lib-MOCS-KMC364-20131012114220 nated, volume-oriented, resource-sharing electronic ordering process. For information relative to BISAC trans- mission formats or BISAC membership, write to: Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee, 160 Fifth Ave., Suite 604, New York, NY 10010. For input to BISAC purchase order for- mats, write to: J. K. Long, Chairman, BI- SAC P.O. Subcommittee, c/o OCLC, Inc., 6565 Frantz Rd., Dublin, OH 43017. (Mr. Long is also the library or network repre- sentative on the ISBN advisory council.) For input to the ANSI Z39 P.O. transmis- sion formats, write to: Mr. E. Muro, Chair- man, Subcommittee U, c/o Baker & Taylor Co., 6 Kirby Ave., Somerville, NJ 08876. For problems with the ISBN and SAN, write to: Mr. Emory I Koltay, Interna- tional Standard Book Numbering Agency, 1180 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 20036. Microcomputer Backup to Online Circulation Sheila INTNER: Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Our primary objective in purchasing microcomputer systems for the Great Neck Library was to provide a better alternative to paper and pencil checkouts when our minicomputer-based CLSI LIBS 100 auto- mated circulation system was down. Two difficult and lengthy downtime periods oc- curring shortly after going online convinced the administration that public service should not be jeopardized because of system failure. After investigation of the backup systems vended by Computer Translation, Inc., 1 two of them were purchased in No- vember 1980. Computer Translation, Inc. (CTI) sells a turnkey backup system based on an Apple II Plus microcomputer, with two mini-disk drives using 5 '14 " floppy diskettes, a TV monitor, and a switching system connect- ing the Apple to the LIBS 100 console and terminals. Software designed to interface with the CLSI system is part of the package. The backup collects and stores data for Communications 297 check-ins and checkouts and then dumps them into the database by simulating a ter- minal when the mini-main-frame is opera- tional again. This requires dedicating a ter- minal to this process until complete. It can also be used alone as a portable unit for circulation purposes, or with any of the many Applesoft packages available, or with an Applesoft program of the user's own de- sign. Our initial experience in Great Neck was with a borrowed demonstration system, set up by a sympathetic CTI representative on the spur of the moment in tandem with and connected to the Main Library checkout station's CRT laser terminal after several days of downtime. The circulation staff cheered as the familiar prompts appeared on both screens. They used the CLSI equip- ment which they were accustomed to oper- ating and the computer room staff learned to operate the CTI system. The ease with which the Apple could be transported to different locations in the building and the immediate relief it gave wherever it was connected, sometimes one checkout station, sometimes another, led us to put off decid- ing on a permanent installation at first. We thought it might be more advantageous to keep it on a rolling cart and use it wherever a terminal was down, or wherever the traf- fic appeared to be heaviest. We continued in this manner for a while even after both of our own Apple systems were delivered. It soon became apparent that the Apple and its accompaniments, especially the switching system with its dangling cables, was a nuisance at the checkout counter. People with piles of books or records tended to nudge it dangerously close to the edge or jiggle its connections loose. The circulation staff didn't like waiting until someone from the computer room could be spared to bring up the system, secure the connections, and turn on the Apple. Also, although the Apple is a very reliable instrument which has given us negligible downtime, bumpy rides over various floors, carpets, lintels, and tex- tured tiles occasionally loosened its chips and rendered it, too, inoperative. CTI representatives were called in to make a more permanent installation for the Apple in our computer room, a simple oper- ation requiring some additional cable. Se- 298 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 14/4 December 1981 lection of the terminals to be attached as alternate backup or dumping sites was not so easy, however. The choice of the primary backup site was not a problem, since one of the two checkout stations flanking the main door was fairly obvious. But the second ter- minal which would be preempted for dumping was a more difficult decision. Dumping sessions vary in length depending on the number of records to be processed and the activity on the rest of the LIBS 100 system. In our library, we find it takes about an hour to dump 100 to 150 transac- tions. This appears to be slower than aver- age and may well be due to the extremely high level of system activity. Thus, dump- ing 1,000 transactions would take a full working day. We had been online for such a short time that great backlogs of patron and material data entry from new registrants and unconverted books had developed and were a high priority item. Neither the circu- lation department, which was handling registrations, nor technical services, which was handling materials, felt they could af- ford to lose much terminal time for dump- ing. Thus, the reference department's infor- mation desk terminal was reluctantly chosen as the alternate terminal on the grounds that they only did inquiries forma- terials which borrowers could locate by means of searching the catalog and making trips to the shelves. If necessary, informa- tion desk personnel could step across the aisle to the circulation department and use a terminal there. The permanent installation was set up in this way for one backup system , while the other one remained mobile in the event we wanted to use it at one of our three branches. Only the switching box and ca- bles were really unmovable. The Apple, drives, and monitor could still be discon- nected and moved about at will. Experience over the last few months with this arrangement demonstrated that, all things considered, it is unwise to attach two public service terminals to one Apple, in spite of the pressure it puts on behind-the- scenes operations to lose terminal time in the event of an extensive dump. The reac- tion of the public to being told a terminal that usually helped them was inoperative has been so negative it outweighed the de- lays in data entry. Therefore, a change in the current configuration will soon be made. Meanwhile, we realized the second backup system was not being used to great- est advantage. When the LIBS 100 was down, the next most pressing demand after main library checkouts were checkouts at the largest branch, located near the rail- road station. We were collecting about thirty transactions an hour or less at other locations in the main building while the sta- tion branch staff were writing down twice that amount or more and explaining to their public that the computer was down. It seemed important to pursue the possibility of connecting one of the station branch's terminals to the second Apple while keeping the Apple itself in the computer room in the main library. Not only was there even less space in the branch for another piece of hardware on their counter, but staff train- ing and hardware control presented a greater problem since many more part-time people were employed there. CTI worked on the problem for about two months, resolving it through the addi- tion of a modem to the basic configuration. In this new installation, which we did our- selves with phone assistance from CTI, and which has been operational for three weeks as of this writing, the dedicated phone line connector for the branch terminal is re- moved from its port on the LIBS 100 console and inserted into one of the switching box connectors. The Apple is turned on as usual and the CRT laser terminal at station branch appears to operate normally. In fact, it operates so closely to its usual LIBS 100 mode that staff members forget they are not online with the LIBS and call up to find out why inquiries don't work. We are still experiencing a significant amount of downtime with our LIBS 100. Some of this is attributable to our relatively full storage, requiring us to perform house- keeping routines frequently, but the rest is a result of system failure. Now, however, be- cause of the Apples, this causes far less an- guish in the circulation department. When the LIBS 100 goes down, the permanently connected backups are switched on in the computer room by their staff and circula- tion clerks continue checking materials out on their regular CLSI equipment in the main library and station branch. On days when housekeeping chores are scheduled, the console operator's job includes turning on the Apples so we can begin serving the public when the doors open at 9:00 a.m. Unless downtime persists for more than a day, no other routines are done except checkouts. Under some circumstances, cer- tain materials might be checked in on the Apple, but it is not desirable to do this for newer materials on which holds may have been placed. When the LIBS 100 is online again, the checkout station is switched back to normal mode and the Apple takes over the informa- tion desk's port for dumping, rendering that terminal inoperative. Dumping continues around the clock until all transactions have been processed from both Apples. Normal activities proceed at all other terminals. Diskettes are dumped in chronological or- der. As the dumping process operates, a file of transactions eliciting error or exception messages from the LIBS 100 is created on the Apple diskette. This file is available for attention at a later time for manual entry into the database. The chief asset of the dumping process is the accuracy achieved by automatic input- ting. When we used paper and pencil, not only was the original writing time consum- ing, but manual data entry was difficult be- cause of illegible handwriting, inaccurate transcription of the numbers, inaccurate in- putting into the database, and lack of avail- able personnel for the job. The CTI system resolves all of these difficulties, but a price is paid in the loss of the dumping terminal's services. The public may be less disturbed if a terminal in a nonpublic area is used. But to the department involved, access to the database is a central part of their work and its loss severely limits their output. In fact, dependence on the automated circulation system by all departments in the library has been swift and universal even though we originally assumed the terminals outside the circulation department would be used spar- ingly. Plans are being made to store personnel records in machine-readable form on disk- ettes. Other developments are being put on a back burner until we have less frequent Communications 299 need for the Apples as backups. However, LEVELS, Great Neck Library's Youth De- partment, has several Apples of its own on which budding "computerniks" practice their art. For them there are few limits to possible applications-perhaps only the outermost boundaries of imagination. REFERENCE 1. Joseph Covino and Sheila Intner, "An Infor- mal Survey of the CTI Computer Backup Sys- tem;ยท journal of Library Automation 14:108-10 Oune 1981). Computer-to-Computer Communication in the Acquisition Process Sandra K. PAUL: SKP Associates, New York City. In the 1970s, we entered the period of computer-to-computer communication; we now appear to have reached the second stage of development. Today more than seventy publishers are equipped to receive computer tape orders and input them di- rectly to their order fulfillment systems; twenty-six publishers can produce com- puter invoices and credits for their cus- tomers; six are capable of sending monthly updating information about titles, prices, publication dates, and books declared out of print. All of this, however, is based on a system through which computer tapes are sent from buyer to seller and back via the United States mail. The next step- computer-to-terminal or computer-to- computer communication-is just around the corner. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE How did this happen? It started in Sep- tember 1974 when DeWitt C. ("Bud") Baker, newly appointed president of the Baker & Taylor Company, envisioned the savings his company could find if their cus- tomers provided the International Stan- dard Book Number (ISBN) on their orders. He also believed that the volume of paper created by the computer was expensive and time-consuming for publishers to handle.