Library Technology Guides

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Volume 20 Number 10 (October 2000)

Wireless LAN technology catches on

Wireless LAN technology is nothing new, but it is only now beginning to catch on, especially on college campuses where laptops are widely used. Carnegie Mellon University has installed more than 400 access points (transceivers, a type of antenna) around the campus, including in its cafeterias, and it has sold wireless LAN cards to 1,500 students. Wake Forest University, which issues each incoming freshman a notebook PC, has added a wireless Ethernet card to each PC. Wireless LANs are less common in schools and public libraries because a much smaller percentage of their patrons carry laptops, but the few installations that exist have been well-received.

Wireless LAN technology was held back for years by the instability of many of the manufacturers, a lack of standards, and poor interoperability among components from different vendors.

With Cisco Systems' recent acquisition of Aironet, all the major providers of networks— Cisco, Enterasys Networks, Lucent Technologies, and Nortel Networks—have wireless offerings. These companies have staying power that assures customers of ongoing support.

The companies above are committed to the IEEE 802.llb standard for wireless LANs. Widespread adoption of the 802.llb standard is the key to interoperability among products from different vendors. Not all 802.llb implementations offer full interoperability, so look for WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) certification. That certification means you can augment or replace components using competitive bidding, rather than purchasmg everything from a single vendor. As a result, prices have come down as much as 75% in the past year. An access point (transceiver) now costs $1,000 to $2,000; the wireless PC card now costs about $175.

Although enthusiasts proclaim the appearance of wireless LANs presages the disappearance of wired LANs, others suggest wireless continues to have significant weaknesses.

Not all available products conform to the 802.llb standard. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has approved a competing standard in response to requests from manufacturers of HomeRF equipment. The standard, which is supported by RadioShack Corp., Motorola, and some PC manufacturers, provides for frequency-hopping LAN throughput—which, as the name implies, hops among 15 different channels in the 2.4 0Hz band. The 802.llb standard calls for direct sequencing, an approach that evenly spreads the signals across all the channels in the band.

Another competing standard is called Bluetooth. It was developed to provide wireless connections between laptops and printers, but some vendors use it for small LANs. Some proprietary products are still on the market, too.

Conformity to any of the standards above doesn't mean you'll realize the 11 Mbps throughput specified in the standard. The actual throughput is more likely 4 to 6 Mbps. Wired networks perform more closely to their standards—standards that provide for throughput of up to 10 bps or up to 250 times that of wireless. That performance means wired LANs continue to be necessary for the backbone of a LAN because the aggregate bandwidth required within most libraries exceeds 10 Mbps, and in some it exceeds 100 Mbps. Wireless is best used for the last few yards to the desktop, rather than throughout a building.

Dead space is a common problem with wireless LANs. Unless the transceivers (the hub-like transmitter/receivers that connect to the physically cabled network via standard Ethernet cable, and then to the server or other device) are properly placed, some areas have no service. Testing the installation for dead space and relocating or adding transceivers as needed is key.

Interference is another, and growing, problem. Wireless LANs share the 2.4 GHz frequency band not only with other wireless LANs (frequency-hopping LANs, especially, can interfere with direct sequencing), but they also can interfere with other devices, such as cordless telephones, microwave ovens, and short-range Bluetooth devices. Dense urban areas often suffer from serious degradation of performance. The FCC is getting complaints about interference and members of an advisory group told the FCC someday 2.4 GHz will only work outside urban areas. The FCC has been urged to allocate additional frequencies for wireless LANs. The most likely additional frequency is 5 GHz. Such a move would require replacement of wireless equipment in areas where the 2.4 0Hz frequency is saturated.

Libraries considering a wireless LAN should consult the ratings of 11 products published by Network Computing (July 10, 2000, pp. 69-91). The information is also available at www.networkcomputing.com. The three highest rated products, all A-, are available from Cisco Systems, Enterasys Networks, and Lucent Technologies.

Relying entirely on wireless is not a good idea. Wireless is best used in parts of a building that are difficult and costly to wire or for an area in which you want to provide wireless access from laptops. Although the 802-11 standard is the one supported by all major networking companies, keep in mind that laptops used within the library also have to have an 802.llb wireless LAN card. Patrons who bring a laptop with a HomeRF or Bluetooth card won't be able to access the network.

Before deploying a wireless LAN, conduct a site survey to determine existing sources of interference and work to alleviate as many of them as possible. After making the initial installation, undertake testing to determine dead spots and make adjustments as needed. The surveying and testing requires considerable expertise, so a library should budget for a consultant who specializes in wireless LANs.

Cybertools for Libraries

A little over two years ago, CyberTools, a vendor specializing in automation for the healthcare industry, purchased the automated library system developed by the Georgetown University Medical Center. Since then it has done considerable enhancement work. It now actively markets the system to medical libraries and other special libraries.

In addition to a comprehensive serials control module, an essential component for medical and special libraries, which spend three-fourths or more of their acquisitions budgets on serials, the revamped system features a Java/Web patron access catalog, and acquisitions, circulation, and document delivery modules. Both the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and Library of Congress classification schemes are supported, as are NLM MeSH headings. There is an OCLC interface. Its patron notification feature allows a library patron to create a personal profile by selecting subject héa~ings of interest. When a new acquisition is cataloged matching the interest, the patron receives an e-mail announcing the new work.

A small system can be configured on a PC or small server using Microsoft Windows NT or Linux; a larger server can be configured on a Compaq Alpha, IBM RS 6000, or Sun Sparc using UNIX, HP UNIX, AIX, or Solaris.

[Contact: CyberTools, Inc., 249 Ayer Road, #302, Harvard, MA 01451; telephone; 978-772-9200; fax: 978-772-9400; Web: www.cytools.com.]

EOS International corrects customer support statistics

EOS International has more customer support staff than was originally reported in LSNs annual survey. The total number of staff supporting the “Q” and “T” products is 16 and the total number of sites is 175, including 106 “Q” and 69 “T” sites. The customer support ratio is 1:11. The corrected ratio compares favorably with the ratios of the industry as a whole.

[Contact: EOSi, 2382 Faraday Ave.1 #350, Carlsbad, CA 92008; telephone: 800-876-5484; fax: 760-431-8448; Web. www.eosintl.com.]

Endeavor reports acceptance by LC

Endeavor reported on August 31 that the Library of Congress (LC) has accepted the Voyager software after 40 days of testing. Although cataloging, circulation, and the public access catalog modules have been in use since August 1999, and the acquisitions and serials control modules have been in use since October 1999, LC required formal acceptance testing after the database of more than 12 million bibliographic and 5 million authority records was fully loaded and other aspects of implementation were completed. The system, which is configured on a Sun Enterprise 10000 database server and Sun Enterprise 3500 Web server, supports more than 3,000 remote peripherals at LC. -LC's Web-based patron access catalog is available at catalog.loc.gov.

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

epixtech releases ILL RSS 3.1

epixtech has released version 3.1 of its RSS interlibrary loan product. The 35 new features in the release include automatic partner assignment, automatic checking of availability, aging of pending requests, automatic expiration of requests on the lending side, and interoperability with OCLC's Direct Request Service.

The RSS ILL product runs on a separate server from the rest of the epixtech Dynix, NOTIS, and Horizon systems so libraries on a consortium that uses the automated library system of another vendor can use it independently. [Contact: epixtech, inc., 400 West 5050 North, Provo, UT 84604-5650; telephone: 801-223-5200or 800-223-5413; fax: 801-223-5202; Web: www.epixtech.com.]

Sirsi and Blue Angel implement Z39.50 Bath Profile

Sirsi Corp. and Blue Angel Technologies (a firm that provides software solutions for locating information) have implemented the Z39.50 Bath Profile at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The Bath Profile improves interoperability between or among electronic library catalogs and other database applications—in this case, the State Library's online catalog and TRAIL, the locator of resources in 150 Texas state agencies. In the future, additional resources such as full-text and specialized reference database services will be added as more vendors support the Bath Profile.

Although Sirsi appears to be the first automated library system to provide a Bath Profile implementation, several other vendors appear to be planning to conform to the standard specification.

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

B&T offers EDIFACT ordering and invoicing

Baker & Taylor (B&T), a major book jobber, how offers EDIFACT online ordering and invoicing. EDIFACT is the international standard for computer-to-computer communication of business transactions.

B&T completed testing with Endeavor Information Systems in August. The company plans to work with other vendors of automated library systems for online ordering and invoicing per the standard. Libraries will be able to integrate all aspects of acquisitions, rather than use a separate system for online ordering or receipt of invoices from a vendor.

[Contact: Baker & Taylor; telephone: 800-775-3700; e-mail: electser@btol.com.]

Standards study completed

William E. Moen's “A Study of State Library Agencies' Information Technology Standards Policies and Practices” was published in August by the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas. The study, which was commissioned by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), sought to determine the role state library agencies play in standards development and implementation.

Moen determined that state library agencies play only a minor role in the development of standards. Their most important roles are identifying, promoting, and recommending/requiring standards-activities reported by 68%, 71%, and 74% respectively of the respondents.

The most widely recommended/required standards are Z39.2 (information interchange format or MARC) and Z39.50 (information retrieval or linking of systems). Some 37% of state library agencies require Z39.2 for libraries to qualify for grants; another 29% recommend Z39.2. About 24% require Z39.50 for libraries to qualify for grants; another 39% recommend Z39.50.

Some 13% require Z39.71 (holdings statements for bibliographic items) for libraries qualify for grants; another 5% recommend Z39.71. Only 3% require conformity to the ISO 10160/61 (ILL) standard; another 16% recommend ISO 10160/61.

The four standards mentioned above are the foundation for effective resource sharing because they assure interoperability among automated library systems. Although promoting resource sharing is a high priority for state library agencies, standards are not yet likely seen as essential components of resource sharing programs.

Nor does a commitment to standards in other areas of library activity exist. The average number of standards recommended or required by a state library agency is three—one fewer than the number of basic resource-sharing standards. Only four state library agencies recommend or require more than six. Nebraska's state library agency is the most committed to standards. It recommends or requires 15 standards. Although you might conclude this high number is because that state's library agency is specifically charged with responsibility for information standards, an even more important factor has been a commitment on the part of administration and staff. Seven other states that have similar statutory responsibility do little to recommend or require standards.

NISO needs to do more to promote awareness of and commitment to standards by state library agencies. Librarians who are committed to resource sharing, though, should also play a role in urging state library agencies to emphasize the role of standards in effective resource sharing.

[Contact: William E. Moen; telephone: 940-565-3563; fax: 940-565-3101; e-mail: wemoen@tmt.edu.]

HP upgrades to Ultra 3 SCSI

Hewlett-Packard Co. has sped up many of its storage device offerings by upgrading to Ultra3. Ultra3 is a faster flavor of SCSL the interface among the components of a central site. Ultra2, which is the most widely used flavor of SCSI today, moves data at 40 MB per second; Ultra3 increases that to 160 MB per second.

Libraries should continue to specify performance, rather than specific technology, because conformity to the requirements of a response times table can be the basis for requiring a vendor to deal with the problem. Specifying Ultra3 does not guarantee response times will be as fast as a library needs because other deficiencies can exist in the configuration or software. Nevertheless, comparing vendor hardware configurations is key in selecting software because a few vendors minimally configure many of the components of a system.

Why Unicode

Should libraries specify Unicode conformity in their RFPs? Only libraries with machine-readable records for materials in Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean should specify Unicode conformity, but all librarians should be aware that Unicode is gradually supplanting the ASCII character coding format that has been in use in the United States for several decades.

Before Unicode was developed, hundreds of different encoding schemes could assign the numbers that represent letters and other characters in a computer. At least 20 were in use in the European Union alone. No single encoding could contain enough characters to cover all the world's languages. The encoding systems also conflicted with one another because they often used the same number for two different characters, or used different numbers for the same character. Unicode provides a unique number for every character.

Unlike ASCII, which has been the basic encoding scheme used in most automated library systems developed in the United States and uses 8 bits for each character, Unicode uses 16 bits, so it can represent more than 65,000 unique characters.

Almost all computer manufacturers, operating system developers, and browser producers have adopted Unicode. It is required by modern standards such as XIML and Java. The first automated library system vendors to implement Unicode were those that marketed to large research libraries with collections in many different scripts, but as the library automation industry became increasingly more international, most vendors launched Unicode development efforts so they would not be excluded from any market.

Unicode should be available from most vendors by 2002. Although ASCII support will probably continue for several years, Unicode may displace it within five years because Unicode can do everything ASCII can, and more.

The best source of detailed and authoritative information about Unicode is the Web site of the Unicode Consortium at www.unicode.org. The Consortium is a nonprofit organization founded to develop, extend, and promote use of the Unicode standard, a standard jointly developed with ISO.

Web Feet adds MARC records

Web Feet, a printed subject guide to the Internet that includes thousands of selected Web sites, now offers libraries the option of full-MARC bibliographic records for loading into a patron access catalog. MARC Link, a retrospective conversion vendor, catalogs the entire Web Feet database of formerly print-only content and offers the Web site selections with full descriptions taken from the guide, Library of Congress (LC) subject headings, and live links to the Internet. Users are then able to search for Web sites not only by any one of hundreds of Web Feet subject headings, but any LC subject heading.

The new service is priced at $495 per year for schools and $975 for public libraries. The package includes not only the back file, but monthly updates. The pricing is comparable with the pricing for the Web Feet subject guide.

Some 2,500 libraries are using Web Feet.

[Contact: Rockhill Communications; telephone: 888-R0CKRIL; Web: www.webfeetguides.com.]

Linux bodies merge

To avoid the fragmentation of the Linux operating system—something that adversely affected the Unix community in the 198Qs, two Linux standards bodies have merged into the Free Standards Group (FSG). The group has gained the endorsements of most key players in Linux development, including Red Hat, Caldera Systems, Corel, and IBM. FSG's primary focus for the near term is to nail down Version 1.0 of the Linux Standard Base, which will serve as the Linux community's development guide.

Metropolitan Area Networks proliferate

The streets of more than two dozen major cities in the United States and Canada have been torn up for the last several months as telecommunications providers rush to install fiber-optic cable. Although digital television and voice telephone service are the major publicized reasons for all the activity, the potentially most lucrative aspect of the investment is MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) service—1.0 Gbps bandwidth for data transmission at first, and 10 Gbps in the future.

As LANs in libraries and businesses are increasingly deployed with 100 Mbps bandwidth and the Internet backbone supports traffic at 100 Mbps per second, the bottleneck between these two—usually an expensive T-1 line with a data transfer rate of 1.4 Mbps or a fractional T-1 line with a data transfer rate of 64 Kbps or more-has become a source of frustration. MANs are expected to deliver a minimum of 10 times the bandwidth of a T-1 at three times the cost.

MANs are also Ethernet-based, so libraries don't need to invest in expensive equipment and skilled personnel to make the connection. The connection is made with a standard RJ-45 plug.

IEEE taskforce drafting 10 Gbps standard

Twenty years ago Ethernet moved bits around LANs at a rate of 10 million per second, a speed few libraries thought they needed. Now that the majority of LANs being installed in libraries are 10/100 Mbps, some libraries are beginning to look at 1.0 Gbps, but the standards setters are still one more step ahead, 10 Gbps.

A draft of the new standard will be circulated over the next few months. The final standard is planned for the first quarter of 2002. One of the greatest benefits of the new standard will be low-cost teleconferencing within an organization or over longer distances if a broadband MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) is available. Another application is multimedia over the Internet, again subject to availability of a low-cost broadband channel between an organization and the Internet.

Projecting documents and 3-D images

An excellent new technology can replace the opaque projectors that projected images of documents, including pages in open books and magazines, and even 3-D objects. The older equipment was hot, had a clumsy movable bed, and projected a faint image. But this new technology comes at a price.

Take a look at the Toshiba MediaStar TLP651 live-action projector. It looks like a fat overhead projector. Its built-in color document camera can capture and project the image of any flat or 3-D) object placed faceup on the bed. The camera and projector can be controlled with a remote, including the focus, zoom, and so on. Toshiba rates the unit at 1,100 lumens, just barely high enough for projection in a normally lit room. The unit weighs fewer than 10 pounds, so libraries can use it as a portable or a permanently installed unit. The price is $7,995, though some units cost up to twice as much. If you are going to spend that much, consider purchasing individual components and installing them as a custom system.

Less expensive units are available, but they are light units (five to six pounds) designed to be used for traveling presenters. Most are rated at fewer than 1,000 lumens.

[Contact: Toshiba America Consumer Products; telephone: 800-346-6672; Web: www.toshiba.com.]

Fortres introduces Clean Slate

Fortres has introduced a product that will restore a PC using Windows 95/98/NT to its original configuration regardless of what users have done, including erasing files, installing software, downloading viruses and Trojan horses, and altering icons. The product, named Clean Slate, scours drives back to their original ‘state upon reboot. The product works by caching all changes in a special area that is hidden and protected from users. When the machine is rebooted, the cached changes are erased.

Administrators, by password, can specify individual drives or directories that are not to be affected, so some areas on the disk can allow changes. Additionally, administrators can view all changes made and specify which should be undone on reboot and which should be allowed as permanent changes.

A single license is priced at $49 for libraries and educational institutions. A 15-user building license is $279, a 100-user building license is $495, and an unlimited license is $595.

[Contact: Fortres; telephone: 800-331-0372; Web: www.fortres.com.]

Netscape 6 preview

Netscape 6, the latest version of the popular browser, will be released before the end of the year according to Netscape Communications Corp. One of the most attractive features in the prerelease version is a cookie manager that enables users to view detailed information on all cookies, remove or reject individual cookies in the future, and define sites from which to always accept or reject them. Another nice feature lets users define and use more than one SMTP server to send mail. Users can change the appearance and layout of the screen (the skins) and even the usability of their browsers. Users can also accept the default Netscape 6 look or choose the look of the classic Communicator 4x.

To try Netscape 6 in prerelease, download it from home.netscape.com/browsers/6.

Digital divide statistics available

Statistics are available on the “digital divide,” the gap between those with access to new technologies, including the Internet, and those without. This summer, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NRIA), an agency of the U. S. Department of Commerce, released a credible and useful source.

NTIA, in a publication entitled Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, reported that households with incomes of $75,000 or above are more than 20 times more likely to have Internet access than those at lower income levels; and the higher income homes are nine times more likely to have a computer. The figures for households with high incomes are substantially the same for all races and ethnic groups.

At incomes below $75,000, white households are more likely to have Internet access at home than other households. Urban low-income households are twice as likely to have Internet access than rural households of the same income levels.

The full text of the report is available on NTIA's Web site.

[Contact: NTIA; Web: www.ntia.doc.gov/ ntiahome/digitaldivide]

Electronic ink and paper

Several companies, including Xerox Corp., are working on electronic pages that look and feel like paper. The Xerox technology is called Gyricon and is composed of a silicon rubber compound with the thickness and flexibility of poster board. The sheets have thousands of plastic balls suspended in oil. Each ball is black on one side and white on the other, and together they act as pixels to display images. Gyricon uses reflective light, like real paper, so it uses little electrical power. The Gyricon device can be connected to a PC—even a handheld one—to download content from the Internet, or a user can write on it and reuse it. The thinking is that electronic books will be more popular if read from some thing that resembles the printed page. Research is expected to continue for at least another two years, but other vendors—including new companies such as E-Ink Corp.—are racing to bring competing products to the market before 2002.

National Online and IOLS 2001 scheduled

The 22nd National Online Meeting and IOLS 2001 have been scheduled for May 15 to 17 in New York City. The New York Hilton and Towers is again the venue. The 2000 meeting drew more than 5,000 attendees and 100 exhibitors.

Scores of papers will address many topics, with National Online emphasizing online databases, electronic publishing, the Internet, and search engines; IOLS 2000 will emphasize automated library systems. (The deadline for submitting a proposal for presenting a paper passed Oct. 1.)

Detailed information and registration materials may be obtained from Information Today, Inc., the sponsor.

[Contact: Information Today, Inc.; telephone: 609-654-6266, Web www.infotoday.com.]

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