Library Technology Guides

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Volume 9 Number 09 (September 1989)

Enlarging the scope of OPACs

While the majority of libraries that have automated have yet to implement an online patron access catalog, some libraries already have begun to look beyond OPACs which, to a large extent, mirror traditional library catalogs. For example, scores of libraries that participate in OCLC have undertaken "profile matching" to obtain records for microform sets and, rather than cataloging each title, one at a time, are able to obtain records for all of the titles in a series that conform to the general specifications spelled out by the library. A number of libraries have loaded GPO tapes for documents, especially the upgraded tapes made available by Marcive, a bibliographic products vendor. Non-print materials are increasingly being cataloged, especially by OCLC participants.

Although journal titles are routinely incorporated in OPACs, until now individual journal citations rarely have been included. The research requirements of many disciplines, especially in the physical sciences and social sciences, are based heavily on journal articles. The same could be said of much undergraduate and general public library use. Yet despite this requirement, and the substantial investment that libraries make in journals (in academic and special libraries from 50 to 80 percent of acquisitions budgets), libraries have been unable to offer local online access to these materials in a manner that is comparable to that for monographs. Instead, they have relied on combinations of paper indexes, standalone CD-ROM workstations, and fee-based, remote online access. All are more cumbersome to use than local systems, and the latter is generally billed back to the user.

Recently, a few libraries--primarily academic libraries--have been experimenting with offering access to journal literature through the OPAC. Many of the indexing services, IAC, ISI, Medline, and Wilson among them, are offering their products in machine-readable form, often in MARC or MARC-like format. Libraries can obtain a site license for the data bases, load them into their local library systems, apply the local system's indexing and search commands, and allow users to search these files in the same way the search for monographs.

The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) , a consortium, offers online access to the contents of current journals through Uncover, a data base containing over 500,000 citations from nearly 10,000 titles collected since 1988. Arizona State University, using a CARL system, has loaded eight of the Wilson indexes. Caltech has loaded a subset of ISI's SciSearch on a standalone system using BRS software, and plans to migrate the files to an Innovative Interfaces system. Vanderbilt University using NOTIS software and the University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences using special CLSI hardware and software, have loaded MEDLINE.

Loading journal citation files almost always requires a significant upgrade to a system's storage capacity. Site licensing costs also are expensive, particularly for large institutions because license fees are usually based on number of terminals. Some data base producers require that the site continue its paper subscriptions. Special loader programs also are required and search software may need to be modified.

Vendors of local library systems which have introduced or announced plans to offer access to journal literature through the OPAC include including CARL, CLSI, DRA, Dynix, Innovative Interfaces and NOTIS.

OPACs can offer access to other kinds of full text and index information, including reference materials such as Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia (Carnegie Mellon University, Arizona State University, and CARL), the American Heritage Dictionary (Carnegie Mellon and CARL), and Roget's Thesaurus (CARL). Some OPACs also include locally developed data bases, such as the following: careers data at Arizona State University; photography collection indexes at Boulder Public; demographic data about the Denver area at CARL; and a day care services directory and a voter information file at Pikes Peak Public.

Promotions and organizational changes at CLSI

CLSI has announced the appointment of three new vice presidents and several internal changes to strengthen its customer service and support functions.

Diane Mayo has been appointed Vice President of Sales for the company. Mayo previously served as Western Regional Sales Manager for CLSI. She holds a Masters Degree in Library Science from California State University, Fullerton.

Susan Stearns has been appointed Vice President of Marketing, succeeding Charles Farley, who has been promoted to Vice President of Corporate Development. Stearns previously served as Director of Product Management. Both Stearns and Farley hold Masters Degrees in Library Science, Stearns from Simmons College and Farley from Western Michigan University.

Barbara Britt has been appointed Vice President of Administration. Britt previously served as Director of Human Resources for CLSI.

In addition, CLSI announced the following organizational changes:

• CLSI's 24-hour Customer Response and Technical Support groups have joined the Research and Development Department, headed by Vice President Alex Shekhel.
• The Account Management and Project Management groups, responsible for customer installations, have been combined and are now part of the company's Sales Department. They report to Diane Mayo, CLSI's new Vice President of Sales.
• The Customer Educational Services group is now part of the Administration Department headed by Barbara Britt, new Vice President of Administration.
• The Quality Assurance group has joined the Marketing Department, headed by new Vice President Susan Stearns.
• The Database Conversion group is now part of the Finance and Operations Department, headed by Vice President Jeff Weber.

[Contact: Cr51, Inc., 320 Nevada Street, Newtonville, MA 02160; (617) 965-6310; fax (617) 965-1928.]

Carlyle files for Chapter 11

Carlyle Systems, Inc., of Emeryville, California, has filed for Chapter 11 status. Carlyle is still in business but under reorganization. Creditors have asked founder Steve Salmon to reassume the role of president and CEO as well as being chairman of the board.

SIRSI installs new system

The Unicorn Collection Management System marketed by Sirsi Corporation appears to be gaining increased market acceptance. It is a fully integrated library system with modules for cataloging, authority control, public access catalog, circulation, retrieval interface management, materials booking, serials control, acquisitions and electronic mail. It runs on computers with the UNIX or XENIX operating system.

The Warren Library Association (Pennsylvania) installed its Unicorn system in February. Unicorn was installed at the six-campus Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi, in March. The College Library made the online catalog available to faculty and students immediately and began using Unicorn's circulation and academic reserves modules at the beginning of the summer semester. The Library will also use Unicorn for acquisitions, serials control, authority control, materials booking and electronic mail. The Milwaukee Area Technical College also installed Unicorn in March. As soon as the collection is labeled, the system will be used for circulation.

The Mobile Public Library, a five-branch library located in Mobile, Alabama, installed its Unicorn system in April. All five branches began automated circulation simultaneously on August 7. Use of the Unicorn online catalog, authority control, materials booking, acquisitions, serials control and electronic mail modules will be implemented in phases. In May, Unicorn was installed at the Lincoln Parish Library, Ruston, Louisiana. This is the first Unicorn installation using Sirsi's new color workstations, installed at the circulation desk.

In June, Unicorn was installed at the Anderson University Library, in Anderson, Indiana. The system, which currently has 20 terminals connected, will eventually have 40, some of which will be connected via a fiber optic Local Area Network. The library will use Unicorn for circulation, academic reserves, public access, authority control, serials control, acquisitions, materials booking and electronic mail. Also in June, a Unicorn system which includes circulation, academic reserves, patron access catalog, authority control, acquisitions and serials control was installed at the Northeast Mississippi Community College Library in Booneville, Mississippi. A system also was installed in June at the Dallas Theological Seminary. The library will label its collection and reclassify part of it before making the patron access catalog available to faculty and students and beginning automated circulation. The Library has already begun using the acquisitions system. Also in June, Unicorn was installed at the Portland State University Library in Oregon. Sirsi is developing an online interface to RLIN for the PSU installation.

After completion of a successful pilot project, Sirsi Corporation was recently chosen to install its UNIX-based Unicorn Collection Management System in all schools of the Palm Beach County, Florida, School System. With 110 elementary, junior high, and high schools, Palm Beach County is the largest school district to fully automate its libraries. Unicorn was installed at three schools and the District's Technical Processing Center, which has a Unicorn system for district-wide ordering and cataloging, in January. Another eight schools came on the system in August, and an additional 25 schools will be installing Unicorn in August, 1990. The balance of the schools plan to automate within three years.

The Northside Independent School District has approved the installation of Sirsi's Unicorn throughout its 46 elementary, middle, and high schools. Sirsi will install Unicorn at the District's Technical Processing Center in September, with installations to follow in each of the schools in 1990.

Judson Independent School District (San Antonio, Texas) recently awarded a contract to Sirsi to install the Unicorn Collection Management system in three new elementary schools this fall. Unicorn was installed in two other schools in the district in 1986. The Judson Independent School District has been chosen the automation training site for all schools in the state of Texas.

[Contact: Sirsi Corporation, 2904 Westcorp Blvd., Suite 209, Huntsville, AL 35805; (205) 536-5881.]

ULISYS Software Group Ltd.

As of June 1, 1989, the ULISYS Automated Library System is being marketed by the ULISYS Software Group Ltd. of North Vancouver, British Columbia, under license from Penelope, a holding company which had licensed the software to Universal Library Systems from 1982 until May 1989. The existing Universal Library Systems contracts for the product are being renegotiated by ULISYS Group. Universal Library Systems will discontinue operations when all contracts have been renegotiated. The ULISYS Group will not only undertake future marketing, but will be responsible for software development and maintenance. The hardware platform will continue to be Digital VAX.

The ULISYS Software Group, consisting of persons who have worked with the system for some time, is wholly independent of Penelope--an organization owned by J. A. Speight and two other principals. J. A. Speight, former Universal Library Systems president, is not an officer in the ULISYS Software Group, nor does he hold any stock.

[Contact: F. Boehm or J. Horvath, ULISYS Software Group Ltd., Suite 225-L, 18 Gostick Place, North Vancouver, British Columbia V1M 3G3, Canada; (604) 967-0588.]

DEC's first mainframe

A high-end VAX 9000--the first mainframe-class system ever built by DEC--is being unveiled this month, giving DEC a significantly more competitive offering in pursuit of large computer users. While the VAX 9000 will be available initially only in a single-processor configuration, by the end of next year, users will be able to upgrade the system with as many as three more processors. The internal bus between the processors and memory is expected to be roughly 10 times faster than the bus used<' in the VAX 6000 line.

The base configuration of the VAX 9000 includes two RA91 2GB, 9-inch disc drives. The RA91, introduced with the VAX 9000, will be available at first only with VAX 9000 system.

DEC expects to ship 110 VAX 9000 systems by early December under a program similar to IBM's Early Support Program. Early next year, DEC is expected to offer a version of the VAX 9000 that will feature a "hot" standby processor providing a measure of fault tolerance.

It is not yet known whether the new CPU will offer price performance comparable to a cluster of VAX 6000s--a major consideration in its possible use by libraries.

LC to go online to the nation

Congress has authorized a six-month pilot experiment to test remote access to the Library of Congress' systems by selected public, academic, and research libraries.

A team of 13 experts in reference and automation services is now planning the pilot, which will provide online access to LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System) for a limited number of libraries. Available files will include MUMS (Multiple-Use-MARC-system), LCCC (LC Computer Catalog), COHM (Copyright History Monographs File), COHD (Copyright History Documents File) , BIBL (Congressional Research Service Bibliographic Citation File), NRCM (National Referral Center File), and the Bill Digest files.

The Library of Congress will select up to ten sites to participate in the pilot, based on geographic distribution and a mix of libraries from public, university, and research sectors. Criteria for selection include: 1) long-term experience with and commitment to online data base access; 2) experience in providing online access and training to library patrons; 3) staff resources to train library patrons to the Library of Congress system; 4) institutional resources to pay for telecommunications costs; 5) equipment (PC or terminal with 1200 baud modem) and any software necessary to connect to the Library's computer system; 6) financial commitment to send one staff member to the Library for a two-day training session; 7) willingness to compile test and cost data.

Training for participants will be at Library of Congress in mid- or late September 1989; pilot start-up will be around October 1989; and evaluation and wrap-up will be undertaken about June 1990.

[Contact: Suzanne Thorin, Library of Congress; (202) 707-5530.]

Compuserve buys the Source

A consolidation of the online information services market occurred in August when The Source Telecomputing Corporation was folded into CompuServe, Inc. The terms of this acquisition agreement, signed on June 29, allow for a smooth transition of new services to The Source's estimated 53,000 members. The financial details of the purchase were not disclosed.

CompuServe User Identification numbers and passwords are being made available to Source members and customized welcome menus will be posted to help the new users become accustomed to Compuserve commands, data bases, and online membership services.

Compuserve expects to merge The Source's members with their own customer base of 500,000, making it the largest online information service for microcomputer users.

Meanwhile, The Source will be discontinuing the use of its name, its national headquarters, and about 65 employees.

The Source and CompuServe were pioneers in 1979, when they both started in the online information services industry. CompuServe, a unit of Kansas City, Kansas-based H&R Block, grew much faster than The Source and also began providing electronic mail, software and value-added packet data network services.

CompuServe still faces competition from General Electric's GEnie service. GEnie service announced July 20 that it had added Newsbytes News Service to its list of news and information services. Newsbytes, headquartered in San Francisco with bureaus around the world, formerly used The Source for its internal communications.

BRS and Orbit to remain separate

Maxwell Online, Inc., has decided that its BRS and ORBIT information retrieval services will remain on separate host systems. Plans are underway to build a common front-end gateway service between the two systems, however.

Tymnet sold to British Telecom

McDonnell Douglas Corporation is getting out of the value-added network business and has announced that it intends to sell McDonnell Douglas Network Systems Company--which includes the Tymnet public data network, second only to Telenet in size--to British Telecom, a maj or international telecommunications company.

In 1984, when it was trying to become a broad-based information systems provider, McDonnell Douglas bought Tymshare, Inc., which owned Tymnet. Tymshare was renamed McDonnell Douglas Network Systems Company. Although Network Systems did well (New York research firm Link Resources Corporation last year ranked Network Systems second only to Telenet Communications Corporation in the VAN market in annual revenue, with $252 million, as compared with Telenet's $423 million), costs were soaring in McDonnell Douglas' core aviation business and McDonnell Douglas found it increasingly difficult to provide technological support for the network business. A major problem was that Network Systems had no technology or presence in the voice arena and this made voice-and-data integration difficult. Telenet, in contrast, is a subsidiary of US Sprint, a major telecommunications company. Also, Network Systems had neither the infrastructure nor the capital to create a more extensive, more competitive global network. Most of Telenet's much greater revenues come from international operations.

McDonnell Douglas apparently had had in mind a company that would buy into Network Systems for the support it needed.

But the various contenders, including British Telecom (BT), weren't interested in a partnership. Eventually McDonnell Douglas accepted BT's cash offer of $355 million to buy the business outright. Along with the Tymnet network, London-based BT got the rest of Network Systems, including OnTyme, the Card Service processing business, EDI*Net, and Network System's 25 percent holding in Network Information Service Company, Ltd., a Japanese VAN.

Now, with BT as its parent, Network Systems could provide stiffer competition for Telenet. Among other U.S. holdings, BT owns electronic-mail provider Dialcom, Inc., the provider of ALANET support. Industry analysts speculate that BT will merge the two organizations, drawing on Dialcom' s greater E-mail strength and Network System's greater experience with data transfer.

U.S. archives tests WORM

In a test project that could have important implications for libraries, the National Archives plans to make available on a system configured around PC-based workstations more than 220,000 document images recorded on 12-inch write-once-read-many (WORM) optical media. The images in the optical digital image storage system (ODISS) are only a small percentage of the Archives' 15 billion images, but they represent some of the most heavily used of the Archives' Civil War military records from Tennessee Confederate regiments.

The pilot project comes after two years of testing to determine whether networked optical media can play a role at the Archives. Assembled by UNISYS for about $1 million, the heart of the test system is a series of 68010 microprocessors on a common bus, two standalone Sony 12-inch WORM drives for loading scanned data onto the optical media, and workstations for scanning, indexing, retrieving, and printing document images. The images are stored in a UNIX-based Unify data base using a Sony WORM jukebox capable of holding 50 WORM disks. The records were input via a high-speed scanner handling 40 to 50 images a minute. Each Sony disk can hold 40,000 images, or about 2.2 gigabytes. Total space needed for the jukebox is 113 cubic feet, about one-half of one percent of the space needed to store the paper records.

Because conventional local area networks cannot move the images quickly enough to various workstations, a star-shaped system of RS-422 lines was installed to move images to workstations. However, LARs which can accommodate the transfer of images are now becoming available. The state of Tennessee also is able to dial into the Unify data base, but only for retrieving index information Analog telephone circuits lack capacity for image retrieval.

The first image can be retrieved in less than eight seconds; any associated images are retrieved virtually instantaneously. Each retrieval workstation is a 286-based system with 4 megabytes of RAM for storing a number of images simultaneously, as well as a 40-megabyte hard disk. A workstation doing 8-bit gray-scale digitization has a 116-megabyte hard disk.

The system is searchable by name, entering and departing rank, regiment, and company. The final test will include a comparison of how long it takes for researchers to retrieve the records in their original form, as opposed to automated retrieval.

Among the questions to be answered in the Final Report scheduled for a year from now will be what dot resolution seems adequate for storing digitized records. Preliminary data suggests that 200 dot per inch (dpi) images, combined with workstations that can magnify the images for closer examination is adequate, although testing is being done all the way up to 400 dpi.

If the project is successful, the Archives will seek to do something about the ten percent of its collections (350,000 of 3.5 million cubic feet) which are in some need of preservation. Write- once optical media may last up to 100 years without degradation, and since they are digitally encoded, They may be copied onto other media for further preservation. As images are being scanned, they can also be enhanced; stains can be removed and bleed-through from the backs of thin pages reduced.

[Contact: William Hooton, Director, ODISS, National Archives and Records Administration, 7th & Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., NSZ, Washington, DC 20408; (202) 523-1546.]

Vendor failure

In a test project that could have important implications for libraries, the National Archives plans to make available on a system configured around PC-based workstations more than 220,000 document images recorded on 12-inch write-once-read-many (WORM) optical media. The images in the optical digital image storage system (ODISS) are only a small percentage of the Archives' 15 billion images, but they represent some of the most heavily used of the Archives' Civil War military records from Tennessee Confederate regiments.

The pilot project comes after two years of testing to determine whether networked optical media can play a role at the Archives. Assembled by UNISYS for about $1 million, the heart of the test system is a series of 68010 microprocessors on a common bus, two standalone Sony 12-inch WORM drives for loading scanned data onto the optical media, and workstations for scanning, indexing, retrieving, and printing document images. The images are stored in a UNIX-based Unify data base using a Sony WORM jukebox capable of holding 50 WORM disks. The records were input via a high-speed scanner handling 40 to 50 images a minute. Each Sony disk can hold 40,000 images, or about 2.2 gigabytes. Total space needed for the jukebox is 113 cubic feet, about one-half of one percent of the space needed to store the paper records.

Because conventional local area networks cannot move the images quickly enough to various workstations, a star-shaped system of RS-422 lines was installed to move images to workstations. However, LARs which can accommodate the transfer of images are now becoming available. The state of Tennessee also is able to dial into the Unify data base, but only for retrieving index information Analog telephone circuits lack capacity for image retrieval.

The first image can be retrieved in less than eight seconds; any associated images are retrieved virtually instantaneously. Each retrieval workstation is a 286-based system with 4 megabytes of RAM for storing a number of images simultaneously, as well as a 40-megabyte hard disk. A workstation doing 8-bit gray-scale digitization has a 116-megabyte hard disk.

The system is searchable by name, entering and departing rank, regiment, and company. The final test will include a comparison of how long it takes for researchers to retrieve the records in their original form, as opposed to automated retrieval.

Among the questions to be answered in the Final Report scheduled for a year from now will be what dot resolution seems adequate for storing digitized records. Preliminary data suggests that 200 dot per inch (dpi) images, combined with workstations that can magnify the images for closer examination is adequate, although testing is being done all the way up to 400 dpi.

If the project is successful, the Archives will seek to do something about the ten percent of its collections (350,000 of 3.5 million cubic feet) which are in some need of preservation. Write- once optical media may last up to 100 years without degradation, and since they are digitally encoded, They may be copied onto other media for further preservation. As images are being scanned, they can also be enhanced; stains can be removed and bleed-through from the backs of thin pages reduced.

[Contact: William Hooton, Director, ODISS, National Archives and Records Administration, 7th & Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., NSZ, Washington, DC 20408; (202) 523-1546.]

Census on CD-ROM

The Data User Services Division of the U.S. Census Bureau has announced that the 1990 U.S. Decennial Census will be published on CD-ROM. All data will be contained on approximately 25 discs. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau will begin distributing data from other statistical programs on CD-ROM even before the 1990 Census is available. The Division encourages the 1,400 Federal Depository Libraries to acquire CD-ROM players to make the data available to their users.

Videodisc revival gets boost

The second launching of the videodisc is getting a needed boost with Pioneer's introduction of an all-purpose disc player, the CLD-1070, a machine which plays all laser-read audio and video discs. At $599, the 1070 is substantially less expensive than previous "combi" players. Pioneer expects the 1070 to sell for less than $500 at discount outlets.

The 1070's low price is intended not only to enhance hardware sales, but to energize the entire videodisc industry. Getting more disc players into homes, where only about 400,000 machines can now be found (compared to about 60 million VCRs), is expected to stimulate sales of the discs themselves. An invigorated programming market will, in turn, nurture growth on the hardware side. Several major film studios are aiding the cause by promising to release blockbuster titles on disc at reduced prices ($24.95 to $29.98) and at the same time they're released on tape. Despite the popularity of compact discs, the penetration of CD players is only about 16 percent of a U.S. market that represents 95 million households. The success of the combi player market depends on reaching those who have yet to acquire a CD player.

Pioneer hopes to sell 80,000 combi players before the year is out. Other brands might account for another 50,000 in sales. Sales projections for 1990 are estimated at 500,000 units. Pioneer introduced the 1070 just before the Summer Consumer Electronics Show it Chicago. Although a number of manufacturers unveiled new combi players at the show, none matched Pioneer's price. Sony displayed two new machines: the MDP-210, at $700, and the MDP-51O at $1,100. Yamaha showed a new combi player, the CDV-110 at $799. Sharp offered a new twist with its MV-D100: It not only plays all sizes of audio and video discs, but doubles as a changer for three- and five-inch CDs. But at $1,500, Sharp's versatile player is nearly three times the cost of Pioneer's low-priced come-on.

The videodisc offers a picture that's superior to tape, and better sound. Its graphics are strikingly better. Discs take up less shelf space than tape, and they're harder to counterfeit-- a real benefit for producers. There's also a long-term cost advantage over tape: raw materials for a single videodisc cost about 75 cents, compared with $1.35 for a T-120 VHS cassette. But added to this is the cost of manufacturing each disc, a comples process similar to the production of audio CDs. However, these costs are dropping rapidly due to techniques such as injection molding.

Accord reached on digital tape recorders

Record companies and manufacturers of stereo equipment have agreed upon a copyright protection plan that will clear the way for the next generation of audio technology to reach the American market. The new recorders, known as digital audio tapes (DAT) machines, are the tape equivalent of compact discs. The results are just as sharp and distortion-free. Unlike compact disc players, however, digital players allow people to record their own tapes as well as play pre-recorded ones. The digital tapes are smaller than audio cassettes.

The preliminary agreement, coming after three years of negotiation, would allow consumers to use digital audio tape machines to make direct digital copies of compact discs. Such copies would be as clear as the original, but the circuitry in the tape machines would prevent the digital copies from being copied again.

Record companies opposed the introduction of digital tape players in the United States because they were afraid that wide-spread copying of compact discs would reduce disc sales. Because of this opposition, manufacturers of digital players have not sold them in this country, though they have been available in Japan and Europe for about two years. Because of the limited distribution, machines have cost over $1,000 and blank tapes have cost an average of $12.99. If the preliminary agreement holds, sales of DAT in the U.S. will begin in 6 to 10 months.

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