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Technically Speaking

By David Dorman
American Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org

Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois.

Column for September 1999

Marking Progress, Part Two

The first installment of the “Marking Progress” series (AL, June, p. 134) summarized the pre-PC stage of computing as being an era in which textual data, both structured and unstructured, was stored in proprietary database management structures and “marked up” by proprietary word processors. In such a fractured environment, it was necessary to create “lingua franca” for transporting structured and unstructured data.

A bibliographic record is an example of data that must be stored in a structured format in order to be processed by a computer program. Early on, the library community realized that if bibliographic records were going to be transferable from one proprietary computer system to another, a standard communications format would need to be developed into which catalog records stored in proprietary database formats could be mapped for transport to any other system that could import from such a standard format. Thus was born the MARC format in the mid-1960s. The importance of sharing cataloging records ensured that the format quickly became a cornerstone of all significant library automation efforts.

In the world of word processing, a standard way of marking up text was slower to develop. The Standard Generalized Markup Language was developed in the mid 1980s but never gained universal acceptance. Rather than being a markup standard per se, SGML is really more of a standard template for user communities to develop their own Document Type Definitions (DTDs). While conceptually elegant and flexible, it proved very difficult to use in practice. However, SGML did lay the conceptual groundwork for the common computing environment that is just beginning to develop, which will soon make MARC an obsolete anomaly (and which I will discuss in the next installment).

The problem of not being able to transfer word-processing documents easily from one computer system to another was largely mitigated by the virtual monopolies garnered by Microsoft’s Windows operating system and by Word, the software giant’s word-processing program. No such monopoly emerged, however, in the library systems marketplace. Only the near-universal acceptance of the MARC record enabled libraries to easily transfer catalog data among disparate computer systems.

Catalogers’ Heaven

Authority-control vendors have slowly increased the sophistication of their processing over the years, but one thing has stayed constant: Ongoing automated authority-control processing has remained a batch process that often takes hours and—more typically—days. Library Technologies, Inc. (LTI), which has garnered more new customers for authority control over the past several years than all the other vendors combined, has introduced a new service that “authorizes” new MARC cataloging in seconds or minutes, rather than in hours or days.

Called RTAC (Real-Time Authority Control), the service uses client software residing on a workstation in the library to enable the cataloger to send individual or small groups of MARC records via the Internet to LTI’s server in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, where the records are immediately processed in almost the identical way that LTI does its batch authority processing. When the processing is finished, the authorized bibliographic records are returned via the Internet to the library’s workstation, along with associated LC authority records.

According to LTI President Jim Schoenung, “RTAC will change fundamentally how libraries authorize bibliographic records added to their online system, because catalogers will be able to verify and correct headings at the point of entry during cataloging without having to stop and search a separate database.” While that description sounds enticing, it will only begin to feel like catalogers’ heaven when the client software that sends and receives records is integrated with the catalog editing software that the library uses. LTI is willing to provide ILS vendors with the C source code so that it can be compiled and integrated into the vendors’ cataloging clients. Schoenung said that both Endeavor and ALS have expressed an interest in doing this, but no commitments have yet been made.

The service could also be utilized by third-party providers of catalog records such as book wholesalers and retrospective conversion services, in order to provide their library customers with authorized records and associated authority records as an add-on service. LTI has pegged the cost of RTAC at $0.12 per MARC record. Libraries can experiment with a demo version by downloading the access software from LTI’s Web site. For more information, call 800-795-9504 or e-mail to LTI@LibraryTech.Com.

Contracts and Agreements

VTLS—with the National Yiddish Book Center of Amherst, Massachusetts, for a VTLS99 eight-user system; and with Hebrew Union College of New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Jerusalem, for a VTLS99 64-user-license VTLS99 system for the college’s three U.S campuses.
Ameritech Library Services—with the Westchester Library System of Ardsley, New York, for a Dynix System to replace its ALS PALS system in the county’s 38 public libraries.
Best-Seller—with the Cannes Public Library, the Montpellier Library Network, and the Issey-les-Moulineaux Library Network (all in France), for installations of its library automation software.
Sirsi—with the University of Oklahoma Libraries, for the Unicorn Library Management System to be installed at all three campuses of the university; and with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, for a Unicorn system for a union catalog of six Texas state government agency libraries.
Ex Libris—with the French public libraries of Dieppe and Mulhouse; with the Italian universities of Perugia, Pisa, and Messina; and with the University of Nottingham in England, all for Aleph500 systems.

Alliances and Acquisitions

Brodart Automation and Follett Software Company have announced a joint agreement for distribution of Brodart’s Media Minder for Windows, an advance booking and scheduling system for K-12 school media centers.
Baker & Taylor has announced the merger of its Academic Library Services business with Yankee Book Peddler, making YBP a wholly owned subsidiary of B&T.

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