Library Technology Guides

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Volume 10 Number 12 (December 1990)

Illinois Bell offers single-line ISDN

Illinois Bell has announced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) service to non-Centrex customers--the first BOC (Bell Operating Company) to do so. (See: "ISDN Explained" in last month's LSN.) The service enables organizations to transmit voice, video, and high-speed data simultaneously over an ordinary telephone line without having to order Centrex services. The new service makes cost-effective ISDN available to users who want as few as one or two lines.

Illinois Bell is reportedly targeting the new service to all sizes of organizations, but especially to small businesses and organizations. Standard advanced voice features include call forwarding, three-way calling, speed calling, call hold, and call drop.

Prices are competitive-a small-sized user in downtown Chicago who orders one ISDN line to handle both voice and a computer would pay $22.66 per month, with an installation charge of $94.50. This compares with $18.78 per month and $148.50 in installation fees for the two TouchTone phones that are required to provide similar service. Videoconferencing is available for $35.66 per month, plus the $94.50 installation charge. Normal usages charges are not included.

The four other Ameritech Bell companies servicing Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio are expected to tariff the service in the first quarter 1991. Other BOCs are likely to make offerings in the next year.

EBSCO to participate in EDI with publishers

EBSCO will soon be able to transmit and receive financial information to and from publishers via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) using ASC X12. EDI is an exchange of business data between two computers. Through EDI, common business forms such as invoices and purchase orders can be transformed into a standard data format and electronically transferred between two organizations.

EBSCO is committed to implementing this method of communication for use with publishers and subsequently with subscription service customers via their automated library systems. The claimed benefits associated with ED! are use of a common "language" (ASC X12) for communication, increased administrative efficiency, improved accuracy, reduced mail time and reduced postage and handling costs.

Implementation at EBSCO Subscription Services will begin with the ability to electronically accept dispatch information from the publisher. Future applications of ED! will include the communication of invoice and claims information.

[Contact: EBSCO Subscription Service, P.O. Box 1943, Birmingham, AL 35201; (205) 991-6600.]

RLIN offers El Engineering citations and document delivery

RLG has introduced article-level data in a new RLIN Citations file together with a new document delivery option.

Ei Page One, from Engineering Informa-tion, Inc. (Ei) , gives RLIN users search-able citations based on the tables of con-tents of over 3,000 engineering journals and conference proceedings. The data appears in RLIN approximately six weeks earlier than in Ei's abstracts data base, Compendex*Plus. Ei Page One coverage is currently 25 percent greater than that of Compendex*plus; within the next year, it is expected to grow another 35 percent to more than 4,000 publications, about half of these being conference proceedings.

In addition to the journal citation access, El also offers expedited delivery of full-text articles or papers to RLIN users. Ei's Document Delivery Service (EiDDS) is accessible by mail, telephone, fax, telex, or electronic connection. Users of the RLIN interlibrary loan (ILL) service can automatically turn an Ei Page One record into an online request to EiDDS.

As an introduction to this service, through March 1991, Ei is offering RLIN users a special flat rate. Subsequently, the charge will be on a sliding scale, depending on the total requests received from all RLIN users each month.

Ei Page One is also scheduled for release soon in an EiDisc CD-ROM version, in which citations will be organized in browsable, searchable tables of contents format.

The Citations (CIT) file is in the ninth bibliographic file in the RLIN cen-tral data base (the others contain catalog records for books, serials, visual materi-als, archival materials, maps, musical scores, sound recordings, and computer files). The new file has the same charac-teristics and is searched using the same indexes as the Books (BKS) file--with the special feature that the title word (TW) index acts on the titles of articles and individual papers, while the related title (RT) index acts on journal and con-ference titles.

[Contact: The Research Libraries;Group, Inc., 1200 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041-1100; (415) 962-9951; Attn: Jenifer Hartzell at (415) 691-2207; or Marcia Kaufman, Ei, (212) 705-7616.]

U.S. intelligence community sponsors CD-ROM standard

The United States Intelligence Community has proposed a standard for CD-ROM read-only data exchange that is designed to ease interoperability of various CD-ROM systems. The Information Handling Committee of the Intelligence Community is responsible for developing the proposed standard. While CD-ROM could be an ideal medium for sharing data bases, the absence of interoperability among disks recorded by different manufacturers' systems has been a major obstacle to its use, according to the Director of Central Intelligence office. Copies of the proposed standard, called CD-RDx, will be made available to a range of government and industry organizations for review and comment.

[Contact: IHC, Intelligence Community Staff, P.O. Box 90828, Washington, DC 20090-0828.]

CD-ROM care and cleaning

CD-ROMs are not indestructible. Because the driver reads information from the underside of the disc, scratches here will prove most troublesome. It's a good idea to periodically clean CD-ROMs with a dry, soft cloth. Wipe from the center and avoid solvents or abrasive cleaners.

CD-ROM LAN benchmarking

For some time, the editors have been expressing concern about possible poor performance of CD-ROM drives on a LAN (local area network). Suitable benchmarks for projecting performance have not been apparent. Recently, we heard that Meridian Data, Inc., was conducting benchmark tests on its CD-LAN, the most popular of the CD-ROM network products. Meridian only tested one aspect: the ability of a network to support "concurrent" or simultaneous users accessing different CD-ROM drives. In the test, the load was created by measuring the search time against one Dialog data base disk on a single workstation, while having three other workstations simultaneously doing a continuous search and title or name display of extremely large data sets, each targeted to a different CD-ROM. Performance of the devices on the network was good, with response time dropping by as little as ten percent as additional users were added.

However, we still want to know what happens when several users seek to access the same CD-ROM drive concurrently? That is more to the point, because libraries are apt to put CD-ROM products on networks because they are popular, and therefore likely to be accessed by multiple concurrent users.

Anyone with benchmark results on users accessing the same CD-ROM on a network is invited to contact Contributing Editor, Richard W. Boss, at ISCI.

Microsoft announces CD-ROM conference

Microsoft has announced the Sixth International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM. The title of the conference will be "Progress and Promise." The dates are March 18-20, 1991, at the San Jose (California) Convention Center. Over 75 exhibitors are expected. The registration fee is a heady $1,095 per attendee, but those who have attended past conferences say the conference is worth it.

[Contact: CD-ROM & Multimedia Registration, c/o Galaxy Registration, Inc., P.O. Box 3379, Frederick, MD 21701.]

National Online Meeting

The National Online Meeting and IOLS '91 will be held at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in New York City. The National Online Meeting is a three-day conference (May 7-9, 1991) , while IOLS '91 is for two days (May 8-9, 1991). Both conferences include presented papers, product review sessions, and exhibits (the exhibit program runs the full three days for both conferences). The 1990 meeting drew an audience of over 4,200 attendees and 150 exhibitors in the fields of online data bases and automated library systems.

[Contact: National Online Meeting, Learned Information, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055; (609) 654-6266; Fax (609) 654-4309.]

WordPerfect continues as market leader

Third Quarter sales to corporations and institutional users once again placed Word Perfect 5.1 in first place, with Lotus 1-2-3, release 2.2 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 following in second and third place. Harvard Graphics 2-3 and Fastback Plus 2 came in fourth and fifth respectively.

Magnetic tape basics

Most libraries begin local library automation by loading a data base drawn from bibliographic utility archival tapes and retrospective conversion tapes. Usually the tapes from various sources are merged and deduped by a bibliographic service prior to loading. Increasingly, libraries also are having authority work done before tape loading. It is essential that a library develop specifications for these magnetic tapes. The specifications should include standards, format, density, and tape length.

The standards for the representation of data are the USMARC communications formats for bibliographic data, authority data, and holdings data, all of which have as their foundation the American National Standard for Bibliographic Information Interchange (NISO Z39.2)

MARC records are generally written to half-inch, 9-track, magnetic tape, with data coded in ASCII. ANSI standard tape labels precede and follow the MARC record data file. Most bibliographic utilities and vendors transfer library files with data written in the OCLC-MARC format using unblocked, variable-length records. An interblock gap, or blank space of about 1/2" separates the records from one another. The Library of Congress, and a few other data base producers, write records in a blocked (2048 bytes per block) and spanned format. Blocking and spanning substantially increase the tape's storage capacity and a vendor should be able to handle both blocked and unblocked tapes. However, if the library is given a choice between receiving its records in OCLC-MARC or LC-MARC format, it should choose the former since not all vendors can read blocked and spanned tapes.

Library vendors import and export catalog records written at 1600 or 6250 bytes per inch (BPI). The most common density at which data is written to tape is 1600 BPI and tape drives installed as part of automated library systems often only read and write data at this density. Use of 800 BPI is obsolete.

Half-inch, 9-track tape is available in reels of 600, 1200, or 2400 feet. The number of records that can be stored on a magnetic tape depends on Br! density, length of the tape, and record size. Assuming an average MARC record length of 800 bytes, about 20,000 records can be written to a 2400 ft. tape at 1600 BPI. The same tape written at 6250 Br! holds over 60,000 records.

A half-inch, 9-track tape drive costs between $10,000 and $20,000. A library can save up to 80 percent by substituting a cartridge tape drive. However, it will then be necessary to reformat from the half-inch, 9-track format to the cartridge for loading into the system, and from cartridge to half-inch, 9-track when dumping records from the system for processing by a bibliographic service. A library that chooses the cartridge option should ask the vendor of its library system to commit to provide such reformatting. The cost typically is $150 per occurrence.

Care should be taken in storing magnetic tapes. Ideally, tape reels should be hung vertically in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. If possible, they should be "refreshed" or rewritten onto new tape every two or three years. Great care should be taken to keep tape away from magnetic fields, direct sunlight, and heat or humidity extremes. If tapes are corrupted, a tape processing service may be able to restore much of the information, but it may be costly.

Data Trek opens new office in U.K.

Data Trek, Inc. (DTI), a major vendor of library applications software, has recently opened a London Office. The company now has offices in New York, Paris, London, and California, along with distributors around the world in order to manage the accounts of more than 1,300 customers. DTI reports that it is growing at a rate of one new customer every business day.

DTI has been testing a new product, the Ultimate Library System (ULS), the result of two years of development work by a staff of 15 analysts and programmers. ULS is written in the C language, has variable field lengths, is fully MARC compatible and able to export and import full MARC records, and is capable of indexing on every word in the data base. The product is available not only for IBM-PCs and clones, but also for Digital VAX platforms.

According to DTI, it will continue to support, update, and enhance its current product, the Card Datalog System, indefinitely.

[Contact: Data Trek Inc., 5838 Edison Place, Carlsbad, CA 92008-6596; (619) 431-8400 or (800) 876-5484; Fax (619) 431-8448.]

Geac acquires New Zealand vendor

Geac Computers Corporation Ltd. has announced the purchase of Fact International Ltd. of New Zealand. Fact is an $8 million per year supplier of integrated management control systems for manufacturing, distribution, and financial accounting applications. The move is part of Geac's diversification program. It might be taken as an indication of Geac's return to financial health. Annual revenues are now at a pace of $80 million.

[Contact: Geac Computer Corporation Limited, Markham Corporate Campus, Suite 300, 11 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 9T8; (416) 475-0525; Fax (416) 475- 3847.]

muItiLIS strengthens U.S. presence

The Sobeco Group Inc. of Montreal has announced the creation of MultiCore Library Services based in Columbus, Ohio, to promote and support multiLIS in the United States. The new company is the merger of MultiLIS Corporation and MultiLIS Midwest.

Sales of multiLIS for 1990 have surpassed sales in past years, with clients such as Southeastern Massachusetts University, Bridgewater State College, Parliament Library of Canada, Montreal Public Library (300+ terminals), Toulouse Public Library in France, and the University of Laval in Quebec City (250 terminals).

Some of the reasons cited by new customers for selecting multiLIS include network authority management control, user-friendly interface with pop-up windows, Open Systems architecture and direct CD-ROM data base access from the OPAC.

The development and support staffs have recently been doubled. The circulation module has been extensively improved with pop-up windows and functionalities to address the needs of medium and large public libraries. The next scheduled upgrade to the software is First Quarter of 1991. Installations of the Serials Control module incorporating the latest NISO standards will begin in February 1991.

The installed base of multiLlS users includes academic, public, special, and cooperative (consortium) libraries ranging in size from 15,000 to over 2 million items. The multiLlS software runs on a variety of hardware platforms including DEC's VAX/VMS based systems, NCR Corporation's Tower family, and MIPS RISC architecture computers operating standard Unix System V.

NOTIS signs up Kentucky and Oklahoma State

The University of Kentucky (UK) Library System in Lexington, Kentucky, has selected the NOTIS Library Management System. The UK system has over 2 million volumes and serves the main campus in Lexington as well as 13 satellite sites throughout the state. In addition to implementing the Library Management System, Kentucky also plans to mount MEDLINE and ERIC using NOTIS' Multiple Database Access System. (MDAS). Three more data bases will be added in the future. The NOTIS Library Management System provides a complete set of features for all library operations, including an online public access catalog (OPAC). When the Multiple Database Access System is added, the library can offer one user-interface for searching locally-mounted data bases and the OPAC. Data base citations are automatically linked to library holdings.

In addition to the NOTIS Library Management System, the Edmon Low Library at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has selected the NOTIS Multiple Database Access System for its local integrated system. Oklahoma State is the fifth NOTIS installation in the state. Oklahoma State has a collection of over 1.5 million books with 14,000 serials and 2.3 million microform units. The library is also a GPO Regional Depository and a U.S. Patent Depository.

The two contracts, both ARL libraries, bring the total number of NOTIS customers to 140. NOTIS is the vendor of choice for 43 percent of the ARL libraries.

[Contact: NOTIS Systems, Inc., 1007 Church Street, 2nd Floor, Evanston, IL 60201-3622; (708) 866-0150; Fax (708) 866-0178.]

Muskego Public and AIA choose NSC's AARCS

NSC, Inc., has announced the addition of Muskego (Wisconsin) Public Library and the American Institute of Architects to its list of AARCS (Automated Records Control System) users.

The Muskego Public Library has a volume base of approximately 63,000 and a circulation of approximately 126,000. It will be running NSC, Inc.'s, library automation software, AARCS on IBM's AS/400. The software modules that Muskego Public Library has purchased are: Catalog, MARC Authority Processing, MARC Catalog Processing, MICRO Catalog Processing, MICRO Circulation Backup, Patton/Circulation Control, Seriais/Acquisition, and System Administrator. Muskego Public Library will also implement NSC's barcode software to produce its patron registration cards.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional association for architects, interns, and those affiliated in the practice of architecture. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 296 state and local chapters representing more than 52,000 members. The AlA will be running NSC, Inc.'s library automation software, AARCS on IBM's AS/400. The software modules that AlA have subscribed to are: Barcode Printing, Catalog, MARC Authority Processing, MARC Catalog Processing, MICRO Catalog Processing, MICRO Circulation Backup, Patron/Circulation Control, Serials/Acquisition, and System Administrator.

Several of the 20 libraries that currently use NSC's AARCS software have formed an Independent Users Group. The main announced purpose for organizing the group is to discuss ways of improving library service. Ideas and suggestions will be passed along to NSC, Ind., for review and will be considered for future software enhancements.

[Contact: NSC, Inc., Software Solutions, Business Park, 428 West Ryan Street, Brillion, WI 54110; (414) 756-5305 or (800) 624-5720; Fax (414) 756-2359.]

VTLS update

VTLS, Inc., observing its fifth year as a private software company, has announced sales of $3.6 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1990. Income before taxes exceeded $430,000. The company sold 20 VTLS-89 packages during the year, bringing the total number of installations to 127. It also sold nine micro-VTLS packages, bringing that total to 44. There are now VTLS users in 13 countries, a little over half of them in academic libraries.

Among the most important of the new contract announcements by VTLS is that of three universities in Barcelona, Spain: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), and the brand new Universitat Pompeu Fabra. In addition to the basic software packages, the libraries have contracted for Acquisitions and Fund Accounting, Intelligent Workstation, and the Remote Interface Manager and will use the VTLS/BiblioFile interface for some cataloging.

UAB's library operates with a Hewlett-Packard 3000 Series/Model 925 computer that supports 98 terminals and 14 microcomputers some of which were part of the existing campus network with which VTLS melded. The university library system includes 13 libraries-10 on the main campus at Bellaterra and three in other cities and houses about 500,000 volumes and 18,000 serials. The library's records are undergoing a massive retrospective conversion into machine-readable format that supports the local standard, CATMARC, which VTLS not only can import but also can maintain.

UPC's system runs on a Hewlett-Packard 3000 Series/Model 925LX computer, which, in this first phase, supports 47 terminals. The library system consists of 14 libraries located in six cities. Although UPC was already using an automated library system developed in-house, it chose VTLS in order to network with its associated centers and with other universities in Catalonia. The network, UPCNET, will eventually link up 1,000 terminals with the central computer and allow resource sharing and interlibrary loans. Founded in 1971, UPC has a student population of about 35,000 and specializes in engineering, architecture, and computer science.

The new Universitat Pompeu Fabra is holding its first classes with 325 students this fall. Its library features a Hewlett-Packard 3000 Series/Model 925 computer, which supports 12 terminals and 19 microcomputers. The initial system can handle 100 concurrent users and up to 500,000 bibliographic records and may be expanded later. In this first phase, the library will house about 12,000 volumes and 1,500 serials. Those numbers should double after a year when more library space becomes available. The university focuses on the social sciences and on providing quality education for regional students.

VTLS has also stepped up its efforts to sell the IBM version of its product, MARCUS Integrated Library System. This move was precipitated by IBM's announcement of the new Enterprise System/9000 (ES/9000) processors. The ES/9000 family includes 18 processor models which are successors to the ES/9370, ES/438l, and ES/3090 families. The significance of this announcement to VTLS, Inc., is that IBM has also announced a new operating system, VM/ESA, that brings uniformity across three current IBM VM products: VM/SP, VM/SP HPO, and VM/XA. The new operating system allows a single VM operating system to be run across the entire ES/9000 family.

MARCUS is not available for immediate delivery because Phase II of the MARCUS Performance Testing Plan has shown that although all MARCUS features are available and functional, the performance of the system using SQL/DS with a large number of concurrent users does not yet meet the vendor's requirements. VTLS, Inc., will take the next three to five months to further enhance the performance of SQL/DS and the MARCUS systems. By taking advantage of the improved performance and productivity of the SQL/DS data base management system available with VM/ESA, and by restructuring several key data sets to be more efficient, MARCUS availability should mesh with widespread availability of the new platforms. The significant improvements with SQL/DS under VM/ESA include: 3.5 times faster loading data, 4 times faster index organization, and 50 times faster query.

[Contact: VTLS, Inc., 1800 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060; (703) 231-3605; Fax (703) 231-3648.]

NREN legislation

Compromise legislation developed by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to establish and fund a national research and education network passed the Senate on October 24, but the House of Representatives failed to act on the Senate-passed bill. The legislation will likely be reintroduced early in the next session.

The compromise legislation makes no single agency responsible for leading the development and management of the network. The President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) through the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) is charged with coordinating many of the agency networking activities. The Department of Energy is given authority to establish its own network, establish consortia at national laboratories to undertake R&D on high-performance computing, networking, and software development. Overall, many of the provisions in the NREN bill relating to education and libraries have been deleted.

IBM's high-performance RS/6000 announced

IBM has added a high-performance model to its RS/6000 line of workstations and servers that provides the machine's users with minisupercomputing power. The company is also incorporating into the line improved memory technology and allowing--for the first time--field upgrades from less powerful RS/6000s to more robust machines. Furthermore, Big Blue has reached its goal of providing one-month delivery for most RS/6000 models, down from two months earlier this year.

The new high-end model, the Powerstation/Powerserver 550, features a 41.6 MHz CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconduction) clock rate and 56-MIPS (millions of instructions per second) performance. In addition, the company said that 4-Mbit memory tech-nology, which was previously available only on the RS/6000 540, will be offered with the new model and be an option across its entire RISC (reduced-instruction set computing) workstation lThe. IBM also said that it is making available a more powerful version of the AIX Fortran compiler for the workstation series. The Fortran compiler for AIX, IBM's version of the Unix operating system which is run on all RS/6000 models, will boost the line's system performance.

List price for the Powerstation/Powerserver 550, including AIX, starts at $135,322. Delivery is scheduled for March 1991.

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