By David DormanAmerican Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org
By David Dorman
American Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org
Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois.
Column for May 2000
For several years Mike Eisenberg, director of the University of Washington School of Library and Information Science, and Bob Berkowitz, library media specialist at Wayne Central High School in Ontario, New York, have been marketing a method they call the Big6 to help students and adult learners do effective research.
The pair recently formed alliances with Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Companion Corporation, Linworth Publishing, and NewsBank “to develop unique applications of the Big6 with the products and services” of these companies. The alliance with Companion, the vendor that markets the Alexandria library automation system, resulted in a March agreement giving Alexandria exclusive rights to use the Big6 model in a library automation system. Alexandria’s spring 2000 upgrade will enable Alexandria PAC users to get assistance on the steps involved in research, including access to video clips, from the PAC help icon.
To those of us who believe that informing readers about the ins and outs of bibliographic searching and the nature of collections should be an integral part of every catalog search interface, this research assistance is a step in the right direction. Too many vendors have spent too many programming hours dumbing-down user interfaces to the lowest common denominator, making what is really a complex activity appear (deceptively) simple to the user. How about it, librarians? Let’s pressure our ILS vendors to give us teaching PACs as well as simple PACs.
For more information about Companion, or to obtain a free single-user version of the company’s Alexandria ILS, visit www.companioncorp.com. For more information about the Big6 information skills problem-solving approach, visit big6.com.
Glassbook, a company that markets e-book publishing, distribution, and reading software, has announced it is developing library-management software for e-books. Due out in beta late this year, the Glassbook Library Server will be a Web-based system that will manage the acquisition, storage, and lending of e-books. It will have two components: E-book Collection Manager, to purchase e-books and add bibliographic information; and E-book Circulation Manager, to lend e-books to patrons using the Internet. Both components will run on a Windows NT server and will require Internet Explorer browser software.
Mary Ellen Heinen, Glassbook’s vice-president for sales and marketing and former director of product marketing for Nelinet, indicated that at this time the ILS is more concept than code, adding that she is receiving a great deal of input from librarians about the kind of functionality an ILS for e-books should have.
RoweCom, which started out life as a library subscription vendor not too many years ago, now claims to be “the leading business-to-business e-commerce provider of solutions for managing the acquisitions of knowledge resources.” The company just struck a deal with Intelisys Electronic Commerce, one of the new brand of Internet companies springing up to provide Internet-based software to support efficient buying and selling of goods and services in specialized business-to-business (B2B) markets. Businesses in Intelisys’s purchasing communities will be able to browse, order, and pay for magazines, journals, newspapers, and other knowledge resources from RoweCom.
RoweCom is not the only subscription provider looking for a broader market. EBSCO has teamed up with the Ingram Book Group, Brill Media Holdings, CBS, NBC, and Primedia to develop a Web site called Centerville.com. The site, to be introduced later in the year, will sell books, magazine subscriptions, media transcripts, scholarly monographs, and access to the full text of magazine back issues.
“I was greatly impressed by the country and its people, but saddened to find that the educational infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. The terrible results of the Pol Pot regime are everywhere. Then and there I decided that I must take action and initiate an effort to improve the educational conditions in Cambodia.” As a result of his vacation trip to Cambodia last year, Ex Libris Chairman Azriel Morag set about trying to help the library of the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Morag persuaded Sun Microsystems, the Oracle Corporation, and SilverPlatter to join Ex Libris in donating technology and information services to the university. As a result, Ex Libris has announced that an Aleph 500 library system and a SilverPlatter ERL Intranet Solution will be installed on a Sun Enterprise 250 server at the school. Ex Libris will provide installation, training, maintenance, and support at no charge, and SilverPlatter will provide free access to Medline and Eric.
To donate books, periodicals, PCs, or other useful items, contact Pou Vanny. For more information on the project, contact Robert J. Baum, Ex Libris group vice-president.