[ale] Linux in libraries (a heads-up for June 2002)

[Ben Ostrowsky]

>What software?

Primarily the db that manages library books and who's got 'em.

Top-end library software is remarkably complicated.  It's got functions for:

ACQUISITIONS: Ordering books from different vendors via several different 
electronic interchange standards, managing purchase orders and shipments, 
and automatically notifying vendors of missing items.  Ideally, the process 
of selecting books to buy would be made easier too, with an "Amazon-like" 
service that provides rich information about the titles, authors, etc.

CATALOGING: Creating data records in the MARC format, a flat file with 
numbered fields some of which are repeatable, all of which can have 
subfields, some of which are repeatable.  Verifying that the records are 
properly formatted, and also helping the cataloger to use the standard 
library vocabulary.  That controlled vocabulary is sometimes 
unintentionally hilarious:

'When delivering speeches Berman would often rely on a light bulb as a 
prop, which he would hold aloft and ask his audience to identify. Light 
bulb, you say? Not to the Library of Congress, he'd explain, for whom the 
correct answer is "electric lamp, incandescent." Such convoluted labeling, 
Berman believed, did little to promote the nation's 16,000-plus public 
libraries as storehouses of knowledge designed for citizens who know a 
light bulb when they see one.' -- 
http://www.citypages.com/databank/20/971/article7781.asp

CIRCULATION: Checking books in and out; sending overdue notices to library 
customers by various methods (by phone with voice synthesis, by snail mail, 
and sometimes by email).  Keeping track of who's in line for the latest 
Stephen King book.  Optimally filling seven requests at four different 
branches for an item that's owned by ten different branches.  Taking 
inventory by scanning barcodes of the items actually on the shelf, then 
identifying which items are missing and which items are shelved in the 
wrong order... preferably in real time so the book can be reshelved 
immediately.

INTERLIBRARY LOANS: Finding out who's got (and is willing to lend) a copy 
of a particular out-of-print book; sending the request; finding out which 
libraries still owe us books that we lent them...

PUBLIC ACCESS: The various front ends that you, the library customer, can 
use.  Sometimes it's web-based (but see http://suncat.tblc.org/ for a 
web-based catalog that doesn't work for blind people, WebTV users, etc.), 
sometimes it's telnet-based (telnet:sunline at sunline.tblc.org), and 
sometimes it's an application that runs on a PC.  My library system happens 
to use all three.  Ideally, it should be able to use some sort of secure 
connection so that Little Johnny Snortkiddie doesn't find out who's 
checking out what books.  (Let me detour to talk about 
confidentiality.  It's a basic principle of library service, for very 
practical reasons.  If a message were sent to TheJonesFamily at aol.com saying 
"Your book 'How to safely leave an abusive husband' is overdue", it could 
mean someone's life.)

SERIALS: Magazines, newspapers, etc. are a hairy problem.  You don't want 
to catalog every issue of Creative Loafing as a separate item, but you do 
want to know that such-and-such issues are on microfilm, others are in 
paper format, these issues have been sent to the microfilm company, and 
this issue is missing.  Then magazines will change their names, change 
their regular publication pattern (Jan/Feb 2001, Mar/Apr 2001, Special May 
Edition, where the hell'd that come from?)... I don't really understand all 
of the challenges in serials.

STATISTICS: And, of course, for all of this, we have to have 
statistics.  Libraries live and breathe by statistics.  "You can't slash 
our budget, the taxpayers have been using the library 15% more than last 
year.  You should give us 20% more money for books and bandwidth and staff 
so we can stay ahead of the curve."

OK, that's Library Software 101.  Any questions?

Ben

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