Search results

“Groupware,” “groupwork,” “workgroup computing,” “computer‐supported cooperative work,” and “distributed processing” are buzzwords that refer to a new way in which personal computers are being used in offices. Personal computers hooked together into local area networks (LANs) represent the latest stage in the evolution of automated technology. Of the eleven million personal computers in business, over 950,000 are arranged in some sort of LAN set‐up. The future for this configuration of computers and workstations will grow enormously in the next few years. By 1991, a conservative estimate of 6.7 million computers will be linked together in LANs in the workplace.

Considers what the NeXT computer can offer libraries as an alternative to conventional mainframe‐PC‐terminal systems for sorting, storing, and displaying bibliographic information. Discusses the NeXT computer hardware, software, the idea of a library workstation, and the promise of the Digital Librarian utility. Surmises that, despite criticisms of cost, NeXT offers the possibility of a transformation in the way bibliographic information is handled by both patrons and staff.

In many ways, the use of project management software makes a computer resemble James Martin's idea of a comprehensive machine, a device “that enables management or their staff to understand better the possible effects of their decisions.”

With more than 16 million records accessed by more than 6,000 libraries, the OCLC Online Union Catalog [OLUC] is one of the world's largest bibliographic databases. [There are now over 17 million records in the OLUC and 8,000 member libraries.] Traditionally, this enormous bibliographic database has, for the most part, been accessed by those institutions using OCLC hardware—OCLC terminals including models 100, 105, and 110 and M300 and M300XT Workstations—and operating over dedicated phone lines. Although dial access to OCLC via nondedicated terminals has been available for over 10 years, the advent of personal computers with high‐speed modems and telecommunications software has made dial access more attractive economically for libraries with relatively low cataloging volumes. This article briefly describes, our use of the Apple Macintosh at the Merriam Center Library (MCL) to access the OCLC Online System.

OOP, GUI, AND LIBRARY WORKSTATION SOFTWARE. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) recently awarded large grants to the University of California and Pennsylvania State University jointly to link the massive bibliographic databases of both institutions together, in spite of varying hardware platforms and geography. At the workstation level, the University of California will create interfaces based on DECwindows, a form of the X Windows interface. The online bibliographic systems of Berkeley and Perm State handle 200,000 to 300,000 requests per week, and currently run on an IBM 3090 in California and a DEC VAX 9000 system in Pennsylvania. This interest in bibliographic interfaces has grown rapidly in the last few years thanks to hardware developments putting more computing muscle on the desktop for librarians, their programmers, and ultimately their patrons. Recent manifestations of graphic interfaces have appeared in many libraries as HyperCard shells built as intermediaries to mainframe bibliographic software. This grant by DEC indicates that this sort of work on graphic interfaces in libraries and the system offices on campuses has not gone without notice by major vendors. With the recent explosion in the number of graphic interfaces, it is important to review these tools and their basis in object oriented programming (OOP).

MINITELNET NOW AVAILABLE IN THE US. Over a decade ago, the French government introduced Minitel, an electronic gateway to phone numbers, banking services, news digests, travel information, and other online resources. Included in the installation cost of a telephone (250 Francs or $42), more than 5 million of the 9‐inch Minitel monitors have been distributed, with users logging in more than 60 million hours online. At first blush, Minitel is an overwhelming success, generating revenues in excess of 800 million Francs ($136 million) per year. Minitel has already crossed the Channel and invaded the United Kingdom and earlier this year became available in the U.S. with telecommunications software for the IBM PC and the Apple Macintosh. What drives Minitel's popularity? Bold headlines in both France and abroad state that the allure of sex may be the answer.

Buses to ride: NuBus, MCA, EISA. Imagine a computer giant like IBM defending its choice of an input/output conductor for its Personal System/2 line of computers with television commercials comparing the innards of a computer to an expressway, packets of data moving like vehicles in traffic scrambling to avoid backups due to obsolete or non‐proprietary architectures. These commercials have appeared in response to the first organized effort by a group of computer manufacturers to circumvent IBM's proprietary Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) with their own design, called EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture). Why is there such concern over bus architectures, and how does the Macintosh solution, the NuBus, compare?

A careful study of OCLC's dial access manuals provides no evidence that the Apple Macintosh works as an OCLC terminal. Despite this gap in these otherwise informative publications, with a little detective work, experimentation, and common sense, librarians have been using the Macintosh to search bibliographic records for reference inquiries, file interlibrary loan requests for patrons, even manipulate records in the course of cataloging. This column is the first in a series exploring the Macintosh as an interface to the OCLC database of over 20 million bibliographic records.

As a terminal hooked to a mainframe utility, the typical PC is an excellent example of a Trojan Horse. Although extremely versatile, these machines are perfectly capable of acting as dumb as the terminals they replaced. Many of them do. Nevertheless, they sit and wait for you to do something innovative. Through your own expertise or daring spirit, you may have placed a hard disk on the terminal, perhaps tried a few other programs such as word processors or maybe even a spreadsheet. Over time the terminal became a little smarter, capable of more and greater activities.

In the first column of this series, I discussed the basics of using a Macintosh. In this one I will continue the discussion of printing, relate it to the new operating system (System 7.0), outline factors in the transition from a DOS‐based to a Macintosh‐based micro, and begin listing information sources about the Macintosh.