ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

NEW TECHNOLOGY

•Andra Systems. Inc..New York, has designed a security system, called “ArtGuard” that protects rare works of art and documents. The system consists of a cigarette pack-sized transmitter weighing less than five ounces which is mounted together with paintings or hidden on the underneath side of a display case. When an attempt is made to move the painting or cut its canvas, the transmitter is activated and sends a radio signal up to 150 feet away to a wall-mounted receiver. The receiver decodes an annunciator, usually located at Security Headquarters. Each receiver is capable of handling 15 separate rooms with over 1000 transmitters and an area of 22.500 square feet. For further information, contact Andra Systems, 84 West Broadway. New York. NY 10007:(212) 285-0198.

• BioSciences Information Service. Philadelphia. has announced the availability of Zoological Record Online, the machine-readable version of the largest index to zoological literature. Corresponding very closely to the printed version of Zoological Record, the database includes thorough subject indexing using both controlled and natural language. It is currently accessible through DIALOG Information Services as File #185. Contact Arthur W. Elias. BIOSIS. 2100 Arch Street. Philadelphia. PA 19103-1399: (215) 587-4800.

•Boley International Subscription Agency,a division of B.H. Blackwell, and Blackwell’s Periodicals Division are offering to North American libraries their new distributed serials system. PERLINE. The system, based on DEC PDP 11/23 minicomputers, allows most common serials functions to be performed locally, with benefits in both response time and cost avoidance. It was demonstrated publicly for the first time in America at ALA Midwinter in San Antonio. For more information, contact Boley International. 260 Northern Boulevard. Great Neck. NY 11021; (800) 645-6595.

•The British Columbia Union Catalogue is proceeding with a six-month pilot implementation of an online computer system for its proposed British Columbia Library Network, despite its failure to obtain a special start-up grant during a time of cutbacks in provincial government spending. In order to minimize the initial cash requirement, staff and data communications facilities are being volunteered by three B.C. university libraries. The system that has been selected is BLIS. a turnkey version of the Washington Library Network.

BCLN-BLIS will be headquartered at the University of Victoria Computing Centre. The Network plans to retain online links to UTLAS and to establish online access to WLN as well. Five British Columbia libraries will be using the system for cataloging support functions by March 31. 1983.

•Cuadra Associates.Santa Monica, is coordinating a project by which twenty information brokers in the United States. Canada, and Mexico are offering access to a new range of 40 European databases. under a special arrangement with six European online service organizations. The databases are offered exclusively through these online services and are not available on services based in the U.S. The Commission of the European Communities is participating along with DIANE, the association of major European online services. There are now 49 DIANE services in operation, offering over 200 databases not available through any U.S. or Canadian online service. Many of these databases have English-language content, and the online systems through which they can be searched have an English-language interface.

The six participating services are SLIGOS (Paris), ESA/IRS (Rome), Finsbury Data Services, Ltd. (London). Telesysteines-Questel (Paris). Samsom Data Systems (The Netherlands), and ECHO (Luxembourg). Three academic libraries (Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Florida, and Ohio State University) are acting as information brokers.

•Eastman Kodak Company.Rochester. New York, has developed the first microprocessorcontrolled binding system ever designed for in-line use with a high-volume electrophotographic duplicator. making it possible to automatically produce sets of copies bound much like a book. The binding feature is available with the Kodak Ektaprint 250AFB duplicator, which is also equipped with a conventional finisher that produces stapled sets. The finisher-binder can produce booklets or sets of copies with front and back covers ranging up to 100 sheets each, and its delivery tray can hold up to 2.000 sheets. For additional information, write Dept. CD-2023. Business Systems Markets Division. Eastman Kodak Company. 343 State Street. Rochester, NY 14650.

•The ALA Library and Information Technology Association’s Video and Cable Communications Section has prepared an information packet for librarians and others concerned with video in libraries. It includes a bibliography of cable TV periodicals, a bibliography on satellite communications, the results of the Public Service Satellite Consortium (PSSC) Cable Library Survey and the PSCC National Satellite Network, and the October 1981 issue of Community Television Review, much of which is concerned with community access to information through library video. The kit also contains the October 1980 issue of the Federal Communications Commission Information Bulletin explaining cable regulation and legislation, and the ALA pamphlet, "30 Questions Librarians Ask About Taping Copyrighted Television Programs for Educational Use.” Barbara Ortiz, chair of the LITA/VCCS Video and Cable Utlization Committee, prepared the kit. The price is $8.50, prepaid, and may be ordered from LITA/VCCS. American Librarv Association. 50 E. Huron St., Chicago. IL 60611.'

•Predicasts. Inc..Cleveland, has announced the availability of a new database. Annual Reports Abstracts‚ with applications for marketing, planning, and financial specialists in all areas of corporate and institutional activity. ARA now contains 27,000 abstracts of information in annual reports covering 3,000 companies. Predicasts intends to expand coverage to 4,500 companies by the end of 1983. For more information, contact Predicasts, Inc.. 11001 Cedar Avenue, Cleveland. OH 44106.

•The Research Libraries Group. Stanford, has created a special database of information on the collecting patterns of their member libraries. Called the RLG Conspectus On-line, the data can be used for comparing and analyzing existing collections and future collecting policies and for identifying designated primary collecting responsibilities among member libraries. Using ranges of the LC subject classification schedule as a guide, members have assigned to specific fields two numbers, varying from 0 (minimal) to 5 (comprehensive), to characterize their collections in those fields. The first number represents the existing strength of the collection, and the second describes the scope of the current collection policy. Users of RLIN. RLG’s automated information system, can search this new database interactively at any terminal capable of connecting to the RLG computer.

•Teknekron Controls. Inc..Berkeley, California. and SONY Video Communications Products. Lanham, Maryland, have been awarded contracts by the Library of Congress for a pilot project to use laser optical disk technology for information preservation and management. Teknekron will provide a system that will use digital optical disks for computerized mass storage, preservation, and retrieval of printed materials, including text and half-tone illustrations. SONY will deliver 50 copies each of five analog optical disk productions of films, videotapes, photos, and graphics, and 50 digital compact audio disks of two audio productions over the next 18 months.

The Teknekron pilot system will provide archival-quality document storage of 500,000 images of pages from frequently-used periodicals, rapid access and display of the images, and reproduction of single or multiple copies of specified pages or multiple documents. Display will be on special high-resolution terminals (2.200 lines per screen) and will take advantage of existing LC computer indexing and abstracting systems. Several work stations for accessing the system will be installed at various locations throughout the Library’s three-building complex.

Materials to be converted to analog disks by SONY include 35mm and 16mm motion pictures, 2-inch and 3/4-inch videotape, 90.000 motion picture stills, 30,000 glass plate negatives from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection. 4.000 original illustrations from the Cabinet of American Illustration, 4.000 images from the American Cartoon Drawing Collection. 66 photo albums from the Abdul Hamid II Collection, and 1.500 color slides from the Farm Security Administration Collection.

In addition to offering attractive features for preservation, disk storage may offer the public unparalleled high-speed access to some of the most fragile and important materials in the Library’s collections. ■ ■