Library Technology Guides

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Volume 5 Number 11 (November 1985)

Information technology and space planning

Most data bases which are searched online are almost exclusively mounted at remote sites, thus requiring only a terminal or microcomputer with modem for access. However, the vast majority of recorded information continues to be available only in printed form, as books, journals, documents, etc. Therefore, despite the potential of the emerging information technologies, it is not yet possible to implement a "paperless" library or information center.

The library or information center which is committed to the concept of electronic storage quickly discovers that bibliographic information alone is commonly available on magnetic tape, digitally encoded videodisc, and CD-ROM; full-text information is still rarely available in electronic format. Converting eye-readable information into machine-readable form using optical scanning equipment is still labor intensive and costly. Loading commercially available magnetic tapes of machine-readable data bases into the storage now available on local systems is not usually cost effective.

While it appears that the optical storage media of digitally encoded video- discs and CD-ROM will facilitate electronic publishing and the mounting of very large bibliographic and full-text data bases on local systems, it will most likely require several years for that which is technologically feasible to become widely available. The factors which commonly constrain the diffusion of any new technology include technological, economic, legal, and attitudinal forces.

• Although [text missing] a number of videodisc, optical digital disk, and CD-ROM based systems available, the technologies are not yet widely used. This is in large part due to the fact that major production investments are awaiting the completion of relevant standards.
• Among the technological constraints is the lack of reliable, high-speed optical character recognition devices for converting eye-readable information into digital form. The fact that there are fewer than ten disk pressing plants worldwide is also inhibiting development.
• The lack of mass-produced systems has kept prices high. To date only relatively small bibliographic data bases (under 2.5 billion characters) can be made available on CD-ROM as cost effectively as online. Copyright has also been a limiting factor. Those who hold the copyright on printed materials are often reluctant to license electronic publication because they know little of the technology and fear that they will lose control over distribution and use.
• Attitudinal factors include not only the attitudes of librarians and information specialists, but also of users and potential publishers of information. Librarians and information specialists fear that users will resist the new media as they have resisted microform in the past. Potential publishers often have a strong, even irrational commitment to the print medium.

Because of the slow diffusion of new information technologies, it is necessary to plan new library and information center facilities to accommodate print, video, and electronic formats; and to provide for only a gradual augmentation and limited displacement of print by other media.

For all of the above reasons, library and information center space planning has not changed a great deal in the past 30 years. The primary emphasis continues to be on providing space for printed or written materials, readers, and staff. Existing libraries and information centers have been studied for ideas about layout, furnishings, and finishes and formulae have been adopted to facilitate the determination of space requirements.

Facilities now being planned must accommodate all existing and emerging technologies because the latter will become viable during the useful life of any facility constructed during the next decade. A number of information technologies already affect design requirements. For example, library automation is no longer confined to the technical services area or the circulation desk; patron access terminals may have to be accommodated throughout the building. A personal micro or a terminal might be used at any carrell throughout the library. The reference department may soon be receiving electronic publications on CD-ROM or digitally encoded videodiscs. Electronic document delivery may also be widely used. Libraries which have not placed a high priority on traditional audiovisual materials may, nonetheless, become active users of video. Information centers will probably have to accommodate micro-based workstations with / peripheral mass storage devices containing large data bases at most staff desks and at many user desks. Considerable computer training will probably be required and will have to be factored in also.

The response to these emerging requirements is to stress flexibility, but ultimate flexibility can significantly increase costs. Building for the future is a particular problem when the formulae by which space requirements and budgets are determined have not been adjusted to allow for the emerging technologies. The following paragraphs set forth some of the minimum provisions which should be considered when planning new facilities.

Tables, carrells, and desks with micro-based workstations will require provision for electrical and data cabling, "clean" power, and non-glare lighting, as well as additional work surface area. The common architectural standard for patrons has been 25 square feet per person, including a work surface of 6 square feet (36 by 24 inches) and circulating space of 19 square feet. This is insufficient to accommodate a micro- based workstation and still allow room for writing and the use of printed materials. A conventional work surface would become even more congested if; the micro- based workstation were also to include a CD-ROM drive to access electronic publications.

The minimum work surface for a micro-based workstation should be 10 square feet (48 by 30 inches). This provides sufficient workspace if the micro is placed to the far left or right of the surface. The total space requirement, therefore, increases to a minimum of 30 square feet per person. Carrells with lockers--a common requirement in academic research libraries--would boost the requirement to 35 square feet.

Micro-based workstations require both electrical power and connection to data transmission cables. While specially designed furniture is available which conceals wires and cables, the number of options is still limited and the prices are high. Standard furniture is often suitable. The important characteristics are hollow metal frames and aprons.

Cables can usually be pulled through the inside of furniture frames if the design provides at least a 1/4" diameter clearance throughout. Aprons effectively conceal cabling under the table, carrell, or desk top. Clusters of carrells can be placed against a column or above a floor outlet to avoid the use of unsightly power poles to bring cabling from the ceiling.

Ideally data cabling would be coaxial or fiber optic because both provide considerable capacity within a small diameter. However, some equipment still requires regular twisted pair wires to achieve cost effective installation. Twisted pairs provide less capacity within a given diameter. A "flat wire" is available for installation under carpeting or for tacking underneath furniture tops.

Electrical power to micros should be "clean." The circuits should be separate from general circuits which may provide power to typewriters, copiers, and other pieces of equipment with motors. Lighting in areas with computer screens should be non-glare. Options include indirect lighting, parabolic fixtures, and recessed fixtures. The quality of light required for comfortable use of computer screens is also ideal for reading microform and printed materials. Air conditioning is another factor to be considered since computers generate heat and often have specific temperature requirements.

The financial implications of facilities which properly provide for the accommodation of micro-based workstations may be as great as a 10 percent increase in project cost. However, the cost of retrofitting furnishings, power, and lighting and air conditioning, after the fact, is likely to be much greater.

AT&T's new PC will run Unix V, MS-DOS

AT&T has introduced an Intel 80286-based personal microcomputer that runs MS-DOS and Unix System V operating systems concurrently. AT&T may also introduce a replacement board for its PC 6300 that will enable the year-old machine to run both MS-DOS and Microsoft Corp.'s Xenix concurrently. Then the PC 6300 could run the same Xenix programs as the IBM PC/AT. The moves are designed to take advantage of the increasingly popular UNIX operating system and to make AT&T micros capable of competing head-to-head with IBM.

S/34 plug pulled

IBM has notified some 50,000 System/34 small systems users that it will stop supporting the SSP operating system and other software as of February 21, 1986. That will be one year after the company discontinued selling the system, which has been replaced in the IBM product line with the System/36. Several dozen public libraries use the 34, often sharing the machine with other local government agencies. In addition to migrating to the IBM System/36, these libraries have the option of converting to Wang or DEC equipment using the special conversion software and consulting services offered by those firms.

Causes of damage to data files

Of all damage to machine-readable files resulting in financial loss, a significant majority is due to human error, omissions or accidents. Human error accounts for up to 60 percent of damage to files stored in computer systems according to research conducted for Datapro Research Corp. Intentional employee abuse accounts for another 20 percent of damage. Environmental threats, including fire, electrical, and water mishaps, account for between 10 and 15 percent of damage. Threats from outside hackers account for less than 3 percent of the loss.

While libraries should be conscious of security against physical damage and actions of outsiders, the greatest need apparently continues to be good training and supervision of staff to minimize errors and to guard against intentional abuse.

The report; "The Need for Security," was written by Carl B. Jackson, director of computer security for the Ford Aerospace and Communication Corp. To obtain copies of the report, contact Datapro Inquiry Service, 1805 Underwood Blvd., Delran, NJ 08075. (800) 257-9406.

Online data base of data bases

Martha Williams' Computer-Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook is available online with DIALOG as the Data base of Data bases (File 230). The directory focuses on U.S.-based data bases and information is arranged by data base name. Each record contains the name of the data base, any synonyms or acronyms for the name, producer information, search service availability, subject matter and scope, file size, update size and frequency, language of data base and source material, corresponding print version title, indexing features (controlled, uncontrolled, etc.) , user aids, data elements, and percentage of document types (journal article. government documents, etc.). The directory also includes information on batch processing services and information on direct lease, licensing, and purchasing of data bases on specific media. The file has 2,500 records and will be reloaded quarterly. It may be accessed for $48 per connect hour with a charge of $.20 per record for off line prints.

A major competitor, the Cuadra Directory will also be made available as an online data base through three services--one in the U.S. and two in Europe. The U.S. service is WESTLAW, the online service of West Publications, which provides computer-aided research support to the legal community. The two European online services are DATA-STAR and Telesystemes-Questel, both of which can be accessed from the U.S.

The Cuadra data base contains descriptions of more than 2,700 data bases, offered through over 400 online services worldwide. Each data base service will receive the same basic file of Cuadra Directory data, but each is free to format and present the data in its own way. Prices will be established by each of the services.

Wilson online

H. W. Wilson is apparently pleased with the usage of the online edition of the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and is expanding the scope of its online services. Library Literature and the Art Index will go up this month and Vertical File Index is scheduled to go online in July 1986. The company has also announced nested logic and proxim-ity searching for all files.

Wilson also has abstracts available for articles appearing in 182 titles in-dexed in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The abstracts--for more than 60,000 articles going back to September 1984--are currently available only on microfiches which are updated every six weeks. An online version will be added to Wilsonline during 1986.

[Contact; WILSEARCH, The H. W. Wilson Company, 950 University Ave., Bronx, NY 10452. (800) 367-6770, (800) 462-6060 in New York.]

Survey of modem users

A recent study of 440 modem users by The Market Information Center Inc. of Framingham, Mass, reports that 36 percent of those surveyed find 9600 bits per second to be the optimum speed for their transmission of data between terminals and computers. Another 45 percent of the respondents cited the following other standard speeds--1200, 2400, and 4800 bps--about equally. The 300 bps modem is now virtually obsolete.

According to the study, the leading vendors of choice are Racal-Milgo Inc., Universal Data Systems Inc., Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., Codex Corp., and AT&T Information Systems Inc. These five vendors substantially control the market even though there are over 100 other firms in the marketplace. Respondents rated quality as a modem s most important attribute, with service and frequency of downtime close behind.

The study also reports on the use of Dataphone Digital Service (DDS) as an alternative to the use of modems with voice-grade telephone lines. Just under 20 percent of those surveyed currently use DDS, with fewer than 10 percent of all the respondents planning to add it in the future. Only 12 are sending data through a digital PBX.

The study, entitled The Modem Marketplace, is available from The Market Information Center Inc., 100 Pennsylvania Ave., Framingham, MA 01701, (617) 879-2273.

WP disk conversion

Data Conversion Inc. has announced new rates for converting floppy disks from one word processing system to another. Moving files among any of the following systems costs $40 for a single disk in-cluding the cost of the target disk. The systems covered by the service are: Convergent Technology, Decmate II, Decmate III, IBM Displaywriter SS/DD, IBM Displaywriter II, IBM Displaywriter III, IBM OS 6, Lanier (NO PROBLEM), Lanier (SUPER No PROBLEM), Micom 2000, Micom 3000, Multimate (PC DOS), Wang WPS, 0IS, US, Wordstar (PC DOS & CP/M), NBI 30005, Officewriter, Xerox 860 & 820, ASCII (PC DOS & CP/M), plus most CP/M systems. Making copies from IBM Displaywriter DS/DD and IBM 5520 is $75 per disk. Lower prices are available when multiple copies are made.

[Contact: Data Conversion Inc., 6310 Caballero Blvd., Buena Park, CA 90620, (800) 821-8951.]

Metropolitan area data service launched

Pacific Bell, one of the Pacific Telesis Group which was spun off in the AT&T breakup, has begun offering a high-speed data transmission service in the San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. The service, called Public Switched Digital Service, transmits information at up to 56 kilobits per second and will be marketed as an alternative to private-line service for the transport of data and graphics. Pacific Bell will extend the service to other California cities in late 1986. The service, which can also be used for facsimile transmission, will be offered over Pacific Bell's public telephone network. It is expected that the other Bell Operating Companies will also offer the service throughout the continental U.S.

Electronic communication legislation

A House Judiciary subcommittee is conducting hearings on the "Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985," which is designed to bring new voice and data technologies under the protection of the 1968 federal wiretap law. The current law specifically covers only traditional wireline telephone calls. Proponents of the new legislation believe new language is required to also protect cellular telephone, paging, and data transmission. Among other things, the legislation will change the words "wire communication" to "electronic communication." The sponsors are Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., (S 1667) and Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, D-Wis., (HR 3378). A Senate Judiciary subcommittee may begin hearings late this month. Sponsors are looking forward to Spring 1986 mark-up sessions and hope to have legislation passed later next year.

UTLAS opens new U.S. offices

UTLAS Corp., the rapidly expanding subsidiary of International Thomson Ltd., has announced the establishment of several offices in the United States. The head office will be in Arlington, VA, previously the office for Carrollton Press. Three regional sales offices have been established--in Arlington, Virginia, St. Louis, Missouri, and Berkeley, California. The operations office for ALIS III, UTLAS' newly acquired local library system, will be in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

[Contact: UTLAS Corp., Western Region Sales Office, 2150 Shattuck Ave., Rm. 402, Berkeley, CA 94704, (415) 841-9442; Central Region Sales Office, 1031 Executive Parkway Dr., Suite 110, St. Louis, MO 63141, (314) 851-9463; Eastern Region Sales Office, 1611 North Kent St., Arlington, VA 22209, (703) 525-5940 or (800) 368-3008; Operations, 9000 West 67th St., Shawnee Mission, KS 66202, (913) 262-5100.]

Machine-readable cataloging data providers

The Editors recently completed a lengthy survey of sources of machine- readable data for current cataloging and retrospective conversion support td be published in a forthcoming issue of Library Technology Reports. Twenty-two vendors were identified. The following paragraphs are intended to give some insights into the types of organizations offering such services and are indicative of the range of options currently available.

In the beginning, there were the traditional not-for-profit bibliographic utilities--OCLC, RLIN, UTLAS and WLN established by and for libraries to support online shared cataloging using data bases of national agency and user contributed records. More recently, however, it has become increasingly difficult to consider this group as an identifiable subset of cataloging support services. For example, the two most active OCLC regional affiliates, AMIGOS and SOLINET, compete with these organizations in the provision of retrospective conversion services. The distinctiveness of the bibliographic utility concept, challenged by developments such as the purchase of UTLAS by a commercial corporation with its subsequent acquisition of Carrollton Press and the REMARC file, has been further strained by the emergence of several other commercial vendors offering online systems for cataloging and conversion support. While the number of libraries using these commercial services is significantly lower than the client base of OCLC, RLIN, UTLAS, or WLN, their approach is similar to that of the old utilities. Companies in this group include Auto-Graphics, Brodart, and the Computer Company. In addition to offering online cataloging support (albeit through the brokerage of OCLC services for AMIGOS and SOLINET), all of these organizations also provide retrospective conversion support, both batch and online.

A second group of vendors offers only batch services--for both cataloging and retrospective conversion. The companies in this group are Blackwell, Inforonics, General Research Corporation (GRC), Marcive and PACfile which is due to begin providing services in 1986. There are two companies that specialize in the provision of standalone systems for current cataloging and retrospective conversion support based on LC MARC data. The Library Corporation's BiblioFile product uses CD-ROM as the storage medium and Library Systems & Services Inc. (LSSI) uses videodisc to store its MINI MARC data base. CD-ROM technology is also used in UTLAS' DisCon system, but this serves as an aid for the selection of REMARC records rather than providing direct access to the records themselves. GRC, mentioned above, is also developing a CD-ROM-based system that will include contributed records as well as LC MARC cataloging data.

Another two companies specialize in the provision of keying services to libraries. Electronic Keyboarding Inc. concentrates on direct keying; Saztec will undertake both coding and keying.

The remaining service providers are difficult to classify. Library of Congress stands alone as the source of the machine-readable tapes of national agency cataloging data which form an important element in the offerings of all service vendors. It also provides a specialized batch record selection service for retrospective conversion. LIAS offers conversion services using its own staff and inhouse automated library system, and provides client libraries with online access for project monitoring and query resolution. Informatics is active in contract facilities management and offers customized cataloging and conversion services. Information Transform differs from the other companies in that it does not directly provide cataloging or retrospective conversion services. Rather, it develops microcomputer software to assist in recording search keys for retrospective conversion, and in the preparation of original cataloging by non-professional staff.

Although there have been a number of experiments in the application of optical character recognition to the conversion of manual catalog records, no such service is being used on a large scale. Library of Congress is currently evaluating Optiram's implementation of OCR.

Other approaches include individual and cooperative library action to mount national agency tapes on mainframe computers equipped with cataloging support software. One vendor, hAS, bases its retrospective conversion service on just such an installation, and a number of locally developed and commercial software packages support this capability. All of the turnkey systems for local library automation offer modules for the creation and maintenance of bibliographic records. Most offer support for the MARC format but also permit libraries to develop non-MARC records. While few of these systems are configured to support vast national agency-derived sources files, a number of libraries generate their own machine-readable cataloging data by keying records into their local systems. Only one turnkey vendor--Data Research Associates--is known to provide access to a significant resource file of LC MARC records mounted at the vendor's St. Louis headquarters.

Some libraries choose to perform retrospective conversion on the local system. Two methods are common. In the first, a library installing a system seeks to identify another comparable library with a file of machine-readable bibliographic records judged likely to closely match the converting library's collection. That file is mounted on the local system as a resource file against which the library searches for records for the materials in its collection. With the increasing emphasis on copyright in records derived from major source files, and the variety of relatively low priced conversion options, it is expected that this approach will be less frequently used. A library planning to implement such a conversion should investigate the impact that mounting and using such a file will have on the performance of a system not specifically configured to support such levels of activity.

With the increasing number of turnkey systems being purchased to support consortia of libraries, a second approach to local system supported retrospective conversion and current cataloging is becoming more common. Member libraries which have developed files of machine-readable bibliographic records mount these on the system and other libraries undertake conversion/cataloging against these files. As such systems have been configured to support data bases of records for all participants, this approach does not usually impose strains on system performance. However, libraries using this approach should ensure that they are not violating the terms of their agreements with the service from which the records are derived, and the libraries accessing the resource file also need to ensure that they will be permitted to retain copies of the records should they or the library that provides the source file ever leave the shared system.

Files of machine-readable bibliographic records--LC MARC records, -in some cases--are available on the data base services offered by vendors such as Dialog and BRS. OCLC is in the process of mounting one million such records on BRS to support subject searching. These applications are aimed at reference and public service functions rather than cataloging support. Vendors in related library oriented services--serials subscription agencies and book jobbers--also provide machine-readable cataloging support for their clients. Some of these vendors also provide general cataloging and conversion support to non-client libraries.

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