News
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045594 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Pages | 436-445 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
NEWS The electronic library scene
No one would have believed in the last years of the
twentieth century — until we actually got there —
that millennial madness would not be so much in the
form of UFO abductions and crystal healing (which
are only to be expected at times like this) but in the
rush to demonstrate the readiness of computer sys-
tems for the year 2000. As many subscriptions run
on a three-year basis, the problem is suddenly
becoming current In the library world.
Swets & Zeitlinger has declared its readiness for
the double digit turnover, saying it now rather than
later because of its many three-year subscriptions.
The work to convert its systems was done in-house
and has now been completed: this means it will be
business as usual for customers whose invoices
extend as far as the year 2000, the only obvious
signs of the conversion being the Inclusion of the
century on invoices and other documentation rather
than just the year/month/days that have been usual
until now.
Meanwhile EBSCO Subscription Services has
also announced it is ready for the century change,
with the rest of EBSCO Industries scheduled to
catch up by
1
May 1998.
• • •
Still on the millennial
theme,
OCLC is going one step
further with Beyond 2000: A Summary of OCLC's
Strategic Plan — a 36 page document which is
being mailed to OCLC member libraries. The
plan,
which gives an overview of OCLC's strategies and
priorities over the next decade, is available on the
Web at http://purl.oclc.org/oclc/strategic. Hard
copies can be ordered from
http://www.oclc.org/oclc
/forms/strateg.htm.
OCLC's President and Chief Executive Officer K.
Wayne Smith says that the company's strategy over
the next decade will essentially be to pursue four
major goals, which he calls the 'Four I's': to integrate
and enhance all OCLC core services by providing
easy and seamless access to information; to inno-
vate by providing
new,
cost-effective, electronic alter-
natives such as archiving and new telecommunica-
tions technologies; to internationalise by increasing
global expansion and perspective; and to inform, by
adding educational services for the library and
edu-
cation communities.
OCLC has also announced the availability through-
out the US and in some other countries of Dial
TCP/IP
Access,
which uses Point-to-Point Protocol
(PPP)
and
TCP/IP to connect to OCLC services over
an ordinary phone line. OCLC says this is the first in
a new family of TCP/IP access methods to be intro-
duced.
The system gives full access to all OCLC sys-
tems and services: users can view documentation
from the OCLC Web site during logon sessions to
OCLC Cataloging or any other OCLC online service.
They can also open multiple sessions and be billed
only a single connect-time charge.
• • •
Patients of the UK's National Health Service with the
good sense to fall ill in the Anglia & Oxford region will
have the comfort of knowing that the people looking
after them at least have up to date information at
their fingertips. The Anglia & Oxford NHS region, in
partnership with the University of Oxford, has begun
a six-month trial of Ovid's Web software and elec-
tronic journal services.
Since 1 November 1997, five NHS institutions,
Oxford University's Radcliffe Science Library and
The Cairns Library have been in a controlled region-
al pilot programme of Ovid's
Online
Full Text service,
the idea being to provide physicians, healthcare per-
sonnel and academic staff with access to the Ovid
electronic journal collections. During this time, both
NHS and academic end-users will assess Ovid's
MEDLINE
database and its six full-text collections —
Biomedical Collections l-IV, Mental Health and
Nursing.
The collections comprise approximately
fif-
teen journals each.
Anne Brice, from Oxford University's Health Care
Libraries Unit, says that the project 'provides an
opportunity to investigate the impact of this rapidly
developing market on our services and users.'
• • •
Publishers wanting to put their journals on the Web
generally either have to work out how to do it them-
selves or go through an aggregator
service
like BIDS
or Blackwells Electronic Journal Navigator. That
should change with the first product from a new
British company that launched recently with 'a mis-
sion to provide leading-edge software components
and solutions for Web publishing'.
Zuno Ltd's first product is the Zuno
Digital Publisher
(ZDP) suite, which it describes as a component-
based software system for producing, organising,
managing and publishing journals over the
Web.
The
company says that ZDP gives publishers full control
over access to their information and the ability to
provide 'a rich user environment'
in
which customers
can browse, search and retrieve information.
The software provides applications for loading docu-
ments into a secure repository where they can be
reviewed and checked for quality, and where users
can link, review and annotate the contents. Features
of the repository include a Content Manager, which
turns raw data into readable metadata; a Staging
Area where the loaded document is placed so that
publishers can review the information and maintain
quality
control;
a PC File Format Compatibility which
converts metadata automatically from popular PC
file formats; and LinkPacks, which add structure and
organisation to a site and provide multiple views of
the content.
436 The Electronic Library, Vol. 15, No. 6, December 1997
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