Library Technology Guides

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Volume 4 Number 08 (August 1984)

New system capabilities from established vendors showcased at ALA

In the July issue of LSN, we reported on companies that had chosen the recent ALA Annual Conference in Dallas as the venue at which to announce their entrance into the library automation turnkey and software markets. The following reports detail the new system capabilities showcased at that meeting by several of the more established library vendors.

CLSI

CLSI (CL Systems, Inc.) emphasized its DataLink intersystem communications module which supports access to remote databases through installed LIBS 100 terminals. Users can automatically dial and log into a remote system using a few key-strokes. CLSI has arranged access to the Harvard Business Review Database (HBR / ONLINE) and is negotiating access rights for its customers to other data bases including those of Information Access Corporation.

CLSI also announced that it is expanding the line of hardware on which its LIBS 100 is supported, incorporating DEC's new LSI 11/73 into the product line. The 11/73 is available in stand-alone LIBS 100 systems, or it may be incorporated into multiprocessor configurations.

DataPhase

DataPhase announced that it is developing microcomputer software to support acquisitions, circulation and patron access catalog functions on IBM, Apple and Data General personal computers. Called the Eastwind series, the single- function, single user, software modules can function as standalone systems or be interfaced with a minibased A ALIS system configuration, or other library automated system. The circulation software, due to be released in October, will be priced at $2,500. Annual software maintenance is priced at $250. Discounts will be available for quantity purchase and for libraries which join the company's Eastwind Association. The patron access and acquisitions software is expected to be available by March 1985.

DataPhase also announced an agreement with Unmet, Inc., to enter a joint venture to develop a Data Share Information Network to link automated library systems and eventually provide access to library information from businesses, homes and educational institutions. Unmet, Inc., is one of the nation's largest public packet-switching data communications companies. Its network serves over 350 U.S. cities and 40 countries, providing data transfer between a terminal and host computer, or between two hosts. The service includes modifications in network and host sign-on procedures which allow greater ease of access among disparate systems. DataPhase indicated that it will try to involve the vendors of all major library systems in the emerging network.

The company also introduced another hardware option for its ALIS automated library system. parallel 300 computers will be used to support mid-sized installations for libraries with 50,000 to 100,000 titles. The Parallel can also function as a front end to another host computer for patron access catalog functions. The Parallel hardware is promoted as being particularly fault-tolerant in relation to the environment in which it is housed. A computer room is not required and the system plugs directly into a 110 VAC outlet. It will handle up to 16 terminals and has a backup memory on each terminal. The software uses the Unix, level 4 operating system.

Dynix

Dynix announced that it is configuring installations of its system hardware and software to support the retrospective conversion activities many libraries need to complete before installing turnkey library automated systems. The company offers two options:

a) a system loaded with brief records from the Library of Congress U.S. books MARC tapes. Library staff search the file by LCCN, recall the brief record to check the accuracy of the match, and enter the appropriate item data including barcode labels. Data for items not found in LCCN search are entered in the Carrollton Press title search key. When all items have been handled, the library's conversion data is output onto tape and sent to Dynix where the full records are retrieved from the LC MARC and Carrollton Press tapes.

b) A system loaded with the LCCNs for LC cataloging for U.S. books. In this configuration, library staff search by LCCN and enter the local data for hits. This option does not offer access to a brief record to check the accuracy of the hit. Tapes of hits are shipped to Dynix which extracts the matching full MARC records and processes the local data.

For Option A, a typical configuration consisting of CPU, storage, 3 to 4 terminals with light pens, a tape drive, software, and training costs $3,300 per month. In addition, each hit is charged for at the rates of $.15 per LC MARC record or $.50 per Carrollton Press REMARC record. The per record charges are the same for Option B, but the charge for hardware and software is lower--$l,900 per month for a system to support 3 or 4 terminals. While aimed both at prospective customers for the Dynix automated library system and at other libraries requiring retrospective conversion support, the service is particularly attractive to Dynix customers since 60 percent of the monthly charge may be applied to the purchase price of a Dynix system.

The company will also arrange to preload the conversion systems with other relevant records such as the archival tapes from an institution's bibliographic utility. Authority control files are developed at the time when Dynix processes and mounts the full records which match a library's search requests.

Innovative Interfaces

Innovative Interfaces, Inc., demonstrated the latest addition to its Innovacq library system--the Innovacq Patron Access Catalog. Designed to be used with the available Innovacq functions of acquisitions and serials control, or as a standalone system, the patron access catalog is due for general release later this year.

OCLC

OCLC focused on two of its local system options: the LS/2000 Micro Series and the LS/2000 Timesharing option.

For those familiar with the micro-based system offered by Avatar prior to its acquisition by OCLC, the announcement of a microconfigured version of LS/2000 has been long awaited. The system, configured on Data General or DEC computers, offers smaller libraries a cost effective approach to multifunction integrated automation. A system with a DEC 11/73, an 84MB Winchester disk drive, 10 terminals with full ALA character set, two barcode readers, a modem, dot matrix printer, licenses, documentation, training, delivery and full LS/2000 software costs $84,550. The current software includes file development and maintenance, online catalog with keyword access, circulation control and an OCLC interface. Serials control and acquisitions will be released in 1985 at no extra cost.

Also previously established in the Avatar environment, the OCLC LS/2000 Timesharing service offers integrated library automation without the expense of purchasing and operating an inhouse computer. Functions supported on the system are: online patron access catalog; automated circulation; file creation and maintenance, including authority control; and an administrative subsystem for notice and report production. The service is available from 7:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m.; extended service hours are available for additional charges.

UTLAS

In addition to announcing a U.S. office address:

UTLAS Corp.
701 Westchester Avenue
Suite 308W
White Plains, NY 10604
(914) 997-1495

from which to direct its increasing U.S. marketing efforts, the Canadian bibliographic utility focused on its IBM-PC based patron access catalog (see LSN Vol. IV, No. 7), its joint marketing agreement with CLSI, and its new electronic interlibrary loan facility.

[Contacts: CLSI, 1220 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02165 (617) 965-6310; DataPhase, 9000 West 67th Street, Shawnee Mission, 1(5 66202 (913) 262-5100; Dynix, 1455 West 820 North, Provo, UT 84601 (801) 375-2770; Innovative Interfaces, 2131 University Avenue, Suite 334, Berkeley, CA 94704 (415) 540-0880; OCLC, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017 (614) 764-6000.]

Retrospective conversion support from LC

The Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service distributes the weekly tapes of U.S. MARC records for books, films, maps, serials and music that are used by the bibliographic utilities, large mainframe systems and a number of commercial distributors. It also provides three services specifically tailored to the needs of libraries undertaking retrospective conversion.

In the Select MARC Record service a library provides a tape of the LCCNs for which it requires machine-readable records. (In some circumstances the service can handle LCCNs submitted in typed rather than machine-readable form.) The LCCNs are then run against the LC files with matching records output on tape. A processing charge of $20.00 is levied for each file--books, maps, serials, etc.--searched. The charge per record retrieved is $.07.

The MARC Abbreviated Searching Records service offers libraries undertaking conversion the three retrospective files for monographs--Books All, Books English or Books U.S.--in an abbreviated format. The intent is that a library can mount the file and use it to identify the LCCNs of the full MARC records needed for conversion. The abbreviated records contain ISBN, main entry, title, edition, imprint, and series fields. The average length of the abbreviated records is 240 characters as compared with full length records which average 700 characters in length. As of mid-1984, LC was charging $3,000.00 per file for this service, but the pricing is expected to be changed, probably to equate with one-third of the price for the retrospective files of full MARC records. [The price of the retrospective file for Books All is currently $4,025, Books English $2,725, and Books U.S. $1,825.]

The third option is that of Custom Selected MARC Files. This service uses the fact that most of the MARC data bases maintained by the Cataloging Distribution Service can be divided into subsets other than those offered as standard services. Selections can be based on criteria such as language, date, subject, classification, etc., as required by a particular library. Records obtained through the custom select option are priced at $.07 each plus a charge for programming the required algorithm.

[Contact: Cataloging Distribution Service, Customer Services Section, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20541 (202) 287-6171.]

Electronic ordering. on the move

The BOS (Book Ordering System) developed by the American Booksellers' Association was described in the July issue of LSN. Electronic ordering for libraries was the focus of several new product announcements at ALA.

Baker & Taylor demonstrated its BaTaSYSTEMS products and services. Due for release between July and October, the services include:

• Title Search and Order: This allows a library to use any asynchronous terminal and modem to search B&T's title data base--by title, author, ISBN or LCCN, to prepare and transmit orders electronically, or save them for later review and editing and the production of paper orders if required. Thesystem identifies duplicate orders within a purchase order. The service costs $28 per hour plus telecommunications costs, and there is a minimum charge of $50 per month.
• Full Acquisitions System: Requiring a personal computer with Ms/DOS or C/PM operating system, a single disk drive and a minimum of 10MB of hard disk storage, a modem and a printer, the full system provides online searching, preparation and transmission of orders, and local open order control, fund accounting and report preparation. The service costs $36 per hour plus communications costs and there is a minimum charge of $50 per month.
• Title Confirmation Service: Utilizing an Apple, IBM or TRS 80 personal computer with a single disk drive, a modem and a printer, the title confirmation service allows simple book ordering by ISBN with number of copies required. ISBNs are automatically validated at the time of entry. The order is transmitted, toll free, to B&T and the bibliographic data is transmitted back to the library the next day so that title slips may be printed at the library. A fee of $325 per year covers the software lease, data transmission and communication costs, and receipt of the bibliographic data.

Bowker demonstrated its Book Acquisition System (BAS) aimed at both librarians and booksellers and designed to handle orders for monographs, microcomputer software, sound recordings, maps, teaching aids and audiovisual materials. The system utilizes Bowker s online files of Books in Print and its 15,000 item data base of publishers, distributors and wholesalers and the BRS online system. Orders are distributed in electronic form to vendors able to receive them that way. Other orders are printed at Bowker's facilities overnight and mailed First Class the morning after the order is placed. In normal operation, the system relies heavily on the use of ISBNs and SANs (Standard Address Numbers). Books can also be ordered by keying the title and publisher information. The system will also support the local printing of various management reports and statistics compilations. The system can be accessed using a standard terminal and modem.

Brodart showed its "Rose" Remote Ordering Electronic System. Books are ordered by entering the library's account number and purchase order number, the ISBN, and the number of copies required into a handheld, hand-sized terminal. When all orders are entered, the user dials a toll-free 800 number and transmits the orders to Brodart electronically. A confirmation notice is dispatched through the mail by Brodart the next day. If required, the library can also obtain printed, multiple-copy order forms by mail from Brodart. Annual lease of the unit is $275 and this includes the cost of the confirmation notices. The same service but with multiple copy order forms as well costs $325 annually. The Rose complements Brodart's OLAS family of online ordering and fund accounting services.

[Contacts: Baker & Taylor, 6 Kirby Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876 (201) 722-8000; Electronic Publishing Division, R.R. Bowker Company, 205 East 42 Street, New York, NY 10017 (212) 916- 1758; Brodart Company, 500 Arch Street, Williamsport, PA 17705 (800) 233-8467.]

Superindex

Several recent studies of the reactions of library users to online patron access catalogs emphasize the extent to which they express the desire for access to more and more information; information such as the contents pages of monographs, entries in back of the book indexes, etc. Superindex, an online guide to major science and medical reference works, provides such information. The system combines the page-oriented subject indexing of reference books with the key word principle of computer searching.

Superindex has been available on BRS since July 1983 and is now used by 800 libraries. Thirty-three major publishers participate, including the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, McGraw Hill, Excerpta Medica, McMillan, Prentice Hall, and Oxford University Press. The Superindex file contains some 3 million index entries from more than 3,000 major reference works in science and medicine.

The company has a number of ideas for product expansion. These include the extension of the service to cover monographic reference works in other subject areas--business, economics, banking, finance and taxation, law, demographics and the social sciences; and the extension of the service to cover journals--Superindex staff would page index some one hundred journal titles using techniques similar to those used in the compilation of indexes for monographs. The company envisions future spinoffs from the page indexing of journals such as page-by-page subject indexes for specific journal titles.

Videodisk update

As presaged in previous issues of LSN, recent library meetings have been the forum for demonstrations of a number of products using laser videodisk as a storage device for machine-read-able data. Library Systems and Services Inc., has demonstrated its laser disk version of MiniMARC and The Library Corporation has also shown its Any-Book data base in this format. Other prototypes seen at ALA or SLA and not previously reported in LSN, include Disclosure, Carrollton Press and CLSI.

At the SLA meeting in New York, the Disclosure Information Group demonstrated LaserDisclosure, a prototype system for the electronic delivery of facsimile images of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company has been producing copies of SEC filings on microfiches and paper since 1967; the files grow by some 150,000 fiches a year, representing an enormous filing, organization and retrieval load. Although fiches are issued daily and subscribers receive them within seven to ten days after the documents are received from the SEC, timeliness can be a problem given the volatility of the subject matter. LaserDisclosure, due to be offered to 29 major Disclosure subscribers in New York in 1985, is designed to overcome all of these problems. Documents are scanned and the images, represented in digital form, are stored on optical laser disk retained at Disclosure facilities. Subscribers dial into the system to access a required document. The digital data representing the image of the piece will be transmitted from the Disclosure facility to a high resolution terminal at the user's site. Disclosure has chosen to utilize fiber optics channels to achieve the data handling requirements. [The fact that New York City offers fiber optics communication is significant in its choice as the initial LaserDisclosure site.]

High speed laser printers attached to the user's terminal allow rapid onsite printing of documents for which hard-copies are required. The scanning, storage and printing technologies used in LaserDisclosure are similar to those used by the Library of Congress in its DEMAND card printing system, and the hard copy outputs are of similar high quality.

Access to material published on fiches prior to the introduction of LaserDisclosure is also facilitated by the new system which includes a digitizing microfiche scanner. This is installed at the user's site and is used to convert fiche images, on demand, to a digital format for printing on the laser printer. The copy quality achieved by this process is far superior to that available with regular fiche printing devices.

Although not yet finalized, it appears that the costs of the service will be in the region of $100,000 to $200,000 a year; a cost that is apparently not significantly different from the charges now paid by full subscribers to the Disclosure products. Disclosure intends to continue producing SEC materials on fiche.

The system, as currently configured, uses laser disks developed jointly by Philips and Thomson CFS. The high resolution terminal is produced in California, and the laser printer contains components from several sources.

Carrollton Press, which developed and markets the REMARC file, showed a prototype videodisk-based reference support system at ALA. MARVLS--the MARC and REMARC Videodisk Library System--offers subject access to a file of MARC and REMARC records stored on videodisk. As demonstrated, the system configuration included an IBM PC, and a standard videodisk player. The demonstration disk contained some 230,000 records and associated indices--a load which utilized only about 20 percent of the total disk capacity. The data was accessed using proprietary search software. Carrollton has not yet finalized the marketing plans for MARVLS. Current thinking suggests that the standalone system will be made available to libraries on a lease arrangement for less than $30 per day. Other disk based products are also being considered.

CLSI demonstrated a videodisk-based cataloging support system known as Lasercat. Developed by a British sister company, the system provides local cataloging capabilities on an IBM PC using a resource file of MARC records stored on a videodisk. The disk is accessed using a standard domestic disk player and appropriate interfacing software. At present, CLSI is believed to be still considering appropriate development and marketing policies for this or a similar product.

[Contact: Disclosure, 5161 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20816 (301) 951-1300; Carrollton Press, Inc., 1611 N. Kent Street, Arlington, VA 22209 (800) 368- 3008; CLSI, 1220 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02165 (617) 965-6310.]

Telecommunications hints

The June issue of the OCLC Newsletter warns that telephone company service has slowed significantly since the break up of AT&T. OCLC recommends that users try to avoid requesting low priority work in the next few months. Completion dates for requested work appear to be running far in excess of the recommended lead time of 65 working days for the installation of a new modem or the movement of an existing modem to another building, and 35 working days for the movement of an existing modem within the same building.

To overcome these problems, OCLC recommends that libraries consider the following options:

• chain dedicated terminals to existing lines,
• use longer cables to connect terminals rather than moving modems when relocating equipment only a short distance within a building,
• temporarily use dial access for new M300 terminals.

A number of other telecommunications developments have occurred. The Summer issue of the CLSI Newsletter reports that the San Bernardino County Library in California uses a combination of local telephone lines and microwave transmission links to communicate with outlying branches. Adelphi University has installed a campuswide broadband local area network which it intends to use to link library and other automated systems. The Iowa City Public Library recently modified its CATV (Community Antenna Television) system to provide remote fully interactive access to the Library's online catalog to homes and offices which attach lowcost keypads to their TV sets. In Tucson, AZ, the city's two-way cable system is being used as a direct alternative to leased telephone circuits for data communications. Currently, the Library's technical service terminals are connected to the LIBS 100 system using this facility. There are plans to expand the linkage to more distant branch locations.

[Contact: Customer Installation and Support Services, OCLC, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-0702 (614) 764-6000 and CLSI, 1220 Washington Street, west Newton, MA 02165 (617) 965-6310.]

MARC record lengths

The general rule of thumb is that a full-MARC record averages some 700 characters. An analysis of 100,000 academic and 60,000 public library records has determined that the average length of the former is 724 characters, and for the latter, 670 characters. The longest academic library record is over 4,000 characters, while the longest public Library record is 2,400 characters. The shortest record is just over 300 characters in each case. Academic libraries should, therefore, plan to use slightly more storage than public libraries with the same number of records. By the time indices and overhead are included, the rule of thumb becomes 3,000 characters per record, with maybe 50 more for an academic library.

More PC-based ILL support

The MacNeal Hospital of Berwyn, Illinois is marketing its Fast Inter Library Loans and Statistics (FILLS) software for printing ALA interlibrary loan forms and keeping related statistics. The program developers indicate that the software can save up to 40 percent of the time usually required to complete such forms. Among the reports supported by FILLS are an alphabetic periodicals title list, alphabetic library address lists, number of requests per title, total costs charged per title, number of requests per library, average return time per library, percentage fill rate per library, total average costs charged per library and out-standing loans reports.

Two versions of the software are available; one for the IBM PC, which is compatible with the M300, the OCLC con figured PC; and the other for the IBM PC/XT. The software is priced at $295.00 plus $10 postage.

[Contact: MacNeal Hospital, Health Science Resource Center, 3249 5. Oak Park Ave., Berwyn, IL 60402 (312) 795-3089.]

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