Page 89 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Library Automation

Notes still generally true, rapid technological change is forcing a re-examination of what it means to
“automate the library.” As physical, spatial and temporal barriers to acquiring information
continue to crumble, libraries must plan for a broader and more comprehensive approach to
providing automated services.
Four years ago, the authors anticipated:

vastly expanded storage of indexes, statistical data bases, and document databases within
the library;

full-text storage of documents, complete with full-text keyword searching and on-demand
printing;
access by users to library databases from home or office, with direct downloading of
information and text on demand;
the ability to access remote databases across the country and the world, and to download
information and text on demand;

storage of pictorial and graphic material; and
availability of “intelligent systems” providing transparent, one-step searching and access
to various library in-house and remote databases.

These capabilities and far more have become reality. Accordingly, today’s integrated system
must not only provide access to the traditional cataloguing, circulation, public catalogue (OPAC)
and acquisitions modules, but must be capable of connecting through the local system into the
systems of other vendors, remote bibliographic databases, CD-ROM drives on a local area
network (LAN), and the Internet. Users are expecting that their library systems be capable of,
among other things:

providing seamless integration between system gateway and OPAC modules;
providing access for external users on the Internet to the library’s OPAC;
monitoring the usage of remote databases that have been accessed through the gateway;
and

accessing the Internet using a variety of graphical interfaces.
Essentially, what this means is that libraries must plan to use a local library system as a vehicle
for achieving access to resources outside that system. Stimulated by the Internet, which has
created universal connectivity to information resources heretofore unknown and/or inaccessible
and by Z39.50 interoperability standards and “gateways,” users of individual local systems are
expecting to access the resources of other systems – anywhere and anytime. Moreover, the
traditional definition of “publishing” has been stretched by the creation and instant availability
of informational home pages and Web sites worldwide.

!
Caution Given such increased complexities and heightened levels of expectation, libraries
must learn all the more how to plan for the introduction of automation in an organized
and systematic fashion. There is little mystery involved here: It is entirely a matter of
building upon what you already know about your library, using tools that are readily at
hand and, most importantly of all, involving the people – staff and users – who must live
with the consequences of any automation decisions.
A library planning to automate should undertake a process by which representative staff and
users can identify service needs and objectives. The purpose of such an effort is to allow
participants to articulate their interests and concerns, share perspectives and learn about

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