Miller, 'Off the Shelf and Into Productivity: Making Your Software Work for You', LITA Newsletter v14n04
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v14n04-miller-off

[v14n4.offshelf litanews]
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Off the Shelf and Into Productivity: Making Your Software Work for You
Lisa K. Miller

Steve Westman served as the program chair for this session of practi-
cal demonstrations of real-library applications for common software
packages, sponsored by the LITA Customized Applications for Library Mi-
crocomputers (CALM) Interest Group and YALSA Computer Applications for
Young Adult Services Committee. As always seems to happen when you
have an audience full of people, technical difficulties occurred, de-
laying the start of the program just a bit. We all empathized.
   Library professors Nancy Zimmerman and Norman Howden began with a
Hypercard show they created. Hypercard is a software toolkit, not a

word processor, spreadsheet or database management system. One of the
most important steps in the planning process before beginning this pro-
ject was the definition of the task at hand, namely a library orienta-
tion program. Hypercard was chosen because of its simplicity and
unique customization options.
   The linear sequence and random capabilities of Hypercard made it an
excellent choice for this task because of the nature of user behavior
with computer-assisted tours--they like to jump around a lot.
   The demonstration was easily understood for those of us who have Ap-
ple experience, but served as a nice introduction for those who have
never had the pleasure. Hypercard is unique in that it allows anima-
tion through the use of flip cards; the user may also use hidden ob-
jects in tutorials--for example, to hide answers. The example shown,
which illustrated the difference between space and line notes in mu-
sic, was a clear one, which made the ease of use evident to the audi-
ence.
   Sandy Farmer (Houston Public Library) had the misfortune to experi-
ence technical difficulties before her presentation (none of us have
ever had that problem, eh?). She spoke briefly about an Apple program
she developed for use in the children's department of the library,
drawing on her many years of experience in programming. Gosh, I wish I
could have seen the demonstration portion of her program. Hearing
about it just wasn't the same.
   Jerry Norris, University of North Texas, spoke about an instruction
course he designed to teach a spreadsheet program, bringing samples of
the program for demonstration. The last portion covered the use of
software programs and programming languages (PC-Write, List.com, Turbo
Pascal) in performing automated DIALOG searches. Examples of handy lo-
gon scripts for the latter were included in the handouts, as well as a
bibliography on creating custom applications. Attendees were encour-
aged to bring diskettes with self-addressed mailers to receive copies
of the programs demonstrated.
   In all of the presentations, emphasis was placed on strictly defin-
ing the needs to be filled in selecting a software package or tool.
The functions of each package need to be thoroughly considered in de-
termining the package's appropriateness for the task at hand. Collabo-
rating with colleagues also seems to be of great importance, and test-
ing the finished product with several people before unleashing it
before the masses is considered quite helpful in finding glitches and
problems.--Lisa K. Miller is Computer Services/Reference Librarian at
the American Graduate School of International Management Library in
Glendale, Arizona.