Online Bibliographic Systems Research Articles

National and International Implications of the Linked Systems Protocol for Online Bibliographic Systems

NISO draft standard Z39.50 (sometimes called the Systems Protocol) provides a standard for linking computers to permit the searching and retrieval of machine-readable bibliographic and authority records. The concept, context, status, and potential of the Linked Systems Protocol are reviewed in relation to the historical development of bibliographies and library catalogs. The functions of a fully developed bibliographic Linked Systems Protocol are summarized and shown to have extensive implications for scholarship, bibliographic access, and the notion of a national database. Effective international use of such a protocol would require the solution of several traditional problems.

The challenge of the eighties — the comprehensive electronic service system (CESS)

This paper addresses the concept of automated library systems of the 1980s as a marriage of traditional bibliographic transaction processing applications and those now emerging under the rubric of the advanced office system. This is the concept of CESS—the Comprehensive Electronic Service System for the library or information center. The basis of CESS will be a distributed data processing system eventually linking the local library, via computer to computer communication, to institutional parent, regional and national level systems and their associated services. Functional application distribution for this system is discussed with Computer Consoles, Inc., Office Power and Prime Computer, Inc., Prime Office Automation System (POAS) used to show the office automation capabilities and their integration aspects with online bibliographic systems for the library. Present and near term solutions to creating CESS concept systems are presented.

Measures that discriminate among online searchers with different training and experience

The major research objectives were to identify the differences among the searchers of users of online bibliographic systems who have different backgrounds of training and experience, and the differences among the searches of persons with and without experience of the Eric database. A quasi‐experimental research design used forty‐two searchers separated into five experience levels who conducted two pre‐selected searches using the Dialog system and the Eric database. The results were measured with variables which related to the search outcome, i.e., cost effectiveness, precision, and recall and to the search process and errors.

On-Line Bibliographic System Instruction

A course in on-line bibliographic systems was introduced into the curriculum of the College of Library Science at the University of Kentucky. It was taught in fiveweek sections by three instructors who were practicing librarians and each an expert in one type of bibliographic network: OCLC, MEDLINE, or Lockheed DIALOG. Library space, equipment, and materials were utilized. The over-all goals of the course were to develop terminal skills and related proficiencies and to instill a knowledge of the administrative considerations relative to various kinds of networks. Despite problems encountered related to class size, scheduling, theft of equipment, and supplementary readings, the students evaluated the course highly and the instructors felt it was an over-all success and worth repeating.