CAIRS‐LMS: a library housekeeping system based on CAIRS

Pages11-18
Date01 January 1989
Published date01 January 1989
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/eb040405
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
11
CAIRS-LMS: a library housekeeping
system based on CAIRS
General
C
AIRS and MICRO-CAIRS are well-es-
tablished text retrieval systems; LMS (Li-
brary Management System) was launched at the
end of 1987 to offer library housekeeping fa-
cilities in addition to text retrieval. Many
CAIRS features are included in
LMS,
and LMS
can be supplied as a separate, stand-alone pro-
duct without needing
to
buy standard CAIRS or
MICRO-CAIRS; alternatively, the two can run
in parallel, with LMS perhaps being used for
specific housekeeping tasks, e.g. loans control.
In this case, a link can be made between the two
systems for pulling across the necessary data
from the CAIRS databases. There are three
modules:
catalogue and acquisitions;
loans;
and
periodicals acquisition. Each module can be
purchased separately.
There are at present around 70 users of LMS.
Some of these additionally use standard CAIRS
or MICRO-CAIRS, some have since bought
CAIRS to run with LMS, but the majority are
stand-alone systems. As might be expected,
many users are special and technical libraries,
but there is an increasing number of other types
of libraries, including college and government
libraries.
The system uses a number of different CAIRS-
type databases (or libraries as they are known),
with various pointers between them to link data
together for different functions. The interaction
of these databases will be described in more
detail below, but essentially although an abbre-
viated bibliographic record is held on the loans
database, this is read across directly from the
catalogue. The periodicals databases are, how-
ever, separate, and if periodicals were to be
included in the main catalogue, they would
have to be re-entered. Alternatively, it is
possible to search both databases and concaten-
ate the results.
It is possible to search each database using the
standard CAIRS SINV (Search Inverted File)
command; this gives a great deal of flexibility
since the full searching and output facilities
associated with SINV are available. This fa-
cility is also used across the system for search-
ing for items requiring output in some way, e.g.
orders, claims, overdue notices etc. Essen-
tially, the search parameters are input, the set
retrieved saved and carried through to an auto-
matic letter generation function which is tai-
lored for each of the different functions. The
appropriate letter is then selected, and the set
number of the records specified.
There are additionally 'show functions' ac-
cessible throughout the system which provide
for standard enquiries in menu mode against the
relevant databases. It is also technically
possible to set up specific OPAC menus against
the different databases, e.g. for reservation en-
quiries.
The system
is
both command and menu-driven.
It can be set up to run in command mode (com-
mands being 4 character mnemonics), this
mode being automatically selected on user ID,
or in menu mode; if in menu mode a command
is known, it can be used to access a function
directly instead of through the menus. The
OPAC can be set to run in menu mode only if
required. All menus and help text as supplied
with the system can be modified by the library.
A feature of the system is the ability to set
security levels for accessing different informa-
tion and different functions. Security levels can
be applied to IDs and to items.
Catalogue and Acquisitions
The system works on the basis of a master
record which contains the bibliographic and
copy details for the master copy as well as the

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