+ Page 1 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review | | Volume 1, Number 1 (1990) | | Editor-In-Chief: Charles W. Bailey, Jr. | University of Houston | | Associate Editor: Mike Ridley, McMaster University | | Editorial Board: Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group | Nancy Evans, Carnegie-Mellon University | David R. McDonald, University of Michigan | R. Bruce Miller, University of California, | San Diego | Paul Evan Peters, New York Public Library | Peter Stone, University of Sussex | | | Published three times a year (January, May, and September) by | the University Libraries, University of Houston. Technical | support is provided by the Information Technology Division, | University of Houston. | | DEADLINE for the next issue is April 2, 1990. | | Editor's Address: Charles W. Bailey, Jr. | University Libraries | University of Houston | Houston, TX 77204-2091 | (713) 749-4241 | LIB3@UHUPVM1.BITNET +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Articles are stored as files at LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. To retrieve a file, send the e-mail message given after the article abstract to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. The file will be sent to your account. + Page 2 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Contents +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial (page 4) Communications Text Management Software Sue Stigleman (pages 5-22) An overview of five kinds of text management software: text retrieval, text database managers, bibliography formatting, hypertext, and text analysis. Examines roles for libraries in helping patrons utilize this software. To retrieve this file: GET STIGLEMA PRV1N1 Computer-Assisted Instruction for Music Uniform Titles R. Michael Fling (pages 23-33) Describes Making the Most of the Music Library: Using Uniform Titles, a CAI program at the Indiana University Music Library. To retrieve this file: GET FLING PRV1N1 Expansion and Testing of a Meridian CD-ROM Network James Jay Morgan (pages 34-42) Discusses the expansion and performance testing of a Meridian CD Net system running on an IBM Token-Ring network. This work was done at the Indiana University School of Medicine Library. To retrieve this file: GET MORGAN PRV1N1 Electronic Access to Library Systems for Users With Physical Disabilities Norman Coombs (pages 43-47) Examines how libraries can utilize computer technology to improve services to disabled library users. To retrieve this file: GET COOMBS PRV1N1 + Page 3 + Departments Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column Walt Crawford (pages 48-50) Looks at questions related to browsing in online catalogs. Are they doing an adequate job? To retrieve this file: GET CRAWFORD PRV1N1 Reviews Review by Steve Cisler (pages 51-55) Campus Strategies for Libraries and Electronic Information by Caroline R. Arms. To retrieve this file: GET CISLER PRV1N1 Review by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. (pages 56-57) Cyberbooks by Ben Bova. To retrieve this file: GET BAILEY PRV1N1 Instructions to Authors (pages 58-59) To retrieve this file: GET INSTRUCT PRV1N1 + Page 4 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Editorial +--------------------------------------------------------------------- By Charles W. Bailey, Jr. Welcome to the Public-Access Computer Systems Review. The PACS Review publishes articles about all types of computer systems that libraries make available to their patrons. These include catalog systems (e.g., online catalogs and public use of bibliographic utilities), CD-ROM databases, computer-assisted instruction programs, end-user search services (e.g., Knowledge Index), expert systems, hypermedia programs, local multi-user database systems (e.g., BRS/Search), microcomputer facilities, and other public computer systems. The PACS Review also publishes articles about new computer technologies that are utilized to implement these systems. The PACS Review does not deal with integrated library systems (e.g., NOTIS), except as these systems are used by library patrons. The PACS Review is an electronic journal. Articles are stored as files on the PACS Forum list server. The Contents section is sent to all PACS Forum users, who can retrieve articles of interest from the list server by following the instructions contained in that section. It is anticipated that most users will want to print the retrieved article files using their institutional mainframe computers or, for downloaded files, their PCs. I wish to thank the members of the PACS Review Editorial Board for their useful suggestions (and lively debate) about the potentials and problems of this electronic publishing venture. If such a thing is possible, I have taken a "middle-of-the-road" approach to this electronic journal, deliberately incorporating certain aspects of traditional journals (e.g., pages) that may be artifacts of the print medium. More radical approaches were discussed, but I decided to start off a more moderate initial strategy. Nonetheless, I feel this is a pioneering venture, and I look forward to receiving your comments and article submissions. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 56 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 56-57. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Reviews +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bova, Ben. Cyberbooks. New York: Tor, 1989. ISBN: 0-812-50319-8. Price: $4.50. Reviewed by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. In this satiric science fiction novel, an idealistic MIT professor invents a light-weight electronic book that employs a high-resolution display, simple controls, and small, inexpensive electro-optic storage wafers. Best of all, bookstores or customers can download the books they want, eliminating the need for a complex book distribution system. Filled with visions of saving the world's forests and bringing cheap electronic books to the underprivileged, the professor journeys to New York to sell his invention to a publisher. Alas, the professor soon learns the harsh realities of publishing, which is thoroughly lampooned as an avaricious and anti-intellectual enterprise. Although the publisher is interested in the electronic book, everyone else involved in book production, sales, and distribution, from paper industry magnates to book store owners, is opposed to it. Ultimately, the electronic book triumphs by bypassing the publishing industry. Toy stores, which are used to selling electronic gadgets, peddle the "Cyberbooks" to children, and the funeral knell of conventional publishing is sounded. Fifty years later, the Library of Congress displays the last book to be published in paper form. Bova shows no mercy to publishers, and his acerbic treatment of them does wear thin at times. Nonetheless, Cyberbooks is an amusing cautionary tale that deserves to be read by those interested in the future of electronic publishing. + Page 57 + About the Author Charles W. Bailey, Jr. Assistant Director for Systems University Libraries University of Houston Houston, TX 77204 LIB3@UHUPVM1.BITNET +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 51 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 51-55. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Reviews +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Arms, Caroline R., ed. Campus Strategies for Libraries and Electronic Information. Bedford, MA.: Digital Press, 1990. ISBN: 1-55558-036-X. Price: $34.95. Reviewed by Steve Cisler. Digital Press seems to have caught a wave as a number of significant titles issue forth from the Bedford, Massachusetts publisher. John Quarterman's The Matrix will interest many librarians involved in networks and telecommunications, but Arms new work, part of the EDUCOM Strategies Series On Information Technology, should be read both inside and outside the academic library community. Besides readers of the PACS Forum, I hope that college and university administrators, librarians in urban public libraries, and database vendors carefully read these fifteen chapters. Sandwiched in between three chapters by Arms ("The Technological Context," "Other Projects and Progress," and "The Context for the Future") are twelve chapters discussing a wide variety of projects in large institutions and library consortia such as OCLC and RLG. For the most part, these are success stories, and the future plans they describe are ambitious and costly. Unless you want to read about your own institution first, I recommend you start with the introduction and read in a linear, non-hypertext manner. In "The Technological Context" Arms gives a clear historical survey of the past three decades of library "automation." Those who have lived through much of it may disagree with the slant, but, to this latecomer, it put the past and present into perspective. Arms comments on the slow emergence of ISO/OSI standards, and says it is essential for the academic library systems to support TCP/IP networks now, even though others are supporting the Z39.50 protocol for information retrieval on these networks as well as the gateways between the two. As one academic librarian commented to me, "Z39.50 is very fashionable these days, but it has not been implemented fully yet." + Page 52 + In her discussion of CD-ROM, Arms discusses the cost of disc production. As the medium becomes more popular outside the library field, prices should come down, but Hitachi was claiming in 1986 that drives would be less than $300 in 1987, and this has not happened. On page 32, Arms says "For full-text products that might be part of a personal library, such as an encyclopedia, the complete works of Shakespeare, or a cumulative subscription to a professional journal, prices eventually should be comparable to those of audio CDs." I agree that Shakespeare might be priced that cheaply, but the other categories are too costly to produce in print form for the disc version to be priced at $10 to $15. Until you have the economy of scale found in feature film video cassette marketing and production, you won't see reference works at that price. My only other strong disagreement with anything that Arms wrote is her contention on page 33 that Apples and IBMs cannot exchange data between floppy disks. The machine on which I am writing this review can read Mac, Apple II, and IBM 3.5 " disks, and this is not a new development. Michael McGill's and Drew Racine's chapter on OCLC and David Richards' RLG chapter are the sorts of accounts one might read in a corporate history: coverage of the goals and mission statements and the high points of past years, but no discussion of the tensions within the consortia that produce changes in administration or research direction over the years. I would be faced with the same problem, were I writing about my employer, so I guess, it takes outsiders to fill these stories out a little more. All the chapters on the individual schools reminded me of my favorite motif in old fairy tales where the hero sets out on a journey, meets unusual people or creatures who accompany him and ultimately prove very useful as he faces his own challenges later in the story. In this case, the reader can tour a number of innovative, well-organized, and creative libraries, take all the ideas along, and use their strengths to plan and shape of his/her own library of the future. One useful example: Northwestern University made a progress report in 1968 that outlined nine requirements for a library automation system. These stressed the need to serve library purposes as well as information retrieval needs, the need for expandability, compatibility with "systems presently being developed by the national library" as well as other parts of an electronic library philosophy that did not exist 21 years ago. + Page 53 + Clemson University has the goal of providing access to information with as few barriers as possible. They have mounted a number of commercial databases from IAC and the National Agricultural Library, and they are negotiating for access to nine other databases from Maxwell Online, and they are encouraging other libraries throughout the state, including public ones, to form a network open to most, if not all, citizens in South Carolina. Because of the interest in multi-type libraries in California, this is the one I will watch with greatest interest. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the largest academic libraries in the U.S., and it has been serving the university and over eight hundred libraries around the state. Their circulation system is claimed to be the largest in the country with 800 terminals online. The authors do not claim it is perfect; they list the shortcomings of the LCS system. However, I was impressed by many of their system enhancements, including links between IBM SNA networks and TCP/IP networks, redundant access methods for databases needed by public service librarians to assure connections when needed, and a special end-user interface for searching commercial databases. The Brigham Young University Law Library offers a rich selection of micro and mainframe services from desktop publishing to unlimited use of LEXIS and WESTLAW (at a cost of only $25,000 per year for each service). BYU has been providing distributed access to these databanks since 1982 for WESTLAW and 1989 for LEXIS. Using a single multiplexed line and a set number of passwords, the system signals when all lines are busy. At first reluctant, the two competing vendors are now quite willing to help out with training, even to the point of bringing in extra terminals during the school year for use in temporary learning centers (TLCs). The Georgia Institute of Technology chapter shows just how committed they are to electronic delivery of information. Providing access to a number of commercial and library databases has raised the expectations of their computer literate users. Although the only access is the BRS command structure, the 17,000 users performed over a million searches in 1987/88. In addition the library has subscriptions to CD-ROM databases and has been negotiating with the vendors to allow campus network access to the data. (There seems to be a typographical error on page 159, where it is indicated that GIT was a test site for MARC I in the 1950s.) + Page 54 + Both the University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University describe their efforts to create libraries for the twenty-first century. USC's Center for Scholarly Technology and CMU's Project Mercury are working on software and systems that could be used in other settings. USC's chapter begins to describe funding issues; CMU mentions that their grants will run out some day. Another volume on funding strategies would keep Arms busy assembling a companion work. She has given us a tempting menu from a number of fine chefs. Now, how do we all pay the bill? Columbia University offers a diverse number of services, but Paula Kaufman's explanation of the changing organization's structure was extremely informative, as was the philosophy and strategy for library and information services. In some cases, there is not funding to implement the strategy or to live up to the philosophy. Cornell's Mann Library's philosophy is that the scholar does not need to be in the library to use the resources. The scholars' workstations will provide access to more and more of the needed information in electronic form, and their ability to pay should not determine their access. As this scholarly information system is formed, with the support of numerous governmental and commercial organizations, they are asking many questions, some of which will undoubtedly be answered in a later report. The thoughts in Cornell's chapter are reflected throughout this book--a mixture of dreams, visions, and hard reality. Although the models may not apply to some smaller institutions, the lessons learned by the larger schools are very useful to all academic libraries. While I recommend this book, I hope that Caroline Arms will compile a similar volume for schools with fewer resources than the ones featured here. + Page 55 + About the Author Steve Cisler Apple Computer Library sac@apple.com ALANET: ALA0728 +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by Steve Cisler. This review may be | republished and redistributed without charge if credit is given to | the author and this message is included at the beginning or | end of the article. It may not be republished in any publication | for which there is a charge other than the cost of copying or | mailing. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 43 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Coombs, Norman. "Electronic Access to Library Systems For Users | with Physical Disabilities." Public-Access Computer Systems | Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 43-47. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction Electronic access to catalogs, reference materials, books and other library holdings create a new set of problems and possibilities for the contemporary library. Computer retrieval of information can enhance library efforts to increase equal access for persons with physical disabilities. With appropriate hardware and software, patrons with visual limitations can be provided with the means to use libraries as never before. This same technology may also assist people with some forms of dyslexia for whom reading the printed page is a difficulty. Others who have motor problems which prevent their using a traditional book may be able to use other computer adaptive devices to access library facilities. Congress has recently taken an interest in encouraging public institutions to provide more equal access to computers and electronic information, and future federal funding may become tied to its provision. New Service Opportunities Before looking at some of the problems, we should be aware of the new opportunities to reach previously unserved segments of the public. Persons with severe visual impairments could not use libraries or could only do so with considerable personal difficulty and inconvenience. Even when bringing a reader into the library, there often was not a suitable place to read aloud without causing a disturbance and embarrassment. Mobility-impaired users often found getting to and getting into the library was a hardship, when it was possible at all. Persons unable to handle a book had no real way to make use of library facilities either. In many cases, these are the very people who can become productive citizens and lead meaningful lives through the use of the mind rather than in physical activities. Yet, the library facilities which they needed to help open these doors into a broader life were either closed to them or very difficult to use. + Page 44 + The new generation of adaptive devices and the growing use of electronically stored data is an exciting innovation for such persons. While libraries and service providers are still in the early stages of developing these systems, it is vital to keep this segment of the population in mind. Access systems can be designed in such a way as to continue to shut out the disabled or, with a little care and effort in the planning stage, can take their special needs into account without necessarily impacting total system costs very much. Making modifications later will prove to be harder and more costly. Perhaps a personal story will help to underline the opportunities which lay open before us. I am a blind history professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. A couple of years ago, the college library catalog became available on-line. I phoned in with my PC and speech synthesizer. The first thing I searched was for my own book. It had been in print for some fifteen years, but I had never had the joy of "seeing" it listed in the catalog of a real library. I searched for my name under the author category, and I must confess to both pride and excitement when the computer "read" the listing to me. Not long after that, I carried my speech synthesizer and software to the library, connected it to the PC, did a literature search on a ERIC CD-ROM, and dumped the results to a file which I could later read at my PC keyboard at home. My story is not unique but demonstrates what tomorrow's library can do to empower the physically disabled. Strategies for Providing Services to Disabled Users There are two separate ways in which libraries may choose to approach providing these services. Most libraries will want to provide both types of access. One method is for the library to connect the necessary adaptive hardware to some of its computers and to have the appropriate software available to operate it. The library would have to be sure that the adaptive facilities interfaced with their computers and the software. This would also require having a staff person acquainted with the functioning of that adaptive hardware and software who could instruct patrons on their use. + Page 45 + The alternative method would be for the library to make these electronic facilities available on-line for any patron using a PC and modem to remotely access. In this case, the handicapped person would be responsible for having his or her own PC and adaptive devices. However, as a service provider, the library would want to provide advice to such users on what equipment would be most useful in accessing the system and also to give guidance in the use of the library's remote facility. For remote access, librarians could not be expected to be familiar with the variety of equipment that users might happen to own, but the librarian could be a resource person to direct the handicapped users to find knowledgeable technical assistance. Challenges That Libraries Face Every computer user knows that the most persistent and annoying problem in using computers is the whole question of interfacing and compatibility. There are a variety of different systems to meet library needs. Likewise there are many different adaptive technologies for differing disabilities and several hardware and software packages for each of these. Unfortunately, there seems to be no simple, universal prescription to offer as the ideal choice. As always, it is helpful to observe various configurations in actual operation before making any purchase. Further, when the library does provide an in-house system for a disabled user, the user probably will not be familiar with its functioning. Even if that patron is accustomed to an adaptive system, it may well be different from the one the library has chosen. For that reason, the library will need to have a trained staff member to facilitate its first-time use by any patron. As mentioned above, this person would also need some familiarity with the problems faced by remote-access users with disabilities and be able to direct such individuals to technical help when needed. + Page 46 + Helpful Resources Considering how quickly computer technology is changing, providing a bibliography to guide the librarian in making the relevant software and hardware decisions seems useless. However, looking at a few books in the field would help to alert readers to the scope of the issues involved, and I suggest three books edited by Brandenburg and Vanderheiden (1987). Perhaps what is more valuable is to give the name of an organization which actively keeps abreast of changes related to computer access for the disabled. The Trace Research & Development Center located at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison is dedicated to this purpose, and it is an ideal resource. Conclusion The good news for the librarian is that providing more equal access for the physically disabled will require more in care and thought than it will demand in vast investments. The satisfaction of serving an audience whose needs have been neglected will be well worth the effort. + Page 47 + References Sara A. Brandenburg and Gregg C. Vanderheiden, ed., Communication, Control, and Computer Access for Disabled and Elderly Individuals. Resource Book 1: Communication Aids (Boston: College-Hill Press, 1987). Sara A. Brandenburg and Gregg C. Vanderheiden, ed., Communication, Control, and Computer Access for Disabled and Elderly Individuals. Resource Book 2: Switches and Environmental Controls (Boston: College-Hill Press, 1987). Sara A. Brandenburg and Gregg C. Vanderheiden, ed., Communication, Control, and Computer Access for Disabled and Elderly Individuals. Resource Book 3: Software and Hardware (Boston: College-Hill Press, 1987). About the Author: Norman Coombs, Ph.D. Professor of History Rochester Institute of Technology One Lomb Memorial Dr. Rochester NY. 14623 NRCGSH@RITVAX.BITNET +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 48 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------- | Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 48-50. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------- | Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column +-------------------------------------------------------------------- "Just Point Me in the Right Direction" By Walt Crawford Suppose, for the moment, that your online catalog includes sophisticated transaction logging and analysis capabilities. Suppose that you can determine, for each search, how many call numbers the patron examined before leaving the terminal. Now, suppose that you define a universe of transactions that begin with subject or quasi-subject (e.g., title word) searches which yield two or more results. By most standards of library research, "successful" transactions within this universe fall into two categories: 1. The patron examines all or most of the results; 2. The patron narrows the result in some manner. I'll wager, however, that an analysis would show that a substantial percentage of such transactions end after the patron examines a single call number. And, if asked, most patrons would consider these transactions to be successful: the catalog gave the patron what the patron wanted. What Do They Want? When a patron gets multiple results and checks one (and only one) call number, the patron is probably getting a pointer--a place to begin browsing in the stacks. I do that all the time. So do you, if you are at all typical of experienced library users. When you are not looking for one specific title, chances are that you want one or more books (or whatever) on a particular topic. But you want something that will meet YOUR OWN needs and preferences. No matter how much information an online catalog provides, the only way to be certain that a book will suit you is to look at the book. + Page 49 + In that respect, these transactions could be considered successes, even though the patron has ignored most of the results. The patron knows where to look for books on a topic, which is all that was desired from the catalog. What Do They Need? There's at least one problem here, of course. Topics don't always fit neatly into Dewey or LC classifications. For example, in a Dewey library, books on desktop publishing will be in two or three different call number areas. Thus, the "point me to the stacks" patron may miss most of the collection unless he or she suspects that the library must own more than is immediately evident. It gets even worse when an online catalog includes more than one physical location, as is the case in most academic libraries and multi-branch public libraries. The patron may not be browsing in the best stacks for the particular topic. That's annoying if there are NO books in these particular stacks, and the patron simply didn't realize (or see) that the call number referred to some other location. It's worse, however, if this location has one or two books while another location has dozens: the patron goes away satisfied, but unaware of the real resources that are available. The Dilemma of Browsing-Oriented Patrons Making call numbers readily available on multiple-result screens encourages patrons to use the catalog as a pointer, quite possibly stopping after a single call number, and almost certainly stopping after the first screen of results. If multiple call numbers appear on the first screen, they may alert the patron to the need to browse in more than one area of the stacks--but there's no reason to believe that the first screen will, in fact, include call numbers from all of the relevant areas or locations. If call numbers don't appear on initial result screens, browsing patrons need to spend more time to get what they want. If call numbers do appear on initial result screens, these patrons will get what they want and probably love the online catalog--but they may not be aware of the full range of materials available. + Page 50 + For that matter, patrons looking for stack pointers may not need the catalog at all. A library may serve these patrons (and reduce the load on the online catalog) by preparing compact printed lists of topics, showing call number ranges for each topic. In at least one public library where that was done, it was a great success: patrons used the list heavily and wanted copies of it. A list, however, can't possibly include every specific topic that a patron may desire. What we have here is a dilemma. Browsing patrons--surely a significant percentage of patrons in any open-stack library--can get what they want rapidly from any well-designed online catalog. But what they get may not be what they really need. Challenges and Question 1. Are there online catalogs that can generate numbers to show the extent of this sort of use? If so, what are the results? 2. How can a patron access system help browsing-oriented patrons gain access to more of what they want, without annoying those patrons who use the catalog for specific information? About the Author Walt Crawford The Research Libraries Group, Inc. 1200 Villa Street Mountain View, CA 94041-1100 BR.WCC@RLG.BITNET +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 23 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Fling, R. Michael. "Computer-Assisted Instruction for Music | Uniform Titles." Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no.1 | (1990): 23-33. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bibliographical Environment Despite its lack of relevance to many of the problems that beset the world, music, by its global appeal in many styles and forms has achieved status as a subject for both formal and informal study. Although it is one of the most widely loved and practiced of the arts, it remains one of the most obscure because of a technical language that sets it apart from literature and the visual arts. Yet its language is an international one. English-speaking musicians can play from French, German, or Soviet editions even though they may be unable to read the title pages. Recordings may set forth a composition's title or text in assorted tongues depending upon where the discs are produced or marketed, even though the musical content is unchanged. Richard Wagner's opera Goetterdaemmerung is just as likely to be identified as Twilight of the Gods or Crepuscule des Dieux. Print formats of musical works also may vary in order to serve differing study or performance needs, and these sundry formats usually have a variety of library classification numbers and shelving locations. Consider the multiform print versions of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (i.e., Zauberfloete) found in the Indiana University Music Library: + Page 24 + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Table 1. Multiple Formats of Music Scores. FORMAT CLASS NUMBER DEFINITION or USE Full score M 1500 Large score used by the conductor (includes music for all singers & players). Study score ms M1500 Full score reduced in size for portability. Vocal score M 1503 Voice parts with orchestra music arranged for piano accompaniment. Orchestra parts M 999 Music for individual orchestra members (e.g. trumpet music only). Chorus score M 998 Music for chorus singers, with piano accompaniment. Libretto ML 50 Text only. Piano score M 33 Full score reduced for piano solo (no singers). Excerpts M 1004 E.g., the Overture published separately. Facsimile ML 96.5 Reproduction of the composer's original manuscript. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- These diversities of language and format have implications for library users, and would be major obstacles to accessing printed scores and recordings in libraries were it not for one of the master achievements of music librarianship: the uniform title for music. Uniform titles are a vexation to music catalogers, who must spend considerable time on authority work to establish them. They are a menace to unwary patrons not thoroughly schooled in their arcane structure and application. However, they are absolutely necessary to bring together in logical order in the catalog all of the different editions of the same composition. An example of the chaos that results when uniform titles are disregarded can be seen in The National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints, in which uniform titles are ignored in the filing sequence. The entries for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fill 260 pages, and they are listed, for all practical purposes, in random order. + Page 25 + The Instructional Environment The music librarians at Indiana University have experimented with several methods for teaching music majors some basic skills for using the library. In recent years, slide presentations, videotape showings, printed guides, walking tours, and classroom lectures have been used, all with varying degrees of success. The slide and videotape presentations were expensive to update, noninteractive, and too condensed to be very effective. While walking tours provide opportunities for question-and-answer, they are practical only with small groups of students. Classroom lectures with follow-up hands-on exercises in the library are an efficient instructional technique in theory, but they have had limited success at Indiana due to the large enrollment in the School of Music. Registration in core classes for freshmen and sophomore majors typically numbers in the hundreds. Herd behavior usually brings these students to the library to do their assignments in large groups. The competition is intense for access to a limited number of tools and resources, and the sharing of answers is rampant. In the mid-1980s, the installation in the Music Library of a laboratory of eight IBM-compatible EMPAC microcomputers provided the opportunity to experiment with something new. CAI, it seemed, offered several advantages: (1) students could be involved in an interactive learning experience with immediate feedback about correct and incorrect responses; (2) they could control the sequence and pacing of the lessons; and (3) individual computer time could be scheduled and reserved in advance. There were also disadvantages: (1) there would be no personal contact between students and librarians; (2) students would be working at video screens rather than turning the pages of real encyclopedias or searching actual catalogs and indexes; and (3) no appropriate software existed. The librarians would have to design and program the system locally. + Page 26 + Program Design Observation over the years of how undergraduates use the Music Library at Indiana University suggested that catalog use ought to take precedence over other aspects of bibliographic instruction. While research papers usually are not assigned until well into undergraduate studies, the emphasis on instrumental and vocal performance at Indiana means that freshmen need to locate scores and recordings in the library from the very beginning of their studies. One of our driving forces was the sight of new students standing before open catalog drawers, scratching their heads in bewilderment. Many of their inquiries to the reference librarians indicated that there was a high rate of failure to locate even the most standard of musical repertoire. Early instruction in the use of uniform titles was deemed to be crucial to successful use of the Music Library's collections, and consequently it was our choice as the prime component of a computer-assisted bibliographic instruction program. The initial challenge was to identify and extract from the cataloging rules those properties of uniform titles that seem most basic. We defined three categories of music uniform titles (see Table 2), and characterized them as form titles (those based on the name of a musical form or a medium of performance), distinctive titles, and collective titles (those for collections of multiple works by a composer in a single bibliographic entity). Finally came descriptions of those additions to titles that help distinguish among different editions and formats of the same musical work, such as "Vocal score," "Libretto," and language designations. + Page 27 + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Table 2. Sample Music Uniform Titles. Form Titles: Bartok, Bela. [Quartets, strings, no. 6] String quartet number six . . . Beethoven, Ludwig van. [Sonatas, piano, no. 14, op. 27, no. 2, C-sharp minor] Piano sonata number 14 ("Moonlight") . . . Distinctive Titles: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. [Zauberfloete] The magic flute . . . Berlioz, Hector. [Symphonie fantastique] Phantastische Symphonie, op. 14 . . . Collective Titles: Bach, Johann Sebastian. [Organ music] Complete organ works . . . Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. [Works] Neue Ausgabe saemtliche Werke . . . Additions to Titles: Kodaly, Zoltan. [Psalmus hungaricus. Vocal score] Psalmus hungaricus: fuer Tenorsolo . . . Bizet, Georges. [Carmen. Libretto. English & French] Carmen: an opera . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 28 + The program design that resulted after several weeks of collective brainstorming is quite simple, due partly to a desire to keep programming costs low, but also because it seemed that a straightforward design would teach as effectively as one with a lot of bells and whistles. The program is in three parts (see Figure 1). Part one is a tutorial which introduces the concept and purpose of uniform titles, then describes the four categories of titles shown in Table 2. Examples in each category are drawn from Indiana's catalogs, and each section intersperses related question-and-answer teasers. Part one is written with the idea that the four sections will be taken in the sequence shown in Figure 1, but the student also has the option of skipping or repeating sections. + Page 29 + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Figure 1. Program Flowchart. BEGIN | _______\/_____ PART ONE: |_INTRODUCTION_| | \/ /\ / \ / START \---NO--->| \ AT / | \TOP?/ | \/ | | | YES \/ | | _______\/____ | |_FORM TITLES_| | | | __________\/________ | |_DISTINCTIVE TITLES_|<---| | | __________\/_______ | |_COLLECTIVE TITLES_|<----| | | ___________\/________ | |_ADDITIONS TO TITLES_|<---| | | PART TWO: \/ | /\ | / \ \/ |<--------------------- /CHOOSE A\<---------| | ______ \COMPOSER/ /\ | |->|_BACH_|------->| \ / | | | ________ | \/ | | |->| MOZART_|----->| | | | ________ | /\ | | |->|_BARTOK_|----->| / \ | \/ | ____________ |--> / CHOOSE \--YES-| | |->|_MONTEVERDI_|->| \ANOTHER?/ | \ / | \/ | | | PART THREE: NO | | | __ \/_ \/ |_QUIZ_|<----------| | \/ END ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 30 + In part two, the student chooses one of four composers to work with: J.S. Bach (1685-1750), Mozart (1756-1791), Bela Bartok (1881-1945), or Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). These particular composers were selected for the program because of the multiplicity of forms, genres, and languages in which they set their music. Also, the titles of many of their compositions already would be familiar to the students. After choosing a composer, the student is shown two or three screens of "hints" about the languages and musical forms commonly used by that composer, and about any unique numbering schemes used in cataloging his works. Then follow about fifteen multiple-choice questions about titles of various works by that composer. The questions are somewhat more difficult than those in part one. In a typical question, an abbreviated title-page transcription is displayed, with three uniform titles from which one is to be selected (see Figure 2). After the student makes a choice, a "CORRECT" or "INCORRECT" response appears on the lower half of the screen, with a brief explanation. Figure 2. Sample Screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- **SELECT A NUMBER, THEN PRESS CARRIAGE RETURN KEY** Bach, Johann Sebastian. Six cello suites, transcribed for trombone solo. 1. [Suites, trombone] 2. [Violoncello music; arr.] 3. [Suites, violoncello; arr.] * * * * * * * * {Response after choice is made} 3: CORRECT. Because all of the works in this collection are suites, the name of the form begins the uniform title. This is followed by the *original* instrumentation, and the "arr." designation, indicating that the music has been transcribed or "arranged" for a different instrument. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 31 + Alternatively, a uniform title may be shown, with three short descriptions of a hypothetical edition from which one is to be selected (see Figure 3). Figure 3. Sample Screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- **SELECT A NUMBER, THEN PRESS CARRIAGE RETURN KEY** Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. [Piano music. Selections] 1. A selection from his piano sonatas. 2. The complete piano music. 3. Selected piano sonatas, preludes, variations, etc. * * * * * * * {Response after choice is made} 1: INCORRECT. "Piano music" indicates that this collection contains a variety of forms of piano music, and not just Sonatas. "Selections" identifies a collection of fewer than *all* of his piano works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- After completing the questions about one composer, the student may choose to continue with another, to quit, or to go on to part three, which consists entirely of quiz questions. These final questions are structured like the ones already described, with examples drawn from many different composers and illustrating all periods and styles of "serious" music. No hints are provided. The quiz is programmed to display up to about sixty questions in random order so that a student sampling the quiz a second time is likely to get many different examples. When exiting the quiz, a tally of correct and incorrect responses is displayed, along with a percentage score for that session. + Page 32 + Although designed with the undergraduate in mind, the program also has proven useful for graduate instruction and for training of library student assistants. It is a required component of the graduate course "Introduction to Music Bibliography," and of the training of students who do pre-order searching. Indiana's CAI program for music uniform titles (Making the Most of the Music Library: Using Uniform Titles) was designed and written by two music librarians (the author, and David Fenske, head of the Music Library), and two graduate students in music librarianship (Shirlene Ward, now a music librarian at Northwestern University, and Brenda Nelson-Strauss, archivist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). Programming (in Turbo Pascal) was done by John Schaffer, now a member of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. A copy of the program can be obtained by sending a blank formatted 5-1/4" diskette to the author. + Page 33 + About the Author R. Michael Fling Indiana University Music Library Bloomington, IN 47405 FLING@IUBACS +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name".) | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. 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It is sent to participants of the Public-Access | Computer Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. | To join the PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message | to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. | (Put your first and last name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University | of Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message | must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 58 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 58-59. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Instructions to Authors +--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Public-Access Computer Systems Review welcomes manuscripts that deal with computer systems that libraries make available for patron use. The PACS Review does not deal with integrated library systems, except as these systems are used by patrons. For further information on public-access computer systems, see the following article: Bailey, Jr., Charles W. "Public-Access Computer Systems: The Next Generation of Library Automation Systems." Information Technology and Libraries 8 (June 1989): 178-185. The PACS Review publishes articles about specific public-access computer systems (PACS), the technological tools used to construct PACS, and general treatments of issues related to PACS in the Communications section. Articles in this section are selected by the Editor-In-Chief. The Departments section contains reviews of books, articles, software, and hardware related to PACS as well as columns. Contact the Editor-In-Chief with your ideas for items to review. If you are interested in writing a column, submit a sample column to the Editor-In-Chief. As warranted, the PACS Review will publish in-depth research reports, literature surveys, and theoretical articles in a Research and Theory section. Articles in this section will be refereed by Editorial Board members. All accepted manuscripts will be edited as required. + Page 59 + Manuscripts should be submitted either as a WordPerfect 5.0 file on 5 1/4" 360 KB floppy disk, as a text file on floppy disk, or as a text file sent by e-mail or file transfer to LIB3@UHUPVM1.BITNET. The first method is preferred. Send floppy disks to: Charles W. Bailey, Jr. Assistant Director for Systems University Libraries University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-2091 If you submit a text file, do not put more than 70 characters per line. Manuscripts should generally conform to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style; however, only use ASCII characters in the text. Do not underline or italicize text. Illustrations that are not composed of ASCII characters cannot be used. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 34 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Morgan, James Jay. "Expansion and Testing of a Meridian CD-ROM | Network." Public-Access Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): | 34-42. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction The Indiana University School of Medicine Library installed a Meridian CD Net system running on an IBM Token-Ring network in September 1989. After operating the network for 7 weeks, it expanded the number of active stations from four to eight for a bibliographic instruction class presented to sophomore medical students on 11/3/89. The class of 140 students was divided into six sections that used the system at six separate times during the day. These brief periods of intensive activity indicated that the CD Net system can be used to successfully support up to 8 simultaneous users. Previous Evaluations of CD-ROM Network Software The speed of the Meridian software was tested by OCLC as part of a series of benchmark tests of CD-ROM networking systems from Meridian (CD Net), Online Products Corporation (OPTI-NET), and Artisoft (LANtastic) (Watson and Fausey 1989). The complexity of the systems made them difficult to compare, since each requires a different mix of hardware and software. The Meridian system fared quite well in response to inquiries from multiple workstations, while the LANtastic system shone in response to inquiries from a single workstation. A evaluation of Silver Platter's Meridian-based MultiPlatter network was recently conducted at Boston College. It indicates that the combination of Silver Platter and Meridian software with a 286- based server and high-speed workstations can provide adequate service to 10 network stations (Grant and Stalker 1989). Development of the IUSML CD-ROM Network The library's CD-ROM network was inaugurated on Sept. 9th, 1989 with five network stations connected via the network to three CD-ROM drives holding CD PLUS's 1985- Medline data. The CD Net system was installed on the library's IBM Token-Ring network. It ran continuously (24 hours a day) with no observed problems until the server was taken down briefly on November 3rd to prepare for the test described in this article. + Page 35 + The CD Net server is a 386-based IBM-compatible microcomputer with 5 CD-ROM drives and a 5-drive expansion box. This server is essentially a more powerful version of the 286-based server sold by Meridian and Silver Platter. At the time of the purchase, Meridian was one of three vendors offering software to operate CD-ROM drives on networks. Since Silver Platter had chosen Meridian for it's network software, we felt it would be the safest choice. (Silver Platter has since started using CBIS software in place of the Meridian CD Net.) We purchased the two competing packages (OPTI-NET and LANtastic) for backup, but have not used them. The principle CD-ROM database used by the library is Online Research Systems' CD PLUS. Online Research Systems provides all of Medline back to 1966 on eight CD-ROM disks, updated monthly. The user can search five years of Medline at a time, rather than the one or two year segments common to other CD-ROM programs. (See Brahmi (1989) for a comparative review of CD PLUS and four competing products.) Online Research Systems sells several configurations of single-user workstations with three to eight CD-ROM drives at prices ranging up to $18,000 per workstation. IBM Token-Ring Network The CD Net system runs on an IBM Token-Ring network on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. This network uses standard shielded twisted pair wiring, and it runs at four megabits-per-second (MBS). In November 1988, we began to specify the newer 16/4 cards from IBM, so we now have a mixture of older and newer cards. Although we do not currently run at 16 MBS, this allows for future expansion. We also felt that the 64 KB buffer in the newer cards might offer a significant advantage in working with large files. As a bonus, we have discovered that the newer cards are compatible with a wider variety of machines and processor speeds than the older cards, and allow us to use some of our Zenith, Epson, and IBM computers that would be otherwise unusable. (For a note on compatibility between IBM adapters and their own computers, see LAN Magazine (1989).) + Page 36 + Network CD-ROM Software: Meridian CD Net Meridian's system relies on both software and hardware to overcome limitations of networks and of CD-ROM drive speed. The drives are high speed Toshiba drives connected by a SCSI drive controller. The machine has 512 KB of memory (RAM), and uses over 400 KB to create a cache in memory (RAM) that stores recently retrieved material that is likely to be requested again. It's communication software receives data requests from the network, and fills them from either the RAM cache or from the appropriate disk. While one request is being met, other incoming requests are stored in a small buffer. The system boots from a 360 KB floppy containing the network and the CD Net software. Meridian's diagnostic software allows the user monitor several categories. The monitor screen gives a constant indication of the number of data requests from the network, the number met from the RAM cache, and the number met from the CD-ROM disks. It also shows the position of the drive heads at any moment, and whether or not a disk has been inserted. Installation of the network was slowed by inadequate and incorrect documentation of key points, but the actual installation process was quite simple. The RAM board was damaged in shipment, but Meridian was quite helpful in diagnosing and replacing the faulty board. Meridian Workstation Requirements Unlike some network software, the Meridian network requires that each workstation have its own copy of MSCDEX.EXE, the Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions. Since the workstations must have an 8 KB buffer in its memory for each CD-ROM disk it contacts, this can use a lot of the workstation's memory. To provide access to an eight station CD-ROM server, the workstation must load DOS, the IPX.COM network program, MSCDEX.EXE and 64 KB of buffer space. Non- Micro Channel workstations will also need to load TOKREUI.COM to use the Token-Ring board. Thus, available memory on a 640 KB station might well be less than 500 KB before the station begins to load a CD-ROM search program. This limit will prevent some CD-ROM software from running, and is a factor in favor of network systems like LANtastic that load the Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions on the server. + Page 37 + Online Research's CD PLUS MEDLINE Search Software CD PLUS looks for an index drive to be mounted in CD-ROM drive 0, and for it's other 7 disks to be mounted in a precise order if you have 3 or 8 drive configurations. Meridian's CD Net software doesn't provide any facilities to designate different drives as drive 0, so this inflexibility has required us to use drives 0 through 3, or 0 through 7 for CD PLUS. (Silver Platter has developed a more flexible scheme to accommodate its multiple disk databases, and it's program will check all available disk drives for Silver Platter disks.) At the time of the test, CD PLUS's requirements for its stand-alone workstation included 13 MB of disk space, 506 KB of RAM, and additional RAM to load the DOS PRINT.COM program. Because of these memory requirements, we were only able to load three CD-ROM disk buffers before running out of memory. Thus, we could only mount the last four years of Medline for our test. In late November, Online Research Systems introduced a newer version of the CD PLUS program that required only 410 KB. They reduced their memory requirements in connection with the introduction of their own network software, which is currently in beta testing. This enabled us to mount all 8 Medline disks and to provide the complete database back to 1966 on the network. In addition to 13 MB of disk space, CD PLUS search software can use RAM disk buffers of 2 MB and above, when available. The hard disk space is used for indexes and for a 3 MB disk buffer. (Online Research Systems says their forthcoming network version will require much less disk space on individual workstations.) The CD PLUS search software uses the hard disk and a RAM disk (if available) to reduce it's demands on the CD-ROM drive. On a network this reduces its demands on the CD-ROM server, and gives it a comparative advantage over software which makes less use of hard disks and available RAM. CD PLUS also loads Medline citations for the 1985- period on one disk, and the corresponding abstracts on two other disks. This has the effect of focusing inquiries on the citation disk in drive 0, and may slow down response time. However, it also means that some segments of drive 0 will be in the 3 MB hard disk buffer, the workstation RAM buffer (if there is one), and the CD- NET server buffer. Use of these buffers improves performance, and may offset the fact that most searches are done on the citation disk. + Page 38 + Meridian CD Net Test We tested CD Net on the Library's IBM Token-Ring network. The only database mounted on the Meridian 386 server was the CD PLUS Medline CD-ROM. For the test, we set up eight active workstations. These included an IBM PC XT with a Hardcard, a Zenith Z-159 with a Hardcard and 128 KB RAM buffer, a Z-159 with a hard disk, 3 IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 machines with hard disks, a IBM PS/2 Model 50-Z with hard disk, and a IBM PS/2 Model 80 with hard disk. One additional Z-159 with Hardcard and RAM buffer was used by the instructor. All workstations were using the newer 16/4 Token-Ring boards except the IBM PC XT, which was using a 4 MBS Token-Ring board. The various configurations of processor speed, hard disk speed, and buffers means that the speed at the different workstations varied noticeably. This is particularly true with the CD PLUS software, which, even more than most CD-ROM search software, relies heavily on hard disks and local processing to avoid going to the CD-ROM drive. On November 3 1989, the Medical School Library gave a presentation to 140 sophomore medical students as part of their introductory course work. One of three sessions presented throughout the day taught users how to search CD PLUS Medline. The instructor (M. Richwine of the Indiana School of Medicine Library) gave six 40-minute presentations on searching using CD PLUS, including detailed instructions for using the "explode" command to search medical definitions. The students were then given one of two search questions, and asked to form small groups to answer the question. Each session provided a brief period (i.e., 10-15 minute) of intense use of the network. The two search questions assigned by the instructor were: 1. Print the citations and medical subject headings for a review article written in English on the use of vp16 (etoposide) to treat lung cancer. 2. Print the citation and MeSH subject headings for an article written in English on the use of tretinoin for skin cancer in an adolescent. + Page 39 + Results During the test on November 3rd, the six periods of student use generated 18,758 requests to the server. Of these requests, 5,073 (26.99%) requests were met from the server's RAM cache without going to the CD-ROM drives. This percentage is almost identical to the 27% cache rate we had in our first seven weeks of operation, from September 9th through November 2nd. Thus, the test was a good emulation of normal searching activity. I had expected a higher percentage would be met from the cache, since the students were all searching the same two questions. However, the timing of their searches and the relatively small size of the server buffer combined to imitate normal search activity. The network met the increased load with little evidence of strain. The Meridian monitor software indicated pending requests were as high as six at the highest point during an afternoon session. However, only a slight slowdown was apparent to reference staff, who were experienced with the system. During most periods of heavy use, the number of requests pending fluctuated between two and four. Heaviest disk use (multiple disk reads) occurred during "mapping" the original terminology to the MeSH index, "exploding" the resulting MeSH term to include multiple subheadings, and then "limiting" the results to a certain category. The mapping action resulted in from 15 disk access for vp16 to 71 for skin cancer. The explode action created from 50 to 70 reads, depending on the topic, and could vary even more depending on whether or not all "trees" were included. The limit action created no reads for limits indexed on the hard disk (such as English language articles), but from 28 to 32 reads for limiting to categories like "reviews" or "adolescents." Other periods of brief activity were created by starting the software, choosing a synonym, combining sets, and browsing. All of these activities required 3 or fewer reads, except browsing a citation which required 6. The use of the "explode" and "limit" commands are typical of trained searchers, and represent more sophisticated and intense use of the drives than the use we get from our typical end users. Discussion The test indicated to us that CD PLUS software can be used with the Meridian CD Net system to support at least eight heavily used workstations. We are not yet able to test Meridian's claims of being able to support 25 heavy-use sessions with this system, but at the moment it seems quite possible. + Page 40 + Even in this test of intense use at eight workstations, the pending request log at the server fluctuated from 0 to a high of 6, with long periods of activity in the 2 to 4 range. In our normal pattern of use such heavy activity only appears at peak times in mid-afternoon, and even then we would not normally have "trained" searchers doing the more time-consuming explode and limit commands at every station. In periods of light use, we can support far more than eight workstations. Given typical user queuing patterns, heavy use of our available workstations is relatively infrequent. In the LAN environment, additional stations can be logged into the CD Net server and CD PLUS software without creating any demand on the server until they actually generate an inquiry. Therefore, we presume that we can have the CD-ROM server available to a large number of users without straining the network most of the time. Future Plans After the test, we planned three steps to expand use of the network. The first was to bring up all of Medline (eight CD-ROM drives) as soon as CD PLUS reduced it's memory requirements. This was done in late November. (We have also added a ninth CD-ROM disk from another vendor.) The second was to install additional workstations within the library, and to merge our CD-ROM network with a second Token-Ring network in the library. The third was to link our network to the campus network to allow selected outside access. Our test gives us confidence that these actions can be supported by our existing equipment. Conclusions Over the past few years it has been difficult to predict the evolution of CD-ROM use. As early as 1985, I can remember being told at a CD-ROM conference in Philadelphia that the price of CD- ROM drives would soon drop to the $300 dollar level, and that such a low cost would make it possible to put them on any workstation. Since then, several years have been proclaimed as the "year of the LAN," when networks would be cheap and easy to install. This has created a race in the CD-ROM market between those who would supply drives to every workstation and those developing multiple-drive network servers. + Page 41 + To meet our library's requirements, this race is just about over. We would need at least three to eight drives available at every single-user workstation to deliver Medline or an acceptable subset of Medline, never mind other data bases we would like to have. Even if CD-ROM drives dropped to the $300 range (and I haven't seen much movement since 1985), the space required to stack three to eight drives would be an obstacle. On the other hand, networks have become easier to set up and manage. First the Token-Ring network and now Ethernet can be run on the same twisted pair wiring that is used for telephone lines. At the software level, the introduction of four competing CD-ROM network systems from Meridian, Online, Artisoft, and CBIS is making the field quite competitive. Because of the comparative economic advantage of networking, the same CD-ROM software vendors that told me in 1987 that CD-ROM drives were too slow to serve networks were busy in 1989 introducing networked CD-ROM systems. CD-ROM drives are indeed slower than magnetic hard drives on network servers, and even the faster 12" optical drives are slower than magnetic equivalents. However, CD-ROM network systems have used buffering to compensate for this slowness, since stations typically request the same data again and again. In the network we have set up, multiple buffers in the workstation and in the server help overcome the relative slowness of the drives. The cost of CD-ROM subscriptions may affect the decision to go with either stand-alone workstations or a network. However CD-ROM vendors seldom have multiple copy discounts (Silver Platter is a nice exception), and most have not figured out how to charge for network access, so, at the moment, subscription prices cannot be factored into this decision easily. Except for this unknown quantity, it appears that CD-ROM network systems are a a cost-effective way to provide CD-ROM database access to multiple users. References F. A. Brahmi, "MEDLINE, Cancer-CD, SCI-CD on CD-ROM," MD Computing 6 (January-February 1989): 12-19. Marilyn A. Grant and John C. Stalker, "The Multiplatter CD- ROM Network at Boston College," Laserdisk Professional 2 (September 1989): 12-18. LAN Magazine, "Which Token Ring Card Will Work in the PS/2 30/286?," (August 1989): 10. + Page 42 + Bradley Watson and Jon Fausey, "Relative Performance of Three CD- ROM Network Access Products," OCLC Micro 5 (August 1989): 20-21. Acknowledgements: The author is grateful to M. Richwine of the Indiana University School of Medicine Library for use of the test questions and her help in analyzing the questions, and to the Library administration for its encouragement of experimentation. About the Author: James Jay Morgan Indiana University School of Medicine Library 975 W. Walnut Indianapolis, IN 46202 IZIE100@INDYVAX.BITNET +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name.") | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must | appear on copied material. All commercial use requires | permission. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 5 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | Stigleman, Sue. "Text Management Software." Public-Access | Computer Systems Review 1, no. 1 (1990): 5-22. +--------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction Library users have access to an abundance of electronic text. Hundreds of electronic databases can be searched and information copied from them to a user's microcomputer. [1] Word processors are everywhere, being used to create notes, articles, and books, and to transfer documents such as letters and journals into electronic form. Scanners can easily copy text from print to disk. A rapidly growing collection of software is now available to help manage electronic text. This paper presents a taxonomy of the software designed for retrieving and manipulating text. Text management software can be divided into five categories: text retrieval, text database managers, bibliography formatting, hypertext, and text analysis. [2] The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible roles that libraries and librarians can play in fostering the utilization of this software by their users. A variety of names appear in the literature to describe the different categories of text management software. To help translate between this article and other articles or advertising literature, additional names are given for each category at the end of the section that discusses that category. A few representative microcomputer programs are also listed for each category. One category may be conspicuous by its absence from the list above. Personal information managers (PIMs) have gotten a lot of press in the last few years, beginning with the release of Lotus' Agenda. Initially, PIMs seemed to be a new category of text management software. However, a closer look at the text handling of PIMs reveals that it falls into three types: text retrieval, text database management, and hypertext, three of the five categories above. PIMs' uniqueness lies not in their text handling, but in the integration of text management with one or more of the following: calendaring, outlining, client management, personal project management, or desktop organizing. + Page 6 + II. Why Text Management Software? Why Not dBASE? While it is true that text can be stored and manipulated in various types of software, text management software is specifically designed to accommodate some of the particular characteristics of text. First, text has variable length values. Journal titles in citations can vary from short (Gut) to long (Transactions of the Section on Obstetrics, Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery of the American Medical Association). One oral history transcript may be 10 pages, another 50. A program which uses fixed length storage will force a user either to truncate long pieces of text or waste disk space on short ones. Text management software typically uses variable length storage. Second, text often has repeating values. A typical citation has multiple authors and multiple keywords. Research notes may each have multiple keywords. Generally, these authors or keywords should be treated equally in searching. Most text management software supports repeating values. Third, text files can be large. Conventional (i.e., non-text) file or database management programs often expect text to be short and distinct, such as part names or addresses. However, text as it is normally written or spoken is far from compact, which can result in files that would burst a program like dBASE at the seams. Text managers typically have large size limits, and are beginning to add support for media such as CD-ROMs, which can be used to store large volumes of text. Fourth, citations, notes, letters, transcripts, and other text may be in a variety of languages. Some text managers provide extensive support for a variety of foreign language alphabets. Fifth, text has an intricacy and complexity which places great demands on software. Text is filled with synonyms and variations in capitalization, spelling, and word forms. The searching features in text management software are more suited to text than those found in other types of software. Finally, searching is the heart of text management software. Before getting into the taxonomy of text managers, I'd like to give a fast overview of some of the searching features which can be found in various text managers. + Page 7 + Text Management Software's Searching Capabilities Text management software can employ a variety of term searching techniques: 1. Word or exact phrase searching. 2. Truncation (right, left, and internal). 3. Case insensitivity (often with case sensitivity as an option in a particular search). 4. Proximity searching: specifying how close words are to each other. 5. Field specification: in software that divides information into fields, being able to specify which field(s) the search term should appear in. 6. Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT). 7. Parentheses and nesting of Boolean operators. Several system capabilities can save the user time: 1. Building and manipulating multiple search statements. 2. Saving searches for later reuse. 3. Hedges or macros: storing multiple words which can be used in a search by entering the name of the hedge or macro. 4. Exploding sections of a hierarchical thesaurus. A variety of methods can be used to increase searching consistency: 1. Use of a thesaurus for data entry, editing, searching. 2. Data validation when data is input. 3. Mapping from abbreviations or codes to full terms. + Page 8 + These searching features are familiar to users of the typical bibliographic and nonbibliographic text databases commonly used in libraries. However, underlying these searching features are certain assumptions: 1. The user knows what words are used in the text. 2. The user knows how to spell. 3. The user knows how to type. In text searching, these assumptions are often not true. While some searches may be for known items (e.g., a particular citation, note, or paragraph), more typically the search is for an idea, which may be expressed in the text in a variety of different words and word forms. To help users find the text they want, some programs are adding more flexible searching features, such as the following: 1. Spelling checkers. 2. Automatic plurals. 3. Sound-alike searching (useful for finding spelling variations, particularly in names). 4. Fuzzy searching: searching for variations in a word or phrase. For example, the search "full text database" could retrieve "full text data file," "free text data," and "full text searching." 5. Weighted searching: assigning weights to each search term to indicate its relative importance. 6. Ranked output: displaying search results in order of relevancy, rather than the typical alphabetical or last-in-first-out orders. There are various ways to determine relevancy, such as the number of times the search term(s) appear in the text or the presence of the search term(s) in titles or section headings. 7. Profile: displaying a profile of the most common words in a document found using other searching techniques, thereby suggesting additional search terms to consider. 8. Similarity searching: "this record/document is what I want -- go find others like it." + Page 9 + Unfortunately, no single software program in any of the five categories offers all of these searching features. However, most commercially available text management programs have at least several of them, and the overall trend in all of the categories is a steady increase in searching power. III. Text Retrieval Software Text retrieval software searches files to find ones that match a search request. For example, text retrieval software can search the minutes of meetings that were created with a word processor, and identify all of the minutes which contain a particular word or phrase, such as "holiday hours" or "travel." Most text retrieval programs can then display the file(s) for browsing, highlighting the terms in the search request. A common feature is the ability to copy segments of the files to create a new file (a feature which led Burton Alperson to call this software "search and squirt" software). Text retrieval software comes in two general types: those that create indexes and those that don't. Programs that create indexes require additional time for indexing and additional disk space for the indexes, but search much more quickly. Non- indexing programs don't require the additional indexing time or space, but search more slowly because the program has to "read" each file every time it does a search. The most common type of index is the inverted index, although some programs use special proprietary methods to create smaller, space-saving indexes. Another way of dividing this software category is by the format of the files to be searched. Most text retrieval software can search files in common word processor formats, while the less powerful programs can search only through ASCII text. Some text retrieval programs are now branching out, searching through database records, spreadsheets, and computer programs. Text Retrieval Software Trends One of the most natural roles for text retrieval software is as a word processor "accessory." It will be interesting to see whether word processors evolve more sophisticated text search and retrieval powers of their own. For example, WordPerfect offers a "word search" command, which does have simple Boolean capability. However, displaying the text requires retrieving each file and then using the "search" command to find the desired character strings. + Page 10 + Some of the newest text retrieval programs not only provide browsing of files, they also operate as shells to call up the application that created the file. Uses of Text Retrieval Software Text retrieval software can be used for numerous applications. Since files stored on computer disks proliferate more quickly than the files in an average filing cabinet, text retrieval programs are very useful utilities for managing disks. Text retrieval programs can also enhance the use of administrative records such as manuals, minutes, and letters by making it easier to find particular topics. Other sample uses include managing the avalanches of paper created for legal trials, studying transcripts of interviews, analyzing collections of historical letters, and organizing reams of material downloaded from online databases. Other Names for Text Retrieval Software Text retrieval software can be called: Disk hunting software Full-text search and retrieval software Full-text retrieval software Indexers Indexing software Indexing and retrieval software Search and squirt software Search software Textual information management systems (TIMS) Text search software Representative Text Retrieval Software Programs Example text retrieval software programs include Gofer, Magellan, Text Collector, Total Recall, and ZyIndex. + Page 11 + IV. Text Database Managers Text database managers are designed for creating and searching databases of textual material (sometimes called textbases or lexical databases). The database can be created either from the keyboard, using the data entry features of the text database manager, or by importing text created in other programs or downloaded from other databases. Searches are performed on records in the database, typically only on one database at a time. Most text database managers can display the records retrieved by a search, highlighting the terms in the search request. Text database managers can be subdivided into free-form text database managers, which place no restrictions on the format of the text, and programs that require text to be formatted in a particular way, generally into fields. Some programs support a mix of formatted and unformatted text. Text database managers come in a variety of sizes. At the low end are the note programs, designed to substitute for the yellow stickies plastered on a person's desk, telephone, and door. The note variety of text database manager typically will hold fairly small amounts of text, and is often memory resident, allowing the program to be popped up whenever there is a sudden need to read or write a note. At the other end are the industrial-strength text database managers which can handle very large databases, and which are typically not memory resident. The uses of text database managers are infinite. They can be used for databases of reminders, research notes, citations, and case studies. A text database can be created from letters, interview transcripts, legal notes and transcripts, laboratory notes, diaries, or reports, to name a few. The database can be used to organize notes for writing, for faster retrieval of desired texts, for studying and analyzing the text itself, or for creating indexes to other collections such as reprint files, record or photograph collections, and laboratory specimens. Text database managers in some respects are quite similar to text retrieval software since both search text and can usually display retrieved text for browsing. However, text retrieval software searches files that were created by another program, typically a word processor, while text database managers search through text which has been stored in a text database. Text retrievers typically have no data entry module--they are primarily searching machines. Text database managers, on the other hand, have data entry and editing modules for creating and maintaining the text database. + Page 12 + For many applications, either a text retrieval program or a text database manager could be used. However, when the individual text items are very small (e.g., citations), using a text database manager to combine them into a text database makes more sense than cluttering up a disk with hundreds of tiny files. On the other hand, a text retrieval program would be preferred when the text files have a primary purpose other than searching. For example, my department creates numerous handouts which we use in the classes we teach. If the National Library of Medicine decided to stop publishing Index Medicus, our major journal index, a text retrieval program could tell us which handouts had the phrase "Index Medicus" in them and would need to be revised. Using a text database manager and merging all of these handouts into a textbase would have the disadvantage of stripping out all of the printer formatting codes, making it more difficult to produce the printed handouts. Text Database Managers Trends Many non-text file and database management programs are slowly becoming more friendly to text, which may eventually reduce the need for specialized text database management software. At the same time, some text database managers are adding features typically associated with file and database managers, such as security and programming languages. The line between the text and non-text file and database managers may eventually disappear. Other Names for Text Database Managers Software Text database managers software can be called: Archivers Full-text retrieval software Indexing software Information storage and retrieval software Information management software Lexical database management software Note managers Text retrieval software Text-oriented file management software Text-based database managers Text-based management systems (TBMS) Text-oriented database managers + Page 13 + Representative Text Database Managers Programs Example text database managers programs include Agenda, askSam, FYI 3000, INMAGIC, IZE, Marcon, Memory Mate, Nota Bene, Notebook II, SquareNote, and Textbank. V. Bibliography Formatting Software Bibliography formatting software lets you take a record that looks like this: AU Reid DC//Burnham RS//Saboe LA//Kushner SF TI Lower extremity flexibility patterns in classical ballet dancers and their correlation to lateral hip and knee injuries JR Am J Sports Med YR 1987 VO 14 IS 4 PG 347-52 and turn it into a citation that looks like this: Reid DC, Burnham RS, Saboe LA and Kushner SF. 1987. "Lower extremity flexibility patterns in classical ballet dancers and their correlation to lateral hip and knee injuries." Am J Sports Med 14(4):347-52. and then easily turn it into a citation that looks like this: Reid DC; Burnham RS; Saboe LA; Kushner SF. Lower extremity flexibility patterns in classical ballet dancers and their correlation to lateral hip and knee injuries. Am J Sports Med; 1987; 14(4): 347-52. Information from a citation needs to be entered only once, and it can then be formatted and reformatted into a variety of citation styles. Many bibliography formatting programs also can automatically assemble a bibliography from the references cited in a word-processed manuscript. + Page 14 + The classic use of bibliography formatters, besides formatting printed bibliographies, is to create an index to the contents of a personal or departmental filing cabinet or bookcase. The programs usually have space for storing notes for each citation, sometimes quite extensive ones. At the Health Sciences Library, we have used a bibliography formatter to create a database of sources of health statistics information, a common but particularly tricky area of reference work. Bibliography formatters can be regarded as text database managers which are set up to handle a particular type of text database--the citation database. Record formats for various types of citations are already defined, as are output formats for properly arranging the pieces of the citations into various citation styles. Text database managers can be used instead of bibliography formatters to set up databases of citations. The burden is usually on the user to design the record structures and citation formats, although some text database managers now come with bibliographic features. There also are some third party bibliography formatting add-ons for particular text database managers. Other Names for Bibliography Formatting Software Bibliography formatting software can be called: Bibliographic file management programs Bibliographic software Bibliography generators Citation managers Filing software Indexing software Literature retrieval systems Reprint software Representative Bibliography Formatting Software Programs Example bibliography formatting software programs include Bookends, Pro-Cite, Reference Manager, RefMaker, and RefMenu. + Page 15 + VI. Hypertext Software Hypertext software stores text in pieces called nodes, which are connected by links. The links allow movement from one node to another, following a conceptual path. Hypertext can be used to embed additional text, such as a glossary or commentary, into an existing text. It can also be used to link related parts of a single text or multiple texts, providing a visual cue to the reader that there is related material at the other end of the link. The node/link structure of hypertext makes it an ideal platform for developing instructional software, a rapidly growing area of hypertext use. The user of the instructional program can travel through the program following links, rather than being forced to follow a single path from beginning to end. Hypertext can also be used for storing texts, such as manuals or encyclopedias, with links built in for users, or in an open system where users can add links for subsequent users. Hypertext Software Trends A major trend in hypertext use is the addition of "hypertext" or "links" to other software programs, such as text retrieval or text database managers. Hypertext may become a feature of various categories of software, rather than a category of its own. Other Names for Hypertext Software If the software allows graphics, images, motion pictures, sound, or other media to be incorporated in the nodes, it is called "hypermedia." Representative Hypertext Software Programs Example hypertext software programs include Guide, Hypercard, Hyperpad, Hyperties, KnowledgePro, PC- Hypertext, and Textpro. + Page 16 + VII. Text Analysis Software Text analysis software is a loose collection of software that facilitates analyzing text by performing one or more of the following operations: concordancing, coding, or statistical analysis. Concordancing is the generation of lists of the words used in a text, accompanied by the location of the word and often some surrounding text. A concordance program offers more flexibility than a printed concordance. Users can specify what should be "concorded" (e.g., all words, all nouns, or all prefixes) and also context for the words (e.g., only a location or the surrounding sentence). More sophisticated programs allow accompanying translations or annotations. Some examples of this type of "interlinear text" are phonetic transcriptions, grammatical categories, intonation, and rhythm. Coding is the assignment of codes to specific sections of the text to allow retrieval of those sections of text. Coding is similar to assigning keywords, except that each coded segment has a specific beginning and ending point, and codes can be overlapped and even nested. A search on "marriage" might retrieve a two paragraph coded segment in an oral history transcript, while a search for "children" would retrieve only the two sentences within those two paragraphs which were coded for children. Statistical analysis is counting various text components, such as the number of unique words, the number of times words appear, or the distribution of words in parts of the text. Two major uses for text analysis software are for literary or linguistic analysis of text. Text analysis software can be used to examine themes in an author's works, to determine authorship of texts of unknown origin, or to analyze the grammatical structure of a language. Fields such as history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, nursing, education, and journalism use text analysis to discover themes in interview transcripts, a process called qualitative or content analysis. + Page 17 + Text Analysis Software Trends Concordancing programs serve a unique function and will probably continue to exist, particularly the ones designed for interlinear text manipulation. However, the future of coding and statistical analysis software is less certain. Unfortunately, coding programs, while providing retrieval of precisely defined segments of text, are often primitive in other respects. One popular coding program, for example, doesn't permit editing of the codes. To change one code, the entire text must be coded again. For this reason, text database managers or text retrieval software is sometimes used instead, even though keywords can't be assigned as precisely. If text database managers or text retrieval software added more sophisticated coding, particularly overlapped and nested coding, the rather primitive coding programs might disappear. Similarly, the addition of statistical analysis features to text database managers and text retrieval software might lessen the need for separate programs to do this analysis. Other Names for Text Analysis Software Text analysis software can be called: Concordance software Content analysis software Key-Word-in-Context (KWIC) programs Key-Word-Out-of-Context (KWOC) programs Qualitative analysis software Representative Text Analysis Software Programs Example text analysis software programs include the Ethnograph, Gator, IT, KWIC-MAGIC, KWICMERGE, Lbase, Micro- OCP, MTAS, TEXTPACK, and Wordcruncher. + Page 18 + VIII. Roles for Libraries Bibliography formatters and text database managers, the two types of text software that are particularly useful for citations, have found a natural home in libraries. Storing and retrieving citations has been the business of libraries for a long, long time. It is a fundamental area of expertise for most librarians, and users often think of the library as a natural place to ask for help. Many libraries actively support bibliography formatting software. [3] The workshops these libraries offer on reprint file management now include (or have been totally converted to) computerized reprint file management. In preparing for the workshops, librarians evaluate software programs, enabling them to serve as consultants for individuals or groups who want advice on selecting or using a program. Expertise in the programs is also developed by using them within the library to maintain local databases or to produce bibliographies. In a similar vein, some libraries evaluate and teach text database managers as substitutes for the more specialized (and usually more expensive) bibliography formatting software. (Some also give advice on how to use non-text database systems for storing text for those users who already use a non-text database program and don't want to invest time or money in an additional program.) Hypertext has also found an enthusiastic home in libraries, although most of the activity seems to be in the use of hypertext to develop library-related CAI, rather than fostering its use for text storage and retrieval. [4] Compared to the support offered for computerized citation files, there has been little formal activity in libraries to support non-citation text storage, retrieval, and analysis. However, interest in expanding into this area is implicit in the renaming of some bibliographic instruction programs to information management education. Most of the scholar's workstation and the "library of the future" projects also go beyond citation information into accessing and manipulating full text of various kinds. Certainly, libraries' support for citation software serves as a good model for some aspects of what they can do: education, evaluation of software, and consultation on selection and use of software. + Page 19 + Full-text storage will be a little more of a stretch for libraries than support for citations, although librarians are well aware of some of the pitfalls in full-text searching. (Users can be astonishing naive about the number of ways a single concept can be expressed, spelled, or punctuated.) Developing the necessary expertise with full-text software will not only require taking advantage of ways to use it in our own work, but also increasing our understanding of textual research methods used by scholars. Text analysis in particular is not an area of expertise for most librarians, and I haven't heard of any libraries studying or supporting this software. (At UNC- CH, the Institute for Research in Social Science has assumed responsibility for evaluating, promoting, and educating users in text analysis software.) There is also a strong need for assisting with data transfer. Moving text from one source to another is far from being a seamless process. Even when translator or importing programs are available to "automatically" transfer text into particular software programs, the user must be careful to use particular print formats when copying the text to disk and must often do some tedious manual editing of the resulting file. Librarians may find themselves (dare I say it) helping with the development of standardized formats for text data interchange. Conclusion The various types of text management software are particularly suited for searching text, and each type has a particular strength. For searching through files created by other applications, text retrieval software is used. Text database managers are used to build and search databases of text, ranging from small notes to collections of an author's writings. Bibliography formatters manage databases of citations and format citations into various styles. Building links between pieces of text is the strength of hypertext software. And finally, text analysis software generates online concordances, does coding of documents, and performs statistical analysis of text. + Page 20 + Increasingly, libraries are teaching users about text management software, and they are assisting users in employing this software. There are a number of practical issues which will need to be resolved for libraries interested in moving farther into supporting and promoting text management software. Hardware and software must be acquired and staff need time to explore and learn, all during lean financial times for most libraries. Many libraries are already struggling to meet the challenge of educating large numbers of people to search CD-ROM databases and online catalogs. However, the presence of those databases and catalogs in libraries provides librarians with an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in citation management. It also opens a natural door into the broader world of text management. To help those who want to explore, I've attempted to provide a road map through the rapidly growing world of software tools for storing, retrieving, and manipulating electronic text. Notes 1. Whether information *may* be copied from a particular electronic database is of course an important issue, but a discussion of copyright of electronic media is beyond the scope of this paper. 2. The articles by Alperson, Badgett, Rupley, and Tenopir are useful overviews of the whole area of text management. Conklin's article is one of the classic overviews of hypertext. Matzkin and Puglia describe text database managers, while Melymuka describes text retrieval software. Angus and Walkenbach attempt to make sense of the chaotic world of PIMs. I found no good overview of text analysis; the articles by Simons, Fetters, and Giordano are illustrations of particular projects and software programs. 3. Articles by Wanat and Wood describe two libraries' programs for citation management. For members of the Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX), a request for material on reprint filing will result in a huge envelope of handouts developed by numerous libraries. EDUCOM's recently published book, Campus Strategies for Libraries and Electronic Information, is reportedly an excellent source of information on roles of libraries in supporting bibliography formatting and other kinds of text management software. 4. For further information on use of hypertext in libraries, see the discussion in the Public-Access Computer Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET (PACS-L@UHUPVM1). + Page 21 + Bibliography Alperson, Burton L. "Order Out of Chaos: The RIPS Are Here." Andrew Seybold's OUTLOOK on Professional Computing 6 (March 28, 1988): 1, 3-9. Angus, Jeff. "A Towering PIM Inferno: The Battle of Splitters vs. Lumpers." InfoWorld 11 (May 22, 1989): 45. Badgett, Tom. "Where Is It? Searching Through Files With Database Software." PC Magazine 6 (October 27, 1987): 175- 190. Conklin, Jeff. "Hypertext: An Introduction and Survey." Computer 20 (September 1987): 17-41. Fetters, Linda. "WordCruncher." Library Software Review 7 (July/August 1988): 294-297. Giordano, Richard. "Text Retrieval on a Microcomputer." Perspectives in Computing 8 (Spring 1988): 52-60. Matzkin, Jonathan and Catherine D. Miller. "Scratch Pads & Annotators: TSR Notes to Yourself." PC Magazine 6 (December 22, 1987): 185-198. Melymuka, Kathleen. "Text-Retrieval Software." PC Week 3 (February 25, 1986): 57-59. Miller, Michael J. "Personal Information Managers: The Next Big Application Category?" InfoWorld 10 (May 9, 1988): 75. Puglia, Vincent. "TBMS: Database Power Unleashed." PC Magazine 5 (November 25, 1986): 211-230. Rupley, Sebastian, Tracey Capen, and John Richey. "Quiet Please, Text Search In Progress." InfoWorld 11 (October 30, 1989): 55-72. Simons, Gary F. "Multidimensional Text Glossing and Annotation." Notes on Linguistics 39 (July 1987): 53-60. Tenopir, Carol. "Software Options for In-House Bibliographic Databases." Library Journal 112 (May 15, 1987): 54-55. Tenopir, Carol and Gerald W. Lundeen. "Software Choices for In- house Databases." Database 11 (June 1988): 34-42. Walkenbach, John. "Personal Information Managers." InfoWorld 10 (November 7, 1988): 57-79. + Page 22 + Wanat, Camille. "Management Strategies for Personal Files: The Berkeley Seminar." Special Libraries 76 (Fall 1985): 253- 60. Wood, Elizabeth. "Teaching Computer Literacy: Helping Patrons to Help Themselves." Medical Reference Services Quarterly 7, no. 3 (1988): 45-57. About the Author Sue Stigleman Information Management Education Health Sciences Library University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599 uncses@med.unc.edu (919) 962-0700 +--------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic | journal. It is sent to participants of the Public-Access Computer | Systems Forum, a computer conference on BITNET. To join the | PACS Forum, send an electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 | that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L Your Name. (Put your first and last | name where it says "Your Name".) | | Copyright (C) 1990 by the University Libraries, University of | Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for | noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/conference | systems, individual scholars, and libraries. 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