LIBRARY NOTES
Electronic Access to the Library's Collection
Thursday, January 1, 1998
Readers soon will be able to access the Library's collection not only by the card catalog but also by online catalog terminals throughout the building. A terminal will replace the microfilm reader in the southeast corner of the Reference Room and there will be other terminals in a renovated 5th floor study area, in the Children's Library and in Stack 1.
For those who prefer it, the card catalog will remain and will continue to be updated in the regular way. But for those who are even slightly familiar with computers or who would like to become so, staff and volunteers stand ready to guide and to reassure. There will be written instructions, too, as well as instructions within the online catalog screen. The online catalog system is both simple and powerful. As with the card catalog, readers can search alphabetically by author, title and subject heading. But -- impossible with the card catalog -- readers also can arrange, or even limit, searches by date of publication and can search adjacent call numbers. This latter process is like browsing through the Library's entire open stacks, including books currently circulating.
This evolutionary change is the result of many years of work. To pay for this and other improvements, members and trustees contributed close to $700,000 during the 1993-1995 Capital Campaign. As funding became assured, the staff selected expert systems providers and conducted the year and half of inventory and bar-coding necessary before these systems could be implemented -- all the while managing to carry on the regular work of the Library in serving its readers.
The next stage in the Library's evolution will be a computerized circulation and book reservation system put into place later this year after further refinements are effected. This computerized circulation system will instantly flag requested books, show the status of members' requests, and indicate whether a title is available, checked out, or in repair. members also will be able to learn how many books they have out: information we cannot provide at present. Most important, staff no longer will have to examine the Library's entire file of books on lean -- roughly 2,750 book cards -- card by card, twice a month.
Further improvements under consideration include small, quiet printers attached to online catalog terminals to transcribe pertinent bibliographic data at the push of a key; access to the Library's catalog from computers outside the Library; Library access to the Internet and, with it, other library catalogs; and provision for scholarly access to our Rare Books collections.
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