ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

New Technology

• American Software Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., has developed a “Software Loan Service” that provides a central location where people with personal computers can borrow software much as they borrow books from a library. To support this service, American Software has introduced the Freeloader 500 Software Library, a collection of over 2,500 programs for use on an Apple Computer. The software is in the public domain and can be copied for home use. The programs come in seven looseleaf binders, each binder containing 7-10 diskettes recorded on both sides. The seven subject categories are: business and finance, utilities, graphics and sound, education, home, games, and adventures. Libraries may purchase the complete collection for $500 or individual modules for $75 each. Contact the American Software Publishing Company, 1010 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036; (202) 887-5834.

• Design Enterprises of San Francisco has published Write, Edit, & Print: Word Processing with Personal Computers, by Donald McCunn (527 pages, 1982), a step-by-step guide to selecting and using the appropriate equipment. For experienced users, this book is an introduction to the next generation of word processing systems in which equipment is trained for specific applications. The book begins with a consumer’s guide to buying a computer, detailing guidelines necessary for intelligent buying decisions. An introduction to the popular programming language BASIC provides time tests that may be used to determine the relative efficiency of any computer. The book then provides four fully annotated word processing program listings, and concludes with operator’s manuals for the listed programs with sample applications that teach a neophyte operator the simplicity of the system. The book may be ordered in hardback ($34.95) or paperback ($24.95) from Design Enterprises of San Francisco, P.O. Box 14695, San Francisco, CA 94114.

• The F.W. Faxon Company has developed a new component of LINX, an online serials management system, that will allow librarians to set up and maintain their journal routing lists on a single computerized system. Called LINX ROUTE, the system automates the creation, updating, and printing of journal routing slips. It also allows each library to specify the categories of information to be recorded in each reader’s record, including such information as name, job title, and building location. Individual reader records are easily searched by reader name, number, or by direct transfer from a routing list. Libraries utilizing ROUTE receive a monthly master listing of all journals routed and the corresponding readers of each journal. Print listings of journals received by individual readers can be produced so that readers can indicate journals they no longer wish to receive or new titles they now wish to see. ROUTE will be available to libraries this November. For more information, contact: Susan Bragg-Kalalas, LINX Marketing Coordinator, F.W. Faxon Co., 15 Southwest Park, Westwood, MA 02190.

• Geac, Inc., Los Angeles, has been selected by the University of Houston Libraries to supply the hardware, software, training, documentation, and maintenance for its Integrated Library System, to be installed beginning in January, 1983. Geac was selected from nine vendors submitting bids. The software supporting Houston’s system will include Geac’s Online Catalog, Circulation, Materials Acquisitions, Serials Control, OCLC Interface, Community Access, and Word Processing modules. The hardware will consist of two Geac 8000 CPUs, a special Boolean search processor, five 675 MB disk drives, two tape drives, two system printers, two receipt printers, twelve screen printers, 103 CRT terminals, and communications equipment. The new system will replace the Central Campus Libraries’ 9-year-old CLSI circulation system, Innovative Interface microcomputer link between OCLC and the CLSI CPU, and an online BATAB acquisitions system. The Online Catalog will include holdings of the M.D. Anderson Library, four branch libraries, and the Law Library, as well as holdings of the libraries on the Downtown College, Clear Lake City, and Victoria campuses. The initial load database will contain 730,000 bibliographic and 1.1 million item/copy records, growing to 1.32 million bibliographic and 2.1 million item/copy records within three years. Access terminals to the catalog will be located in libraries and in offices and laboratories throughout the University of Houston system.

• A British unit of ITT Corporation, the ITT Europe Engineering Support Centre, Harlow, England, is offering Europe’s first computerassisted translation service. By coupling the new system with its existing translation activities, ITT’s service is more reliable for lengthy technical documentation between English and French, German, and Spanish. The service uses six software programs, one for each language pair, and runs on a PDP 11/44 or a VAX 11/780 computer. Original text can be input either from a keyboard or a disc, tape, or optical character readers, or via telex and data links. Final editing is performed online by expert technical translators who are natives of the language they translate into. The center returns work to the customer, as desired, in hard copy, or on tape or disc or over data links worldwide. Initially developed for use by ITT companies, the service is now offered commercially to other organizations in computing, electronics, or telecommunications fields.

• ONLINE’82, the fourth annual conference and exposition for users of online databases, will be held at the Atlanta Hilton November 1-3. Sponsored by Online, Inc., publisher of Online and Database magazines, the conference is expected to draw over 1,200 people who use such systems as Lockheed’s Dialog, SDC’s Orbit, BRS, the New York Times Information Bank, and Dow Jones News/Retrieval. Keynote speaker at Online ’82 will be Janet Egeland, president of Bibliographic Retrieval Services, Inc. This fall BRS will introduce a powerful new micro-software package for database creation and retrieval which will be demonstrated at the conference. A total of 80 speakers will make presentations, and 10 online database companies will offer post-conference workshops and seminars. For further information, contact Jean-Paul Emard, Online, Inc., 11 Tannery Lane, Weston, CT 06883; (203) 2127-8466.

• Research Publications, Inc., Woodbridge, Connecticut, has announced the signing of an exclusive, world-wide agreement with Dialog Information Services for the Official Washington Post Index. The database is expected to become available for commercial searching early in 1983. Research Publications began filming, producing, and distributing microfilm of the Washington Post in 1979, including current editions, complete backfiles to 1877, and monthly and annual printed indexes. ■■