Describes a project at the National Library of Medicine that investigated the development of an expert system to assist catalogers with personal name authority work. Topics include project planning; software and hardware selection; knowledge engineering; and reasons for discontinuing the development of the expert system. (three references) (LRW)

Describes use of microcomputers with system called "TBBS" ("The Bread Board System") at Loma Linda University Medical Center to allow users enhanced services from home, whether library facilities are open or not. Flexibility and security, dialing into medical library, and suggestions for setting up similar computerized…

Describes the implementation of an online catalog in the library of the National Institute for Cancer Research and the Clinical and Experimental Oncology Institute of the University of Genoa. Topics addressed include automation of various library functions, software features, database management, training, and user response. (10 references) (MES)

Describes management decisions and resultant technology-based system that allowed a medical library to meet increasing workloads without accompanying increases in resources available. Discussion covers system analysis; capabilities of book-order management system, "BOOKDIRT;" software and training; hardware; data files; data entry;…

Library staff at Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport have written two computer programs automating much of its selective dissemination of information (SDI) postprocessing. The software sorts SDI results, gathers and reports statistical data without requiring manual data entry, allows delivery of search results as hard copy or…

Presents a geographic analysis of results of a survey of medical libraries in the United States, Canada, and Europe that examined the automation of book and serials processing. Levels of automation are investigated, geographic differences between the use of personal computers versus mainframe/minicomputers are discussed, and software systems are…

Traditional library tasks, for example database searching, are increasingly performed by library users, forcing both the librarian and the user to assume at times dichotomous roles of teacher and student. Modern librarians install new software and guide organizations in multimedia applications. Librarians need to be cognizant of the human factor,…