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Erwin Welsch's article in the April OCLC Micro described an automated OCLC dial access procedure using an IBM XT, AT, or compatible, a Hayes 1200‐baud modem, and ProComm communications software. Using the command file and keyboard macro capabilities of ProComm, the procedure streamlines access to the OCLC On‐line Catalog and eases the pain of microcomputer‐to‐OCLC keystroke translation. Using Welsch's online catalog searching procedure as a model, we created an application for our interlibrary loan staff.

My article in the April 1987 OCLC Micro (pp. 23–26) described the use of the communications program ProComm to ease access to OCLC when dialing through a PC. It included a series of batch files and logon commands for speeding entry to OCLC and printing the results automatically.

In the classic film Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, after many re‐writings, began his newspaper career with a “Declaration of Principles” to serve readers as a promise or guide for the future. While perhaps not so lofty, this inaugural installment of my new regular column in OCLC Micro also seems an auspicious moment to outline my intentions for this column. Given the march, or run, of technology, perhaps this statement will end up shredded as Kane's did, but the opportunity to put on paper, particularly at the start of a decade, a few notes about microcomputer directions is irresistible.

Considers the resurgence in use of batch files due to the number of hard disk systems in operation, and the advantages batch files offer in additional software installation. Describes two batch file procedures, setting up a hard disk, and copying information into files. Surmises that use of batch files to automate setup and revision procedures is viable for library systems with a number of microcomputers.

In an announcement, Apple conceded that System 7.0, whose delay was suggested as likely in the previous column, would not appear until sometime during the first half of 1991. The delay was attributed to the need for quality assurance and high standards (MacWeek, 25 Sept. 1990, p. 1). Since many developers, commercial firms and users are waiting to use the new system's power and see how it will compare with the implementation of Windows and other graphic user interfaces, the continued delay was a disappointment.

The previous columns have discussed Macintosh basics and begun the examination of application programs, beginning with, perhaps the most important general application, word‐processing. This column will continue to provide information on System 7.0, briefly explore some other major application groups, and begin to look at the use of one of the Macintosh's most important applications, HyperCard. The discussion of applications will focus on those most frequently used or identified, by surveys or writers about the best products of the recent year articles, as the most significant.

In a sense Macintosh developments, as of late August when this is being written, are in a static mode that reflects, perhaps, the supposed indolence of summer. MacWorld Expo in Boston was similar to the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco that I attended: more a showcase for existing ideas and a sales‐room than a place for startling new innovations. Perhaps the sense of ennui results from Macintosh users waiting for delivery of three important products: System 7.0, the new Macintosh operating system that has been promised repeatedly during the year, new and less expensive Macintosh models scheduled for production and delivery by the early fall; and implementation of the new HyperCard upgrade that is available now to developers in a Beta test version. This column notes the promise of these developments, continues the series describing Macintosh software, and illustrates the application of HyperCard to library procedures.

Much of library microcomputing was initially concentrated on one platform: the IBM PC and its compatibles or equivalents elsewhere. The world of DOS, the IBM or Microsoft standard Disk Operating System — the ‘DOS C:>Prompt’—that began to dominate in business environments with the introduction of spreadsheet programs such as Lotus 1–2–3, also became a de facto standard librarian‐user interface to the world of information. Presentations at library microcomputer conferences and published descriptions of applications and procedures featured DOS‐based systems. For example, of the more than 3,000 entries in a comprehensive bibliography on the application of microcomputers to library operations published in 1987, fewer than 100 were identified in the index as being done on products of the Apple Corporation of Cupertino, California.

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.

In the movie Brazil, Robert DeNiro plays a rogue repairman who comes to rescue the unwary from snarls in wiring and ducts caused by an unresponsive government agency called Central Services. Librarians using electronic networks for information access may wish for similar assistance; prying open the network's wiring box, even metaphorically, can be a daunting (though rewarding) experience.