Despite recent research and development in the field of library automation, libraries have been unable to reap the benefits promised by technology due to the high cost of building and maintaining their own computer-based systems. Time-sharing and disc mass storage devices will bring automation costs, if spread over a number of users, within the…

This manual, the first of a series to be devoted to the automation of library operations, is an introduction to the planning and production of computer-produced book catalogs. The major part of the text covers the whole range of questions involved in planning a book catalog: choice of input device, development of programs designed to meet the…

The May 1971 issue of "College and Research Libraries" featured an article by Dr. Ellsworth Mason which constitutes an all-out attack on the application of computer technology to library systems. Dr. Mason views the computer-based technology to library systems developed to date (at least the ones he has studied) as unqualified disasters from a…

A seminar on practical MARC cataloging was held at Southampton University library in April 1972. MARC is an acronym for Machine Readable Cataloging, a system devised by the Library of Congress and developed with them by the British National Bibliography. MARC enables the catalog data for any given work to be read and manipulated by the computer,…

This study attempts to determine whether the human intellectual process of cataloging bibliographic materials, using the Anglo-American (AA-1967) and American Library Association (ALA-1949) cataloging codes, can be simulated by automatic techniques. The specific cataloging process is that which concerns selection of entry. Automatic techniques…

One of a series of communications formats for machine-readable cataloging records issued by the Library of Congress is described. It is an implementation of the "American National Standard for Bibliographic Information Interchange on Magnetic Tape," Z39.2-1971, which was adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The…

Books are automatically retrieved -- and filed -- at the Health Sciences Library of Ohio State University. (Author)

Systems analysis, as a prelude to library automation, is an inevitable commonplace fact of life in libraries. Maturation of library automation and the systems analysis which precedes its implementation is observed in this article. (55 references) (Author/TW)

Comments are given on: the 18th edition of the Decimal Classification, the MARC Automated Serials System (MASS) project, and the Cataloging and Indexing Group's survey of catalog use. (11 references) (NH)

An on-line serials control system with particular emphasis on storage and maintenance concepts is described. The system allows real-time display and updating of all elements of the file. (6 references) (Author)

The MARC system which is available today must be the forerunner of a more comprehensive, interactive system of shared bibliographic information. (Author/NH)

Project Library Exemplary Elementary Demonstration of Springfield (Oregon) (LEEDS) demonstrated the feasability of an automated library system. There are now plans to develop a statewide network. (JS)

The technology of choice to effect the humanization and economic well-being of libraries is computerization. (20 references) (Author)

Without sophisticated machines, Rhode Island sets up a processing unit to serve all types of libraries in the state. (Author)