ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

NEW TECHNOLOGY

•Alos Micrographics is now marketing a micro-filmer that weighs only 38 pounds and occupies less space than a typewriter. The Simplex Camera 16 is a 16mm rotary camera into which documents are fed and automatically recorded on film. The machine can film documents up to 11x17 inches and in any color. For further information, contact Alos Micrographics Corporation, 239 E. Plains Rd., P.O. Box 407, Walden, NY 12586; (914) 778-7511.

•Baker & Taylor introduced a new family of ac-quisitions software and electronic services at the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas. Designed to automate book acquisitions functions, the new Ba-TaSYSTEMS software provides a new generation of technological service that utilizes a library’s existing terminals. Three services will be introduced this year: the Title Search and Order service, a Full Acquisitions System, and a Title Confirmation service. The first two are operational now, and the third should be available on October 15. Title Confirmation is a package for personal computers that allows book orders to be keyed in by ISBN for tollfree transmission to Baker & Taylor. Contact: Baker & Taylor, 6 Kirby Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876; (201) 722-8000.

•Carlyle Systems’s online public catalog hasbeen installed at the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library. Dubbed CATNYP by the library, the initial system includes four terminals connected to a remote processor in New York, then linked via Telenet to a host processor in California. Approximately 40 terminals will be installed later this year and over 1.2 million records will eventually be loaded into the system. For more information, contact Carlyle Systems, 2930 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702; (800) 227-2953.

•The Disclosure Information Group has an-nounced a system that will provide customers immediate visual access to, and real image reproduction of, any reports filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission, even those filed the previous day. LaserDisclosure combines for the first time optical laser disks, CCD scanners, high resolution video terminals, and laser printers with computers and fiber optic cables in a system for instantaneous remote delivery of business information. Business and law libraries can view and duplicate original documents of publicly-traded companies—lOKs, lOQs, annual reports, and so on. For more information, contact Disclosure, 5161 River Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; (301) 951-1300.

•Geac Computer Corporation has signedagreements with Serna, a major French systems house, to automate the catalog of one of the world’s largest libraries, the Bibliothèque Nationale. The catalog, called the National Bibliothèque Database Management System, will be written by Geac in conjunction with Serna and the library. When complete, the system will provide an online service throughout the library and, using a packetswitching network, will enable any other library within France to access its database.

•Grumman Data System Corporation’s Ĭnfo- Conversion Unit has introduced first generation micropublishing. This electronic publishing system is helping New York Public Library put information into the user’s hands expediently. InfoConversion enters the relevant information—in the form of manuscript, illustrations, word processing diskette, or magnetic tape—directly into the computer. Illustrations and text are then merged into one database which can be updated and republished. Corrections made to the database during business hours are incorporated into microfiche overnight. Many time-consuming tasks are circumvented—typesetting, proofing, resetting type, paste-up, printing and conversion to microfiche.

Unlike “microrepublishing,” in which the microfiche end-product is a photographed, miniaturized version of an already printed page, first generation micropublishing is the direct electronic transfer of data from a computer-based publishing system to microfiche. Micropublishing thus can save on storage and distribution costs.

The finished product can be 105mm microfiche, camera-ready pages, 35mm or 16mm film. Info-Conversion’s micropublishing system creates a page format. Format and type sizes may be varied and many font and point sizes are available. The system can convert computer-generated alphanumeric information into a variety of graphics. InfoConversion has converted the New York Public Library’s 1.5 million file entries into 300 master fiche that occupy space equivalent to one desk. For more information contact InfoConversion, 280 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797; (516) 349-5203.

•Kodak has introduced a high-speed intelligent microfilmer, the Kodak Reliant intelligent microfilm er 2000. Of special interest in this new model is a “film write” capability that permits the system to write a clear, unique 11-digit code number alongside each document image on the microfilm, as well as on the document itself. This number serves as the individual image’s address in a microform file, enabling an intelligent retrieval device to locate a given document from among millions. Another new coding capability gives users the ability to microfilm incoming documents in a random batch mode instead of sequential batches. The 2000 is programmable, permitting users to choose any four of 22 different application programs. For further information, contact: Eastman Kodak Company, Dept. DP-4028, Business Systems Markets Division, 343 State Street, Rochester, NY 14650; (716) 724-4664.

An operator checks quality control on Info Conversion’s microfiche duplicator.

•UTLAS, Inc., has announced the release of InfoQUEST (IQ), a microcomputer-based online public access catalog designed especially for the small library. Operating on IBM-PC compatible machines, the software is capable of handling file sizes of up to 25,000 records using a hard disk storage device. The system can accept the rapid downloading in batch mode of records coming directly from a library’s file on the UTLAS Catalogue Support System (CATSS), and offers “see” and “see also” references to facilitate name and subject searching. Contact: UTLAS, Inc., 80 Bloor Street West, 2d Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2V1.

UTLAS has also opened a U.S. office to better serve its stateside customers. They may be contacted at UTLAS Corporation, 701 Westchester Ave., Suite 308W, White Plains, NY 10604; (914) 997-1495.

•The Winsted Corporation now has a High Capacity Storage System for tape or film designed for compact storage capacity in a limited space. The system easily adapts to a variety of configurations and setups to meet varying storage requirements. Stationary, movable, and movable-withmechanical assist models are available. For more information, contact: Winsted Corporation, 9801 James Circle, Minneapolis, MN 55431; (800) 328- 2962.

Conference proceedings control: A call for volunteers

In May 1983 a Task Force on Proceedings was formed by Charles Gilreath, then chair of ACRL’s Science and Technology Section, to recommend projects the section might undertake to improve the acquisition, control, and use of conference publications. The Task Force identified 12 projects and presented them at the annual meeting of the STS Executive Board in Dallas this past June.

The Board selected five projects for immediate work and created an ad hoc committee for each project. The committees will meet at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and present their preliminary results at the 1985 Annual Conference in Chicago.

The chairs and some committee members were recruited at Dallas. Katherine Chiang will contiune as chair of the Task Force to coordinate the work of the ad hoc committees. But more members are needed. Science librarians (among others) know that the acquisition and retrieval of conference proceedings can be a problem. These projects provide an excellent opportunity for us to examine their usefulness and facilitate their access. We encourage interested people to join us. Anyone interested in any of the following projects should contact the chair of the ad hoc committee directly.

• Ad Hoc Committee on Contact List of Publishers.Will provide a file of names and/or position titles of people involved with conference publications working for societies or companies that publish proceedings. Chair: Katherine Chiang, Entomology, Fisheries and Wildlife Library, University of Minnesota, 1980 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108; (612) 373-1741. After October 22: Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, Member: Barbara Kautz.

• Ad Hoc Committee on Finding Aids.Will compile sources of information on conference proceedings. Chair: Barbara Kautz, St. Paul Campus Central Library, University of Minnesota, 1984 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108; (612) 376- 9198. Members: none.

• Ad Hoc Committee on the Importance of Conference Proceedings.Will determine how important conference proceedings are to the different disciplines in the sciences. Chair: Lois M. Pausch, 200 N Library, University of Illinois, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801; (217) 333-2634. Members: Martin Kesselman, Colleen Power, Suzanne Redalje.

• Ad Hoc Committee on Locating Proceedings.Will discover the patron and librarian success rates in locating proceedings—local, in-house, and through interlibrary loans. Chair: John Abbott, Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843; (409) 845-5741. Members: Lisa Abbott, Gayla Cloud, Laura Osegueda.

• Ad Hoc Committee on Designing a Conference Proceedings Style Sheet.Will identify the publication information that librarians need to catalog conference proceedings and develop that into a set of guidelines for proceedings publishers. Chair: Dorothy McGarry, Physical Science and Technology Libraries, UCLA, 8251 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Mailing address: P.O. Box 5803, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413; (213) 825-3438. Member: Sara Shatford.

The members of the STS Task Force on Proceedings are: Katherine Chiang, chair; Gayla Cloud, Carolyn Fields, Sheila Johnson, Laura Osegueda, and Lois M. Pausch.