OML – a three‐year perspective

Abstract

Passport for Windows (PFW) and OCLC Macro Language (OML) are a library software combination that is hard to beat in terms of power and flexibility. PFW provides a desktop where multiple telecommunications (usually telnet) sessions can exist simultaneously, and the OML permits programmatic control and automation of tasks in any individual session as well as data sharing between different sessions. The fact that an entire programming language is available to the OML macro writer is what gives PFW the ability to seemingly work "magic" literally at the touch of a key, especially through the use of conditional logic for automated decision‐making. Not only is OML available in OCLC’s PFW product, but slight variants are available in OCLC’s Cataloging MicroEnhancer and ILL MicroEnhancer products as well. Although the pros of OML far outnumber the cons, there exist some downside issues (documentation, networkability, differences between products) which sometimes make macro writing and use by staff more difficult than it needs to be. In the end, though, all the efforts are worth it, because, by using PFW/OML macros, automation can do what it is good at, thereby giving staff the time and opportunity to do what they are good at.

Citation

Hahn, H.E. and Hahn, J.A. (2000), "OML – a three‐year perspective", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 24-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750010313918