Library Technology Guides

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Volume 11 Number 05 (May 1991)

6th International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM

Microsoft changes horses

Multimedia, rather than CD-ROM, was featured at the Sixth International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM. The conference, sponsored by Microsoft, was highlighted by remarks from Bill Gates, President of Microsoft. He declared CD-ROM a big disappointment because it hadn't added enough value to information to compete effectively with print.

Miles Gilburne, a venture capitalist, echoed Gates' remarks and said that investors are not interested in CD-ROM. The market is not large enough. The potential must be hundreds-of-thousands of units. He urged tapping the expertise and capital in the entertainment industry.

Only Microsoft Bookshelf, the Electronic Encyclopedia, and Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia have sold more than 10,000 units each. Compton's already is a quasi-multimedia product in that it includes text, sound, and animated sequences; however, it lacks full motion video--an essential element in Gates' definition of multimedia.

"In order to have 'information at your fingertips,'" said Gates, "you must have a device which offers access to a broad range of information, including data, image, and sound. The best aspects of television and PCs must be brought together, not only to deliver more, but to overcome resistance by building on a technology that has much greater market penetration than the PC--television. That doesn't mean the screen has to be a television set; it just has to look like one."

Microsoft has formulated a "standard" for the multimedia PC. It consists of a 386-based PC with 2MB of RAM, a 30MB hard drive, enhanced audio, a CD-ROM drive, and Windows 3.0 with multimedia extensions (CD-ROM XA). Also crucial to multimedia is the use of compression techniques (using the MPEG standard) to get images into less than one percent of the space required for uncompressed data. (Without compression, one hour of motion video requires 81 Gbytes of storage--far too much for a single disc.)

Nine companies have committed to building and marketing devices which conform to the "standard," including heavy-weights such as, SONY, Commodore, JVC, Tandy, Kodak, IBM, and Fujitsu. The emphasis appears to be on the home market, with games and other entertainment the principal applications.

The thrust of SONY is exclusively entertainment, primarily games and movies Commodore's fifty 1991 titles will emphasize entertainment, with 17 games and a dozen children's stories. Tandy, Kodak, and IBM will stress hardware.

Microsoft has a slightly more elevated view of entertainment; it is teaming up with Voyager to do a multimedia product on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The $79.95 product will feature not only music but a video of the orchestral performance, a copy of the full score, and facts on Beethoven and his era. A Stravinsky disc is next. Microsoft is also redesigning its Bookshelf with illustrations and spoken pronunciation of words. The price will be $195. Fujitsu claims it will have 260 titles ready in 1991--all entertainment and business applications.

JVC is taking a broader view, considering multimedia as one market, with business, education, and consumer segments. Only Philips appears to be putting the business and education markets ahead of entertainment. They also consider WORM a viable alternative to CD-ROM as the storage medium.

Microsoft is repeating the conference in Frankfurt, Germany, this September 9-11, and hopes to get several additional vendors on the multimedia bandwagon before then.

Mammals: a multimedia encyclopedia

The most impressive multimedia product demonstrated at the Microsoft Conference was Mammals: A Multimedia Encyclopedia. The text contains the equivalent of the National Geographic Society's two-volume Book of Mammals. It covers over 200 different animals in twenty different orders. There are more than 700 full-screen color photographs, 150 range maps, vital statistics screens and fact boxes, essays equivalent to more than 600 pages of text, a glossary and an animal classification game. It also contains 155 animal vocalizations and 45 full-motion movie clips from the National Geographic Society's television specials.

The disc requires an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or compatible microcomputer with DOS versions 3.3 or higher, a VGA color monitor, a mouse, 640K RAM, and a CD-ROM drive with audio capability and Microsoft Extensions version 2.1 or higher. Users who don't have a mouse can also use the product, but the mouse makes the product easier to use. Mammals: A Multimedia Encyclopedia. requires no additional adapter cards and no set-up. It runs entirely off the CD-ROM disc. With Microsoft Extensions properly installed, the user switches to the CD-ROM drive, types "go," and the program loads.

The disc comes with no documentation--it was designed to be very easy to use, however. The disc includes all instructions in an audio track. The lower right corner of each screen has icons of a page with forward and backward arrows. Clicking on either of these will move for ward or backward to the next or preceding mammal in alphabetical order. Most of the icons appear under the mammal's picture. They include buttons to return to the main menu, to select another mammal by name.

The most striking feature of Mammals A Multimedia Encyclopedia is full motion video. It is that which makes the product truly multimedia. Clicking on the film icon will put a movie screen in the center of the monitor and display a clip from the National Geographic Society's videotape series, which has appeared on television. These clips range in duration from slightly more than half a minute to over a minute.

The ear icon produces animal vocalizations through the headphones or external speakers. There is a total of 50 minutes of audio, including a five minute introduction and a seven minute pronunciation guide. The remaining 38 minutes are devoted to animal vocalizations.

Mammals: A Multimedia Encyclopedia targets students in grades 4 through 12. Others, however, can also use it profitably.

At a price of $149.95, discounted to $99.00 for educators and educational institutions, this disc certainly aims at a mass market.

[Contact: National Geographic Society, Educational Media Division, 17th and M Streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036; (301) 921-1300 or (800) 368-2728; Fax (301) 921-1575. Also available from local authorized IBM dealers (part number 86F2558).]

Digital to open up VMS

Digital, maker of one of the most popular hardware platforms for library automation, has moved to retain customers who may be considering Unix over its proprietary VMS operating system. VMS will be rewritten to conform to the Portable Operating Standard Interface (POSIX) in order to achieve interoperability among VMS, DOS, ULTRIX (Digital's Unix implementation), and other versions of Unix. The five-year plan is intended to offer the best of both worlds: VMS performance and security, and Unix's networking.

Gaylord announces software-only sales

Gaylord Information Systems has an-nounced software-only installations of GALAXY, its integrated library system, in four academic libraries and one special library.

The GALAXY software-only installations at academic libraries include Miller Library of the Western New Mexico University, in Silver City, New Mexico; Learning Resources Center of Eastern Arizona College, in Thatcher, Arizona; Crisman Memorial Library of David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee; and Jennie King Mellon Library of Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The special library involving the GALAXY software-only installation is CEBAF (Southeastern Universities Research Association Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility).

All five installations include complete integrated modules for GALAXY cataloging, circulation control, and online public access catalog.

Gaylord provides library systems and services to libraries of all sizes and types, with complete modules for acquisitions, cataloging, circulation control, and online public access catalog, including authority control and reserve book room capabilities, as well as a total service and support program.

[Contact: Gaylord Information Systems, ?.O. Box 4901, Syracuse, NY 13221-4901; (800) 962-9580.]

IBM DOBIS moves to Ireland

Worldwide responsibility for DOBIS/LIBIS has been transferred to IBM EMEA (IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa) based in Dublin, Ireland. The move includes transfer of the DOBIS development lab from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There will continue to be four professional librarians in Academic Information Systems (ACIS) responsible for working with library systems development by IBM and its business partners (other companies using IBM platforms). To bring the partnerships with other companies to reality, IBM has implemented several important programs. INFOPMA, created in late 1989, provides a communication vehicle between the library community and IBM; a steering committee was selected from top level library administrators and systems librarians. The IBM representative to INFORMA, Anita Breland, has carried their input to product developers and to executive level planners. The first conference was held in Austin, Texas, in April 1990, and centered on three horizon issues identified by the steering committee: image, workstations, and telecommunications. Participants heard directions from IBM technologists in those three areas and from Henriette Avram on the importance of IBM's adherence to national standards. This year's conference in Long Beach, California, on April 7-9, 1991, focused attention on multimedia.

IBM has developed business partner relationships with vendors of library automation software to provide an array of offerings on all of its hardware platforms. These include offerings under AIX, IBM's Unix offering, and under IBM's proprietary operating systems. IBM works closely with its business partners to assure that they have access to IBM technologists and to future trends in their product line. IBM has also provided them with space in its exhibit at ALA conferences.

IBM has joined NISO as a voting member and distributes copies of draft standards to its business partners and to IBM product developers. It has also joined CNI, the Coalition for Networked Information, as a corporate sponsor and active participant.

MultiLIS incorporates windows into software

A unique windowing environment has been created to establish a more friendly and visually appealing look throughout the software. Context sensitive help messages and new screen displays have also been introduced to enhance the software. The windowing works on all DEC VT220/VT320/VT420 and compatible terminals plus microcomputers that use VT220 emulation. No additional hardware or software is required. The windowing features are being added to all of the existing modules (acquisitions, cataloging, authority control, circulation, OPAC) and the new serials control module.

In addition to the aesthetics, the windows routines have reduced the internal code by more than 15 percent. Library automation software is based on heavy input! output transactions with many disk access. With the windowing software, menu and display screens are frozen in a small amount of memory, thereby reducing the number of disk accesses.

[Contact: Dave Columbo, Multicore Library Services; (800) 753-0053.]

NOTIS releases 5.0

NOTIS Systems has begun shipping NOTIS Library Management System Release 5.0 to its customers. The latest release introduces a new generation of NOTIS integrated software: a completely new online public access catalog (OPAC) with labeled displays, cross references, and support for the Common Command Language (CCL--the Z39.58 ANSI standard). Other new features include a menu-driven " navigator" for staff functions, an online system control file, support for the USMARC Format for Holdings and Locations, automated fiscal year closing routines for the acquisitions module, and enhanced global heading change capabilities.

The OPAC has many local options. The menu-driven, online system control file puts implementation and daily maintenance tasks in the hands of the systems librarian, not the data center. The menu-driven "navigator" and other features are designed to facilitate staff training. The product continues NOTIS's commitment to support all applicable library standards by incorporating CCL and the new USMARC holdings format.

NOTIS sites will be implementing the new release over the next several months. Several plan to have the new OPAC in production by September for the start of the 1991-92 academic year. The release is already in operation at Fort Hays State University (Kansas) and Purdue University (Indiana) , the two beta test sites for Release 5.0.

Users of NOTIS's turnkey package, KeyNOTIS, will receive many of the Release 5.0 features in KeyNOTIS Release 1.1, now scheduled for shipment in August 1991.

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

Another national library for VTLS

The National Library of Indonesia (Jakarta) has become the seventh national library to purchase VTLS's library automation package. The other six are, the National Agriculture Library, National Gallery of Art, National Library of Finland, National Library of Malaysia, National Library of Scotland, and the Lenin State Library of the U.S.S.R.

The VTLS system will be implemented in phases after a retrospective conversion. NLI has contracted for the online public access catalog (OPAC), cataloging, circulation, keyword searching, authority control, and serials control. In addition, NLI has purchased the microcomputer-based Cataloging Enhancer for use by its 26 provincial libraries. The system will run on a Hewlett-Packard 3000 Series/Model 920 computer.

Established in 1980 by consolidating four libraries, the Library houses 500,000 titles and 850,000 volumes. Its holdings do not circulate, except for interlibrary loans. The collection consists of monographs, serials, maps, and non-book materials in the fields of social science and humanities, with the majority of the collection dating back to the Dutch colonial period of the 16th century.

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

TLC and PMSC announce A/V Access

The Library Corporation (TLC) has joined forces with Professional Media Service Corporation (PMSC) to introduce A/V ACCESS Cataloging Database, the first comprehensive, professionally cataloged A/V data base on CD-ROM. All A/V ACCESS cataloging is original, using AACR2 revised rules and LC subject headings and name authorities. Audio recordings are classed in ANSCR; some are also classed in Dewey; and some also in LC. Video recordings are primarily classed in Dewey, with some records also carrying LC call numbers.

A/V ACCESS provides almost 100,000 of the most popular A/V titles in all formats--CDs, LP albums, audio cassettes, video-cassettes, and laser discs--all professionally cataloged, all on one CD-ROM. The data base grows at a rate of more than 3,000 titles per quarter and offers full A/V subject coverage, including juvenile and adult music, spoken word cassettes, audio books, feature films, instructional and educational videos, language training, documentaries, travel films, children's films, and more.

A/V ACCESS, developed by PMSC, will be marketed by TLC as a part of its BiblioFile family of automation products. Current BiblioFile customers will pay $995 for the annual A/V ACCESS subscription which provides quarterly cumulative updates. New BiblioFile subscribers need to purchase BiblioFile Cataloging software for $2,250, the A/V ACCESS subscription, and have the appropriate hardware--an MS-DOS PC with 640K internal memory, a 40 Mb hard drive, and a Hitachi CD-ROM drive.

A/V ACCESS records include all appropriate MARC tags, indicators, and subfield codes with both fixed and variable fields. Full summaries are provided for all video titles, children's audio, and spoken word audio. Music audios include comprehensive contents notes and uniform titles.

For ease of use, A/V ACCESS records may be located by author, composer, ISBN number, or local LCCN number. On a BiblioFile Public Access Catalog, records may also be searched by performer, performing group, actor, narrator, director, publisher, number, or subject.

The Library Corporation, founded in 1975, has about 3,000 library customers for its BiblioFile automation tools and services. Professional Media Services Corporation, founded in 1982, is a leading library supplier of A/V recordings and cataloging and processing services.

[Contact: The Library Corporation, Research Park, Inwood, WV 25428; (800) 624-0559.]

Boston SPA to automate

The British Library Document Supply Centre, often referred to as Boston Spa, is developing an automated processing system to keep track of its more than 3.25 million requests a year. Not only will any of the 12,000 libraries which use the Centre be able to place orders online (via the existing ARTTel service) but they'll be able to check online for the response to their request. The Cen-tre now has 200,000 journal titles, 3 million books, and nearly 4 million other items.

[Contact: British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, England LS23 7B4; 011-44-1-798-8131.]

Hard disk backup

A number of surveys suggest that PC users are notoriously lax about backing up a hard disk--that is, copying files onto a backup disk or tape for safekeeping. Some day, the hard disk really could lock up, or "crash," making it impossible to retrieve any of the files on the disk.

Hard disk backup can be difficult if the approach is to buy a tall stack of floppy disks and start running the "backup" program that comes with every copy of MS-DOS. But there is a variety of hardware and software solutions on the market that can make hard disk backup relatively painless.

One of the best approaches Is to buy a device that can hold the full contents of the hard disk. Among the products on the market are removable hard disks, hard disk substitutes like the Bernoulli Box, tape backup drives, and optical memory storage devices like the WORM (write once, read many) drive. Most come bundled with software programs that will make an exact duplicate of the hard disk on the backup device, and update the backup automatically at regular intervals.

In some cases, these backup peripherals fit into an empty slot or floppy disk drive bay on the computer. More commonly, backup hardware is an external device. The hardware will cost from $400 to 4,000, depending on the type and size of storage peripheral.

Backup problems can also be addressed at substantially less cost with software solutions. There are dozens of backup programs available that copy data and program files from hard disk onto floppy disks. Prices in this category of software range from $0 for public domain programs available on CompuServe, to $200 or so for utility software that performs dozens of jobs in addition to hard disk backup.

Some of the programs have a built-in compression" feature; when they copy files to floppy disks, they automatically shrink the amount of space each file takes up. This makes for a smaller stack of floppies, but it requires using the same software to "uncompress" the file before it can be used again. Some backup programs let one choose whether to back up files in compressed form, or retain immediately readable files.

Most backup programs today have automatic update features; each time the program is run, it knows which files it has already backed up, and will only copy new files or those that have been changed the date of the last backup. With this feature, a weekly backup often can be reduced to less than 10 minutes.

For MS-DOS machines, "PC Tools" (Central Point) is the most widely used program. It includes a full-featured backup program along with a DOS shell and numerous other useful tools. "PC Librarian" (United Software Security) also stands out because it automatically creates a catalog of every backed-up file.

Survey Pro: opinion-sampling software

Now there is a tool for libraries who want to create and evaluate their own surveys. Survey Pro, a $195 package from Apian Software, is an easy-to-use program that allows users to design, print, and analyze a questionnaire. It requires an IBM-compatible PC and a Hewlett-Packard (or compatible) laser printer.

The program has three phases. First, the user designs and prints the questionnaire. Then, after the survey forms are filled out, the program is used to enter the responses. The last step is to analyze findings and print the results.

The program allows creation of open-ended questions or selection from several optional scales that measure levels of agreement, excellence, and importance. These scales, along with the appropriate questions, could be used to evaluate or help rank new programs or services in order of priority. There are also scales that allow respondents to enter numbers, dollar amounts, or percentages.

Once a draft of the questionnaire has been created, it can be dressed up with headlines and different type styles. There aren't any drawing tools, but a logo or scanned photograph created with another program can be imported. Survey Pro comes with a variety of laser printer fonts that are automatically loaded into the printer's memory.

Once the questionnaires have been filled out, the program is used to enter the data. The data entry screen is the same as that for the printed questionnaire. The program allows data to be collected from as many as 2,000 respondents. After data is entered, the program can print out a variety of reports. These range from simple tables showing the frequency of responses, to sophisticated cross tabulations that allow comparison of how responses to one question correlate with responses to others. This technique allows the breakdown of data by respondent's sex, age, income, or any other criteria.

The program also prints charts and graphs that can be used in printed reports or stand-up presentations.

Survey Pro reports total responses and averages, but it does not offer the sophisticated statistical reports needed by some prospective users. It does, however, allow the export of data to a standard format that can be imported into other programs so that one can, if necessary, analyze the data using a spreadsheet, data base, or statistical package.

[Contact: Apian Software, Santa Clara, CA; (800) 237-4565.]

British Library marketing CD-ROM

The British Library will soon be mar-keting a CD-ROM version of its "Conference Collection," a data base of 280,000 records for conferences held throughout the world.

Access will be by title, sponsor, venue, series, and keyword. The annual subscrip-tion price for the quarterly publication is expected to be 1450.

[Contact: British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, England LS23 7B4; 011-44-1-798-8131.]

They call it "shrinkage"

Retail stores call the loss of merchandise to thieves and mysterious circumstances "shrinkage." In 1989 the total loss exceeded 1.9 percent of inventory, a total of $2.2 billion in value. The retailers spent an amount equal to 16.6 percent of the cost on "shrinkage" prevention, including electronic detection systems, facilities modification, security personnel, staff training, etc. The result was that 45 percent of the stolen merchandise was recovered, usually before it left the building.

It is not uncommon for libraries to lose 1.9 percent or more of their collections in a single year, but it is uncommon for libraries to spend as much as retail stores for prevention. If one assumes that a library with 100,000 volumes loses 1,910 of them in a year, and the replacement cost (including acquisition and processing) averages $30, the loss is valued at $57,300. If 16.6 percent of that were spent on prevention, the prevention budget would be $9,512 per year. While that would pay for an electronic security system, including the targets and the labor to insert them, it would not pay for checkers at the exit, for physical facilities modifications, and for special staff training.

Only academic libraries, which often have exit control in addition to electronic security, spend more than their retail counterparts.

"Shrinkage" is something all library administrators should monitor, and they should be prepared to sell their boards and higher level administrators on a prevention budget, one at least comparable to that committed by retailers--and possibly more.

Carlyle moves

Carlyle Systems, Inc., has moved its corporate offices to: 2000 Alameda de las Pulgas, San Mateo, CA 94403; (415) 345- 2500; Fax (415) 349-3874.]

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