TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR INFORMATION DELIVERY

Pamela Andre

Associate Director for Automation

National Agricultural Library

10301 Baltimore Blvd. 5th Floor

Beltsville, MD 20705-2351

New telecommunications and networking technologies are making it possible to expedite the delivery of materials between libraries. A number of projects are underway to evaluate various methods for electronic document delivery. This paper will discuss three such projects taking place in the United States. The Image Transmission Project being directed by North Carolina State University and the National Agricultural Library is scanning high resolution bit mapped images of library materials and delivering them over the high-capacity NSF Internet to 15 participating institutions. The Research Libraries Group (RLG) has developed a prototype workstation for interlibrary loan. Utilizing proprietary hardware and software, this approach to document delivery is being tested at six institutions. The third project is being done by the Academic Computing Services at Ohio State University which is evaluating the use of telefax image technology as a mechanism to facilitate document delivery and is now being tested at three sites. Issues relating to hardware platforms, software techniques, standards, and operational procedures will be discussed.

MODELS FOR UNIVERSITY-VENDOR COOPERATION OASIS AND INFORMA

Anita L. Breland

Academic Information Systems

International business Machines, Inc.

Milford, CT 06460

Jordan M. Scepanski

Library and Learning Resources

California State University, Long Beach

Long Beach, CA 90840

Abstract: Rapid evolution of technology and shrinking financial resources challenge universities and vendors to develop new approaches to working together for long-term benefit. This paper will address two partnerships involving staff of the California State University and international Business Machines Corporation. The Online Administrative and Student Information Systems (OASIS) project is a joint development effort to address administrative computing requirements in higher education. INFORMA is a forum intended to enhance communication and strategic planning between IBM and the U.S. library community. Representatives from IBM and California State Unviersity, Long Beach will describe OASIS and INFORMA from the perspectives of both corporate sponsor and university participant. Their remarks will focus on the challenges faced initiating and developing these projects, as well as on current and prospective benefits for administrative and library computing.

LINKING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

F. William Chickering

Dean of Libraries and Acting Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

Pratt Institute

Brooklyn NY 11205-3897

There was a time when, as librarians, our concerns were focussed on books and readers. In that time, not so long ago, technology meant an electric typewriter and a telephone. If the typewriter had a correcting feature and the telephone a conferencing feature, we had word processing and teleconferencing. Those days, when we measured quality in numbers of volumes and square feet of space, are gone.

The availability of high technology information management tools has altered the way we must perceive information and information service. As a result, we must alter the way we deliver information services, and the ways we plan for providing information and evaluating the quality of service.

Consider the forms of high technology available to us for the generation, storage and retrieval of information. There is tape and disc based digital storage in the now traditional computer. There is optical storage using lasers to store and retrieve digitally encoded text character and image based information. There is sophisticated word and image processing hardware and software to allow us to create, display and store text-based words, still and moving visual images, and sound of all kinds. There are telecommunications links to enable the transmission of information in all of these forms to sights removed as far away from the storage sight as a few feet or a few continents.

As free market information services reach into the home, allowing subscribers to order groceries and do other shopping, perform banking tasks, play games, access information, and sen electronic mail, "library" users come to expect more efficient and effective information delivery from traditional information providers, libraries. It is the responsibility of library and information professionals to meet these expectations.

How can this be done? The tools are at hand. Online databases, CD-ROM and leased tape databases, OPACS, Lan's, fax machines and file servers are all here to meet the needs of information management. What is needed in coordinated comprehensive planning to set standards and establish protocols for linking these technologies and the information resources that are at the heart of the library enterprise. Once this is done we must be prepared to evaluate our effectiveness not in terms of volume counts and numbers of seats, but in terms of successful matches between query and source retrieved.

While doing all of this it is essential to continue the traditions of free access, balanced collections with a broad span of view-points in a context of intellectual freedom.

Augurio Collantes

Hostos Community College Library

City University of New York

This paper explores the potential application of a Local Area Network (LAN) of microcomputers at a university library in the Phillipines. It describes the environment for the local network and the existing conditions that make the application feasible. The Main Library / Diliman Campus can serve as a starting point and later on be extended to the various campuses of the University. The general features of the local network as conceived are given.

The importance of such application in terms of resource-sharing , programs and peripherals linkages, and access to network are discussed. Various problems involved with implementation are likewise brought out.

As a local network it will eventually be useful not only to the university but to other institutions as well. It can be a major component in the national networking scheme that may evolve in the future. This is an example of how an academic library in a third world country utilizes the available resources to take advantage of the developments in information technology.

The paper is written from the perspective of one who visited the UP Library in 1989 as a TOKTEN fellow of UNDP and has observed the possibilities for such an application. The fact that he worked with the institution for sometime before contributes to his gaining interest on the subject.

NEURAL NETWORKS IN LIBRARIES

Tamas E. Doszkocs

Computer Scientist

National Library of Medicine

Computer Science Branch

8600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20894

Abstract: Conventional library information processing applications, including information retrieval, databases management, expert systems and multimedia, are characterized by the sue of well defined algorithms and symbol processing. Artificial Neural Networks represent a fundamentally different information processing paradigm better suited for the handling of perceptual and cognitive tasks that are routinely and efficiently performed by humans, yet have proved to be difficult or impossible to handle via traditional computing methods and technologies. Examples of such tasks involve pattern recognition, associative information storage and recall, common sense reasoning and learning. This paper will describe the potential of artificial neural network technology for self-organizing and adaptive information representation and retrieval, offering new and complementary capabilities for dynamic information categorization, generalization, classification, feature extraction and learning. Existing and potential applications in classification, indexing and online searching in libraries will be discussed.

USE OF OCLC/AMIGOS COLLECTION ANALYSIS CD FOR AUTOMATED COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Suzanne D. Gyeszly*

Gary Allen

Charles R. Smith

OCLC and AMIGOS Bibliographic Council jointly developed a CD-ROM product in 1989 to provide assistance for librarians in automated collection analysis. The CD-ROM is able to compare a library collection in a particular subject area to an appropriate group or groups of institutions, to generate statistical data, and to provide a list of titles for strengthening retrospective collection in a targeted subject area.

Using the above features of the OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD, the researchers, Suzanne D. Gyeszly, Gary Allen, and Charles R. Smith, at Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A&M University sent a questionnaire to department heads and departmental library representatives to gather information related to current and projected curriculum and research directions. The forecasted areas of emphasis for each department were translated into Library of Congress call number ranges to be analyzed by the Collection Analysis CD. Once the strengths and weaknesses of the collection were determined, the results of the analysis were used to modify collection development policies as well as generate lists of materials to fill gaps. The study provides a model for libraries which plan to introduce automated collection development and management.

Access to Biomedical Information: Health Sciences Librarians and Physicians.

Joseph Harzbecker

Over the past several years the power and intensity of technological advances has greatly influenced all aspects of medical practice in the United States. This includes the dissemination, retrieval and use of biomedical information. Conversely, Health Sciences librarianship has been improved through these developments. Exciting challenges have arisen through the application of these technologies. Physicians now access information through a variety of formats. Even medical education has applied the latest technological developments. The physician accesses more information through end-user products, yet curiously has also entered into an expanded/dependent relationship with the medical librarian. This includes traditional practice such as reference, bibliographic instruction document delivery plus assistance in the use of new end-user technologies. Both partners in this relationship require continuing education and professional awareness to these changes. If librarians remain complacent and fail to master and implement new technologies they shall pass into oblivion and become a profession of the past. The partnership with physicians provides health sciences librarians with the opportunity to overcome the negative aspects of change. The essential element is not simply the application of a given technology, but the integration of technology within the scope of both the professional and institutional framework. Communication and cooperation creates a positive setting for the integration of technology while adhering to traditional professional values and ethics.

REACHING THE BUSINESS STUDENT: INTEGRATING NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES INTO THE CURRICULUM

Amy Lewontin

Solomon R. Baker Library

Bentley College

Waltham, MA 02254

617-891-2231

Abstract: This paper will focus on methods for integrating end-user databases, including both CD-ROMs and online into the business classroom. Graduating business students cannot afford not to be on top of the latest information resources available to them. Learning about these resources and their value to the business person can often come from the classroom assignment. The library must often take the lead in marketing these services to faculty who my be unaware of new information technologies and of suggesting methods for implementation within the varied business curriculum. Once the marketing by the library has been successful, creative implementation involving the faculty member in the redesign of assignments must take place. The librarian must also carefully design the classroom situation in which the new information technologies are to be demonstrated. Much emphasis on successfully demonstrating the databases value to the course assignment and ease of use should be stressed during the classroom session. Databases included in this paper serve the business community including LEXIS/NEXIS, First Call On-Call (investment reports), Compustat and ABI/INFORM. Three of these databases have successfully been integrated into the business curriculum and one has not. The reasons for successful integration of the new information technologies into the research component of the business school curriculum will be discussed as will some of the difficulties involved in teaching and working with databases that proved unpopular will also be discussed.

USE OF AUTOMATED SYSTEMS IN SPANISH LIBRARIES

Purificación Moscoso

Associate professor of library and information science

Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

C/ Madrid, 126

28903 Getafe, Madrid, Spain

Ph. 91-694-8711 Fax 91 693-8875

Yolanda Ríos

Librarian

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científica

C/ Jorge Manrique, 27

28006 Madrid, Spain

Ph. 91-583-4446

Abstract: A study has been done on the use of automated systems and facilities in public, academic, special, research libraries in Spain. Following a brief explanation of the methodology that has been used, the results are analyzed. Some data are compared with data obtained in a similar study carried out in 1986, being the result of such comparison the evidence of increases in installation of automated systems in the four types of libraries mentioned above.

TERMINOLOGY AND NEURAL NETWORK SYSTEMS: EXPERIMENTS OF SEIKEN KIKO

Yutaka Okayai

Senior Librarian

University of Tokyo Agriculture and Technology

3-7-4 Toneri, Adachi-Ku

Tokyo 121 Japan

03 3855-1676

Norikazu Ohtake

Seiken Kiko

Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution

1-40-2, Misshincho

Ohmiya-shi

Saitama prefecture

Japan

As Interconnecting or internationalyzing of all disciplines or languages are advancing rapidly, each field of science and technology must reconstruct or reclassify a concept system of it, and make adjustments to polyglot key word system.

Seiken Kiko (Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution) which is semi-governmental Institute of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries before now already made information retrieval system of book, journal, and other materials using personal computer (with hard disk) and relational database (R:Base system V, dBXL), and only in experimental personal computer network system with Modem and network software.

Now Seiken Kiko has extended its working fields such as Bioengineering, Mechatronics and Human ergonimics and so.

Answering the demands of users more flexible we start some experiments such as comparing some information retrieval database, AGRICOLA, AGRIS International , CAB Abstract or some classification system and thesauri.

Our on-going experiments' results are as follows:

1) After testing many classification systems (UDC, NC, DC), thesauri (CAB thesauri, JICST thesauri) and glossaries we analyze mainly agricultural machinery term's concepts and terms, we reconstruct our former classification system and are making polyglot type glossaries.

2) Testing our data on VAX work station with neural network oriented soft wear (SAVVY system-pattern matching type), we confirm that neural network system make possible to retrieval of information very quickly and AI oriented assiciative retrieval.

3) Next steps we plan are:

• Like DANTERM database using full text database building up excellent automatic translating system.

• Using PROLOG building up AI oriented file system

• LAN (Local Area Network) or wider network system

EVALUATING LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY:

THE USERS' PERSPECTIVE

Donald E. Riggs

Dean, University Library

Professor, School of Library & Information Studies

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

The evolution and refinement of library technology is an interesting phenomenon. The working conditions of librarians have been enhanced by technology; more time is now available for creativity, and less time is spent on routine, mundane activities. An obvious improvement in th delivery of services has been realized by libraries using state-of-the-art technology.

What is wrong with library technology, and what is right with this technology? Too often , these types of questions are answered by library staff. More emphasis has to be placed on meeting the expectations of the users of library technology (and particularly the end-users). Are the online public access catal9ogs designed for the user to easily access the varous databases? If not so, how can they be improved? Are the help menus for users written plainly? Can the user move from one terminal to another one and find the same enhancements (e.g., help screens)? Are users having difficulties in using multimedia/hypermedia technology? If so, how can improvements be made?

SATELLIFE'S ACCESS TO MEDICAL INFORMATION (AMI) SYSTEM: ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ROADBLOCKS IN EASTERN EUROPE

Cathy Sargent

AMI Project Manager

SatelLife

Cambridge, MA

As presented at NIT '90, AMI uses donated transponder capacity on a broadcast satellite to transmit medical literature to Eastern Europe. Poland's Central Medical Library was the first to benefit from AMI, receiving journal articles from its "sister" institution, the Library of the British Medical Association. During AMI's first year of operation, several technological difficulties were identified and resolved, resulting in a reorganization of the entire system. AMI plans to become a multi-user, multi-provider service in 1992, expanding into other countries in Eastern Europe and more "provider" libraries such as the one at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

SATELLIFE'S HEALTHNET SYSTEM: PARTNERSHIPS IN GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS FOR HEALTH

This innovative communications network has been designed to link medical communities in the developing world with each other and their colleagues abroad. Using low-earth orbit satellites, it permits electronic mail even where there are no telephones. It's five nation pilot project has linked medical schools in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. HealthNet provides off-line access to some data bases as well as electronic delivery of some medical literature such as The New England Journal of Medicine. As this project expands, SatelLife plans to link more medical libraries in developing countries with those in the developed world who are willing to share resources.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A HYPERTEXT DATA BASE ON SPANISH PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

Dr. Marcelo Sosa

Principal Researcher

Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo

Escuela Nacional de Sanidad

Bineale Delgado 10

Tino can’t read

28028 Madrid, Spain

Ma Luisa Nada

Ma Victoria Navazo

Josita de Llano

Ma Liliane Fuentes

Enrique Díaz-Guerra

Keywords: Public Health, Data bases, Hypertext

Abstract: Appropriate information is an unavoidable prerequisite in the public health field, both as research starting point and output, as well as in decision making form managers, planners or political authorities. For appropriate information we mean the one that is pertinent, correct, self-contained, up-dated, verifiable, accessible in time, place, and cost. Its main types are textual, factual, and graphic information. Pertinent information spectrum is broad and complex, including demographic, socioeconomic, political, cultural, educational, environmental, and legislative aspects, as well as those related to the health services system and the medical sciences.

Traditional data bases contribute to the diffusion of information and documentation, but constraints derive from their hierarchical structure and rigid organization. The results are a obliged linear lecture and a lot of technical skill required for their use. New data bases under hypertext and multimedia concepts tend to break-down barriers beet win man- machine- information. A public health hypertext appears of great interest for 3 reasons: great storage capacity; free navigation, and free data and ideas linkage; and multimedia support, mainly of text, numeric data, graphics and images. Our project objective is to develop a hypertext system in 2 stages: identify and obtain the information, load it in the data base in an organized manner and produce a prototype (using HyperCard), test the model, complete it, assess its performance, and produce an optical disc for public distribution.

BUILDING INTERNATIONAL DATABASES

Ruth Stanat

SIS International

404 Park Ave. South Suite 1301

New York, NY 10016

In this changing global economy, the information professional is faced with the challenge of obtaining information on a worldwide basis. Very often, the information professional is unaware of the international sources that are available to him or her. This speech outlines the status of the information industry within the USA and Canada, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, USSR, Far East, Africa, Mexico, and South America. The speech will provide the participant with he following information.

• Knowledge of the status of international information in the various regions of the world.

• How to locate international sources

• How to build your own database sources

• Challenges to accessing the information

• How to share this information globally within your company

The speech will particularly address database development and the challenges within Central or Eastern Europe. Moreover, the information professional from Eastern Europe will obtain a "global picture" as to the database development challenges facing their region.

EXPANDABILITY, FLEXIBILITY, COMPATIBILITY: KEY MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Diane Tebbetts

Diamond Library

University of New Hampshire

Durham, NH

Abstract: Based on 1985 and 1990 research in automation in New England ARL libraries, it is evident that libraries are moving in the direction of expanding their online catalogs by adding databases (locally-developed and externally produced) to their catalogs and by providing access to other outside resources through networks. To support these activities, libraries are making management decisions that reflect this emphasis. Expandability, flexibility, and compatibility seem to be major concerns in library automation. The following trends appear evident in current library practice.

• Buy standard hardware

• Buy large systems

• Emphasize networking capabilities

• Employ flexible software

• Follow standards

• Use MARC format

• Develop local expertise

• Supervise the database

• Develop close relations with campus computer services

• Plan for the next system.