Library Technology Guides

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Volume 20 Number 01 (January 2000)

Acceptance testing- initial and ongoing

Most RFPs for the procurement of an automated library system call for acceptance testing after installation. While this is a good idea, it is rare for a system from a major vendor to fail such testing when undertaken shortly after the initial installation.

On the other hand, it is not uncommon for systems to become less reliable or slower after two or three years-even when a library is still well within the file size and activity levels set forth in its REF. For that reason, we recommend contract clauses which call for initial acceptance testing, and also ongoing acceptance testing. The following language has been accepted by most of the major vendors in the industry:

1. The acceptance tests shall consist of full-function, reliability, and response time tests. The Licensee shall begin the tests within 60 days of installation, database load, and completion of initial training. Reliability shall be measured over a period of 30 days. The other tests shall be undertaken during the same 30 days. Written notification of test results shall be submitted by the Licensee within 20 days of completion of the tests.
2. The functionality of each module shall be determined by ascertaining the presence or absence of each feature committed in Vendor's Response to the Licensee's RFP, except the test shall not include features for which Vendor has quoted a delivery date later than the scheduled test completion date. The Licensee may use Vendor's standard full-function test, but does not waive the right to test for anything else committed by Vendor.
3. The Licensee may have the Vendor conduct its standard reliability and response time tests, but reserves the right to test for all uptime and response time requirements as per the tables of coefficients and response times in the RFP.
4. The Licensee shall decide at the end of the first series of acceptance tests whether the system meets all of the functional requirements the Vendor agreed to meet. If the system does not, the Licensee may (a) waive the requirement, (b) require removal of the system with a full refund of all monies paid if Vendor has not remedied the deficiencies within 90 days, or (c) enter into negotiations.
5. Should the system not pass the reliability or response time test, the test shall be repeated. If the system again fails to pass, a third 30-day test shall be undertaken. If the system does not meet the response time requirements by the end of the third acceptance test, Vendor shall provide a hardware upgrade at its expense to bring system performance up to the agreed upon level.
6. The Licensee may waive one or all of the acceptance tests if it has reason to believe that they will be passed, but that will not adversely affect its right to conduct acceptance tests at a future date as set forth in the following clauses.
7. Acceptance tests may be repeated as new modules which were part of the initial procurement are implemented, except functionality previously successfully tested shall not be re-tested unless there is evidence that the loading of new software has adversely affected the functionality of previously loaded software.
8. The standard of reliability for future ongoing system performance shall be 98t for seven years following initial installation using the table of coefficients in the RFP as long as the system is kept under maintenance. Maintenance payments shall be reduced by 10% for each 1% that reliability falls below the agreed upon level.
9. Response time shall remain within the maxima specified in the response times table in the REP for seven years from initial installation as long as the transaction levels remain within those described in the REP and the Licensee keeps the system under maintenance. If the Licensee perceives a deterioration in response time, Vendor shall resolve the problem within 60 days of notification of perceived deterioration by providing appropriately qualified personnel at its expense. If response times are 30 seconds or more, resolution shall be within ten days of notification.

Ameritech Library Services now epixtech, inc.

In November, it was announced that Ameritech Library Services (ALS) had been sold to a private investment group. In late December, the company adopted a new name, epixtech, inc.

The sale and the subsequent name change will have no effect on the composition of company management. Lana Porter will continue to serve as President and CEO. Kate Noerr, Vice President for International Sales and Marketing, will continue to lead the company's international sales and marketing departments as well as all operations outside North America. Tyler Gingrich, Vice President of Software Engineering, will continue to focus on designing multilingual software and Internet-based services. Scott Wheelhouse, Vice President of Product Management, will continue to lead development of product plans and marketing strategies to further improve client communications. Vice President of Customer Operations Margaret (Meg) Fisher will continue to direct support of the company's customer services worldwide, and chief Financial Officer Rick Lawhun will continue to oversee the company's financial goals. Corporate address and telephone numbers also remain the same, but there is a new web address.

[Contact: epixtech, inc., 400 West 5050 North, Provo, UT 84604; (800) 288-8020; fax (801) 223-5202; www.epixtech.com].

Endeavor signs 25th ARL

Endeavor Information Systems has announced that the University of Hawaii has signed a letter of intent to purchase the Voyager integrated library system. The University of Hawaii is the 25th Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member to choose Voyager since Endeavor's inception. Including this system, Endeavor has captured 20% of the ARL marketplace.

ARL members must be major university libraries. According to the ARL, member libraries must include "distinctive research-oriented collections and resources of national significance in a variety of media." Qualifying ARL collections must be over 1 million cataloged volumes. ARL members also include non-academic libraries with collections of national significance, such as the Library of Congress and the National Library of Medicine, both Voyager customers.

[Contact: Endeavor Information Systems, (847) 296-2200;

Ex Libris grows and moves

Ex Libris has announced the signing of the Brandeis University Library, its third major academic library account in the United States in the past three months. The Brandeis system will support 100 concurrent users on a SUN Enterprise 450 hardware platform.

The flurry of sales has forced the company to move its Chicago offices to more spacious accommodations. The telephone numbers have also changed as a result of the move.

[Contact: Ex Libris USA, 1919 North Sheffield, Chicago, IL 60614-5527, toll-free (877) 527-1689; fax (773) 404-5601; www.exlibris-usa.com]

Innovative leads in the law library market

The Contributing Editor has recently been invited to make a presentation at a meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). As part of the research several library automation vendors were asked to provide listings of their law library installations. Innovative Interfaces is the clear leader in this market segment. Its total number of North American law library customers is currently 127.

The list of customers spans a wide range of types and sizes of law libraries. They include large academic libraries such as, Georgetown University Law Library, and Yale University Law Library; specialized governmental libraries such as, Chicago Municipal Reference Library, Executive Office of the President, and the special libraries of U.S. law firms.

Potentially, there is a major benefit to be derived from selecting a vendor that holds a substantial share of a market segment. Not surprisingly, the company's software development effort will tend to be responsive to the demands of a block of customers with similar needs.

The other vendor with a significant number of law libraries as customers is Sirsi Corp. , with over 50 North American law libraries as customers. Sirsi also appears to have a strong presence in law libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

[Contact: Innovative Interfaces, 5850 Shellmound Way, Emeryville, CA 94608; (581) 655-6200; www.iii.com].

Keystone Systems, Inc. forwarding address has expired

Keystone Systems, also known as KLAS (Keystone Library Automation System), is one of a number of companies that relocated more than a year ago and no longer has mail forwarding service from the U.S. Postal Service. That means that some libraries' RFPs have been returned. A library planning to send out RFPs to vendors should verify that current addresses are being used for all vendors. Fortunately, Keystone did not change its telephone and fax numbers, nor did it change its Web address, therefore, the company is not difficult to locate. It is also one of the systems evaluated by Karl A. Beiser in the March/April 1999 issue of Library Technology Reports.

[Contact: Keystone Systems, Inc., 8016 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27612; (800) 222-9711; fax (919) 782-6835; www.klas.com].

Open Text Corporation

We were recently asked for current contact information for Information Dimensions Inc. , the automated library system vendor that sold a large number of BASIS Techlib systems in the special library market worldwide. The reason why the reader had difficulty finding the company is that it has a new owner and a new name. The company to contact is Open Text Corporation. Unfortunately, the reader had relied on a two-year-old address list on the Internet. We know of no vendor list on the Internet that is completely current. Then a company cannot be found, try searching the Internet by product name. BASIS Techlib has been the product name for more than two decades even though the company name has changed three times.

[Contact: Open Text Corporation; (800) 499-6544 or (519) 888-7111; fax (519) 888-0677; www.opentext.com]

ProData address change

ProData, a vendor of automated library system software for IBM AS/400 machines is no longer at the address listed in most directories. Unfortunately, its mail is no longer being forwarded. The phone and fax numbers were also changed, thus making the company particularly difficult to find.

The easiest way to locate a vendor that has not changed its name is to call a toll-free directory service. Most vendors have toll-free numbers; these numbers seldom change, even when a company relocates.

[Contact: ProData Computer Services, Inc. , 2809 South 160th Street, #401, Omaha, NE 68130; (800) 228-6138; fax (402) 697-7576]

ILS evolving to SydneyPLUS

International Library Systems has begun to de-emphasize its name in recent advertising and on its letterhead. The new name, in large print, is "SydneyPLUS International." Its original name still appears in small print, but the company is clearly seeking to take advantage of the better known name of its principal product. Its Web address and e-mail address also reflect this new emphasis.

[Contact: SydneyPLUS International; (604) 278-6717; fax (604) 278-9161; www.sydneyplus.com; e-mail sales@sydneyplus.com].

COMPanion extends free software promotion

COMPanion Corporation has announced that it is extending the free single-user software promotion of its Alexandria product to April 1, 2000. School librarians can call COMPanion or visit its web site to request a free single user version of Alexandria to run on either Macintosh or Windows. Participating libraries also receive 60 days free technical support and a free electronic manual. This is not a demonstration version of the software. It is a fully functional license, with no limit to how long the product can be used. The retail value of the offer is $2,200.

Several hundred libraries have responded to the free single user promotion. One district plans to automate over 20 of its elementary libraries with Alexandria. Many of the respondents are private school libraries. Almost all of the libraries are automating for the first time.

The rationale underlying the promotion is that a significant number of single user licensees eventually purchase an upgrade to the network version of the product with which they have been working.

[Contact: COMPanion; (800) 347-6439 or (801) 943-7277; www.companioncorp.com].

Deteriorating PC performance explained

Several readers have mentioned deteriorating PC performance and have asked for an explanation of why a PC that is a year or two old performs less well than when it was new. Frankly, we didn't know, but we got the answer from someone who is an expert in the Windows operating system. The problem relates to how programs move in and out of Windows.

A program consists of many chunks of programming code called DLL files (dynamic link library) which are stored in Windows system directories. When a program is installed on a PC, a set of instructions is loaded into the Windows registry file. These instructions tell the registry, and therefore Windows as a whole, when and how to run the soft-ware's DLLs. When many instructions accumulate in the registry, the system begins to slow down.

Then a program is uninstalled, these DLLs are usually left behind. Performing the uninstall procedure, the user is alerted that a file may be used by other programs and one should consider keeping it. After receiving this advice, the user tends to respond cautiously to the "keep/discard" decision. If one says "yes," and the DLL is not used by any other program, one has created an "orphan DLL." These consume computer resources and, therefore, slow the system.

The best solution is a registry editing program that automatically checks and edits the system registry. These registry editors work by scanning the registry and looking for DLL files that no longer do anything useful. They then prompt the user to delete these files. The most widely used are Symantec's Norton Utilities 2000 and Mijenix's Fix-It Utilities. Each is available for Windows/95/98 at a price of $50.

The products are available at most computer stores or can be purchased online from the respective companies.

[Contact: Symantec at www.symantec.com; Mijenix at www.mijenix.com]

New Web resource library from Winnebago software

Winnebago Software Company, a developer of library automation software and Internet technology solutions has introduced the Winnebago Web Resource Library, a subscription service providing an up-to-date cataloged database of educational web sites. School librarians often seek to supplement their school's curriculum with high-quality, educational web sites but they often don't have the time to find, assess, and catalog the sites. The Web Resource Library provides these sites through a single database.

Web Resource Library provides access to web sites through the Winnebago Spectrum online catalog. The sites cover curriculum areas including science, math, language arts, social studies, geography, and the arts. Each web site's record contains the URL, multiple subject entries, title, author (if available), a complete notes field, curriculum topics, and age level information. The Web Resource already contains more than 1,500 web sites. Quarterly updates will include more than 1,000 new educational sites and ensure that the previously cataloged sites are still active and relevant to curriculum.

The Winnebago Web Resource Library requires Winnebago Spectrum v 4.x. The annual subscription price is $395, which includes quarterly updates.

[Contact: Winnebago; (800) 533-5430 Ext. 2001; or e-mail info@winnebago. com].

OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections online passes 2100 mark

OCLC has added 145 new journals from 17 publishers to its FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online. Among the new titles are 64 journals from Oxford University Press.

OCLC has completed negotiations for the addition of 400 more titles.

The full-text of the journals is accessible through the indexes in the FirstSearch databases. Ongoing access is provided for most titles because the publishers have agreed to let OCLC establish a permanent electronic archive.

OCLC also reported that 15,000 libraries around the world use the FirstSearch service. They performed nearly 62 million searches over the past 12 months, a 23% increase over the previous twelve months.

Other recently released OCLC statistics for the past 12 months show overall growth in participants from 30,154 to 34,775, 2.2 million new cataloging records, and an increase in location listings from 668 to 720 million.

[Contact: OCLC; (800) 848-5878; fax (614) 764-6096; www.oclc.org].

Microsoft finally finishes Windows 2000

It took 3.5 years and $1 billion, but Microsoft finally finished and shipped Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server to its manufacturing facilities. [A fourth version, the high-end Data Center, will be available in mid-year]. Microsoft will now start producing CD-ROMs and manuals, and computer system vendors will have the code in their hands for installation on their products. The launch date-the date that one can actually purchase the products remains February 17th.

Windows 2000 Professional is the successor to Windows 95/98. Preliminary testing by PC Labs, the testing unit of the trade publication PC Week, was impressive with regard to performance, but confirmed the earlier criticism that it consumes a big chunk of computer resources. Performance was poor on older Pentium machines and on those with less than 64 MB of memory.

PC Labs rated Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server far superior to Windows NT 4.0. It concluded that Windows 2000 Server is a "must-upgrade" for any NT 4.0 system, but it is also a "must-be-careful-upgrade" because it is difficult and time consuming to do. Extensive training and careful planning are advised. The cost, which begins at $999 for the base server software and five user licenses, is attractive, but implementation costs are likely to costs many thousands of dollars. Maintenance costs are likely to be better than for Windows NT 4.0 because once fully deployed it will provide a single view for managing an organization's network.

As with any major new product, the Contributing Editor recommends waiting several months until any bugs discovered by earlier adopters are fixed. Microsoft has already announced that it will continue to sell Windows 95/98 for another year and GartnerGroup, a market research firm that closely monitors Microsoft, predicts that Microsoft will continue to sell Windows NT 4.0 for at least two more years. Support for the products will go on even longer.

Barnes & Noble plans print-on-demand sales

This month Barnes & Noble began to work with publishers to build a digital library to support a print-on-demand service in its retail stores and on its web site. Books will be scanned into a print-on-demand system or provided in PDF format.

IBM will provide the printing and workflow technologies, servers, and software for electronic book management and distribution. It will also provide on-site management at a content-distribution center in New Jersey beginning in mid-2000.

Barnes & Noble expects that print-on-demand will increase the company's selection by 500,000 titles within five years.

No budget for the project was announced, nor has any pricing for the products been released.

Ambassador hosts TechPro office

Ambassador Book Service now hosts an OCLC TechPro office. An OCLC staff member works at Ambassador to provide OCLC cataloging on a contract basis for libraries that order books, videos, or other materials from the jobber. A participant in the OCLC PromptCat service, Ambassador sends to the TechPro office anything for which there is no matching cataloging record in the OCLC database. The cataloging is completed according to library specifications, with fully shelf-ready materials available from Ambassador.

[Contact: Ambassador Book Service at www.absbook.com]

Corrections to LTR "Security Products" issue

Two corrections should be made to the report on "Security Products for Libraries: Policy Concerns and a Survey of Available Products" which was published in the May/June 1999 issue of Library Technology Reports. Checkpoint, which claims to be the sole supplier of RF labels to Keytec Security Systems, has informed us that its labels cannot be sensitized and desensitized as reported. The Keytec distributor from whom we obtained the information has not responded to a recent inquiry.

The other concerns the compatibility of the electromagnetic tape targets of various vendors. In the report, it was stated that those of 3M, ID Systems, Knogo, and Sensormatic are compatible with one another, which is correct. Checkpoint targets are now manufactured under license from Allied Signal, the same company which holds the patents for the labels offered by the other vendors and therefore are also compatible with those of the other four companies listed above.

Internet service for the visually impaired

Braille readers can now read books on the Internet through Web.Braille, a service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). Over 2,700 electronic braille books are already available and hundreds more will be added in each of the next several years. Eligible users will be issued an individual user ID and password.

[Contact: NLS Publications and Media Section; (202) 707-9279 or e-mail rfis@loc.gov].

EBSCO Online offers lists of titles and publishers

The tremendous growth in the number of electronic journals available makes it increasingly common for selectors, reference librarians, and library patrons to ask whether a specific title is available online even before undertaking an author or title search. Visitors to Ebsco Online's web site can now view a list of titles and publishers without going beyond the log-in page and without entering a user name and password. The list is updated regularly. Users can sort and filter the list in various ways, then print or download it. The total number of titles available as of late November 1999 was 3,900, making Ebsco Online the most comprehensive single source of electronic journals.

[Contact: Ebsco Online, www.ebsco.com]

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