The University of Chicago Library Data Management System

Abstract

The University of Chicago Library has built an on-line, interactive Library Data Management System that can store and process all of the data and files needed to automate the labor-intensive activities of a large research library. The system has been implemented in Library operations and is highly successful. The system is operated on the University's general-purpose IBM 370/168 computer. In the Library there are thirty (of an eventual sixty or so) terminals connected to a Varian 73 minicomputer that communicates through a high-speed line with the IBM 370/168. Automated systems supporting the bibliographic data base and Library technical-processing functions are now in operation--with the fullest possible use of LC/MARC data throughout. The Library functions that the system currently supports are Searching, Input/Update, LC/MARC Processing, Selection, Ordering and Receiving, Gift and Blanket Order Processing, Cataloging, and Binding and Labeling. Other systems that are currently in development are Circulation (a pilot on-line system is now in test, with the full-scale comprehensive version to follow), Catalog Control for Name and Subject Authorities, and the Quadraplanar Data Structure that will allow multiple-institution sharing of the data base. The Chicago design is based on a comprehensive analysis of the requirements for handling bibliographic and processing data in a library and provides the basis to automate almost all of the data processing functions of a large research library. In addition, the system is designed to permit both transfer to another location and sharing by a cooperating group of libraries.