Introduction to Automation for Librarians (4th ed.)

Citation

Goossens, P. (2002), "Introduction to Automation for Librarians (4th ed.)", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 59-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2002.36.1.59.11

This is the fourth edition of Professor William Saffady’s Introduction to Automation for Librarians. The work is intended for librarians, information specialists and library students. As the title indicates, it aims at giving a tutorial survey of those aspects of information technology that are the most significant for library automation. This is what the introduction tells us. Let us have a look at how far and in which way this objective is met.

The topic of “Automation for Libraries” is very broad and interest in it is world‐wide. It has to be clear from the beginning that this tutorial is limited in two directions, namely the aspects of automation for libraries covered and the geographical orientation of the problems treated.

The initial work of Saffady, published in 1983, indeed covers all aspects of library automation at that time. Since that time information technology has rapidly and dramatically changed. During the last years with the coming‐up of the Internet and its new facilities, the field of automated library applications saw its horizon widen every day. This fourth edition continues to handle most aspects of the traditional library functions and tries to actualise this. It is very limited in the treatment of the new Web‐oriented developments.

The international validity of the contents of the work is another concern. Indeed, the organisation and functioning of libraries significantly differ from country to country. The author being American, it is evident that the work is mainly directed to a North American audience. For readers active in other parts of the world several of the topics treated are of minor interest.

On the other hand, it is important to mention that, unlike most other publications in this field, much attention is paid to non‐computer‐automated office systems such as micrographics, voice dictation, high definition television, etc.

The handbook is very logically divided into two distinct parts: “Fundamental aspects of computing and related technologies” and “Library automation, systems and services”. But it was impossible for the author to maintain this logic for the chapter on “Digital libraries”, added in this fourth edition.

The first part of the book covers the technical instruments and general‐purpose software necessary in library automation processes. The subsequent chapters deal with the following subjects: computer hardware; computer software; data management and data communications technologies; and automated office systems and related technologies.

Owing to the progress made in the communications field, the networking part and the scanning have been updated. As was noted earlier, the new techniques and tools for Web site building and management are neglected. It is a big lacuna not to find any indication on HTML, XML etc.

The topics, which are treated, are well analysed and extensively discussed with the author giving good guidance.

The second part of the book “Library automation, systems and services” focuses on a completely different topic. The traditional library functions are: cataloguing (original, shared and derived), the OPAC, circulation control, acquisitions and serials management and interlibrary loan. The facilities offered by the Internet have brought important innovations for each of these. Some of these novelties are considered, others have been neglected.

The important function of descriptive cataloguing is treated in the first chapter. The MARC concept is extensively presented including the proliferation into different directions. Surprisingly, the latest developments concerning MARC21 and aiming at better international co‐operation, are not mentioned. Next the CD‐ROM cataloguing support in the North American bibliographic utilities is discussed. The author reviews their historical background, the interesting characteristics with pros and cons and the practical use of the services offered. The different features of automated cataloguing themselves are not treated. Thus, for example, the important issue of “authority control”, for persons, corporations and subjects, is not really covered.

The other library functions follow in the chapter “Integrated library systems”. The topics are not so thoroughly discussed as in the case of cataloguing, but lots of valuable information is given. Also some lacunas are noted. This is the case for interlibrary loan issues. Also the evaluation of the Z39.50 protocol, which brought so much progress in the consultation of other libraries’ catalogues, is kept minimal. The actual software packages on the market are not presented.

These chapters on cataloguing and other library management functions deal nearly exclusively with North American practices.

In treating the last library function, the reference service, the author gives a wealth of valuable information. The different reference sources and online information services, including historical developments, description and evaluation, are incorporated; also cost factors are included. In contrast with the previous part this chapter has an international coverage. It gives an encyclopaedic insight into the actual state‐of‐the‐art of this very extended topic. But again the referencing work based on the Web technology is completely lacking.

Finally, the last chapter of the work deals with “Digital libraries”. This topic is completely new to the fourth edition. It handles the history of digital libraries, overviews most North American projects and lists a limited number of developments in other countries. Scanning technology, one of the important issues, gets a lot of attention in the description of text and image‐based implementations; here again the topic is only partly covered. The creation of electronic documents is extensively handled, but the retrieval aspects and the other management functions, all very important, are neglected. Hot topics like metadata, Dublin core, etc. are not included in this work. Also the crucial topic of document preservation is not covered.

The origin of this work goes back 17 years; the third edition dates from 1994. Since that period the basic concepts of automation have completely changed and the library application field has grown dramatically. Saffady has made strong efforts to bring the fourth edition in line with the new trends but was not successful in this. The earlier publications were of great value to the library profession, especially to North Americans. But it was not a good idea to continue working on the old basis.