+ Page 1 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- Public-Access Computer Systems News Volume 4, Number 10 (1993) ISSN 1050-6004 Editors: Dana Rooks (LIBL@UHUPVM1) and Linda Thompson (LIB1J@UHUPVM1). Issued on an irregular basis by University Libraries, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-2091. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS U.S. Air Force Chooses Medianet for Its Media Scheduling System, 1 NYSERNet Awarded Apple & Kaplan Grants, 2 Journal of Fluids Engineering Offers Research Data Electronically, 3 OCLC Begins Massive Automated Authority Control Project, 4 OCLC to Extend PRISM Service Availability, 5 Legal Researchers Get Help Using Internet, 5 RLG at ALA, 6 U.S. AIR FORCE CHOOSES MEDIANET FOR ITS MEDIA SCHEDULING SYSTEM The U.S. Air Force has chosen Medianet scheduling system for its central media collection--the Air Force Central Visual Information Library at Norton AFB, California. The acquisition of Medianet will allow their custom developed system to be retired. Medianet will be used for loans, media tracking through the duplication process, and will be interfaced with the new automated storage and retrieval system. The Medianet system of media and equipment scheduling handles the information processing requirements of individual media centers as well as networks of media centers. Features of Medianet include: online public access catalog, time-of-day booking, electronic mail, and catalog production. For commercial sites, optional modules include accounting, sales, rentals and royalties. For additional information, contact Karen Backman, Dymaxion Research Ltd., 5515 Cogswell St., Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 1R2; 902-422-1973, ext.135; fax: 902 421-1267. + Page 2 + NYSERNET AWARDED APPLE & KAPLAN GRANTS Apple Computer has named NYSERNet, Inc. as one of four 1993 "Apple Libraries of Tomorrow", and has given a generous equipment grant in support of Project GAIN--the Global Access Information Network. NYSERNet has also received $65,000 from the J.M. Kaplan Fund to help fund the Project GAIN initiative. The pilot system features library connections to the Internet. Libraries will be able to exchange electronic mail with over a million other users around the world. They will tap into remote databases, transfer files and software from distant host computers, and use resources previously available mostly to academic researchers. Computer equipment, software, one year of Internet connection service, and training will be given to five rural public libraries and one Indian Nation school. The sites are: Baldwinsville Public Library, Baldwinsville, NY; Morrisville Free Library, Morrisville, NY; Old Forge Public Library, Old Forge, NY; Onondaga Nation School, Nedrow, NY; Smith Memorial Library, Chautauqua, NY; and Woodstock Public Library District, Woodstock, NY. Additional project sponsors include OCLC, which is donating First Search and several other major electronic database products. Publishers O'Reilly and Associates are contributing copies of The Whole Internet and Addison-Wesley has donated copies of The Internet Companion. Both books are well-known and popular introductory texts on Internet use. The project is not only concerned with how the rural libraries will make use of the Internet, but also how the Internet community can benefit from local resources generated by the Project GAIN sites. Examples which the project libraries might choose to make available to other Internet users are: local government or tribal information, local genealogical information, regional history, travel and tourism suggestions, specialized databases, and more. Throughout, the project will be evaluated by Dr. Charles McClure, of Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, and his research associates to assess Project GAIN's impact on the quality of rural life, and the feasibility of providing networked information in this manner. A report detailing the results of this study, and how a community might choose to replicate this project, will be disseminated. + Page 3 + A CD-ROM and videotape will also be produced. The CD-ROM will include training materials and public domain software. It will also hold QuickTime movies of voyages on the Internet, software installations, and network demonstrations. The videotape will document the experiences of the Project GAIN libraries. Both will be made available free to the participating libraries, and will be offered for sale at cost or slightly above cost to interested others. For additional information, contact Jean Armour Polly, NYSERNet, Inc., 200 Elwood Davis Rd., Suite 103, Liverpool, NY 13088-6147; 315-453-2912; fax: 315-453-3052; email: jpolly@nysernet.org. JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING OFFERS RESEARCH DATA ELECTRONICALLY The Journal of Fluids Engineering, published by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, has begun offering its readers the opportunity to obtain electronic files, via the Internet, of the full data on which some of its published research papers are based. It appears that many readers already are using the service. In its two most recent issues (December 1992 and March 1993), the Journal has published a total of five research papers accompanied by extensive research data--far too voluminous to be included in the print journal; the data are archived electronically in the Newman Library at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and available via the Internet as electronic files. Readers are advised, through notes accompanying each article and instructions at the back of each journal issue, how they can retrieve the files electronically via File Transfer Protocol (ftp). The service was initiated on an experimental basis through the cooperation of the Scholarly Communications Project at Virginia Tech, which publishes several electronic journals, and the University Libraries, which contributed the storage space. Early indications are that readers are using the service. More than 1,500 files were retrieved from the electronic archive during April, 1993, according to James Powell, Technical Director of the Project, and well over half of those files were data sets. The retrievals came from more than thirty sites, including sites in Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, Chile, Canada and the United States. Most appeared to be from university sites. + Page 4 + OCLC BEGINS MASSIVE AUTOMATED AUTHORITY CONTROL PROJECT The largest authority control corrections project in OCLC's history began May 14 with automated software programs that work their way through the 28-million-record Online Union Catalog, identifying and linking variant forms to the correct form of name and subject headings. At least 5 million corrections are expected. OCLC is also applying the corrections software to Harvard University's online catalog, HOLLIS. Authority control is necessary for ensuring that all access points for a particular name or subject are consistent and that users can search online catalogs efficiently. Variant forms of the same personal or corporate name or subject, changes in cataloging rules, coding mistakes, and typographical errors mean that headings need to be corrected on an ongoing basis to maintain consistency. The corrections project uses "intelligent software" that can correct widely varying forms of names and subjects. Rather than simply comparing headings to a file of authorized headings and cross references, OCLC's programs use algorithms that weigh factors within the record to identify matching headings and link them to the correct form. The names correction software will correct personal and corporate names found in main entry, added entry, and series fields. The subject headings correction software will correct topical and geographic subject headings that are coded as Library of Congress subject headings as well as personal and corporate names that are used as subjects. The corporate names portion of the project began in May. The personal names and subject headings portions are scheduled to begin in August. OCLC researchers have been studying the quality of the OCLC database since 1986 and have designed two earlier phases of subject heading correction programs and duplicate detection and resolution programs which have upgraded millions of Online Union Catalog records. In 1992, OCLC began a six-year retrospective conversion project for Harvard which includes automated authority control processing of Harvard's existing local system database, older records that OCLC will be converting to machine-readable form, and Harvard's ongoing cataloging. For additional information, contact Karen Calhoun, 614-764-6113, or Nita Dean, 614-761-5002. + Page 5 + OCLC TO EXTEND PRISM SERVICE AVAILABILITY OCLC will extend PRISM service hours beginning July 11. The PRISM service will be available Sundays from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time--3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the West Coast. The extended PRISM service will impact users worldwide. While those in the continental United States will have more time Sunday afternoon and evening to access PRISM service, libraries in the Asia Pacific region will have PRISM service available most of the Monday workday. For users in Japan, the extended PRISM service hours are 7 a.m. to noon Monday. In addition to the new Sunday hours, the PRISM service will continue to be available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. The extended hours also apply to the OCLC CJK-Plus System, the Linked Systems Project, Name-Address Directory, and Union Listing. For additional information, contact Nita Dean, 614-761-5002. LEGAL RESEARCHERS GET HELP USING INTERNET The world's largest law library is available to everyone, 24 hours a day, virtually for free. But most attorneys don't even know it exists. The INTERNET computer network provides free access to such invaluable resources as the Library of Congress, the Federal Register and Supreme Court opinions. The expertise required to access the network is now being provided by Legal Research of New York, Inc., an attorney support firm based in Brooklyn. Despite the vast resources available on the INTERNET, knowing how to access the network can prove difficult, because the INTERNET has no owner, nor central help desk. Users desiring access are generally dependent on the few books available or colleagues who have expertise. Using the system, however is very cost-effective, especially when compared with the typical $4 per minute charged by such legal computer "superbureaus" as Lexis and Westlaw. INTERNET costs vary, depending on how the network is accessed, but can be as low as a flat $19 per month. The INTERNET does not yet have all the features or resources available on the superbureaus, though additional services become available regularly. + Page 6 + Legal Research of New York, Inc., offers training in using the INTERNET for legal research, and uses the system to fulfill attorney research needs. In addition, the firm provides such attorney support services as document delivery, legal writing, translations and computer consulting services. The firm is staffed by attorneys, law librarians and computer professionals who use the INTERNET, CD-ROM, computer bulletin boards and other resources to provide the information lawyers need. For additional information, contact Legal Research, 36 Plaza St., Suite 10E, Brooklyn, NY 11238; 718-399-6136. RLG AT ALA For the first time since 1980 the Research Libraries Group will be exhibiting at ALA's annual summer conference. The following products will be demonstrated at booth 2382. Eureka: RLG's new streamlined interface to RLIN and CitaDel files. It combines ease of use with powerful features that enable researchers to perform even the most complex searches simply and quickly without special training or documentation. A short online demonstration of Eureka's features is available to Internet users. Simply type either of the following commands: TELNET EUREKA-INFO.STANFORD.EDU or TELNET 36.26.0.172 CitaDel: RLG's citation and document delivery service. This year RLG will offer substantial savings on CitaDel subscriptions to institutions that also purchase annual search subscriptions to RLIN. As part of this special offer, institutions will receive free access to the newest CitaDel file, Inside Information, the table-of-contents database just introduced by the British Library and to be available on CitaDel by September 1. Inside Information indexes the contents of the 10,000 most requested journals at the British Library's Document Supply Centre (BLDSC). Full text of each article can be ordered through CitaDel. Currently, CitaDel offers eleven files--six general information files and five special-interest files. Ariel Software: This state-of-the-art software enables users to send and receive crisp, clear copies of documents (including photos and diagrams) over the Internet with the ease and speed of a fax. Free copies of the Ariel software are available to institutions purchasing annual subscriptions to RLIN or any CitaDel general information file. + Page 7 + Zephyr: RLG's Z39.50 server enables users of other online systems to search RLIN and CitaDel using the same commands they use to search their local system. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Public-Access Computer Systems News is an electronic newsletter that is distributed on BITNET, Internet, and other computer networks. There is no subscription fee. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 (BITNET) or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet) that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name Last Name. PACS-P subscribers also receive two other electronic serials: Current Cites and The Public-Access Computer Systems Review. Public-Access Computer Systems News is Copyright (C) 1993 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights Reserved. 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