About our Modernization and Library Automation Program

MBNA Grant Press Release
Maine State Library Grant

Overview - Library Automation Program

Books are currently housed in the library's antiquated 200-year old building located on the west bank of the St. George River near Appleton's Town Office. The library also houses a collection of unique documents and photographs of local historical interest. A Macintosh computer, scanner, and printer are available to patrons on site, and, as a participant in the Maine School and Library Network, the library offers a dedicated connection to the Internet. The library's "shelf list" and card catalog is carefully, if laboriously, maintained using handwritten cards and labels.

Appleton's library recognizes that to remain a central and vibrant asset to its community, it must grow with the times and provide to its patrons a modernized facility and efficient electronic services in addition to excellent programming. The library has thus begun a long-range effort to renew its physical plant, its holdings, its programming, and its management tools and infrastructure.

This grant will provide an automated catalog and circulation system by which the library will be able not only to sufficiently manage its holdings and circulation, but through which it will be able to make these holdings known to a greater state- and world-wide audience.

The Infrastructure

The Automated Library System

Software

After researching the many software packages available for small library automation, Appleton's library has settled on CASPR, a California vendor whose software integrates both a local catalog running at the library facility and a Web-based catalog accessible from anywhere on the Internet. The packages are "LibraryWorld" and "LibraryCom." Detailed information about both may be found at

http://www.CASPR.com
and
http://www.librarycom.com

In its simplest form ("Bronze Edition"), LibraryWorld is a library cataloging system with a "human interface" to the library's core MARC record database. In its more featured form ("Silver Edition"), LibraryWorld includes a complete circulation system that allows creation or import of patron records, checking items out, in, renewing, placing items on hold, reserving, or changing their status. A set of circulation overdue notices, letters, and lists provide easy accountability of holdings, and portable inventory control allows checking for items missing, misshelved or not checked-in. More than 3000 libraries currently use LibraryWorld software.

The Appleton library feels that remote access to its catalog through the Internet is important for its patrons, not just to browse the library's collections but to know if an item is "in" or "out" at any given time. In rural Appleton, some families must drive a quarter of an hour to reach the library; on a stormy day, circulation information becomes particularly important.

LibraryCom is an application service program (ASP) designed to allow anyone with a standard Web browser to build, manage, and search an online library from any location on the Internet, including AOL. LibraryCom provides world-wide access to a library's holdings. Librarians and staff can also manage the library from any location, even from home.

According to John MacIntyre, Webmaster for CASPR, full "synchronization" between locally-maintained LibraryWorld catalogs and catalogs maintained on CASPR's LibraryCom server is scheduled for 2001. Synchronization of the LibraryWorld and LibraryCom databases is important: a librarian at Appleton's library may check out an item to a patron using the local LibraryWorld database, but until the library's database is updated on LibraryCom's server, patrons logged in remotely via the Internet will read that the item is (falsely) "in."

LibraryCom services are sold on a "per seat" basis in bundles of five seats. If a library contracts for five seats and five people are logged on simultaneously, a sixth person must wait until a user logs off and a seat becomes free. At this time and for an estimated three years, the Appleton library would require only a five-seat license. Until full synchronization is implemented during the coming year, LibraryCom staff has offered to update Appleton's catalog holdings and circulation files by e-mail attachments, gratis.

Hardware

The Appleton library currently maintains one Macintosh iMac computer with attached scanner and printer. This platform is primarially used by patrons. Middle school students use it to write essays and reports and to browse the Web while researching school assignments. Library staff uses it to print notices and correspondence. It is not currently used for cataloging, which is handwritten.

The library also has a Windows laptop computer which is used for special projects and is not connected to the library's local area network.

The library's LAN is connected to the Maine School and Library Network Wide Area Network (WAN) via a dedicated switched-56 telephone line and FRAD provided by Bell Atlantic under a federal grant. This connection to the Internet should provide sufficient bandwidth for as many as ten workstations.

The library believes that a workstation dedicated to management tasks (check-in, check-out, cataloging, etc.) should be installed at the librarian's desk along with a bar code wand and printer capable of producing bar coded labels. That primary workstation would contain the master catalog file and management software (LibraryWorld). The catalog would be accessible to patron computers across a (new) LAN using CAT5 /RJ45 cables in an Ethernet environment. An inexpensive 10baseT hub will be required to knit all the equipment together. In addition, two computers should supplement the existing iMac, so three workstations remain available for patrons to browse the card catalog, access the Internet , or write and print documents.

Consumables

The Process

Setup

Hardware, software, and supplies must be purchased. Computer systems must be installed and tested.

Shelf List

Automating Appleton's library must begin with a complete survey of its holdings. The library's current "shelf list" is a carefully handwritten document that must be checked against the shelves and keyed into a database on the computer. A custom database in FileMaker will be programmed by a library volunteer. Simple to use, it will contain minimal fields: Title, Author, ISBN, and LCCN.

MARC Records

The LibraryWorld and LibraryCom software require complete MARC records for each holding. From the simple Filemaker database of books and other items actually on the shelf at Appleton's library, a complete MARC record file can be automatically generated for each. A MARC record contains great amounts of information about a publication, and millions of MARC records are maintained in a master file at the Library of Congress. Carl Beizer of the Maine State Library has offered to run Appleton's shelf list against the LC MARC English database to create a MARC record database that can be imported into LibraryWorld and LibraryCom. He predicts 60% to 70% success. Some items may not match, and for these, the MARC records will need to be created "by hand."

As many as 1000 or more books or other items may need to be entered into the computer individually. For this task, a special committee of volunteers has been formed to properly create the simple MARC records (with the book in hand) to correct exceptions that fall out of the automated process, and to correctly catalog special holdings such as photographs and diarys.

Labels

When the MARC record databases are uploaded to the automation software, the library catalog is finally on line and "searchable," but much work is left to be done. For each book, labels must be printed, and each book must be pulled from the shelf to have the labels affixed (inside front and spine). This work will be undertaken by library staff and volunteers.

Schedule From the arrival of computer equipment and software, one week will be required to install the hardware and software. For all but cataloging and circulation functions, this gear will become immediately useful to library patrons.

Four weeks will be required for library volunteers to create the Filemaker database of holdings.

One week will be required to create the first MARC record catalog file (60% hits)

Six weeks will be required to enter MARC record exceptions (40% misses)

Eight weeks will be required to label all books and other holdings.

Running Time: 20 Weeks.

In-kind Contributions Among the library's volunteers are knowledgeable and computer-literate persons who will work side-by-side with less experienced volunteers, training them not only for the specific tasks required for conversion of the catalog from a manual to automated system, but training them also to use the new LibraryWorld and LibraryCom software. Volunteers who are not currently computer literate will become knowledgeable and comfortable with this new technology.

The library estimates that its many volunteers will contribute more than 300 hours to this automation upgrade project. Following is the Appleton Library Volunteer List (updated 12/9/2000)

Brown, Nancy 785-4293 bignance@juno.com
Burke, Donald 785-3936
Flynn, Kathy 785-3264 kflynn@mint.net
Horne, Joel 785-6576 jvhorne@earthlink.net
Keiran, Debbie 785-2418 kkdj@ime.net
Kelley, Lyn 785-2182 dkelley@midcoast.com
Kreps, Jonathan 785-2210 jkreps@jaretcohn.com
O'Neil, Lili 785-2716
Pease, Lisa 785-2222 wildroses@1friendly.com
Pitman, Barbara 594-9064 jepitman@midcoast.com
Pitman, Jim 594-9064 jepitman@midcoast.com
Pottle, Manette 785-3118 arbor@midcoast.com
Sherman, Sue 785-4794 fenn@midcoast.com
Tracy, Elaine 785-5547 retracy@tidewater.net
Tracy, Dick 785-5547 retracy@tidewater.net
Vaughan, Tay 785-5522 tay@timestream.com
Whittier, Scott 785-6453
Woodman, Charles 785-4715

In addition to volunteer labor, contributions from local businesses will be solicited to provide incidental but necessary items such as computer desks and furniture, refreshments for work parties, and other miscellany as the need may arise.