agencies use them as consumer products rather than data storage, says long-time CAR reporter Elliot Jaspin of Cox Newspapers.

"CDs are terrific to distribute large amounts of data cheaply," Jaspin says. "But there are other kinds of data the government does not want to distribute freely and those will always be on some kind of mainframe storage tape."

Tape carts

A number of government and commercial users in the mainframe world have opted for 18-track 3480/3490 tape cartridges (carts) instead of nine-track reel tapes. Carts hold more data - depending on the data block size - and are smaller in size.

Larger organizations prefer them because they can be used with automated storage retrieval systems. But, except for the most well-supported CAR programs, not many people can afford their $9,000-plus price ticket.

Prices will inevitably come down, and Jaspin says he believes carts will start to supplant tape reels over the next two or three years.

In fact, tape reels may never really go away completely because of the large amounts of data stored on existing tapes. Like the transition from 5.25" to 3.5" floppies, CAR reporters may need both tape and cart machines for the next eight or nine years, Jaspin says.

Of course, there are alternatives to buying. In any medium to large city, many commercial firms offer to transfer data from carts to reel tapes at a cost of about $1 per megabyte (see your local computer magazines). Mail order services are also available through many companies.

Nine-track drives

Though they are admittedly waning, nine-track tapes are still a staple of the mainframe market and should be for the next century. But again, there are alternatives to rushing out and buying a new drive. If you've just started doing computer assisted projects, you might want to hold off investing the $4,000 it takes to buy an entry level drive until you've got a few projects under your belt. NICAR and a number of commercial houses will transfer data from nine-track reel to other media.

However, if you do decide to buy a nine-track drive, there are a few things to consider: For PC systems, a manual loading nine-track tape drive, controller card, cables and software cost around $3,800. Though there are cheaper models, they do not handle the high density reels (6250 bits per inch) that have almost become an industry standard.

Speeds vary significantly from baseline systems reading 10 inches/sec. to high end systems ($7,000 to $15,000) that move 200 inches/sec.

Make sure you have room on your PC to mount the controller card.

Because reel tapes come from the IBM-dominated mainframe world, it is not surprising they are more compatible to the PC than the Mac platform. For Apple computers, the choices are more limited and more expensive.

A manual loading baseline nine-track tape drive and software for a Mac starts at $4100. The drives use a standard SCSI interface and don't require installing a controller card.

One problem is that the system only supports one software program called Qutape.

NICAR is now offering CD mastering services, allowing news organizations to move their most used databases like drivers license or voter registration records onto the non-corruptible media. Also, NICAR can transfer data between 3480/3490 tapes and most media at below market price.