Library Technology Guides

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Volume 17 Number 01 (January 1997)

Long-distance via the Internet

There is an increasing amount of hype that promotes the idea of making long-distance voice calls over the Internet. The claim is that an organization can cut its telephone bills by 50 percent by using the Internet, rather than AT&T, MCI, or another long-distance telephone company. 'It isn't that simple, however, because the Internet was designed for data files that can tolerate delays, dropped packets, and retransmissions. Voice, in contrast, is delay-sensitive. The solution is to use sound-compression to reduce the delay in transmitting voice. Delays on voice calls over the Internet have been cut in half in the past year, but they are still 300 milliseconds, as against 50 to 70 milliseconds over the public switched telephone network. The projection is that delays will be reduced by half again over the next year. If so, the quality will be nearly that to which telephone users are accustomed, although other performance problems may remain.

Many performance problems will be addressed by RSVP (resource reservation protocol) , a standard from the Internet Engineering Task Force, scheduled for completion by the end of 1997.

A number of software vendors are starting to sell products which convert voice into packets that can be shunted via the Internet. The leading vendor in the field at this time is Vocaltec. ISPs (Internet service providers) are beginning to add voice options to their services. To date the transmission quality is poor even when one uses top-of-the-line hardware: ideally a 486 or Pentium machine with 16MB of memory, 28.8 modem, sound card, and high-fidelity microphone and speakers.

There are three methods for making calls: directory services, point-to-point connections, and gateways. Directory services are the most common. A user logs onto a server maintained by an ISP or special Internet voice vendor and views the list that indicates which potential recipients are online (they must be on-line to receive a call) . Then the user clicks on the IP address and initiates the call.

With a point-to-point connection, a user bypasses the directory server and simply enters the IP address of the calling party. As with directory services, the potential recipient must be online tc receive the call. So the sender may first have to e-mail or call the potential recipient to schedule the call.

Gateways involve a combination of conventional local telephone service and special servers at each end. A user in one city picks up the phone or clicks on the client software, connects to a local gateway, and dials the potential recipient's number. The call travels over the Internet to the gateway in the other community, which connects the call to the local telco. This is the approach being used by international call-back companies such as IDT Corporation.

The consensus in the industry is that it will be at least another two years before Internet voice is widely available and used.

Locating grants for information technology

Now that more than 50,000 libraries worldwide have automated one or more of their internal operations, there are not Many corporate; private and community granting agencies prepared to contribute toward the purchase of a basic automated library system; but grants continue to be made to libraries which innovate in some way. Increasingly, information about grants and the agencies which offer them is available via the Internet. The most useful URLs are the following:

Foundation Center http://fdncenter.org/
Grantweb http ://infoserv.rttonet.psu.edu/gweb.html

SLA seeking grant proposals

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is seeking research proposals in areas which fit its research agenda: how developments in society and technology will impact the special library; information seeking and use; expert systems; human and computer interfaces; information behavior models;--measures of productivity and value, etc. Up to $20,000 is available for a research project. Funds for the award are drawn from the Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Fund.

More information and application materials can be downloaded from SLAs home page at http://www.sla.org/

The applications are due by February 28, 1997. The award will be announced in June.

[Contact: Liana Sawyer, Special Libraries Association, 1700 Eighteenth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009; 202-234-4700; FAX 202-265-9317; e-mail liana@sla.org.]

Overview of the NDL program

The Library of Congress will present an overview of the National Digital Library (NDL) Program from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. on February 15 and 16, 1997. The presentations fall during the ALA Midwinter Meeting so that librarians in town for the conference can hear and see a detailed presentation and have an opportunity to ask questions.

Advance reservations are required.

[Contact: Library of Congress ALA Presentation Reservations; 202-707-2948; FAX 202-707-0190; e-mail lcala@loc.gov.]

Tips for vendor reference checks

Even a very detailed RFP will probably fail to elicit all of the information that a prospective customer would like to know about a vendor of information technology and its product. A library should, therefore, use a variety of information gathering techniques in addition to an PEP, such as: literature searches, reviews of listservs, product demonstrations, site visits, and reference checks. Despite the importance of the latter, checking a vendor's references, many libraries do an inadequate job of data gathering and end up with incomplete or misleading information.

The following tips are offered to make vendor reference checks more useful:

1. Request a complete list of the vendors customers but select no more than five comparable libraries from this list. Make your selections independent of the vendor's suggestions of comparable libraries.
2. Undertake the reference checks only after the number of vendors has been reduced to three or fewer finalists.
3. Prepare the questions in advance, and phrase them in such a way that they will perhaps elicit information you had not thought to ask. The following questions are illustrative but not definitive:
   1. what process did you use to select your vendor?
   2. which other vendors did you consider. . . and why?
   3. what were the deciding factors which led to the selection of your vendor?
   4. when was the system selected, installed, made operational?
   5. what modules are fully implemented?
   6. would you select the same vendor again?
   7. in what ways has the vendor performed above expectations; below expectations?
4. Follow up on unexpected, ambiguous, or contradictory answers in a manner which clarifies the response without any hint of being critical of the original response.
5. Offer to share information learned from the other references. (This can be a little tricky, however, since all information will probably have been given under a cloak of anonymity. You might limit this to informing them of your final choice and why you chose that vendor.)
6. If the interview is verbal, take detailed notes and transcribe them within a day.
7. Undertake additional reference checks, if necessary, to ascertain whether a reported problem is widespread or isolated. Such additional checks would be limited to asking whether a specific problem had been encountered by the institution called.
8. Give the vendor an opportunity to respond to negative comments while being careful not to identify the source.

Not all staff members are equally skilled at conducting a reference interview. Seek to assign the responsibility to persons who have good interpersonal skills, particularly those of asking questions in a friendly and professional way and listening attentively.

Carl releases Spanish language Kid's Catalog

CARL Corporation has released the Spanish language version of the Kid's Catalog. The product, which builds on recently introduced multi-language capabilities in the original Kid's Catalog product, was developed in partnership with the San Antonio Public Library. The vendor is prepared to workwith libraries on the development of a catalog in any language which uses the Roman character set.

The new product also has a spell-checker and provision for patron-placed holds. These capabilities will be available in all versions of Kid's Catalog beginning with version 1.6. The spell-checker is automatic, presenting an alternate spelling whenever there is no direct match. If the suggested spelling is accepted, the search is automatically reexecuted without any additional keystrokes. The patron-placed holds feature, which is optional, allows a user to activate a hold on an item from the bibliographic record screen.

[Contact: CARL Corporation, 3801 E. Florida Avenue, Bldg. D, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80210; 303-758-3030; FAX 303-758-0606; http://www.carl.org/.]

Currency on the Web

In mid-December we accessed the Web pages of 14 vendors of automated library systems to determine what is new. The most recent posting was 60 days old; the oldest was 180 days old. Just like recorded telephone messages, Web pages need to be updated frequently if they are to have the intended impact. It's somewhat disappointing to find the automation experts underutilizing this computer resource.

Retro Link signs major libraries

A number of major academic and research libraries are seeking to complete retrospective conversion of their large card catalogs. Following on earlier signings of the Folger Shakespeare and Newberry Libraries, three major research libraries have recently awarded contracts to Retro Link. The University of Southern California will have the vendor convert over 611,000 titles from 18 USC branch libraries. Some 10 percent of the titles are in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

Stanford's Lane Medical Library will have Retro Link complete its retroconversion which includes over 8,000 periodical titles.

The Huntington Library's project includes 550,000 titles, among them thousands of rare books.

[Contact: Retro Link Associates, 175 North Freedom Blvd., Provo, UT 84601; 800-765- 6508; FAX 801-344-6244.]

56Kbps modems arrive without standards

A score of vendors have now announced 56 Kbps modems for voice-grade telephone lines. Libraries should be wary of purchasing them, however, because there is no standard yet in place. This means that 56 Kbps modems from companies such as Haynes, Lucent, Motorola, Rockwell, and US Robotics are not interoperable-that is, a modem from one company cannot communicate with that of another. Lucent and Rockwell have agreed to the development of a proprietary solution to achieve interoperability between their 56 Kbps modems, but the rest of the industry appears to be holding back.

It is hoped that a 56 Kbps modem standard will be completed by 1998. When that standard is adopted, it is expected that all the major vendors will embrace it. Motorola has guaranteed purchasers of its product an upgrade to the future industry-standard even if it entails the provision of new hardware.

Security software for PCs

Libraries are increasingly deploying PCs for use by patrons, both for local applications and Internet access. All such PCs should be protected with security software. At a minimum such software prevents unauthorized changes to Windows configuration settings and to the hard drive. A library can also choose to restrict exit from Windows. While a number of products are available, one of the most widely used in libraries is Full Armor, a product marketed by Kintronics at a price of $79 per copy.

If the intent is to restrict access to CD-ROM drives or floppies, disk locks in a variety of sizes are available at under $30 per copy.

[Contact: Kintronics, P.O. Box 518, 2 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523-0518; 800-431-1658; FAX 914-347-2588.]

Color InkJet printers becoming affordable

While most libraries are not ready to deploy color printers for patrons, an increasing number are configuring staff PCs with them. There are at least three attractive options-all units which have both black and white and color cartridges and sell for under $350.

The Canon BJ4200 retails for approximately $290. It is a relatively fast black and white printer (5 pages per minute), and turns out color with a resolution of 720 x 360 dpi (dots per inch). The color printing speed varies a great deal depending on the number of colors. The color ink cartridges cost $40 each. Very high quality photographs can be produced if one uses special photographic paper ($1 per sheet). The printer can be used with DOS or Windows.

The Epson Stylus Color 500 also retails for approximately $290. While slightly slower than the Canon BJ4200, the unit offers higher resolution (720 x 720 dpi). It also offers Adobe's PhotoDeluxe photo-manipulation program. The color ink cartridges cost approximately $45 each. Special photographic paper is available at a cost slightly higher than for the Canon BJ4200. The printer can be used with DOS, Windows, and Mac machines.

The Hewlett-Packard 693C costs approximately $350. The resolution is 600 x 600 dpi. It is less expensive to operate than the others. The basic colot cartridge is under $30. A special color cartridge which can be inserted along with the regular cartridge to provide in-between tones such as magenta, cyan, and other colors of which we have never heard. Photographic paper is available for less than $1.00 per sheet.

Most of the other units on the market lack the image quality of the above or require substantially more costly supplies.

Gigabit Ethernet near

IEEE 802.3z Task Group, which met in mid-November, has passed the core elements of Gigabit Ethernet, a standard that would increase the throughput of Ethernet ten-fold from a maximum of 100Mbps to lGbp, to a draft writing group. The goal is to complete the standard by mid-1997. Both fiber optic and coaxial cable are anticipated to be included in the first version of the standard, but Category 5 UTP is being put off for consideration at some later time.

Auto-Graphics signs Tennessee

Auto-Graphics, Inc., will install and maintain a Web-based union catalog and interlibrary loan system for library users in 228 public libraries in Tennessee. The deployment of the system follows several years of development grants by the Tennessee State Library and Archives to small and mid-size libraries to convert their holdings to machine-readable form.

The contract also calls for Auto-Graphics to develop a statewide information and referral module.

[Contact: Auto-Graphics, Inc., 3201 Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768-3200; 909-595- 7204 or 800-776-6939; FAX 909..595-3506; Internet: info@auto-graphics.com.]

OCLC issues 1995/96 annual report

OCLC has issued its 1995/96 Annual Report. For the year ended June 30, 1996, OCLC's revenues were $148 million, up 3.5 percent from the previous year. Contribution to equity was $7.2 million, up 24.3 percent from the previous year.

OCLC provided libraries with $8.6 million in cataloging and resource sharing credits and made no changes in prices for core products in cataloging and resource sharing.

The OCLC PRISM service continued to be the largest and most heavily used cataloging and resource sharing system in the world. In 1996 the number of participating libraries increased from 21,148 to 22,645, libraries cataloged 22.4 million items online, 2.1 million cataloging records were added to the OCLC Online Union Catalog, location listings grew from 562 million to 602 million, and 7.9 million interlibrary loans were arranged online. Hours of operation for cataloging and resource sharing increased to 163 of the 168 hours in a week.

FirstSearch was the fastest growing end-user reference system in the library community for the third straight year and the second most-used system in the information community. FirstSearch users performed nearly 25 million searches, an increase of 57 percent over the previous year. OCLC added eight databases to FirstSearch, including NetFirst, a directory of Internet resources created by professional abstractors and indexers at OCLC. There are now 50 databases available on FirstSearch.

OCLC's international activities also grew. In fiscal 1996, more than 300 international libraries became OCLC participating libraries; more than 1,500 libraries in 62 countries outside the U.S. now participate in OCLC. In partnership with Tsinghua University, OCLC opened an OCLC Service Center in Beijing, China.

Hard-copies of the report can be obtained by writing to: OCLC, 1995/96 Annual Report, MC 104, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-3395. The annual report is also available on the World Wide Web through the OCLC Home Page [http://www. oclc.org/] under "About OCLC," "What's New," and "General Publications."

[Contact: OCLC Regional Networks; or OCLC, Inc.; 614-764-6000; FAX 614-764-6096; http://www.oclc.org/oclc/ar96/anreport.htm.]

OCLC announces Electronic Collections Online

OCLC is in negotiation with a number of publishers of journals to offer electronic editions online through FirstSearch. Nine publishers have already agreed to offer more than 260 journals electronically beginning in the second quarter of 1997. The majority of the journals will be in the sciences. The journals will be loaded in their entirety on or before their publication date. Libraries will be able to select the titles to which they want access. They will subscribe directly with publishers or subscription agencies. The new service will be known as FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online.

[Contact: OCLC Regional Networks; or OCLC, Inc., 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-3395; 614-764-6000; FAX 614-764-6096; http://www.oclc.org.]

Ariel now in 1,000 libraries

Ariel, the document delivery software developed by RLG, is now in use at more than 1,000 libraries worldwide. The software links scanners, computers, and laser printers to allow compressed transmission of articles. The resulting images are of higher quality than those transmitted by fax, and the cost is lower. However, it has been necessary to have computers with the Ariel software at each end; therefore, the benefits of receiving the transmissions has been limited to mid-size and large academic libraries, and a few special and public libraries. A MIME-compliant version will be released in early 1997, which will eliminate the need to have Ariel software at the receiving end of the transmission. Libraries which borrow more than they lend, therefore, can realize the benefits without purchasing the Ariel software; instead they need merely download an inexpensive MIME plug in from any one of a number of sources.

[Contact: Research Libraries Group (RLG) Inc., 1200 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041; 415-691-2267; or FAX. 415-964- 0943.]

WLN partners with jobbers

Libraries are increasingly seeking to reduce technical services costs by having book jobbers provide full MARC cataloging with the materials they order. Delays are also reduced because a library no longer has to have the item in-hand before cataloging is begun.

WLN has announced that it will pursue a new initiative with book jobbers that would deliver MARC records directly to the library along with the materials. The scenario would typically be as follows:

1. The library orders the item from the book jobber including information specific to that library, such as call number and local subject headings.
2. The jobber orders MARC records from WLN, passing the local information along.
3. WLN supplies the MARC record to the jobber, including local information. Depending on the contract, WLN can supply cards and labels as well.
4. The jobber includes the MARC record (via disk, FTP, etc.) when it ships the item so that the record can be available to the library's automated library system as soon as the item is received.

WLN has already announced two partnerships with book jobbers: Professional Media Service Corporation (PMSC) and Libros Sin Fronteras. The partnership with PMSC offers WLN online clients current media records for traditionally difficult to catalog materials. The partnership with Libros Sin Pronteras offers WLN libraries current Spanish language cataloging for Latin American materials, again a difficult area for many libraries.

[Contact: WLN, 4224 6th Avenue SE, Building 3, P.O. Box 3888, Lacey, WA 98503; 800-DIALWLN or 206-923-4000; FAX 206-923- 4009; Internet: info@win.]

Baby Bells propose broadening of contributor base for universal-service fund

The FCC is not scheduled to vote on a recommendation to provide heavily-discounted Internet connections to schools and public libraries until May 1997; but Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and US West are already lobbying the Commission and Congress not to fund the program solely from contributions by telecommunications carriers. Rather than expanding the existing universal-service fund to which telecommunications carriers already contribute some $2.25 billion a year, the Baby Bells want computer manufacturers, software developers, and Internet service providers to make contributions as well. Presumably this will lead to counter-lobbying by these groups. If the lobbying is intense enough, a decision by the FCC may be delayed.

ALA and W.K. Kellogg Foundation distribute report

The American Library Association and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation have recently published Buildings, Books, and Bytes; Libraries and Communities in the Digital Age. The study, which was funded by Kellogg, was undertaken by the Benton Foundation. The focus of the study was the willingness of the public to support libraries as they confront the digital world.

At the heart of the study is the compilation of data from a public opinion survey undertaken in April 1996. One conclusion drawn from the data is that "Americans continue to have a love affair with their libraries, but they have difficulty figuring out where libraries fit in the new digital world." The purchasing of new books is still considered the most important role of libraries by well over two-thirds of those surveyed, but nearly half consider the availability of computers and access to online services very important. The setting up of computers in public places such as shopping malls and community centers is considered very important by only one in five respondents.

There is a great reluctance to increase taxes to fund the cost of technology in libraries. There also is reluctance to pay for services such as access to personal computers and online services. Over one-third would not be willing to pay anything; more than half would pay no more than $25 a year; and only six percent would consider paying $50 a year.

Over 20,000 copies of the report have been mailed to ALA members in leadership positions. Copies are also available on request to the Benton Foundation. Soon to be available will be a companion report of case studies of pioneering libraries that are expanding services and forging new alliances in the digital age. [Contact: Benton Foundation, 1634 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006; 202-638-5770; e-mail benton@benton.org/]

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