ISSN 1039-348X
No. 79
January/February 1995
ABN News with Ozline News is edited and designed by Margaret Davey using desktop publishing software. This publication is issued bimonthly by the Services to Libraries Division of the National Library of Australia. Subscriptions are available on application at the rate of $A40.00 p.a. from:
Editor, ABN News with Ozline News
Network Services Marketing
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
Unless otherwise specified, for further information contact the ABN/Ozline Help Desk on (1800) 026155 or (02) 62621580.
![[Photo]](./abn79a.gif)
Martha Whittaker, Clair Lambert, Ted Koppel, & Ian Morris.
Reviewing the operation of the UnCover Australia service and looking to the future were the main topics at a meeting held between staff of the National Library of Australia and Martha Whittaker, General Manager of UnCover, and Ted Koppel, UnCover Information Systems Manager.
Martha emphasised the importance of the Australian market to UnCover and its' growth. Australia now makes up 10% of all UnCover traffic, and 65% of the traffic outside the USA and Canada.
Both the National Library and UnCover were happy with the level of service being provided.
New suppliers of tables of contents and articles for UnCover include the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute with 800 titles in Marine Biology, two more medical schools adding depth to the material, and the IRIS consortium of universities in Ireland.
A range of significant new services begin in 1994, such as Reveal, Complete, SOS and the Re-distribution service.
A graphical user interface for UnCover will be available soon, and non-English language journals will be added to the database.Martha Whittaker showed a keen interest in the NDIS Project which will replace ABN, NZBN, Ozline and Kiwinet, and expressed confidence in the current relationship between ABN and the National Library continuing with NDIS.
UnCover Australia provides online access to the UnCover article delivery service. The tables of contents of 17,000 journals are available. With a simple search you can identify an article and have it faxed to you after placing an online order. UnCover Australia users can order articles at a reduced cost of $A10.50 plus the copyright fee.
For more information on UnCover Australia, contact the Network Services Help Desk on 1800 026155 or (02) 62621531, fax (02) 62731180, e-mail networks@nla.gov.au
The UnCover Company offers the other services below. They are not available through UnCover Australia and so do not have a reduced charge. For charges or more information contact:
Brenda Bailey, Marketing & Client Liaison
The UnCover
Company
3801 E. Florida Ave. #200
Denver, CO 80210
United States of
America
E-mail: bbailey@carl.org
UnCover S.O.S. (Single Order Source) to order any article, which need not be in UnCover.
Reveal, a table of contents alert service sent to your email address. It is to be enhanced to allow orders by subject as well as journal title.
Complete, to order pre-1989 articles in journals listed on the UnCover database or items not included in the tables of contents, e.g. letters to the editors.
Table of Contents Re-distribution Service, to receive tables of contents by email or FTP, which you can re-route to individuals within your organization or store for a specified length of time where your users have access.
The Library of Congress will soon start distributing its MARC records in the new integrated format. The ABN validation tables have been extensively modified to accommodate the increased range of fields which may now be used in USMARC records, while some of the most recent changes are still in the pipeline. Australian libraries may wish to modify their local systems to ensure they can load all the new fields which may appear. The new fields will appear in all records distributed by ABN, whether in the USMARC format or the AUSMARC format.
To assist libraries with the testing of MARC records in integrated format in their local systems, a small file of Library of Congress test records has been loaded to ABN. A document listing the control numbers of the 37 records was distributed to all users in the first week of February. The records may be downline loaded, or libraries may request a test file on tape or diskette.
These test records should be used in conjunction with two documents which the National Library distributed to ABN users in November 1994. ABN Technical Bulletin no 51 lists all the new and changed MARC data elements. The list may be used to determine which new tags and subfields libraries may wish to load to their local systems. The Summary of Changes to Manuals is intended for cataloguers , and contains details of the changes to the ABN data preparation manuals. It will assist cataloguers to understand and use the new range of fields when cataloguing on ABN. If you have any questions about handling the integrated MARC format in ABN or your local system, contact Ian Dunn on 1 800 026155 or E-mail: idunn@nla.gov.au
If you have not received these documents, contact Ruby Dutta on the above number, or E-mail rdutta@nla.gov.au
![[Photo: The NDIS team.]](./abn79b.gif)
The NDIS team
Phase 0, the analysis and design phase of the NDIS Project, has been underway since November 1994 and significant progress has been made in preparation for Phase 1, which will begin in March.
In January 1995, CSC Australia delivered to the Libraries a Technical Infrastructure Model which describes the hardware solution for the NDIS and how each component is linked together. The Libraries are currently engaged in evaluating this model. A "test bed" has been set up by CSC in their Canberra office using a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) 6000 processor to ensure all the components work together.
During February, the Project Team will be completing work on two more key specification documents - a Data Model and a Business Process Model. Once accepted by the Libraries, these two documents will completely replace the Business Information Model in Appendix G of the Request for Tender (RFT). As part of this exercise, we have revisited every user requirement in the RFT to ensure that the scope of the requirement is fully understood and reflected in the model.
A major task for the Libraries and CSC has been to finalise the terms and conditions for the main Systems Integration Contract, which is now scheduled to be signed at the end of March. The (RFT) has been reviewed and significent user specifications identified. These reviewed versions of the RFT and CSC's response will form part of the contract schedules, as well as a draft project plan for the whole project and a detailed plan for Phase 1.
The Reviewed RFT will document all scoping decisions (ie what's in and what's out) made during the evaluation phase and include the Libraries' revised implementation requirements. Each of the requirements were tested to ensure that there was a justifiable business need for including them in the two year project timeframe. We have identified other requirements for which there is no longer a business need and others which, while nice to have, would add significantly to the cost and complexity of the project. We plan to document our scoping decisions for each business area in the next few issues of ABN News with Ozline News. Once the contract is signed we will also make the user requirements chapters in the Reviewed RFT available to users.
The two Libraries are also currently engaged in an intensive business planning process to ensure the services NDIS delivers meet market needs. At the National Library of Australia the business plan is being managed by Bryony De La Motte. During January, two surveys were sent to users as input to this process.
A general survey was sent to all ABN and Ozline users asking a range of questions about their current and future business needs. The information gathered from this survey is already being fed into a database for analysis and will provide a primary source for determining priorities for each business area during the project and beyond.
In addition, a survey was sent to all current leased line and external SNA network connected users. The data from this survey will be used to produce a profile of the existing computer and communications environment at each user site and an indication of the users' plans for the next two years. This will assist the Libraries to ensure users can migrate smoothly to the new services.
Planning for User Consultation
Throughout the project, the NDIS Development Team will continue to seek advice from users on a range of issues, including:
Hardware & Software Requirements at User Sites
Many of you have asked what hardware and software will be required for users to access the new NDIS services as they are implemented. Our key strategy is to provide high performance access to NDIS services via a state-of-the-art Graphical User Interface (a pictorial point and click interface such as Windows or the Macintosh interface). In order to support the development of such an interface, the NDIS will be based on what is known as a "Client Server" architecture.
In a Client Server architecture one computer (the client) seeks services from another computer (the server). Broadly speaking, the NDIS system will consist of a three-tiered Client Server architecture.
The Client Layer will consist of software on the user's microcomputer, or the user's local network. When installed on a local network, it will allow improved performance by distributing the computer processing across more than one tier of computers. It will also enable the cost effective addition of users to the network whilst maintaining performance. When installed on a user's microcomputer, it will also enable access to NDIS services via a Graphical User Interface.
It is planned that a variety of client devices, including Windows-based PC's, Apple Macintoshes, and X terminals will ultimately be supported by the NDIS. Windows and Macintosh interfaces will be developed as part of this project. The X-terminal interface has now been deferred to a post-implementation phase.
To reduce the complexity of the development process, the Windows interface will be given higher priority during the development of each service, with the Macintosh interface issued as a subsequent release. So, in Phase 1, the first product on the marketplace will be a Windows-based client for the searching and document requesting services, with the Macintosh client released in Phase 2.
To run the Windows version of the interface (and to make fullest use of the NDIS Service) it will be necessary to use a 486 PC, with a speed of at least 33 MHz and memory of at least 8Mb.
Where there is a cluster of users at the local site, there will be performance benefits in having a further processor to act as a "controller" or communications front end. This controller may be attached to a local area network. The controller software would run on a Unix processor or on a 486 or Pentium PC, with a speed of at least 66 MHz and memory of at least 16Mb.
The NLA Communications Manager, Chris Ballantyne, will be in charge of the user implementation project and will be able to advise users closer to the date of implementation of the most appropriate configuration at each site.
There Will Also Be A Text-Based Interface...
Also provided in Phase 1, will be a text based interface to provide access to NDIS services without the requirement of special software to be installed at user sites.
One way to access the search and document request functions of the NDIS without the need for special software will be provided by a Z39.50 server capability. This will enable users to access these functions via a third party Z39.50 client or via any World Wide Web client (e.g,. Lynx, Mosaic or Netscape) equipped with a Z39.50 gateway. This is a key part of our strategy for operating within the global network of information providers. The NDIS will have a Z39.50 server capability and it is intended to implement this during the two-year project timeframe. The NLA is also reviewing the business case for developing a Z39.50 gateway from its own WWW Home Page to the NDIS during the project timeframe.
However, when the Libraries reviewed these issues, it was decided that a text-based interface was also still needed, as the NDIS will provide a range of services additional to the searching and document requesting functions supported by the Z39.50 standard. A text based interface will therefore also be developed as part of Phase 1.
The text-based interface will allow users to migrate without necessarily upgrading their terminals. The ad hoc user will be able to access NDIS from a broad range of terminals (with basic VT100 emulation) and Macintosh and X-terminal users will be supported until the Macintosh and X-terminal clients are developed. Multiple devices accessing the NDIS via the text-based interface will still be able to be clustered to obtain the performance benefits of the Client Server architecture.
The full Graphical User Interface service will not be limited to the level of functionality that can be provided on the text-based service. Hence the text based interface to NDIS may be limited in some areas.
However, it is important to note that both the Graphical User Interface and the text based interface will provide users with access to a Z39.50 client capability - that is, they will both provide transparent gateway access to external information providers via Z39.50 protocols.
Specific questions regarding client software can be directedto the NDIS Project Office on 1800 026155 (toll free) or (06)2621549 or E-mail: cballant@nla.gov.au
'Thanks for Answering Our Questions'
Thank you to all participants in the National Library's recent surveys involving ABN and Ozline Users. Your time and effort in answering the questionnaires was greatly appreciated and the results of both surveys will assist the National Library in making soundly based decisions for the NDIS Project.
The two questionnaires each covered a different aspect of the library industry. One questionnaire aimed to develop an overview of each sector of the library and information community, its resources and practices. The second questionnaire investigated the computer and communications environment of leased line and external SNA network connected ABN users. The response to both surveys was very good.
Free Databases during March and April
March
During the month of March you will be able to access two Ozline databases free of charge.
They are being offered as part of the free database of the month program. REEF covers published material about the Great Barrier Reef and its Marine Park. It includes references on subject areas such as zoology, botany, oceanography, geology and tourism.
The Australian Conferences Database (CONF) covers forthcoming conferences, seminars and workshops to be held in Australia. It also covers significant conferences to be held in the Asian Pacific Region and any Australian conferences being held overseas. While the conferences covered are predominantly in the science and technology fields, many other disciplines are covered as well.
If you are organising a conference and would like to advertise it on CONF, please contact Loretta Ciric on ph: (03) 4187260.
April
In April you will be able to access ENGN and FILM free of charge.
The Australian Engineering Database (ENGN) is produced by the Institution of Engineers, Australia. It provides references to the publications of the Institution. It also covers some publications of The Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating and The Concrete Institute of Australia. ENGN covers all areas of engineering including structural, civil, mechanical, electronic, electrical, chemical, transport, water, railway, computers, agriculture, management tunnelling and geomechanics. It is updated monthly and covers material from 1980.
CSIRO Films (FILM) is a catalogue of films and videos made by CSIRO since 1946. The database is produced by CSIRO Information Services and is updated annually.
If any of the four databases mentioned above, namely REEF, CONF, ENGN or FILM is of interest to you, then do not miss the feast of information which can be accessed free of charge during the months of March and April. If you are a member of the Ozline Network, then just sign on to either Ozline or our user-friendly interface, SOFI.
Want to Learn More about the NDIS Project, But Don't Know Where to Look?
You are invited to subscribe to NDIS-L, the new listserve discussion list set up for people interested in the National Document and Information Service (NDIS) Project being undertaken jointly by the National Libraries of Australia and New Zealand.
The NDIS Project will develop services which will replace the current library systems of Australian Bibliographic Network, Ozline, New Zealand Bibliographic Network and Kiwinet. The new system will provide faster, more efficient document search, ordering and delivery facilities, as well as greatly improved cataloguing and indexing facilities.
NDIS-L is open to everyone interested in the NDIS project, giving subscribers the opportunity to ask questions, and to learn about the latest developments of the NDIS Project.
To subscribe to NDIS-L send the message: subscribe NDIS-L [your firstname] [your lastname] to listproc@nla.gov.au
If you have any queries please telephone the Help Desk toll-free on 1800 026155.
More Trainers for ABN & Ozline
![[Photo: DTA trainers]](./abn79c.gif)
DTA trainers (left) Merry Joyce, Margaret Cottington, Ann
Hannan, Jacki Ganeddran, Susan McDonald, Sharon Howells, Julie Young, Shirley
Firth, Tom Ruthven (NLA training), Kong Liu.
After a week of training in early February, eight new trainers are ready to begin teaching ABN and Ozline training courses. They are Margaret Cottington, Adelaide Institute of TAFE. Shirley Firth, RMIT Central Library. Jacki Ganendran, ACT Institute of Technology. Ann Hannan, Box Hill College of TAFE. Sharon Howells, University of Newcastle. Merry Joyce, University of Tasmania. Kong Liu, State Library of NSW. Susan McDonald, University of Newcastle. Julie Young, State Library of NSW. Five existing training agents, Carolyn Tredrea, Jay Douglas, Cheryl Grant, Susanne Moir and Susan MacDougall have added Basic Authority Control to the existing courses they run. Susanne has also added Ozline and Carolyn Input/Edit.
Apart from Ozline, the courses that were run will be needed until Phase 2 of NDIS. The Ozline searching system will be replaced in Phase 1. The new searching system for ABN will be available in Phase 1, but the existing inquiry system will be used to access the cataloguing module until Phase 2.
A revised list of all training agents is being prepared, and will be distributed with the next issue of ABN News with Ozline News.
Your microform holdings statements!!
Does your library hold all or part of the following microform collections?
We are aware that the following libraries have holdings, and we will be contacting them directly:
NUN; NWU; SU; VU; WMDU.
Contact Jacob Young on (02) 62621683 or 1800 026155 or E=mail: jyoung@nla.gov.au for more information.
Ozline users will be interested in the latest developments in the APAIS area.
There have been several changes to the list of journals indexed comprehensively for 1995. All articles will be indexed from these journals, and a complete list of the comprehensively indexed titles can be found in any issue of APAIS. The new ones for 1995 are:
There have been no thesaurus changes for 1995, although a number of possible changes for 1996 are already being evaluated. Users of APAIS are welcome to comment on the thesaurus and propose changes (additions, deletions or terminology changes)
When APAIS subscribers were surveyed a year ago, a number of those responding to the survey commented on the irregular indexing of newspapers. Improved indexing of The Australian was the most common theme among those comments. Arrangements have now been made for scanning by APAIS staff of each issue of The Australian, and all articles in that newspaper which meet normal APAIS selection criteria will be indexed. Indexing of other newspaper titles is unchanged.
The Library has taken the first steps toward the storing of images of articles indexed in APAIS. Articles are to be photocopied as they pass through the indexing process, and will be made available to Silver Stream Pty Ltd, which intends to produce a CD-ROM product (The Definite Article) containing images of the documents.
Access to the images will be by APAIS control number, and from the January 1995 issue of APAIS this number will appear in the citations in the printed APAIS (it already appears in the online and CD-ROM versions of the database). A further change to the APAIS record will be a brief note "Image not available" for any article unable to be imaged. This will include newspaper articles, those unable to be photocopied without the risk of damage to the original, those over A4 in size, or material for which copyright clearance is not available.
The National Library plans to build up an electronic image bank of full text documents for provision of online document supply in the NDIS. Further information about the imaging project, including product availability, will be made available as the project progresses.
The APAIS thesaurus is now available on diskette, in ASCII or Word for Windows format, for $A150.00. The thesaurus on diskette is completely up-to-date (including all amendments for 1995). Any institution or individual wishing to acquire the data in this form is asked to contact:
Manager, National Bibliographic Publications Section
National
Library of Australia
Telephone: (02) 62621523
Facsimile: (02) 62731180
E-mail: shenders@nal.gov.au
Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation Library
ANSTO is Australia's national nuclear research and technology organisation. Its research efforts are directed towards the practical utilisation of nuclear science and technology for the benefit of Australia. ANSTO is based, with CSIRO, at the Lucas Heights Research Laboratories in Sydney. ANSTO Library provides library and information services that support scientific, research, commercial and other activities of both organisations on site.ANSTO's Library Manager, Raymond Hill, and his team manage and access an extensive array of electronic and paper based information resources, which includes a collection of over 700,000 technical reports, 2,000 journals, 45,000 books, standards and patents.
Although the collection is multi-disciplinary, its main strength lies in nuclear science. Library staff are active users of internet resources.
ANSTO's online catalogue, which is part of the CSIRO CLINES Network, records books and other materials received after 1982, as well as all journals held by the Library. Pre 1983 material is recorded in the Library's card catalogue and work is underway to transfer these records to the online catalogue. The Library maintains other databases which include internal ANSTO reports and external technical reports. The online catalogue and other internal databases are accessible through the site network. An extensive collection of CD ROM products has also been networked.
ANSTO Library is also the Australian input centre for the INIS database, which is a decentralised information system covering the peaceful use of nuclear science and operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in collaboration with over 90 member states and international organisations. ANSTO Library scans and records all Australian nuclear science literature into this database.
While the library primarily services the two scientific organisations on site, the wider community may access collections and resources through inter library loan arrangements.
ANSTO Library has been an ABN member for about 10 years and has gradually moved towards becoming a full member. We warmly welcome them as ABN Full Service members.
The Annual Users' meeting will be held on 18-19 July 1995 at the World Congress Centre, Cnr Spencer and Flinders Sts Melbourne.
Helen Livingston has been elected unapposed as the Chairperson of the meeting. She is in the process of setting the agenda and need your suggestions. If you have any matters which you believe deserve discussion, or questions which you would like to raise, please contact Helen Livingston by 17 March. Your proposal may take the form of a briefing note or you may wish to argue a case with a draft resolution for the meeting to consider.
Helen can be contacted at, Library, Deakin University Geelong Vic 3217. Tel: (052) 271346 or E-mail: helen@deakin.edu.au
Registration forms will be sent out at the end of April.
ABN Database Clean-Up
Special programs were run to delete 312,475 unwanted `headings' from the ABN database. These unwanted headings, commonly called `orphans' include name, subject and series headings which are not linked to any bibliographic record. The orphans are created when the bibliographic records to which they belong are removed from the database. Typically this happens when database records are replaced by incoming records from a superior source, or upgraded records which contain corrected errors or updated CIP (Cataloguing-in-Publication) data.
The elimination of these orphan headings will make searching more efficient, and will reduce the workload for cataloguers in their efforts to implement authority control. Thanks to the Victorian Users Group for suggesting that the `Orphans Deletion Job' be run again - as you will see from the large number of orphans deleted, it was long overdue.
17 January, 1995
New Ozline Database
The Australian Federal Police Digest (AFPD) is now available through Ozline. To introduce AFPD to Ozline customers, all use of the database (excluding offline prints) was free for January and February. This offer included searching via both the STAIRS and SOFI interfaces and provided an excellent opportunity to explore this new database. AFPD indexes Australian and overseas articles with a major focus on police operations, management and training. Other subject areas are those of interest to personnel involved in law enforcement and community policing, including law, criminology, public administration, and occupational health and safety.
27 January, 1995
Australian Changes to LCSH
The latest statistics from the Library of Congress show that last year the National Library of Australia contributed 48 additions or changes to the Library of Congress Subject Headings. This is the seventh largest contribution outside the Library of Congress, with Australia coming in behind the OCLC, California Academy of Science, the US Government Printing Office, the Universities of Georgia and Oregan, and the Hennepin County Public Library. Congratulations and thank you to all those enterprising Australian cataloguers who have submitted proposals to the hard working ABN Subject Headings Review Panel. Any Australian cataloguer may propose additions or changes to LCSH. See section 610 of the ABN Cataloguing Manual for information on how to develop and present a successful proposal.
Chairperson of the Annual Users Meeting
Only one nomination, from Helen Livingston, Associate University Librarian, Deakin University, was received for the position of Chairperson of the 1995 Annual Users Meeting. Accordingly, Helen has been declared elected to the position unopposed.
8 February, 1995
Chinese Japanese & Korean Serials
This month the National Library will commence loading MARC records to the NBD for Chinese, Japanese and Korean serials. The Library has taken out a subscription to the Library of Congress CJK serials file. Commencing with a retrospective load of data to the end of 1994, to be followed by monthly updates during 1995.
The CJK serials records will complement the CJK books records which the Library has been loading to the NBD since 1987.
The CJK characters will be stripped from the records before the records are loaded to the NBD. When the National CJK System is implemented later this year, all CJK records will be loaded to that system with the CJK characters and the Romanised data.
9 February, 1995
ABN/OZLINE Standards Committee Elections Results
The successful candidates for the Standards Committee (in order of election) are:
Leonie Bourke (CAVAL Ltd)
Andrew Wells (State Library of New South Wales)
Barbara Reif (Edith Cowan University)
21 February
National Bibliographic Database Statistics - January 1995
Bibliographic File 10,909, 448 Holdings statements 21,499,553 Authority File 1,381,743 Original cataloguing 1,587,873
ANB 1972 - present LC BOOKS 1968 - 26/12/94 LC SERIALS 1973 - 30/11/94 LC FILMS 1972 - 30/11/94 LC MUSIC 1984 - 30/11/94 LC MAPS 1973 - 30/11/94 LC CJK 1988 - 30/11/94 USGPO 1976 - 30/11/94 USNLM BOOKS 1984 - 07/12/93 USNLM SERIALS 1984 - 07/12/93 BNB 1971 - 09/01/95 CANADIANA 1974 - 30/11/94 NZNB 1982 - 20/12/94 SNB 1967 - 31/12/94
Total Bibliographic Records 10,944,145 Interims 522,247 Full Bibliographic Records 10,421,898 Books 8,532,459 Serials 989,925 Nonbooks 899,514
Cartographic materials 222,168 Sound recordings 223,424 Music scores 156,397 Video recordings 90,803 Motion pictures 71,839 Pictorial materials 35 080 Filmstrips 25,498 Manuscripts 22,690 Slides 16,664 Kits 6,034 Transparencies 2,822 Charts 1,598 Games 1,531 Other 72,833