Brief History Of Library Automation 19301996 Essay free essay sample

Brief History Of Library Automation 1930-1996 Essay, Research Paper Brief History of Library Automation: 1930-1996An machine-controlled library is one where a computing machine system is used tomanage one or several of the library # 8217 ; s cardinal maps such asacquisitions, seriess control, cataloging, circulation and the publicaccess catalog. When researching the history of library mechanization, itis possible to return to past centuries when visionaries good beforethe computing machine age created devices to help with their book lendingsystems. Even as far back as 1588, the innovation of the French # 8220 ; BookWheel # 8221 ; allowed bookmans to revolve between books by stepping on a pedalthat turned a book tabular array. Another interesting illustration was the # 8220 ; BookIndicator # 8221 ; , developed by Albert Cotgreave in 1863. It housed miniaturebooks to stand for books in the library # 8217 ; s aggregation. The miniaturebooks were portion of a design that made it possible to find if abook was in, out or delinquent. These and many mo re illustrations of earlyingenuity in library systems exist, nevertheless, this paper will concentrate onthe more recent computing machine mechanization get downing in the early twentiethcentury. The Beginnings of Library Automation: 1930-1960It could be said that library mechanization development began in the1930 # 8217 ; s when punch card equipment was implemented for usage in librarycirculation and acquisitions. During the 30 # 8217 ; s and early 40 # 8217 ; s progresson computing machine systems was slow which is non surprising, given theDepression and World War II. In 1945, Vannevar Bush envisioned anautomated system that would hive away information, including books, personal records and articles. Bush ( 1945 ) wrote about a conjectural # 8221 ; memex # 8221 ; system which he described as a mechanical library that wouldallow a user to see stored information from several different accesspoints and expression at several points at the same time. His thoughts are wellknown as the footing for hypertext and mputers for their operations. Thefirst appeared at MIT, in 1957, with the development of COMIT, pull offing lingual calculations, natural linguistic communication and the ability tosearch for a peculiar twine of information. Librarians so movedbeyond a vision or thought for the usage of computing machines, given thetechnology, they were able brand great progresss in the usage of computersfor library systems. This lead to an detonation of library automationin the 60 # 8217 ; s and 70 # 8217 ; s. Library Automation Officially is Underway: 1960-1980The promotion of engineering lead to additions in the usage ofcomputers in libraries. In 1961, a important innovation by bothRobert Noyce of Intel and Jack Kirby of Texas Instruments, workingindependently, was the incorporate circuit. All the constituents of anelectronic circuit were placed onto a individual # 8220 ; bit # 8221 ; of Si. Thisinvention of the integrated circuit and freshly developed disc and tapestorage devices gave computing machines the velocity, storage and ability neededfor online synergistic processing and telecommunications. The new potency for computing machine usage guided one bibliothec to develop anew indexing technique. HP. Luhn, in 1961, used a computing machine to producethe # 8220 ; keyword in context # 8221 ; or KWIC index for articles looking inChemical Abstractions. Although keyword indexing was non new, it wasfound to be really suited for the computing machine as it was cheap andit presented multiple entree points. Through the usage of Luhn # 8217 ; s keywordindexing, it was found that bibliothecs had the ability to putcontrolled linguistic communication index footings on the computing machine. By the mid-60 # 8217 ; s, computing machines were being used for the production ofmachine clear catalog records by the Library of Congress. Between1965 and 1968, LOC began the MARC I project, followed rapidly by MARCII. MARC was designed as manner of # 8220 ; labeling # 8221 ; bibliographic records using3-digit Numberss to place Fieldss. For illustration, a ticket might bespeak # 8221 ; ISBN, # 8221 ; while another ticket indicates # 8220 ; publi cation day of the month, # 8221 ; and yetanother indicates # 8220 ; Library of Congress capable headers # 8221 ; and so on. In1974, the MARC II format became the footing of a standard incorporatedby NISO ( National Information Standards Organization ) . This was asignificant development because the criterions created meant that abibliographic record could be read and transferred by the computerbetween different library systems. ARPANET, a web established by the Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency in 1969 brought into being the usage of electronic mail, telnet and file transfer protocol. By 1980, a sub-net of ARPANET made MELVYL, theUniversity of California s online public entree catalog, available ona national degree. ARPANET, would go the paradigm for othernetworks such as CSNET, BITNET, and EDUCOM. These webs have almostdisappeared with the development of ARPANET to NSFNET which has becomethe present twenty-four hours Internet. During the 1970 # 8217 ; s the innovations o f the integrated computing machine chipand storage devices caused the usage of minicomputers and microcomputersto grow well. The usage of commercial systems for searchingreference databases ( such as DIALOG ) began. BALLOTS ( BibliographicalAutomation of Large Library Operations ) in the late 1970 # 8217 ; s was one ofthe foremost and subsequently became the foundation for RLIN ( the ResearchLibraries Information Network ) . BALLOTS was designed to integrateclosely with the proficient processing maps of the library andcontained four chief files: ( 1 ) Marc records from LOC ; ( 2 ) an in-processfile containing information on points in the processing phase ; ( 3 ) a catalog informations file incorporating an online record for each point ; and ( 4 ) a mention file. F urther, it contained a wide search retrievalcapability with the ability to search on truncated words, keywords,and LC subject headings, for example. OCLC, the On-line Computer Library Center began in 1967, chartered inthe state of Ohio. This significant project facilitated technicalprocessing in library systems when it started it’s first cooperativecataloging venture in 1970. It went on-line in 1971. Since that timeit has grown considerably, providing research and utihypermedia.In order to have automation, there must first be a computer. Thedevelopment of the computer progressed substantially from 1946 to1961, moving quickly though a succession of vacuum tubes, transistorsand finally to silicon chips. From 1946 to 1947 two significantcomputers were built. The ENIAC I (Electronic Numerical Integrator andCalculator) computer was developed by John Mauchly and J. PresperEckert at the University of Pennsylvania. It contained over 18,000vacuum tubes, weighed thirty tons and was ho used in two stories of abuilding. It was intended for use during World War II but was notcompleted in time. Instead, it was used to assist the development ofthe hydrogen bomb. Another computer, EDVAC, was designed to store twoprograms at once and switch between the sets of instructions. A majorbreakthrough occurred in 1947 when Bell Laboratories replaced vacuumtubes with the invention of the transistor. The transistors decreasedthe size of the computer, and at the same time increased the speed andcapacity. The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) became thefirst computer using transistors and was used at the U.S. Bureau ofthe Census from 1951 until 1963.Software development also was in progress during this time. Operating systems and programming languages were developed for thecomputers being built. Librarians needed text-based computerlanguages, different from the first numerical languages invented forthe number crunching â€Å"monster computers†, in order to be able to u secolities designed to provide users with the ability to accessbibliographic records, scientific and literary information whichcontinues to the present .Library Automation 1980-presentThe 70’s were the era of the dummy terminal that were used to gainaccess to mainframe on-line databases. The 80’s gave birth to a newrevolution. The size of computers decreased, at the same time,technology provided faster chips, additional RAM and greater storagecapacity. The use of microcomputers during the 1980’s expandedtremendously into the homes, schools, libraries and offices of manyAmericans. The microcomputer of the 80’s became a useful tool forlibrarians who put to them to use for everything from word processingto reference, circulation and serials.On-line Public Access Catalogs began to be used extensively the1980’s. Libraries started to set-up and purchase their own computersystems as well as connect with other established library networks. Many of these we re not developed by the librarians themselves, but byvendors who supplied libraries with systems for everything fromcataloging to circulation. One such on-line catalog system is the CARL(Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries) system. Various othersoftware became available to librarians, such as spreadsheets anddatabases for help in library administration and informationdissemination.The introduction of CD-ROMs in the late 80 s has changed the waylibraries operate. CD-ROMs became available containing databases,software, and information previously only available through print,making the information more accessible. Connections to â€Å"outside†databases such as OCLC, DIALOG, and RLIN continued, however, in theearly 90’s the databases that were previously available on-line becameavailable on CD-ROM, either in parts or in their entirety. Librariescould then gain information through a variety of options.The nineties are giving rise to yet another era in libraryautomation. The use of networks for e-mail, ftp, telnet, Internet, andconnections to on-line commercial systems has grown. It is nowpossible for users to connect to the libraries from their home oroffice. The world wide web which had it’s official start date asApril of 1993 is becoming the fastest growing new provider ofinformation. It is also possible, to connect to international librarysystems and information through the Internet and with ever improvingtelecommunications. Expert systems and knowledge systems have becomeavailable in the 90 s as both software and hardware capabilities haveimproved. The technology used for the processing of information hasgrown considerably since the beginnings of the thirty ton computer. With the development of more advanced silicon computer chips, enlargedstorage space and faster, increased capacity telecommunication lines,the ability to quickly process, store, send and retrieve informationis causing the current information delivery services to flouris h. BibliographyBush, V. (1945).As we may think. Atlantic Monthly. 176(1), 101-8. Duval, B.K. Main, L. (1992). Automated Library Systems: A LibrariansGuide and Teaching Manual. London: MecklerNelson, N.M., (Ed.) (1990). Library Technology 1970-1990: Shaping theLibrary of the Future. Research Contributions from the 1990 Computersin Libraries Conference. London: Meckler. Pitkin, G.M. (Ed.) (1991). The Evolution of Library Automation:Management Issues and Future Perspectives. London: Meckler. Title:A Brief History of Library Automation: 1930-1996