Library automation at the interface of the World Wide Web
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045635 |
| Date | 01 March 1998 |
| Published date | 01 March 1998 |
| Pages | 177-179 |
| Author | William Forrester |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
FOCUS
interview
Library
Automation
Library automation
at the
interface
of the
World Wide Web
Brian McKenna spoke
to
two senior British librarians about
the
library automation scene: Willliam Forrester
of
the
British Medical Association,
and
Ronald Milne,
the
Assistant Director
of
Library Services
at
King's
College, London,
and
Dawn Cole.
The emerging consensus seems
to be
that,
in
UK Higher Education anyway, automation
of
local library hold-
ings
is
passing into history
as a
hot topic,
and
that
the use of
the Web
to
deliver global catalogue information
constitutes
the
primary terrain
of
discussion,
and
area
for
development,
in
terms
of
automated library sys-
tems.
Elsewhere
in the
world
the
issue
of
library automation
is not so
stale,
but, as can be
seen from
Alejandro Leal Cueva's article elsewhere
in
this issue,
the
interface with the Web
is
still
a
major factor when
considering
and
implementing automated library systems outside
the
First World. Even
in
countries like
the
UK, though, automating
the
paper catalogue
is not an
issue
to
have disappeared entirely.
In the
News sec-
tion
of the
present issue
of The
Electronic Library
is an
item covering
the
immense
job of
converting
and
automating
the
1920-1988 catalogue
of the
Bodleian Library
in
Oxford that
has
been carried
out by
OCLC.
Nevertheless,
the
automated library,
in the
sense
of a
library whose collections
are
interrogated
via
informa-
tion technology rather than bits
of
card
or
bound ledgers, does increasingly belong
to
the future
of
the recent
past, it would seem.
William Forrester
is the
Head
of
Development
at
the British Medical Association Library.
His
email
address
is
william.forrester@bma.org.uk. Here
are
some
of his
thoughts
on
library automation.
What library management system do
you currently use at the British
Medical Association? Are you happy
with it?
We currently
use
Dynix from Ameritech
and are
basically happy with it,
yes.
What procedures did you go through
in order to establish the system
specification that you originally
wanted?
We looked
at
about forty
to
fifty different systems
that were available
in
1993/94
and got
their litera-
ture.
We then weeded this down
to
about thirteen
by
visiting
the
companies. We were then able
to
reduce
this further to
4
finalists to whom we sent our system
specification.
We
then
had
systems from
all
four
in
house
for
about
one
week.
What considerations would be
uppermost in your mind if you were
to seek a replacement system?
Obviously
a new
system should
be
able
to
handle
our present data without
any
problems. Would have
client/server
and web
interfaces. Would
run on any
platform
and
allow downloading
and
printing
of
searches with any fields required.
How does your system compare with
others you have knowledge of?
It compares favourably. Although there are things we
would change
if
possible.
What plans do you have for the
future in terms of adding services,
resources or functionality?
We have bought the Dynix WebPac
to
allow users
to
search
our
OPAC
via the
web. Unfortunately,
it has
taken Dynix some time
to
sort
out the
bugs
in
this.
What's your assessment of the
present trends within the library
automation in the UK Higher
Education system? And elsewhere?
I'm
not
sure
how far I can
generalize from
our
own
experience, but the trend seems
to be
to Web based
OPACS.
Almost every catalogue
has
been automat-
ed
and
people
see
Web access
as the
ideal
way of
allowing users
to
access their catalogues.
Also
in
London, over
at
King's College TEL spoke
to
Ronald Milne,
who is the
Assistant Director
of
Library Services there,
and
who
led the
recent pro-
curement
of the
ALEPH
500
library automation
The Electronic Library, Vol. 16, No. 3, June 1998 177
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