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Want to track down an old flame? Get major help on your English minor? Impress friends with your expansive knowledge of phototropic bacteria? Don't make your fingers do all the walking through stacks and stacks of tree-killing tomes- just slip a disc into your CD-ROM drive. * Science Navigator (McGraw-Hill, for PC, Mac, and MS-DOS, $149.95) What's on it? McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Page equivalent: 4,435. Who's it for? Westinghouse Talent Search finalists. Quintessential search: What are some of the species in the Artiodactyla order of mammals? What you find when you search for Madonna: Madarosis is the loss of the eyelashes or eyebrows.
* Select Phone 1995 (Pro CD, for PC, Mac, and MS-DOS, $299) What's on it? Five thousand U.S. phone directories, on five discs. Page equivalent: One million. Who's it for? Class-reunion organizers. Quintessential search: What are the names and phone numbers of everyone in Mary Tyler Moore's New York City co-op? What you find when you search for Madonna: There's a Madonna Street in Paragould, Ark., and a Madonna Balloons & Cakes in Kennett Square, Pa.
* Library of the Future, 3rd Edition (World Library, for PC and MS-DOS, $149.95) What's on it? More than 3,500 novels, essays, poems, short stories, plays, religious and historical documents. Page equivalent: More than 160,000. $ Who's it for? Freshman English students. Quintessential search: I have a paper due tomorrow on imagery in The Red Badge of Courage. Where are all the mentions of the word red? What you find when you search for Madonna: In Little Women, Marmee gives Amy an engraving of the Madonna and Child for Christmas.
* Microsoft Bookshelf '94 (Microsoft, for PC and Mac, $69.95) What's on it? The Original Roget's Thesaurus, The People's Chronology, The American Heritage Dictionary, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Hammond Intermediate World Atlas, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1994. Page equivalent: More than 7,500. Who's it for? Jeopardy! contestants. Quintessential search: What's the monetary unit of Myanmar? What you find when you search for Madonna: In 1991 the singer said, ''Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book.''
