>Is there a freely available (public domain) isam library for java?
Mostly people use SQL. See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/sql.html
You might look at pervasive Btrieve. It is not free, but not that
expensive. It has a traditional ISAM interface as well as SQL.

Signature
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
Coaching, problem solving, economical contract programming.
See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html for The Java Glossary.