Stuart Ferguson

CHAPTER 8 – Library systems development

This chapter examines the development of computerized library systems. It builds on previous chapters, which dealt first with computer applications in libraries and then with the supporting technology. The chapter opens with an outline of the main options for systems development facing library managers. Where practicable, the emphasis is on a top-down approach, which takes as its starting point the data-processing and information needs of the library and not simply the availability of the technology. The chapter introduces the traditional systems analysis and design approach, before focusing on the way in which libraries generally go about acquiring new systems, which is to purchase prewritten software packages. Specific aspects of the systems development are examined, including project management, writing specifications, selecting systems, implementing systems, and the final systems evaluation.

CHAPTER 2 – Information sources and services

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the ways in which systems, technology, and networks support information provision in libraries. In other words, attention shifts from the so-called virtual library, in which the library resembles a subject directory or any other portal in acting as a switching centre that connects with primarily Web-based resources world-wide, to the “hybrid” library, in which libraries provide users with access to a range of electronic, audiovisual, and print information resources through the complementary strategies of access and acquisitions: that is, the provision of access to information resources via the Internet, in response to specific requests for information, and the development of “collections” of resources (many of them still print-based), in anticipation of requests for information. The chapter discusses the development of virtual reference services, what an online database is, outlines the information services provided by online vendors, the development of in-house databases, and describes the developments in the delivery of non-electronic information resources.

CHAPTER 5 – Generic data management software

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on generic computer software that is used for data management. The two main types of software discussed are text retrieval systems and database management systems. Text retrieval systems have been mentioned already as a means of searching online hosts such as Dialog and CD-ROMs. Database management systems represent a radically different approach to data management and, since they form the basis of some leading commercial library management systems, they are discussed in some detail. The chapter also includes an examination of two special solutions to text retrieval problems, hypertext and expert systems, and a brief discussion of personal bibliographic software. It concludes with an outline of the main facilities of spreadsheet software, which is used primarily for the management of numerical data.