Library Technology Guides

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Volume 20 Number 07 (July 2000)

The use of viability criteria in the qualifying of vendors

Libraries commonly issue an RFP for an automated library system using a multiuser operating system such as UNIX or NT server to develop criteria on which to base the distribution of the RFP. Copies of the RFP are sent only to vendors who meet the criteria. Although the list of criteria may differ from library to library, they have some common elements. They are:

1. Availability in genera] release of the core modules: acquisitions, serials control, cataloging circulation, and the patron access catalog.

   When all the core modules of a product are in general release, evaluation is more reliable. It also shows the vendor is committed to developing enhanced and new modules.

2. Minimum annual sales of $5 million, $10 million, or some other figure.

   Size is becoming increasingly important in the fierce competition within the library automation market. Companies with sales of less than $5 million a year are barely visible. Major players all have sales of more than $15 million per year.

3. A minimum of 100, 200, or some other number of installations.

   The larger the installed customer base, the more likely that maintenance income and sales of upgrades can keep a company profitable even if “new name” sales (sales to libraries not already customers) are lackluster. Unless the installations are tiny, 100 sites are sufficient.

4. A minimum of 20, 50, or some other number of ‘new name” sales (sales to libraries not previously customers) in the previous year.

   The “new name” sales usually are the source of funds for product development. Vendors can seldom maintain a strong program with fewer than 20 “new name” sales a year; 50 are far better.

5. A minimum of 15, 25, or some other number of full-time programmers.

   The question is whether “new name” sales are actually funding aggressive product development. A staff of 15 is an absolute minimum to keep pace with the industry—more if a vendor seeks to lead it.

6. A customer support ratio of 1:15, 1.10, or some other number.

   The ratio of support staff to installed sites is a key measure of the support a customer could expect. But many other variables also affect customer support, so a ratio poorer than 1:20 is merely an indicator of possible weakness in support.

Although each library likely adjusts the criteria, the figures in the following chart can help determine which vendors can be considered viable. They were obtained as part of LSN's annual survey of the industry. Some of the revenue figures have been estimated. Only vendors with revenues of at least $5 million in 1999 have been included.

Please note: the support ratio for TLC is 1:8, not the 1:38 reported in the May 2000 issue of LSN Also, note that the TLC support staff of 28 is dedicated to Library.Solution. The support of other products is the responsibility of other staff.

Vendor Viability Statistics
Company Support	$ Sales (millions)	# Sales	# Installed	Dev. Staff	Staff Ratio
Adllib	10-15	100	407	7	1:1
CARL	10-15	0	34	37	1:34
DRA	30-35	135	1,380	105	1:17
Endeavor	25-30	183	598	33	1:14
EOSi	5-10	24	369	9	1:46
epixtech	80-90	150	3,637	110	1:12
Ex Libris	15-20	98	479	43	1:5
Fretwell-Downing	5-10	31	155	23	1:11
Gaylord	10-15	7	4	57	1:7
Geac	45-50	57	673	62	1:7
Innovative	60-70	104	696	75	1:6
Open Text	35-40	10	269	7	1:22
Sirsi	30-35	166	769	41	1:8
TLC	10-15	67	230	29	1:8
VTLS	10-15	21	425	33	1:14

Although current viability does not guarantee long-term strength, the vendors who exceed the viability criteria, which most libraries adopt, have a very low failure rate, and those who fall far short often fail within five years.

Workstations for patrons

If patrons who only seek call numbers complain that all the PCs are busy because of Internet use, consider providing two types of workstations for patrons: “express catalogs” for the patron access catalog and “electronic access stations” for many electronic sources of information. Even if the patron access catalog is Web-based, software is available for restricting access to the Web server on which the patron access catalog is mounted.

“Express catalogs” typically are located inside the entrance of a library, or just off the stairs onto an upper or lower floor, which helps patrons remember passing the devices should they need to consult the patron access catalog after reaching the shelves. The patron access catalog devices should be at standing height because their use is often brief. Configure each “express catalog” with a screen printer so patrons can print the records for the materials they have identified.

Access to information that goes beyond a library's patron access catalog requires more time, primarily because there is so much data. A library should, therefore, also install “electronic access stations” for use by patrons. These should provide access not only to the library's patron access catalog, but also other libraries' systems, online reference services, and resources on the Internet. Put the “electronic access stations” near a reference desk because the patrons using them often need help.

The placement of the “electronic access stations” is important because the PCs should not become convenient patron access catalog devices—even though patrons can access that module of the local automated library system with it. Place them farther from the library entrance than the “express catalog” so that the latter is reached first. This prompts patrons to mostly use the “electronic access” stations for Internet access.

The advantage to patrons of coming to the library, rather than accessing electronic resources externally, is that librarians' familiarity with resources on the Web and techniques of online searching can facilitate research. “Electronic access stations” typically are configured with network printers, and often libraries charge for printing because the number of pages printed is larger than that which is common with patron access catalog lookup.

The differentiation between “express catalogs” and “electronic access stations” can extend the life of the PCs. As new machines are purchased, they can be used as ‘‘electronic access stations.” About three years later, they can be used to replace the PCs being used for the “express catalogs” (or circulation charge/discharge), and the machines replaced can be retired.

The minimum specifications for “electronic access station” PCs are: a Multimedia network ready (Ethernet and TCP/ IP) Pentium 600 with at 64 MB of memory, a 4.0 GB hard disk drive, 17-inch SVGA color monitor, mouse, headset, Windows 95/98, and Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. Each PC costs about $1,500 when purchased from a reputable mail-order house. The cost of the shared network printer is additional. Dell and Compaq are reputable mail-order houses.

The minimum specifications for express catalog PCs are a network ready (Ethernet and TCP/IP) Pentium 300 with at least 16 MB of memory, a 2.0 GB hard drive, 15-inch SVGA color monitor, ink-jet printer, mouse, and Windows95. Don't use a 486 or low-end Pentium PC for this application, but these machines could be used by patrons for word processing.

[Contact: Dell's online sales at www.dell.com and Compaq's at www.compaq.com.]

Endeavor announces digital library collections management product

Endeavor has announced ENCompass, a system designed to manage digital library collections. Using XML, EAD, and Dublin Core to describe, index, and search electronic resources, ENCompass complements Voyager, Endeavor's system for managing print collections. ENCompass offers seamless simultaneous searching across disparate collections of digital objects, full-text indexing for digital text resources, and access control for multiple repositories.

It features a single-user interface. With direct searching, the end user sees a list of available collections. After selecting one or more collections, the user enters a query. The system offers both keyword and context-based searching. ENCompass resolves the connection to each unique repository. A simultaneous search returns container and object listings for relevant matches.

Another method of access, designated “resource discover,” allows the user to query collection metadata as a whole. It does not require the end user to identify a specific collection or group of collections. The user enters a query and then browses through a hierarchical display of collections and containers that satisfy the query. End users click on a container link in the hierarchy, and ENCompass establishes the connection to the appropriate repository and presents another hierarchical display of the containers and objects within the elected container. At any point, the user may execute a direct search against the metadata for all levels below that point in the hierarchy.

Staff access containers and objects in the repository through keyword indexes, qualified keyword indexes, phrase indexes, and object identifiers. Access points include the metadata for objects and containers as well as the full-text for textual objects.

Endeavor developed this system in partnership with Cornell University. The university has been building a large collection of digital resources over the past decade. Its Cornell Institute for Digital Collections has pursued more than two dozen digital initiatives, including the Making of America Project and the Core Historical Literature of Agriculture Collection.

Endeavor is now marketing ENCompass to other libraries. Unlike the Voyager system, ENCompass requires a considerable amount of tailoring to meet an institution's special requirements.

[Contact: Endeavor Information Systems; telephone 800-762-6300; Web: www.endinfosys.com.]

Ex Libris offers Linux on Intel servers

Last January, Ex Libris became the first library automation vendor to support the Linux operating system . Unlike Innovative, which offers Linux as an option on the desktop, Ex Libris offers it as an option on the server. The company chose Linux after conducting comparison tests between NT and Linux. Although the company continues to monitor NT developments, it says Linux better addresses performance, scalability, and affordability at this time.

Linux is particularly attractive for small libraries, according to Ex Libris. Initial testing showed an inexpensive Pentium 111/500 Version 14.1 system running Oracle Version 8.0.5 and Red Hat Version 6.1 Linux can support 20 concurrent users.

Ex Libris has no plans to support Linux for clients. The concern is that it is too difficult to find Linux drivers for all the common desktop devices.

[Contact: Ex Libris (USA) Inc.; telephone 877-527-1689; fax 773-404-5601; Web: www.exlibris-usa.com.]

Linux not just for little systems

Even though the library community is focusing on Linux for small systems, IBM has introduced a supercomputer that uses the Linux operating system. The system, called Los Lobos, is a super-cluster of servers and consists of 256 IBM Netfinity PC servers, which are linked using special clustering software and high-speed networking hardware acting as one to process at a speed of 375 gigaflops. That makes it the 24th most powerful computer in the world. The National Computational Science Alliance, a consortium of 50 academic and research entities, plans to use Los Lobos to create a new computer network for research.

Gaylord deploys 350+ user NT systems

Most vendors who offer NT as an optional operating system prefer to use UNIX when supporting more than 100 or 150 users. Gaylord, which offers only NT, has defied conventional wisdom and deployed two much larger NT-based Polaris systems: the Southern Oregon Libraries Information System (SOLIS) with 400 users and the Washington County Cooperative Library System (WCCLS) with 350 users.

Gaylord's Polaris will soon be in-stalled by CLAN (Cooperative Libraries Automated Network) of Nevada, a consortium of 28 libraries with 1.3 million items and more than 185,000 patrons. The system could become the largest NT-based automated library system.

[Contact: Gaylord Information Systems, P.O. Box 4901, Syracuse, NY 13221; telephone 800-272-3414; Web: www.gaylord.com/automation]

Dansk Data Electronik resurfaces as eHuset DDE

Dansk Data Electronik has taken the name of its parent, eHuset DDE, a Danish information technology company. The company, with more than 350 employees, is best known for its e-business products, but its automated library system has captured about 65 percent of the Danish public and academic library markets. It has an office in the United Kingdom and has made forays into the European market and may go farther afield. The library division has an international sales coordinator and its own Web site.

[Contact: Library Division, eHuset DDE at www.ddelibra.com.]

Sirsi delivers Unicorn 99.4

Sirsi Corp. is now delivering version 99.4 of its Unicorn Library Management System software. Among the features of the new release are relevance ranking of search results in the WebCat patron access catalog a la Yahoo and Alta Vista searches on the Web, optional sound files for selected functions at the circulation desk, and the ability to operate the Oracle-based version of Unicorn on Windows NT servers.

Another enhancement accompanying Unicorn 99.4 is the method of delivery. Customers can now update their Unicorn software by connecting to Sirsi's new Update Central Web site and then downloading the new software to their systems—usually in 20 minutes or less. That avoids waiting for CD-ROMs or tapes and the extra steps of mounting them. Customers may also check on release schedules and contents via the Web.

[Contact: Sirsi Corp., 101 Washington Street SE, Huntsville, AL 35801; telephone 256-7000; fax 256-704-7007; Web: www.sirsi.com.]

TLC adds Asian MARC to ITS.MARC Database

The Library Corporation has enhanced its ITS.MARC online cataloging database to include 340,000 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean MARC records from the Library of Congress. The records are in Western script and translated into English. The company plans monthly updates. The ITS.MARC database now has more than 15 million unduplicated bibliographic records, making it an alternative to OCLC.

[Contact: TLC; telephone 800-624-0559; Web: www.TLCdelivers.com.]

CASPR introduces service bureau on the Web

CASPR, a major vendor of PC-based systems for small libraries, has introduced a product called librarycom.com, which offers access to library applications software over the Web. The modules currently available are MARC cataloging, circulation, patron management, and reports. Other modules are in development.

You can log on and register online; enter policies, patron names, addresses, and other information; and begin creating a database. You can access a MARC database or import records from another source. Circulation can begin after you begin a database.

Special and school libraries are the target markets. Pricing is based on the number of “seats,” or users, with the first “seat” free and each additional one at $50 per year. Although the out-of-pocket cost is small, creating the database may be time-consuming.

[Contact: CASPR, Inc., 100 Park Center Plaza, Suite 550, San Jose, CA 95113; telephone 800- 852-2777 or 408-882-0600; fax 408-882-0608; Web: www.caspr.com.]

NISO to hold standard test

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is inviting vendors of automated library systems and libraries interested in testing the draft standard protocol for the exchange of circulation information to an implementers' meeting. The standard is designed to facilitate the interchange of circulation information between different circulation applications, and between circulation and interlibrary loan applications. It could, therefore, be used to share information about patrons who use two or more libraries with automated systems from different vendors.

To attend the meeting, which will be held in Berkeley, Calif., July 31 to August 1, contact NISO's Patricia Stevens by e-mail before July 25.

[Contact: NISO at stevens@oclc.org]

Thomson may revamp Dialog

Thomson Corp., which entered into an agreement to purchase Dialog Corp's name and Information Services Division, is considering a major revamp of the products. The focus is expected to be user interfaces. Although thousands of skilled Dialog searchers are in special libraries, the databases have never been widely used in academic libraries. Dialog's old management introduced a Web-based service for novice searchers only a few weeks ago, but it was limited to the provision of a simple interface to intellectual property information.

Thomson brings Dialog a healthy balance sheet and a budget of more than $150 million a year for product development. All the databases will likely become more user friendly.

[Contact: Thomson Corp. at www.thomson.com]

Implications of a possible Microsoft breakup

Although an appeal of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's decision ordering the breakup of Microsoft into two companies is already being pursued, the trade press is full of speculation about the implications. Few disagree that one of the resulting companies will continue to dominate in desktop operating systems, specifically Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Professional. This company is also likely to remain a strong player in the server operating system market, specifically Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Data Center. The other company, which will be required to focus on applications, may face tougher competition.

The Department of Justice contends that Microsoft captured 70 percent of the Web browser market, displacing Netscape; 89 percent of the office suite market, displacing Corel; 87 percent of the spreadsheet market, displacing Lotus; and 86 percent of the word processing market, displacing WordPerfect by tightly bundling these applications with its operating system, pressuring PC manufacturers to accept its applications to obtain favorable terms for the purchase of the operating system, and making it difficult to replace its applications with those of other vendors.

Many say Microsoft will loosen the bonds between its operating systems and applications even as it fights the breakup ruling through the higher courts. This may be because a higher-level court chooses to review only the breakup and not the behavioral rules Jackson has stipulated be observed even before the breakup, or because Microsoft hopes to strengthen its position on appeal by altering its behavior.

Among the changes in behavior would be allowing OEMs to modify computer startup screens; providing APIs to developers; not retaliating against OEMs that distribute, license, or promote non-Microsoft products; and not binding its applications to Windows without offering a version of Windows that allows users to remove that software. If so, more applications product options may result at lower prices. But they likely won't be as easy to install as the Microsoft applications because Microsoft is not likely to make its operating system source code available to applications developers.

Even before the appeals process. begins, some PC makers are daring to court Microsoft's competitors. Gateway has recently signed deals with America Online and Sun, deals which officers of the company say they would not have made before the federal lawsuit was brought.

Although many CEOs of other information technology companies don't cozy to Microsoft, most of them have publicly criticized the court's decision. They fear other companies with dominant positions in their industry sectors will be subjected to future Department of Justice scrutiny if the courts uphold the Microsoft decision.

Not all commentators believe Microsoft will alter its behavior. Some have argued that Microsoft is so convinced of its innocence it will continue to do business as it has in the past, and it will continue to litigate another two to three years. A small number of cynics suggest that Microsoft expects to outlast its enemies in the Department of Justice.

Microsoft launches free online version of Encarta World English Dictionary

Microsoft, which already has 38 percent of the electronic encyclopedia market, expects to increase its share of the reference products market by offering a free online version of Encarta World English Dictionary The dictionary, which has been available on CD-ROM since August 1999, offers audio definitions spoken in a human voice. Its claimed strength is its contemporary definitions.

The CD-ROM version continues to be available at a list price of $34.95, with a $20 mail-in rebate. It offers integrated access to the Encarta Book of Quotations, Encarta Manual of Style and Usage, Encarta 2000 Almanac, Microsoft Press Computer and Internet Dictionary and Roget'sThesaurus of English Words and Phrases.

The URL for the online product is www.encarta.com.

Oxford English Dictionary goes online

The full text of the 20-volume OED, with 60 million words describing 750,000 terms accompanied by 25 million quotations, is now available online. More than 9,000 terms from the past 30 years have been integrated into the dictionary for the first time. Contemporary quotations have also been added. Work is still going on—with plans to nearly double the number of terms to more than 1.3 million by 2010.

The annual subscription price is $550 for a single user license and $795 for an unlimited network license. The URL for the dictionary is www oed.com.

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