As presaged in previous issues of LSN, recent library meetings have been the forum for demonstrations of a number of products using laser videodisk as a storage device for machine-read-able data. Library Systems and Services Inc., has demonstrated its laser disk version of MiniMARC and The Library Corporation has also shown its Any-Book data base in this format. Other prototypes seen at ALA or SLA and not previously reported in LSN, include Disclosure, Carrollton Press and CLSI.
At the SLA meeting in New York, the Disclosure Information Group demonstrated LaserDisclosure, a prototype system for the electronic delivery of facsimile images of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company has been producing copies of SEC filings on microfiches and paper since 1967; the files grow by some 150,000 fiches a year, representing an enormous filing, organization and retrieval load. Although fiches are issued daily and subscribers receive them within seven to ten days after the documents are received from the SEC, timeliness can be a problem given the volatility of the subject matter. LaserDisclosure, due to be offered to 29 major Disclosure subscribers in New York in 1985, is designed to overcome all of these problems. Documents are scanned and the images, represented in digital form, are stored on optical laser disk retained at Disclosure facilities. Subscribers dial into the system to access a required document. The digital data representing the image of the piece will be transmitted from the Disclosure facility to a high resolution terminal at the user's site. Disclosure has chosen to utilize fiber optics channels to achieve the data handling requirements. [The fact that New York City offers fiber optics communication is significant in its choice as the initial LaserDisclosure site.]
High speed laser printers attached to the user's terminal allow rapid onsite printing of documents for which hard-copies are required. The scanning, storage and printing technologies used in LaserDisclosure are similar to those used by the Library of Congress in its DEMAND card printing system, and the hard copy outputs are of similar high quality.
Access to material published on fiches prior to the introduction of LaserDisclosure is also facilitated by the new system which includes a digitizing microfiche scanner. This is installed at the user's site and is used to convert fiche images, on demand, to a digital format for printing on the laser printer. The copy quality achieved by this process is far superior to that available with regular fiche printing devices.
Although not yet finalized, it appears that the costs of the service will be in the region of $100,000 to $200,000 a year; a cost that is apparently not significantly different from the charges now paid by full subscribers to the Disclosure products. Disclosure intends to continue producing SEC materials on fiche.
The system, as currently configured, uses laser disks developed jointly by Philips and Thomson CFS. The high resolution terminal is produced in California, and the laser printer contains components from several sources.
Carrollton Press, which developed and markets the REMARC file, showed a prototype videodisk-based reference support system at ALA. MARVLS--the MARC and REMARC Videodisk Library System--offers subject access to a file of MARC and REMARC records stored on videodisk. As demonstrated, the system configuration included an IBM PC, and a standard videodisk player. The demonstration disk contained some 230,000 records and associated indices--a load which utilized only about 20 percent of the total disk capacity. The data was accessed using proprietary search software. Carrollton has not yet finalized the marketing plans for MARVLS. Current thinking suggests that the standalone system will be made available to libraries on a lease arrangement for less than $30 per day. Other disk based products are also being considered.
CLSI demonstrated a videodisk-based cataloging support system known as Lasercat. Developed by a British sister company, the system provides local cataloging capabilities on an IBM PC using a resource file of MARC records stored on a videodisk. The disk is accessed using a standard domestic disk player and appropriate interfacing software. At present, CLSI is believed to be still considering appropriate development and marketing policies for this or a similar product.
[Contact: Disclosure, 5161 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20816 (301) 951-1300; Carrollton Press, Inc., 1611 N. Kent Street, Arlington, VA 22209 (800) 368- 3008; CLSI, 1220 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02165 (617) 965-6310.]
