[258] in Information Retrieval
Electronic Libraries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jamess@MIT.EDU)
Wed Oct 5 22:00:30 1994
From: jamess@MIT.EDU
To: elibdev@MIT.EDU
Cc: jklucker@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 94 21:59:57 EDT
My apologies that you received our dirty laundry. The Library Systems
Office has followed a practice of chastising people on the net before others
without batting an eye. Returning in kind is not polite nor gentile. Being
branded burns, hence flaming. What Grant has done to John Saylor, PJBuehler,
and others in front of their peers and superiors was wrong. Nor is this type
of behavior uncommon among others in the Systems Office.
I call to question the purpose of this group: ELIBDEV--Electronic Lib-
rary Developments. Is it truly an open forum to discuss new forms of elec-
tronic services? As a Librarian, I find it is a practical issue. The
"electronic library" is not an entity but an evolution of services. It is
sometimes forgotten that a library is more than informational databases.
The Library is not the OPAC. A library is not the CD LANs, network data-
bases. The library is a collection of services which guide users to informa-
tion. Sometimes those users are library staff. Yet the agenda never addresses
these issues.
FirstSearch is a useful service but is horribly user unfriendly. To copy
citations, you must cut and paste. Back before we had Windows, our XTs had
to use Procomm File Capture. It was gruesome. I wrote a dirty hack to cut
out the windowed citations to a separate file which the user could specify.
For a long time, the Interlibrary Borrowing Office has sought to make its
ILB request data available to selectors. A few passes later, I hacked an ILB
record parser to create an database importable file.
OWL was a marvelous adaptation of the OLC software. But it created a
greater demand for access to electronic forms--Interlibrary Borrowing Requests,
Suggested Purchase Requests, Retrospective Storage Collection Forms. The need
for these forms didn't suddenly stop. After some planning, I wrote an extens-
ible series of programs to enable these forms, accessing the data from the sub-
missions, and printing them out locally.
When it came time to cancel serials, I wrote a program to do a citation
analysis of our collection using the Science Citation databases. And there
are other projects carried out by myself and others throughout the Libraries.
We use electronic resources to make information available. Building, as we
go, an electronic library. Not a library of databases, but of services.
Information Services has mounted many database services for the Libraries.
What we need is someone to pioneer electronic library services. The Public
and Technical Services Staff in the Libraries had hoped such leadership would
come from the Systems Office but has not.
I walk a moderate line. People have compelling needs at all levels. It
might be hundreds (with Firstsearch) or few (ILB/RSC requests). A small
amount of programming can save hours of peoples time. But to hide or deny the
use of that programming, that is the worst form of censorship. It contains no
nudity/sexual situations/violence but it was written by *non-Systems people*.
Understandably, IS doesn't want to interfere with Library matters, but
surely some space can be found for "non-supported" software so that users can
attach to one locker and have access to a myriad of electronic library services
instead of adding myriad personal lockers. It's ashame that the Systems Office
has two UNIX workstations, mitlibs locker, and the library locker and they just
can't find room for programs totalling 400 K. Can someone in IS up their quota?
Who should fill that role? What can be done for "orphan software"? Given
the open nature of Athena and its democratic attitude, why should such a situa-
tion exist? Athena seems to deal quite contentedly with unsupported software.
From my point of view, it is only the "electronic library user" who loses when
the sense of purpose is lost. Perhaps this would fit on an agenda?
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John A. Mess, Pure and Applied Chemistry Librarian
14 S - M 32, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
(617) 253-1290
World Wide Web Server: http://mez-5.mit.edu/ (Mon-Fri 10:00-5:30)
