Kopp, 'LITA Midwinter Report, 3', LITA Newsletter v15n02
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v15n02-kopp-lita

V15N2.MIDREP3 LITANEWS
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[LITA Midwinter Report, 3]
 
 
Programmer/Analysts Interest Group
 
PAIG HAS A LISTSERV, PAIG-L. To subscribe to the list send E-mail to
listserv@mizzou1. missouri.edu with the line
SUBSCRIBE PAIG-L first-name last-name.
Once you are subscribed to the list, messages can be sent to
paig-l@mizzou1.missouri.edu. So far, the list has been used mostly to
send meeting announcements but it can also be used to discuss items of
interest to PAIG members and other library programmer/analysts.
   The focus of Midwinter discussion was the TULIP project: its
history and how some institutions have implemented it. The first
speaker, Paul Mostert (Elsevier), described the project and its goals
and objectives. The original goal was to improve accessibility to and
retrieval of full text images using new information technologies.
Another objective was to test the effectiveness of the Internet for
large scale distribution and the effectiveness of library systems and
campus networks for local access.
   Nine universities are participating in the project. Elsevier
Science chose 43 journals in the area of materials science for the
project. Full page image files are created for these 43 journals. The
yearly volume is approximately 110,000 pages covering 13,000 editorial
items. The TULIP project will span four years (1992-1995). Elsevier
delivers three products to the universities: bibliographic records;
cover to cover bitmapped images (about 8 gigabytes per year); and
unedited "dirty" ASCII full text for full-text searching. The files
are sent to the participating libraries biweekly. The files are
customized for each university in that bitmapped images are not sent
for journals that the university does not subscribe to. Each
university provides access to the data on its local hardware via local
software. Elsevier does provide an article delivery facility for items
a university does not hold.
   Mostert mentioned several enhancements that are being considered:
provision of full item text in SGML; access by hyperlinks; the
creation of page images in Adobe Acrobat that would result in better
images and reduced storage requirements. Another goal is to have the
electronic form available at the same time or before the paper
product. Mostert concluded that he would like to learn from the
project whether scientific communication is improved by TULIP-like
distribution, which types of information are actually used and the
effectiveness of the Internet for such types of delivery.
   Beth Warner next discussed how TULIP is being used at the
University of Michigan. To support the wide variety of desktop devices
in use at the university Michgan developed two approaches. They
designed a UNIX client called TULIPView that supports full-text
searching and online document viewing through an XWindow/Motif
interface. VT100 access is provided by a terminal emulator attached to
the university's Library Management System, MIRLYN. This method allows
the abstract to be viewed and the document printed if desired.
Printing is done using the MVS SMTP E-mail protocol to send print
requests to a UNIX print server. Michigan is collecting use logs that
include the type of user, the user's department, date, time and the
file and article used.
   Warner discussed the major challenges the project has presented.
One is the amount of data involved, which requires large storage
capability and slow retrieval time. While retrieval from CD-ROM is
slow, the time required to receive the files via FTP is also
considerable. Michigan is considering converting to CD-ROM for
archival purposes. Problems in viewing the full-text images arose
because of the differences in the quality of the scan due to different
paper formats and types of paper used in original documents.
   Printing is limited to certain types of printers, and the time
required to print a page has been reduced from two minutes to between
thirty and forty seconds. Warner also discussed the changing roles of
campus information providers and technologists. The big question iswho will pay the storage costs. She emphasized that user response has
been positive.
-  Earl Smith (University of Tennessee) next discussed his
university's implementation of TULIP. He characterized it as "TULIP on
the Cheap." Tennessee has implemented it on a gopher server. Documents
can be ordered by E-mail and are received about 24 hours later. The
university is also collaborating with Martin Marrieta Energy Systems.
Smith found that the researchers at Martin Marrietta were not very
interested in being able to browse the document--having the document
immediately was not important to them. The researchers also wanted
access to the electronic form before the print product was available.
Tennessee's system has been up since September 1993. There is lots of
browsing and looking at abstracts, but very little actual document
ordering. Because of the major hardware and software costs involved in
printing locally, Tennessee has decided to order requested documents
directly from Elsevier.
   Mark Needleman discussed the implementation at the University of
California system. UC is providing access to images through the MELVYL
system. When the user does a search, there is an indication that
images are available. The user can request a copy of the image (a
password is required) and a message is returned stating the
workstation at which the images are available. Users can also print
the document. Needleman said that UC has learned a great deal during
the implementation. First of all it was a lot harder than originally
anticipated. The major problem was the lack of infrastructure in the
following areas: diverse terminals; authentification methods;
printers; and the wide-area network. For the future, UC is talking
with other publishers about similar projects and are looking at MIME.
Finally, UC needs to develop an economic model for charging for the
service.
   After the presentations, there were several questions, most of
which had to do with reducing the size of the files, the format in
which the files could be sent and making the electronic form available
earlier.--Kurt Kopp
 
 
Research Committee
 
AT THE ALA MIDWINTER meeting in Los Angeles, the newly-created LITA
Research Committee agreed to launch an examination of one of the most
vexing problems of the Information Age: how to measure and evaluate a
library's information resources and services in the emerging
electronic environment. The difficulties of measuring and evaluating
electronic library services range from capturing the utilization rates
of collections and services ("turnstile counts") for users who access
the online catalog or library gopher server from remote locations,
through counting the "circulation" of networked texts, to evaluating
the "collection resources" of a library that provides unrestricted
access to the vast information assets of the Internet, and include a
growing concern with evaluating the outcomes of library service as
well as measuring resource inputs.
   These issues have been of concern to library researchers, managers
and practitioners for some time, and considerable work has already
been done. The Research Committee believes that the time is right to
identify and synthesize the previous research and development work in
this area, to help define the work that remains to be done, and to
demonstrate the ways in which the research findings can be applied to
the development of actual solutions to measurement and evaluation
problems related to electronic information. To this end, the Committee
will prepare a proposal for a program to be held at the 1995 Annual
Conference.
   To assist in preparing for the program, the Research Committee will
hold an open hearing at the 1994 Annual Conference in Miami. The
hearing is scheduled for Sunday morning, June 26, from 9:30 to 11 a.m.
and we encourage all LITA members with an interest in this topic to
attend and participate in the discussion. We also invite anyone who
has conducted or is conducting research on measurement and evaluation
of libraries in an electronic environment, or who has a perspective on
the issues that would help frame discussion, to submit to the
Committee a brief (250-word) description of his or her research or
analysis of the issues. These submissions will help us to prepare
background information on the topic and plan the 1995 program and any
related publications. We may ask some of the respondents to join us at
the open hearing in Miami to deliver a brief presentation on their
work as background for the discussion. Please send these submissions
to the Committee Chair, Gary Lawrence, at Office of the President,
University of California, 300 Lakeside Drive, 18th Floor, Oakland, CA
94612-3550; (510) 987-9461; fax (510) 987-9456; Internet:
gary.lawrence@ucop.edu. Submissions or questions are welcome at any
time, but submissions received by May 16, 1994 will be given first
consideration for inclusion in the open hearing at Miami.--Gary
Lawrence, University of California
 
 
Serials Automation Interest Group (LITA/ALCTS)
 
The LITA/ALCTS Serials Automation Interest Group met in Los Angeles to
discuss the implementation of MARC format integration and future
programming plans for the IG.
   Robert Bremer (OCLC) led the format integration discussion. In
reviewing OCLC's format integration plans he described the two phases
of implementation. Phase one, to be complete by the end of 1994, will
include changes to variable-length fields. Phase two, due to be
complete by the end of 1995, will include changes to the Leader, 006,
007 and 008 fields. Bremer noted that OCLC's largest task for phase
one is to revise MARC verification tables. For phase two, OCLC will be
deciding how the 006 will display and be edited, and what type of
indexing will be done from it. Additional changes to MARC verification
tables will also be required for phase two.
   After Bremer's presentation discussion turned to local systems and
changes needed for format integration. Many members of the IG echoed
what Bremer had said about OCLC's implementation. Local systems that
provide MARC verification will need to have their verification tables
revised. How the new 006 field will display and index as well as how
it will affect local OPACs was also an issue of discussion. There was
some indication from the IG members that while system vendors are
aware of the forthcoming changes, few have announced definite plans
for implementation.
   After the discussion of format integration the IG turned its
attention to future topics for discussion and programming. The
LITA/ALCTS Retrospective Conversion and Serials Automation Interest
Groups will cosponsor a program on retrospective conversion of serials
bibliographic and holding records at the 1994 Conference. Several
speakers will address various methods for converting serials records
to machine readable format. The program will also include discussion
of union list conversion.
   Looking ahead to the 1995 Annual Conference, great interest was
expressed in the topic of electronic serials and the related areas of
processing, access and selection. Although this is a topic that the IG
has done programs on in the past, several new developments in this
area (for example, gopher and related technologies and some movement
of publishers to electronic formats) merit new programming. Please
join us for the IG's business meeting in Miami if you are interested
in assisting with the planning of this program.--Elizabeth D. Ten Have
 
 
Small Integrated Library Systems Interest Group
 
Twenty-six people, representing small public, special and academic
libraries, as well as vendors, gathered in Los Angeles for the Small
Integrated Library Systems IG business meeting. The group reviewed the
program for the 1994 Annual Conference, which will feature Richard
Fritz (Pasco County School District), Elisabeth Logan (Florida State
University) and Teresa Day (Southwestern College). Discussion followed
on how to notify the potential audience. An effort will be made to
publicize the program in SOLINET and Florida library newsletters.
   The Chicago program will be planned in Miami; one possible topic is
Internet for small libraries. The group will have two new cochairs
after Miami: Bob Bocher (Department of Public Instruction, Madison,
WI) and Carl Bengston (Dominican College of San Rafael, CA).
 
 
Vendor/User Interest Group
 
More than fifty people participated in a discussion of "Beta Testing:
The Vendor/User Partnership" at the Vendor/User Interest Group's
Midwinter meeting. After briefly working with participants to define
what is meant by beta testing, Linda Bills (Tri-College Consortium,
Pennsylvania) facilitated a discussion about the expectations of
vendors as compared to those of users when beta-testing projects are
initiated. Key points were recorded for each perspective. These were
later used in breakout sessions where vendor participants discussed
and refined the vendors' expectations, while users did the same for
the users' expectations. In conclusion, the input from each session
was summarized for all participants.
   Members of the group's planning committee are now compiling the
input from these discussions. By the 1994 Annual Conference they
expect to have a draft checklist that can be used by both vendors and
users when they are contemplating entering into a beta-testing
relationship.
   At the group's Miami meeting the continuation of "Beta Testing: The
Vendor/User Partnership" discussion will build on this topic through a
series of presentations by vendors and users and through general
discussion of the checklist. The planning committee expects to publish
the checklist following the summer meeting.--Pamela Brown, Arlington
Heights (IL) Memorial Library