Library Technology Guides

---

Volume 9 Number 11 (November 1989)

X.400 E-Mail

For the last two years, the Editors have been recommending X.400 conformity for electronic mail, including its Use for local library systems. Upon hearing that Hewlett-Packard would charge $18,000 for the option on its large minis, a library has asked us to elaborate on the value of X.400. We're happy to do so.

The problem with electronic mail (E-Mail) today is that the service is not universal. It is like having one's telephone calls limited to those served by the same telephone company. The purpose of the X.400 standard is to liberate users from E-Mail vendor-dependence. The X.400 E-Mail standard is a collection of protocol recommendations that cover not only the format of E-Mail messages but also how different systems communicate with each other. X.400 is a fairly comprehensive E-Mail standard that takes into account a number of different kinds of communication. The body of the message can include text, fax images, encoded voice messages, videotex, and “specialized” formats (which allows X.400 to transport data in a format not defined in the specifications, such as PC graphics files or spreadsheet data). X.400 puts no theoretical limit on the size or quantity of enclosures in a message. If X.400 were to be widely adopted, almost any E-Mail user would be able to communicate with any other.

X.400 networks don't require one particular kind of cabling or communications protocol, although a popular implementation of X.400 is through centralized packet-switched telecommunications networks such as Telenet or Tymnet. Any user on one of these networks can send mail to any other; all a sender has to know is the recipient's electronic address.

X.400 messages can be related to other messages to make it easier to track a multimessage conversation. For example, a message can have a “forwarded” indication or an “obsoleting” indicator, which tells the receiving system that the current message supersedes a specific previous message. It can also have a “cross-reference” field, which can refer one message to a previously sent message.

Most messages will have a “subject” field. They can also have a “priority” level, from 1 to 3, which tells the system how quickly the message must be transmitted; an “importance” flag, which lets the recipient know how urgent the message is; and a “sensitivity” notation of personal, private, confidential, etc.

The one thing the X.400 specification lacks is a comprehensive E-Mail directory; if you want to send an X.400 message, you have to know the E-Mail address of the recipient. The emerging X.500 Directory Standard will provide such a directory.

A standard such as X.400 can only be successful if it is adopted by the majority of E-Mail vendors. To date, a consortium of 22 E-Mail software vendors have pledged support for this standard, including microcomputer software vendors like CC Mail, Lotus, Indisy (a Novell affiliate), and 3Com, as well as more diversified vendors such as AT&T, British Telecommunications, DEC, and Telenet Communications. Called the X.400 API Association (APIA), the organization has gone so far as to agree on a specification for a series of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) in the C language designed to make development for X.400-compatible programs easier. These APIs will handle the data conversions necessary to put an E-Mail message in a format that is compliant with the X.400 specifications. Once the APIA finishes writing APIs for the latest X.400 standard, it plans to tackle the X.500 Directory Standard.

We don't necessarily insist upon implementation of X.400 at time of installation. However, a library should obtain a commitment that X.400 support will be available when needed and at what cost.

E-Mail was around long before the X.400 specification was designed or even conceived of, so there are many older E-Mail systems that don't conform to the X.400 model. In order for one of these older-style E-Mail networks to communicate with an X.400 system, an E-Mail gateway is needed. One company, Soft-Switch, Inc., of Wayne, Pennsylvania, makes a series of gateway products that translate E-Mail messages between the major entrenched vendors like H-P, Data General, and IBM. Soft-Switch products will translate a message from any of these protocols to X.400 and back again, enabling almost any existing E-Mail system to communicate with almost any other. However, current prices will not be much lower than those quoted by computer companies.

[Contact: Soft-Switch, Inc., 640 Lee Road, #200, Wayne, PA 19087; (215) 640-9600.]

Fractional T1 service now realistic

A great deal has recently been made of fractional T1 data communication service. T1 service—first introduced in 1983—consists of special telecommunications circuits capable of transmitting data at 1.544 Mbps (megabits-per-second) using terrestrial or satellite channels. This provides not only capacity equal to 24 leased voice-grade telephone lines, but also redundancy. If one circuit goes down, the transmissions can be reconnected.

Many Fortune 1000 companies build their own networks by leasing T1 circuits, Smaller multi-million dollar companies and libraries (the largest of which have needs comparable to those of smaller companies) just have not needed the great capacity of T1 service.

The industry has responded by offering Fractional T1 service. A T1 circuit may be split two, four or even more ways and made available at rates lower than leased voice-grade telephone circuits. T1's quality and reliability both are better than leased voice-grade lines.

However, the hype about T1 often overlooks the fact that almost all T1 service is offered by national carriers such as AT&T, MCI, US Sprint, etc., and one often has to lease a full T1 circuit to reach the nearest fractional T1 circuit. Also, even fractional T1 requires substantial transmission volumes. Several studies suggest that fractional T1 is justified only if the total number of circuit miles exceeds 275.

While fractional T1 service is gradually becoming available on the local level, the majority of local telcos we have called will not actually begin delivering the capacity until 1991 or later.

Who should pursue fractional T1? Large public libraries with many branches over a large metropolitan area where the local telco has announced its plan to offer fractional T1 service. Others can skip the T1 articles.

OCLC Local Systems--what of the future?

From time to time and particularly since the 35 percent reduction in its staffing, the Editors have been called upon to express an opinion on the continued viability of OCLC's Local Systems Division. In a word, we're pessimistic. The reductions are more than an effort to focus on OCLC's top priorities of the New Online System, EPIC, and the new telecommunications network. While OCLC says that no decision about future Local System product development will be made until its top priorities have been addressed, it has announced that it is not actively marketing LS/200. We believe this portends a conscious decision to leave the local multi-user systems market. The LS/2000 product did well initially, with almost one hundred sales in four years, but the annual sales dropped to 12 in 1987 and were even fewer in 1988. OCLC is continuing to support current installations with maintenance releases and limited enhancements designed to shift previously centralized tasks such as profiling from Local Systems to the local libraries.

OCLC will continue active development of the ACQ35O and SC350 products. ACQ35O and SC350 operate on standalone processors and may be implemented as single function systems or as modules in an LS/2000 installation. Over 230 have been sold and sales this year have been as many as six per month. A major enhancement of SC350 is expected within the next 6 months. OCLC will continue to actively market the ACQ35O and SC350 as standalone systems.

[Contact: OCLC Local Systems, 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017; (800) 848-5878, fax 614-764-6096.]

Cataloging available for government documents

OCLC has announced GOVDOC, a new service for libraries that will provide OCLC-MARC tapes and/or catalog cards for U.S. Government documents. Currently, each month the Government Printing Office catalogs all items distributed through the federal depository program and these records are added to the OCLC data base. Beginning January 1, OCLC will use these records to produce tapes and/or cards for the item numbers specified by a library.

The service will be available to all depository libraries, whether or not they are OCLC members. The announced cost is $.16 to $.25 per bibliographic record, with the actual cost determined by the volume of ordering and OCLC membership status. Non-members pay $.02 to $.03 more per record. The prices include the attaching of the OCLC institution symbol to the records in the Online System data base.

[Contact: Regional Networks or OCLC, (800) 848-5878; fax (614) 764-6096.]

Bookmarc renamed AARCS

NSC, Inc., the vendor of the Book-Marc Library System, has announced that the name of this library automation product has been changed to AARCS Library Automation System. The product, which runs on the IBM 5/38, AS 400 and the Wang US Systems, remains the same.

[Contact: NSC, Inc., 428 West Ryan, Brillon, WI 54110; (414) 756-5303; fax (414) 756-2359.]

New offices and personnel for DRA

Data Research Associates, Inc., which has already undertaken major automation projects in the public libraries of North York and Ottawa and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, has announced the addition of a sales office in Vancouver, British Columbia which serves customers across Canada. In charge of this office is Account Manager Bev Horan, formerly the Canadian regional marketing manager for Columbia Computing Services, owners and developers of the Columbia Library System (a.k.a. Ocelot).

DRA also has announced the addition of a sales office in Salt Lake City, Utah. That office, which serves customers in an area roughly from Texas to Idaho, is headed by Account Manager Charlie Carroll. Carroll, who formerly held positions with Eyring, Inc., and with the Queens Borough Public Library, holds an M.S. in Library Science from the C.W. Post Center of Long Island University.

DRA also announced that Kate Duval has joined the company as account manager. She is responsible for customers in the Northeast and will work out of DRA's Richmond, Virginia, office. Duval was formerly sales manager and marketing director for the library services division of The Computer Company.

[Contact: Joe Bonwich, DRA, 1276 Warson Road, P.O. Box 8495, St. Louis, MO 63132-1806; (800) 325-0888.]

Dynix reports continued strong sales in ‘89

Dynix has reported 22 contracts awarded in the United States from April to June, 1989. Among the 22 libraries selecting Dynix as its automation vendor of choice are public, academic, and special libraries in 17 states and U.S. territories. They range from smaller libraries to large county-wide and academic systems. New contracts awarded to Dynix's foreign subsidiaries during this period put the total number at over 30. The performance is Dynix's best quarter ever and keeps it on track to repeat as the number one automation company in number of sales for the third year in a row. Dynix currently serves 176 libraries in the U.S., 34 in Canada, 19 in the U.K., and 63 in Australia and New Zealand.

Dynix claims to have increased its Customer Support staff proportionally, and that installation and training for new clients still averages about six weeks after contract signing.

Dynix also has announced that its software will be available on fault tolerant Sequoia computers—multi-processor UNIX systems which can support up to 1,000 terminals. When operating under UNIX, the PICK operating system on which the applications software is built will operate as a data base management system. The announcement came on the heels of an Ultimate Corporation announcement that it had dropped Tandem Computers, Inc., in favor of an exclusive agreement for Ultimate to handle all of the sales and distribution for Sequoia systems using the PICK operating system. In deciding to change platforms, Ultimate concluded that Tandem's systems were not fully compatible with Ultimate's implementation of the PICK operating system.” Dynix installed its first Sequoia system in October, 1989, at the CALS Consortium in Olympia, Washington.

[Contact: Dynix, Inc., 151 East 1700 South, Provo, UT 84606; (801) 375-2770, fax (801) 373-1889.]

National Online Meeting announced

The eleventh National Online Meeting will be held at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in New York, May 1-3, 1990. It will incorporate Integrated Online Library Systems (IOLS ‘90) on May 2 and 3. Topics will include a wide range of technologies including voice recognition, artificial intelligence, CD-ROM, image/graphic data bases, linking of systems, ergonomics and the computer environment, etc.

[Contact: National Online Meeting, Learned Information, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055; (609) 654-6266, fax (609) 654-4309.]

InfoTrac data bases available for networking

Information Access Company has announced that it is making its InfoTrac data bases available for networking. Pricing will relate to the number of terminals that are supported. Pricing begins with two to five terminals and increases with each multiple of five.

Degradation in response time on many small library systems begins to be noticeable when only a half-dozen searchers are accessing the same data base simultaneously. To avoid unacceptably slow response, IAC can provide additional InfoTrac discs at individual terminals. The multiple-disc availability will be transparent to the user.

InfoTrac has been successfully installed on a SilverPlatter MultiPlatter

network using Ethernet hardware, Novell software, and a Meridian file server. IAC will provide hardware and software specifications for libraries wishing to install InfoTrac data bases on other networks.

IAC's Reference Center systems, which give the user the ability to combine data bases from many different producers on a single workstation with one simplified menu, can also be connected to a network. The workstation will then automatically recognize any Reference Center data bases on the network, whether the drives are housed at the file server or individual workstations. In addition to IAC data bases, all terminals on the network will have the capacity to search Dialog, Disclosure, OCLC, and SilverPlatter CD-ROM data bases if the library subscribes to any of these products.

[Contact: Information Access Company, 362 Lakeside Drive, Foster City, CA 94404; (415) 378-5000.]

Long distance rates compared

Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC) of Washington, D.C., recently compared long distance rates for the major providers for four representative monthly spending levels: $700, $1,750, $3,500, and $6,500. Charges were calculated on the basis of 60 calls divided equally among short, medium and long distances. Seventy percent of the calls were calculated at day rates.

According to this study, for organizations spending $700 or less per month, MCI is the least expensive, but ITT and US Sprint are quite competitive. AT&T costs up to 20 percent more. US Sprint was the best buy at all higher volumes of calling, beating AT&T by as much as 19 percent and MCI by as much as 12 percent. The other companies generally fell between AT&T and MCI.

It is important to note that rates are changing so rapidly that in any six month period the positions of the major companies can change. AT&T particularly appears to be closing the gap. An organization should review rates at least once or twice a year to get the best possible rates.

LANs have hidden costs

Two recent unpublished studies have revealed many hidden costs in implementing a local area network (LAN). Ferris Networks of San Francisco determined that while the average annual hardware and software cost-per-workstation is nearly the same for 20 through 5,000 nodes, the hidden people costs really add up as LANs get larger. Not only is there a great deal of cost involved with selection and procurement, but also with installation and training. As a rule, there needs to be one full-time system manager for every 30 to 40 workstations. Lost productivity when the LAN goes down is the largest single category of human costs. The average annual cost for purchasing, installing, maintaining and operating a large LAN is just under $6,000 per node when all costs are considered.

Inforetics, Inc., of Santa Clara, California, reached a similar conclusion after polling 100 organizations with LANs. It reported the startling fact that the average LAN goes down 23.6 times per year, with an average disability of 4.9 hours—something to keep in mind when one is being pressed to have all terminals, even those in a library, access the library system through an organization-wide LAN.

More wireless LANs

Two companies previewed wireless 9,600-bit-per-second (bps) connectivity products using radio transmission at last month's PC Expo in Chicago.

Airlink 1 from Hillier Technologies uses a patented spread-spectrum technology that distributes a low-power signal over a wide frequency band. An Airlink transceiver plugged into the PC's RS-232 port converts and broadcasts the data to peripherals equipped with their own Airlink devices.

Airlink uses frequencies in the 902-to-928 MHz range recently opened up by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for commercial use. Unlike infrared connections, it transmits data up to 150 feet through walls and other obstacles.

The product, which incorporates a modified high-level data link control protocol to eliminate errors, will connect a single PC to as many as 99 other devices.

Airlink is baud-rate-independent, so software need not be modified for the different rates of various peripherals. A user can initiate 9,600-baud communication with a laser printer and switch to 1,200 baud for a letter quality printer by pushing a button.

Pending FCC approval, the company expects the product to reach the market in early 1990. The suggested retail price will be $259 per node and $499 per link set.

Megadata Corporation has already received the FCC approval to sell its radio modem for PC data communication. The PC9600 board plugs into an expansion slot in any IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or compatible.

The product will facilitate communication to vehicle-mounted portable computers, connect LANs in different buildings, and strengthen remote data communication in places where telephone service is a problem.

The heart of the product is a special data-modulation technique and FM transceiver that cram 9,600 bits per second into less than 3 kilohertz of bandwidth. This enables repeaters traditionally used for voice transmission to send and receive data.

The PC9600's two-watt output power achieves an outdoor line-of-sight range of up to 15 miles. Voice-grade repeaters can boost that distance to hundreds of miles. The modem operates in the 450-to-470 MHz range.

The suggested price for the PC9600 is $2,400, including DOS driver, RX.25 radio-packet protocol, and utility software allowing remote log-on.

[Contact: Hillier Technologies Limited Partnership, 500 Alexander Park ON 23, Princeton, NJ 08543; (609) 520-0144. Megadata Corp., 56 Orville Drive, Bohemia, NY 11716; (516) 589-6800.]

Mail order PCs

Mail order purchasing of PCs has long been avoided by business, education, and library buyers. Yet the lower prices are a temptation. The question is, can it be done with minimum risk?

Disreputable companies exist. In order to combat illegal practices, the industry formed the Microcomputer Marketing Council (MMC) in 1987. Among the leaders in the trade group are large, reputable dealers such as CompuAdd of Austin, Texas, Deli of Austin, Texas, and Northgate Computers of Plymouth, Minnesota.

The advantages to mail-order are not limited to lower cost. A mail-order company usually delivers within 72 hours The majority also offer 30-day money back guarantees and technical support. CompuAdd fields over 2,000 technical support calls each day. Northgate's staff of 70 technical support representatives covers the “trouble desk” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Overnight shipment of replacement parts is routine. Dell offers on-site service support for a full year.

There are some guidelines for mail order buying:

Don't pay in advance. Issue a regular purchase order.
1. Require an unconditional 30-day guarantee.
2. Require product support by telephone, with overnight shipment of replacement parts.
3. Inquire about on-site support.

[Contact: CompuAdd, 12303 Technology Blvd., Austin, TX 78727; (800) 627-1967. Dell Computer Corp., 9505 Arboretum Blvd., Austin, TX 78759-7299; (800) 426-5150. And Northgate Computer Systems, Inc., 13895 Industrial Park Blvd., Suite 110, Plymouth, MN 55441; (800) 548-1993. In Canada (800) 338-8383.]

More performance from old PCs

Paperback Software offers an inexpensive software package for breathing new life into a PC based on the 8086/ 8088 (PC/XT) Intel chip. The $249 package, known as VP-Expert, squeezes out more performance, thus making it possible to run the new Lotus 1-2-3 and other programs which require the power of an 80286 or 80386 chip. For another $300, users can add a hard-disk drive to accommodate the larger programs the new software packages require.

[Contact: Paperback Software, 2830 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA 94710; (415) 644-2116.]

DrawPerfect available

WordPerfect has announced DrawPerfect, a desktop presentation package. The $495 program supports slide generating capabilities, drawing support and a figure library of over 500 images. It will use the same file formats as WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1. DrawPerfect will support WordPerfect's “list files” function, enabling users to scroll through images and retrieve them.

DrawPerfect will run on any IBM PC compatible with 512K of memory. It supports standard displays such as VGA and EGA.

Proofreading for PCs

Word processing continues to be the leading application for PCs, according to a determination based on sales of software packages. Five of the top-selling packages were for word processing. Lotus 1-2-3 (Release 2.01) was the best seller in August, WordPerfect 5.0 was second, Officewriter 6.1 was fifth, Microsoft Word 5.0 was sixth, and Professional Write was seventh. However, closing in on the top 20 is a proofreading package. The product is Right Writer 3.1 by Rightsoft. It uses advanced parsing and artificial intelligence to analyze documents for errors in grammar, writing style, word usage, and punctuation. The product works with Word-Perfect, Microsoft Word, pfs:Professional Write and other word processing packages. Version 3.1 uses more than 4,500 rules. Priced at $95, the product runs on the IBM PC and compatibles.

[Contact: Rightsoft, 4545 Samuel Street, Sarasota, FL 34233; (305) 923-0233.]

Public domain software on CD-ROM

An updated CD-ROM disc containing the equivalent of 1,484 disks of public domain and shareware programs is now available from P0-51G.

The PC-SIG Library on CD-ROM, Seventh Edition, contains 244 new disk titles and updates of hundreds of others and new descriptions of program titles to help users choose among programs.

It also comes with The PC-SIG Encyclopedia of Shareware, which catalogs the CD-ROM's contents; and the book Tips and Techniques for Using Low Cost and Public Domain Software on disc.

The PC-SIG Library on CD-ROM, Seventh Edition, runs on PC-compatible CD-ROM drives and costs $495, with upgrades available for current users of the sixth edition. The PC-SIG Encyclopedia of Shareware is available separately for $17.95.

[Contact: PC-SIG, lO3D E. Duane Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086; (408) 730-9291, and (800) 245-6717, ext. 2104.]

---

Maintained by Marshall Breeding

Copyright 1994-2024