This feasibility study was conducted to (1) estimate the alternative costs in 1980 Canadian dollars of using four bibliographic utilities to accomplish the retrospective conversion (RECON) of eight British Columbia public libraries' manual card catalog files, (2) make recommendations as to which alternative should be selected and how it should be…

Compares the effectiveness of five online systems in facilitating interlibrary services. The OCLC Interlibrary Loan (ILL) subsystem, the Research Libraries Group (RLG) Message System, the University of Toronto Library Automation System (UTLAS), and two others are evaluated with respect to the request verification, location, request transmission,…

Discusses criteria for evaluating school library information services. Highlights include types of services; physical facilities; library usage; circulation statistics; changes due to technology; fill rate, or the percentage of successful searches for library materials; OPAC (online public access catalog) reports; observation; and examining…

Discussion of integrated library systems focuses on the development of the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK). Capabilities of eight existing systems are described, including catalog creation and maintenance; the online public access catalog (OPAC); circulation, interlibrary loan, and document delivery; acquisitions and serials…

This manual provides information to help libraries in Texas considering an automation project, with special emphasis on smaller libraries. The solutions discussed are microcomputer-based. The manual begins with a discussion of how to prepare for the automation of a library, including planning, approval, collection decisions, policy, and staffing.…

A distributed union catalog is a network of bibliographic systems that cooperate to enable their users to discover sites that hold copies of known items. Some participating systems will be traditional union catalogs, others will be single sites with comprehensive collections, and others will be local or regional resource sharing systems. A…

Identifies the four basic functions of library automation as circulation systems, online catalogs, acquisitions, and serial check-in, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of integrated library systems versus linked systems in terms of these functions. (3 notes with references) (CLB)

The virtual Canadian union catalog (vCuc) project is a project among Canadian libraries to use Z39.50 (an information protocol standard) for searching distributed individual library catalogs and union catalogs. This paper summarizes the major technical, vendor, bibliographic data, and administrative issues that must be resolved before the…

This four-part report describes the development of a plan for Hennepin County (Minnesota) Library's (HCL) next steps in the automation of operations including the public catalog, cataloging, circulation control, and acquisitions. The objectives of the plan were to improve patron access to materials and to provide for cost effective operations.…

Discussion of the need for automated library systems to provide management information to aid in decision making focuses on the automatic generation of reports. Examples of management information generated in collection development, acquisitions and serials, cataloging, online catalogs and circulation are described as well as possible uses of this…

This paper describes how librarians at the University of Oklahoma reviewed the state of the art of automated systems for libraries, evaluated current sophisticated and comprehensive programs, considered the implications of such systems for closing the card catalog, and assessed the impact which the total system would have on the university…

Describes an automated storage/retrieval system which is integrated with an online catalog and circulation system at California State University--Northridge as a practical solution to the problems of expanding collections and escalating construction costs. The impact of this system on user services is discussed. (CDD)

At the University of Rhode Island, the goal of the Library is to meet the informational needs of a diverse clientele: students, both graduate and undergraduate; faculty; other university staff; and, as a land-grant institution serving the state of Rhode Island, the general public. This report results from 8 months of committee work that involved…