CFFC Bibliography:

Journal Articles on the topic of the Future of the Online Catalog

February 1997 - June 1997

Andrews, Whit. "Planning for Push." Internet World 8, no.5 (May 1997): 45-52.

This is just an example of the numerous articles concerning "push" technology. This particular article explains the technology and evaluates the major commercial products currently on the market. It might be interesting to see if there is any literature as yet concerning the integration of "push" technology into library catalogs. It would seem that the possibilities are there to adapt this into a current awareness service provided by libraries.

TCP3270 is described as "a 3270 and telnet terminal emulator that uses a TCP/IP network transport protocol to communicate with host systems." McGill University's Computing Centre originally designed this communication software circa 1987, and it is now supported - primarily via e-mail and phone - by McGill Systems, Inc. There are versions for Windows 3.1, 95, NT, DOS and Mac. At the time of the review (which focuses on the Windows 95 version), TCP3270 had issued over 600 site licenses (including Yale and Penn State) and had possibly 500,000 installed copies. The system is said to be comparatively inexpensive and easy to install. Up to 27 sessions can launched per running program. The Options/Sessions Profile feature allows for easy customization. By establishing host profiles, libraries can connect users directly to databases, "bypassing what are often long and confusing entry key sequences." Printing features include 2 screens per page. For public use, the "net3270.ini" file must be edited to disable portions of the menu and toolbar. Programming interface works well. Documentation is described as "substantial and useful."

This article discusses the Corporation for National Research Initiative's efforts to work with members of the National Digital Library Project (NDLP) at the Library of Congress to build an experimental system to organize and store library collections. The article discusses the technical steps and processes used to organize materials. Discussion focuses on "building blocks," which are the digital objects used to manage digital material in a networked environment, and "handles" which identify digital objects and other networked resources. Components of the computer system, an outline of the information architecture, and examples of meta-objects is also presented.

Germany has lagged behind in connecting their libraries to hosts or other networks, until the Internet arrived on the German library scene in 1994. Article covers the success of the Internet in providing access to Germany's libraries, which previously was too expensive due to the expensive Telekom monopoly.

A fairly technical article on character sets for foreign languages and how they are handled in library automation. It discusses Unicode as an attempt to find a universal standard.

This article is a brief discussion about the implementation of Z39.50 protocols at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London).

Supporting search and display operations in multiple languages is a growing issue facing digital libraries accessible via the Internet. Even if a digital library contains materials in one language, the content needs to be searchable and displayable on computers across the globe, in a multitude of languages. The article draws attention to multilingual issues with which digital library initiatives must deal. Parallels are drawn between multilingual issues and multi-media issues, and challenges presented by different character sets are discussed. The article also highlights the MARC format and Unicode as examples having already dealt with the multilingual challenge, to some degree.

Chang, Shih-Fu, et al. "Finding Image/Video in Large Archives.& D-Lib Magazine (Feb. 1997)

This article reviews current research and development of images and video search tools. A prototype system for image/video searching is presented along with an analysis of important research issues. The prototype system includes WebSEEk for images and VisualSEEk for video. Automatic image analysis, synergy between compression and functionalities, domain ontologies, dynamic extraction and matching of visual features, and other related image/video issues are discussed.

The latest trend among library automation software publishers is to develop software for an integrated online library system (IOLS) that can run on the Windows NT operating system. The article provides a comprehensive list of the vendors supporting software that runs in this environment, including the language the software is written in, special requirements, and company contact information. The article also includes is a list of vendors planning to develop IOLS that will run in the Windows NT environment.

Duval, Beverly K. and Linda Main. [review of Internet resources] Library Software Review 16, no.1 (March 1997)

A) search engines:
- Library Corporation's "Nlight" http://www.nlightn,com/
- Infonautics Corp. "Electric Library" http://www.elibrary.com/
- "iGuide" http://www.iguide.com
- Scott Banister's "MetaSearch" http://metasearch.com/

B) meta-search tools:
- "SavvySearch" http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dreiling/smartform.html/
- cnet's "Search.Com" http://www.search.com
- U. of Washington "Metacrawler" http://metacrawler.cs.washington.edu
[this is going to be commercially licensed]
- IBM's "Infomarket Service" http://www.infomkt.ibm.com/
- "ALL-IN-ONE" http://www.albany.net/allinone
- "CUSI (Configurable Unified Search Engine" http://pubweb.nexor.co.uk/public/cusi/cusi.html
"CUSI Services" http://pubweb.nexor.co.uk/public/cusi/doc/list.html
- "Yahoo's List of All-in-One Search Pages" http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web/All_in_One_Search_Pages/
- "FTP Search" http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/ftpsearch

C) Newsgroups
- "Deja News" http://www.dejanews.com
- "PEOPLE" http://home.netscape.com/home/internet-white-pages.html
- "WhoWhere?" http://www.whowhere.com

Gladney, Henry M. "Safeguarding Digital Library Contents and Users." D-Lib Magazine (June 1997)

This article discusses efforts by "IBM Research" to develop tools that identify various perceived risks to library quality. The article discusses an organizing practice that combines a subject tree with an ad hoc role of granting privileges for independent operations, and special privileges for individuals such as auditors or officers. The Document Access Control Method's (DCAM) ability to scale efficiently from smaller to larger libraries, mandatory access controls (MAC), and discretionary access controls (DAC) in the library/informational environment setting are also discussed.

A fully normalized relational database would solve some of the maintenance problems Inherent in databases using the MARC format internally. A conceptual design for such a database is presented using entity-relationship modeling. While this model provides a logical relational design, the complexities of bibliographic data (number of attributes, variability, repetition of some data elements, etc.) have resulted in lack of progress toward a large-scale relational bibliographic database. The shortcomings in both AACR2 and the MARC formats persist, however, and "the relationality inherent in bibliographic data needs better and more widespread treatment than it now receives." More research is thus needed, with special emphasis on the development of object-oriented bibliographic databases.

Article summarizes library automation over the last 20 years from early OPACs to the integrated library systems, with emphasis on client/server model, hardware costs, systems management resources, Internet and World Wide Web, Java-based computing, operational savings, and library needs versus business needs. The author stresses the evolutionary approach to library automation.

Public Access Catalogue Extension (PACE) is an experimental interface intended to enhance OPACs by simulating the images of books and library shelves. When tested in a college library against a second generation text-based OPAC (Best-Seller), PACE performed as well as the text-based OPAC in terms of speed and search success, but was preferred by students due to its more familiar interface metaphor.

This article discusses the information presented at a seminar, "Learning to Live With E-Journals," held by the United Kingdom Serials Group in London in Nov. 1996. The seminar discussed the issues facing publishers and libraries, including pricing, access, technical issues, collection management and user reaction.

The library of future will exploit technology fully "to link cataloging, indexing, and textual databases in an online network" to provide universal access to information. The key to this future is organizing electronic information. Various initiatives have sought to do this using a variety of approaches. Current issues in this respect include (1) separation of the entry from the electronic resource, (2) the expense of creating MARC records for electronic resources, (3) the lack of control found in Internet indexes, (4) duplication of effort, and (5) the volatility of electronic resources. Cataloging in this environment cannot be done using traditional approaches. Instead, a "converging vision" is proposed in which new resources are tagged using a format like HTML and provided with an expanded document markup header. This is followed by automatic verification of access points and the creation of appropriate hypertext links. Links are then created between the local catalog and other surrogate files through home pages. To achieve this vision, the tasks of cataloging, indexing, and markup editing must be integrated such that cataloging becomes "an integral part of electronic authorship/editorship."

This book review critiques a "provocative and stimulating" monograph by Pat Oddy, Head of Cataloguing at the British Library, who has focused on issues related to library catalogs of the future and the future of library cataloging. Oddy believes that, in the future, the role of the library catlog will be the same as it is now, namely to provide access at the item level to materials held in a library's collection. Apparently, Oddy opposes the inclusion of Internet links in a library catalog, opining that records for remotely accessible resources should not be part of the catalog of the library accessing the remote databases, but should instead reside in a separate catalog of resources on remote hosts. Thus, the accessing library might provide the remote host catalog and other databases along with gateway software leading to its own catalog and periodical indexes. Oddy's other suggestions include following adapted AACR2 rules for manuscripts to catalog electronic texts owned by a library; moving away from main entry as a catalog's organizing principle; and replacing main entries with authorized indexes for names, titles, and subjects which catalog software would bring together in response to individual searches. Oddy is a staunch proponent of AACR2, of shared and cooperative cataloging programs, and of common standards. Fianlly, she suggests that it is time to consider replacing the MARC format with something more flexible, perhaps along the lines of SGML.

Kilpatrick, Thomas. "In The Literature." Library Software Review 16, no.1 (March 1997)

Relevent resources noted in this section include:

Cibbarelli, Pamela. 1996. "Integrated online software for libraries: An overview of today's best-selling IOLS. Options from the US perspective." The Electronic Library 14 (3): 205-10. Analyzes Library Journal annual survey of the library automation marketplace.

Drabenstott, Karen M. and Marjorie S. Weller. "Handling spelling errors in online catalog searches." Library Resources & Technical Services 40, no.2 (1996): 113-32.

Hearn, Stephen. 1996. "Bibliographic Control in the Electronic Age." Journal of Library Administration 22 (2/3): 123-32. Notes that new online versions of catalogs "will call for improved systems, new cataloging resources, new workstation functions, new data structures, and stepped-up education and training."

Savic, Dobrica. 1996. "CUTT-x: An expert system for automatic assignment of cutter numbers." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 22(2): 71-87.

This article explores new opportunities for resource discovery in the networked environment. The author argues that resource discovery can be significantly improved in the networked environment by techniques that match surrogate semantics to instance-specific requirements during the discovery process. The result is a derived or dynamic surrogate, which can be produced by using architectures such as the Warwick Framework.

This article provides an overview of Z39.50, a timeline of its development, and a discussion of the role of content semantics in Z39.50. The timeline discusses Z39.50 roots, dating back to the 1970s, and the change from its application to stand-alone purely bibliographic databases to the much larger and diverse universe of bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing databases. Also discussed are the various versions of Z39.50 (now in its 3rd version), and the fragmentation of the Z39.50 community.

Lists 34 reasons why the library automation application "Micro CDS/ISIS" is ideal for use in developing countries. The software dates back to a mainframe version created by UNESCO in 1975. UNESCO offers the software free of charge for non-commercial use and provides technical support. CDS/ISIS is available in mainframe, mini- and microcomputer versions, designed to store up to 16 million records of up to 8,000 characters and 200 variable length fields with repeatable subfields. It is menu-driven and allows up to 20 pages of customizable data entry screens. All 200 fields can be indexed by subfield and word. CDS/ISIS allows the user to prepare MARC, MIBIS and UNIMARC applications. There is an Internet user group,and, with more than 15,000 institutions using it worldwide (7,000 Latin American; 2,500 Asian), CDS/ISIS is a major presence in the online catalog arena.

This article discusses Western Michigan University's efforts to network 75 OPAC stations. A step by step account is provided from the library's implementation of Novell Netware for its local area network (LAN) to their implementation of Windows 95 on a number of public workstations. The article provides step by step commands on how to set up the machine configuration for this activity and provides addresses of where to get the necessary software.

New Zealand Digital Library's Web-based melody index, MELDEX, is discussed. The system is designed to retrieve melodies form a database when a few notes are sung into a microphone. The system also accepts acoustic input, which is transcribed into music notation.

To illustrate the importance of enriching OPAC access to older materials held by libraries, this article presents a case study focusing on _The Little Locksmith_, by Katharine Butler Hathaway. The title, a critically acclaimed autobiographical account of a woman's successful struggle to live a fulfilling life despite crippling spinal tuberculosis, was first published in 1943, and was well cataloged according to the standards of the time. But despite the presence of the catalog record in a library OPAC in the case study, the Hathaway title was found neither by a patron who wanted the specific known item but lacked a precise citation, nor by a patron doing a subject search on women who have overcome disabilities. Ironically, because of its quirky title, the book was retrieved by a patron for whom it was utterly useless. (That particular individual was literally studying locksmiths in the U.S.) The "Locksmith" case is intended to show that there is need for more useful information in OPAC records, and that there can be benefits to "revisiting" and upgrading bibliographic records for older materials. Author Heather Miller repeatedly emphasizes that OPAC searching, "keyword or otherwise, can only act upon the data present in bibliographic records." Asserting that "present day OPACs are little more than card catalogs copied into another medium," Miller argues that OPAC design should more fully exploit the capabilities of current technology, while OPAC records should be enriched to provide more data for the technology to act upon. Her practical recommendations toward the latter end include assignment of more subject headings than has been customary (including retrospective assignment of subject headings that may not have existed when given titles were intially cataloged) and addition of keyword-searchable summaries ("inclusive without being exhaustive") to bibiographic records. Miller states a number of rationales for striving to enrich bibliographic records for older library materials at the same time that records for new materials are being created. She notes that, realistically, print resources will not become obsolete any time soon, and that their non-digitized content will retain value. Thus, for some time to come, libraries will continue to serve as repositories for physical materials as well as gateways for digital resources. Miller also points out that, given remote and Internet access to OPACs, today's enhancement of online bibliographic information can have more far-reaching benefits than revision of card-format records ever could in the past. In Miller's view, development of the OPAC as "information gateway" should not just concentrate on providing hot links to remote electronic resources. That is, development of the OPAC should also strive to improve access to other, more traditional resources "through enhanced records, abstracts, and ultimately full text." The goal should be "to provide the most open, thorough access to all information, updated as technologies and needs change, ensuring use of the old and the new as appropriate."

This is an editorial which discusses the evolution of libraries worldwide into information centers. It concentrates on automation and how it is changing the face of libraries. The writer states that the ultimate goal for libraries is to provide instant access to information of any kind, in any format, from anywhere in the world.

PICA is the "Project for Integrated Catalogue Automation" for thecooperation of all university libraries and the National Library in the Netherlands. The total number of participating institutions is 83, representing a collection of around 200 academic facilities and institutions. From this shared catalog the Netherlands Central Catalogue (NCC) is derived, which contains bibliographic descriptions of approximately seven million books and 350,000 periodicals in the Netherlands. Article includes the RAPDOC project, a document delivery project which contains table of contents scanned and made machine-readable for over 12,500 current periodicals. Additionally, direct electronic document delivery is now being offered through the WebDOC project. WebDOC's aim is to make electronic full-text documents of publishers and universities accessible for end-users, through the World Wide Web. More information on PICA is available at the PICA home page:

To overcome the problems inherent in having two or more controlled vocabularies resident in the same OPAC, Northwestern University undertook to map LCSH and MeSH and to add the data to authority records. This project is now complete and the data are available to other libraries. Benefits include (1) assistance in assigning MeSH headings to records that have only LCSH headings, (2) the addition of explicit "see also" references to MeSH authority records, making it easier for users to identify semantic relationships among MeSH headings, and (3) better integration of LCSH and MeSH in OPACs. This solution to retrieval problems in multivocabulary catalogs, however, will require changes in library system software to utilize the mapping data that has been added to authority records.

This article presents the results of the Gateway User Study (Mann Library, Cornell University), a survey of faculty and student's desire to search multiple databases through a single interface. Highlights include the following: 46% of all respondents wanted the ability to select specific databases to include in their search, but like the idea of searching through a single interface; 70% of the faculty wanted to receive a merged result set with duplicate responses eliminated; most users are more interested in a common user interface for searching disparate bibliographic databases, and are willing to sacrifice special features and advanced functions in order to work with a more simple database; and users anticipated slow response time when searching multiple databases.

This article is an overview of the major issues related to developing a multilingual interface for the digital library. It discusses standards and provisions for multilinguality in HTTP and HTML and current efforts at multilingual retrieval. This is a topic of growing importance as global use of the Internet expands and as the U.S. becomes increasingly multilingual. This summer there is an ALA program on Unicode which is also discussed in this article. It may be that between the two we could put together a briefing paper.

This article discusses "Personal Bibliographic Systems (PBS)" and the desirable characteristics of such systems. They are designed to manage the input, storage, retrieval and output of bibliographic references including many different document types (e.g. journal articles, book chapers, books,unpublished documents, etc.). The article concentrates on low-cost mainstream bibliographic software for personal use or for smaller libraries. Intergrated library systems and OPACS are not discussed.

Article focuses on library automation in East Germany since the fall of the communist government. Installation of integrated library systems took place from 1992 to 1996 in university libraries of one of four automation systems: BIS-LOK, Allegro-C, SISIS, or PICA LBS. Each is discussed. A student at an East German university today has many of the same resources that are available in a good American research library, even though just six years ago, a student at an East German university had to be content with 1950s-style access and books and serials mainly from Soviet bloc sources.

The author explains how he pieced together his own homemade OPAC (a WebCAT) at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. The two big problems he had to overcome was learning how Web server software operates, and the how to combine the existing MARC records, stored on disks, into a single database. The bulk of the help in the process was received free, by downloading instructions and software via the WWW (although the author also mentions assistance of Pat Callahan!). The author conclude by indicating that, despite a number of drawbacks, his homemade OPAC is a perfect temporary solution. The article is inspiring, in that it demonstrates that, with a little systems knowledge and a lot of determination, a single professional librarian can put together a functional WebPAC.

This report describes the fourth Dublin Core workshop (DC-4), held at the National Library of Australia, March, 1997. The focus of this workshop was to bring the "minimalists" (persons in favor of a simple standard that is equally applicable to all formats and types of resources) and "structuralists" (persons in favor of greater flexibility of a standard with more formal definitions) together by qualifying the DC core elements. (The authors note that minimalists and structuralists are not mutually exclusive, but rather they represent two ends of the continuum). One major result of this conference was "Canberra Qualifiers" for the following elements: 1. language, 2. scheme, and 3. type. Associating metadata structures with name space authority agencies, the co-evolution of WWW metadata architectures, such as Cougar, XML, WebDAV, PICS-NG, and other related issues are also discussed.