lib-s-mocs-kmc364-20141005044147 117 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS ISAD ANNOUNCEMENTS Please note a change of address for the editor of Technical Communications: Send all future news releases, technical com- munications, and announcements to Don L. Bosseau, Director of Libraries, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. TECHNOLOGICAL INROADS Artificial Intelligence Transistors and other circuit elements of the new generation of computers are so tiny and fitted so closely together that it becomes feasible to combine thinking cir- cuits and memory units on a single chip. Thus, one cell in the computer's memory bank can both remember and reason. This is a major step closer to artificial intelli- gence. In July 1971, the Japanese government eannarked $100,000,000 for an eight year study of artificial intelligence. Japanese in- dustry accepts the conclusion that it could be increasingly dependent on "intelligent" computers. A technical report dated February 1971 reads; "The development of these tiny chips presages a time when the electronic brain will rival the human brain in com- plexity and memory. The identity of the fully educated computer may become blurred with that of its programmer-teach- er! It may exhibit esthetic and artistic judgments of an interesting degree of subtlety. Responses akin to feeling and emotion need not be excluded from its training if they may enhance its perform- ance." Along with artificial intelligence will come electronic voice recognition. Voice recognition by the computer-in other words, a computer that will respond to oral command-is making significant en- gineering progress. RCA reports that its voice command machine responds to twenty-eight of the basic sounds in the English language.-(Extracted from Ad- vertising Age, March 19, 1973). CBS Laboratories Invents Way to Produce Microfilm Pictures by Laser Dr. William E. Glenn, Jr., director of research at CBS Laboratories, a division of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., has been granted a U.S. patent for an im- proved method of recording and repro- ducing information from microfilm. By means of a splitbeam laser, pictorial or printed information is transferred to a metal master. This metal master disk is similar to the type used in the record in- dustry and, from this disk, duplicates can be stamped at low cost. "The market potential," Dr. Glenn stated, "will not only include the cassette and film industry, but it can be an asset to libraries and government printing as well. This system," he further stated, "is designed for recording and reproducing picture infonnation. It uses diffraction gratings that are modulated in accordance with the picture information. Reproduction is effected by directing light through the medium. The zero-order diffracted light is modulated in accordance with the picture information." The patent, assigned to Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., will offer re- duced costs for recording on microfilm. It has potential for use in the motion picture film industry, libraries, and cassette r~ cording. CBS Laboratories has made other outstanding advances in laser technology which include the Laser Color Film Re- corder, Holography, and the Holographic Scanner. l i I 118 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 6/ 2 June 1973 Microimagery-Solution to the Information Explosion Tomorrow's busy businessman will have the information necessary to do his job right at his flngertips, due to the growing acceptance of microimagery as the solution to the information explosion. "In every area of business today, the need for information is increasing faster than any individual can keep up," says Walter Steel, Bell & Howell's vice-presi- dent of microimagery marketing. "Uni- versity courses are now teaching kids to be generalists and how to flnd the informa- tion on what they need to know. They're learning that the vehicle to the access of information sometimes is more important than the knowledge," Steel says. The seventies will be known as the decade of microfilm, just like the sixties for the copier and the fifties for the com- puter, according to Steel. Microfilm is half- way between the computer and the copier as a support to business, because it in- cludes copies and peripherals to the com- puter. Soon the copier will become periph- eral to microfllm, Steel states. Steel calls microimagery, "the im- mediate communication tool." It's the new media that fits the new world of business. Soon companies will be saying to their customers, "We11 send you our computer once a week." Technical journals will simply send their subscribers a paper news- letter that hits the high spots, along with a deck of microfiche and a new index, plus a retrospective new index each month, Steel forecasts. "Microfilm won't ever totally replace paper," says Steel, "but it will replace file cabinets and storage areas, plus it will simplif,Y the filing system in any size office. Steel says that the potential for micro- film is greatest in the business records market. The bank market was the base for the microfilm business, but it's no longer predominant, according to Steel. "The basic unique value of microimagery is that it saves money. Our goal at Bell & Howell is to be able to provide a complete micro- film system for the small office market for under $1,000. That would include a camera, microfilm processor and viewer," he stated. In light of increasing postage costs, many publishers are actively investigating microimagery. Ten pounds of printed mat- ter are reduced in microforms to an ounce or less. With the development of micro- fiche having a 50 to 1 ratio (i.e., 510 images on a 4 x 6 inch fiche) , 90 percent of the books published could be available on a single microfiche each. The book of the month club could become the fiche of the month club. In every profession there's new tech- nology that the successful manager must have access to in order to continue his success. Microimagery can put that knowl- edge at his fingertips. REPORTS-REGIONAL PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES New UC Library Automation Office Established Berkeley-Coordination of multicampus automation projects serving the University of California's libraries has been placed in a central office under a director of the University-wide Library Automation Pro- gram (ULAP). Jay L. Cunningham, a project manager in UC's Institute of Li- brary Research, has been appointed to the director's position. Library automation has been underway for several years at the University of Cali- fornia, which is considered one of the pioneers in this field. Each of the nine campus libraries has specialists for auto- mation on its staff, and a central staff has been also working on such problems in the university-wide Institute of Library Re- search ( ILR) . With growing emphasis on automation, coordination of the various campus projects becomes increasingly important to insure that applications are compatible. UC also maintains close contact with similar efforts at the California State University and Colleges. Coordination of a number of horary functions by these two segments of public higher education may be greatly facilitated by automated procedures. In recent years, such coordinating tasks have fallen more and more on ILR, an organized research unit directed by a pro- fessor in Berkeley's School of Librarianship, Charles P. Bourne, who also served as acting ULAP director for the past eighteen months. Since the primary task of such units is research in support of the univer- sity's educational function, the responsi- bility for development and operation of university-wide automated procedures has been made into a full-time assignment, with Cunningham taking over as ULAP director from Professor Bourne. A close working relationship will be maintained between the two groups. Among projects well under way are the following: UniverSity of California Union Catalog Supplement. The Berkeley and UCLA catalogs published in book form in 1963 have been recently supplemented by a forty-seven-volume set showing all mono- graphs cataloged by all nine campuses dur- ing the five years 1963 through 1967. Preparation and printing of the more than 750,000 titles was done by semiautomatic methods. Union List af Serials. All serial publica- tions, including book series and scholarly journals, to which UC libraries subscribe are entered in another list that is to be continually updated, a task greatly simpli- fied by the computer. Scholars and other library users will be able to determine im- mediately which UC campus subscribes to any serial and how complete its holdings are. Bibliographic Center. In addition to housing the above two projects, this center helps in processing newly acquired books by printing catalog cards by computer at the ULAP headquarters. Cards can be ordered by a UC library in full sorted sets, including multiple sets if needed for branch libraries. The new system supple- ments the present method of ordering cards separately from outside vendors or producing them on each campus. Among projects envisaged for the future are automated circulation procedures, un- der which each borrower would be given a machine-readable card and the charge slip Technical Communications 119 in the back of the book would likewise be machine-readable, such as a punched card. This method would speed the checking out of books and facilitate statistical studies. Other projects include a clearing- house that would indicate instantaneously whether a new book recommended for purchase has been already ordered by an- other campus; and the streamlining of li- brary accounting procedures. Cunningham is a graduate of Cornell University and holds the Master of Library Science degree from Berkeley. Before joining the ILR staff, he served as a li- brary systems specialist at the Library of Congress, and as a U.S. Air Force officer for four years. The new director will report directly to Vice-President-Academic Affairs Angus E. Taylor, a university-wide official. Committee Undertakes Implementation of Program Which Will Afford University- Wide "Direct Access" State University of New York students will soon benefit from more direct access to the 7.5 million books and 6.2 million slides, films, recordings, and other research materials contained in libraries on the uni- versity's thirty-four state campuses. That the university is moving to provide faculty and students with walk-in privi- leges at any of the libraries at the twenty- nine state-operated campuses and the five statutory colleges at Alfred and Cornell Universities, was announced recently by University Chancellor Ernest L. Boyer. The proposed system, which has the en- dorsement of the Faculty Senate of the university, will greatly improve upon the university's current interlibrary loan pro- gram under which beaks at cooperating libraries can be borrowed through the mails. Working in cooperation with State Uni- versity librarians, Chancellor Boyer has an- nounced the formation o£ a committee of librarians and administrators to develop a timetable and procedures to implement the program. The committee will be chaired by Willis Bridegam, director of libraries at the University Center at Binghamton. 120 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 6/ 2 June 1973 The other members of the panel are Dr. Philip Sirotkin, vice-president for academic aHairs at the University Center at Albany; Don Cook of the University Center at Stony Brook; Mary Cassata of the Univer- sity Center at Buffalo; George Cornell, College at Brockport; and Henry Murphy of Cornell University. In addition to developing a program timetable and procedures, the committee will also explore the future possibility of extending access privileges to the faculty and students at the thirty-eight locally- sponsored community colleges. The expanded library access policy is seen as an essential step in the university's efforts to use its library resources more effectively, particularly since the cost of acquiring books and periodicals has grown at an extraordinary rate in recent years. Some publications costs have increased at the rate of 15 percent p er year. State University of New York is the first major multicampus system to intro- duce such a reciprocal program on so wide a scale, although the library system of the State University of Illinois has a similar policy, limited to faculty and grad- uate students. The growing use of modern computer and data processing techniques is another cost control program the university has implemented in administration of its li- braries. Shared cataloging techniques and the compilation of lists of university-wide locations will be developed to enable li- brary users expeditiously to locate books and reference tools. The policy will be particularly beneficial to students of the University's Empire State College, since they are not campus- based and must rely heavily on library collections near their homes or places of employment. The policy will also make it much more convenient for students and faculty to conduct research and complete reference assignments in other parts of the state during vacation and intersession periods. Collectively, the libraries at the univer- sity's state campuses comprise one of the greatest collections of titles and reference materials in the world. Holdings for the 1971- 72 academic year included 7,551,333 volumes, 237,428 microfilms, another 5,- 115,584 units in other forms of microtext, 20,587 slides, 71,007 recordings, 86,662 maps, 90,694 periodical titles, 29,334 ad- ditional serial titles, and 541,007 printed government documents-for a grand total of 13,743,636 entries. POTPOURRI U.S. Experts Study Soviet Science Information System and Services Eight United States information spe- cialists from government, universities, pro- fessional societies, and private industry participated in the first U.S.-U.S.S.R. Sym- posium on Scientific and Technical Infor- mation, organized under the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Agreement on Cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology, in Moscow, June 18-19. The group led by Dr. Lee G . Burchinal, head, Office of Science Infor- mation Service, National Science F ounda- tion, also spent ten days in the Soviet Union visiting key information organiza- tions in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yerevan, and Kiev. The purpose of the symposium and subsequent site visits was to give the U.S. group an opportunity to learn more about the Soviet system for providing science and industry with needed scientific and technological information, and to explore feasible areas for possible future coopera- tion. In addition to Dr. Burchinal, mem- bers of the group included William T. Knox, director, National Technical Infor- mation Service, Department of Commerce; Melvin S. Day, deputy director, National Library of Medicine; Dale B. Baker, di- rector, Chemical Abstracts Service; Scott Adams, Science Communications Division, The George Washington University; Dr. Vladimir Slamecka, director, School of In- formation and Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology; Bart Holm, man- ager, Systems Development Section, In- formation Services Division, E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co.; and Jerome Luntz, sen- ior vice-president, McGraw-Hill Publica- tions Co. The group was hosted by En- gineer N. B. Arutiunov, director of the In- formation Directorate, State Committee for Science and Technology (SCST), Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. The symposium featured four presenta- tions by Soviet specialists on the following topics: 1. State scientifl.c and technical informa- tion system of the U.S.S.R. (Dr. 0. V. Kedrovskiy) 2. VINITI's integrated information sys- tem for the U.S.S.R. (Dr. A. I. Chernyy) 3. Specialized system of scientific and technical information services in instru- ment making (Dr. V. A. Rukhadze and Dr. V. M. Baikovsky) 4. Psychological aspects in charting the pathways of scientific and technical infor- mation development (Prof. Dr. G. T. Artamonov) On June 20-23, the U.S. group visited the All-Union Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI), the All- Union Scientific and Technical Information Center (VNTITsentr), the All-Union Re- search Institute of Medical and Medico- Technical Information (VNIIMI) and the State Public Library of the U.S.S.R. for Science and Technology (GPNTB-SSSR). On June 24-29, the U.S. group visited the Siberian Branch of the U.S.S.R. Acad- emy of Sciences and the Novosibirsk Cen- ter of Scientific and Technical Information, the Armenian Research Institute of Scien- tific and Technical Information and Tech- nico-Economic Studies ( ArmNIINTI), the Ukrainian Research Institute of Scien- tific and Te chnical Information and Tech- nico-Economic Studies (UkrNIINTI), and the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrai- nian Academy of Sciences. Although about .five years behind the U.S. in applications of technology, espe- cially computer and microform systems, Dr. Burchinal said, the Soviets have estab- lished a strong base for rapid future growth. Reflecting their style of central- ized, national planning, the Soviets are well advanced toward development of an integrated national information system em- bracing both science and technology. The major components of the emerging Technical Communications 121 integrated national system are { 1) cen- tralized policy, planning review, and methodological guidance provided by the State Committee for Science and Tech- nology ( SCST) ; ( 2) concentration of national backup resources in all-union (national) institutions; ( 3) eighty-two ''branch" information networks established by the industrial ministries; ( 4) develop- ment by the fifteen republic and regional information institutes of "interbranch" or interdisciplinary dissemination services to serve local industries and planning bodies. A major feature of this national informa- tion system is emphasis on the active dis- semination ("propaganda") of information about technological innovations through- out the Soviet economy. The U.S. group, D. Burchinal said, was particularly struck by the importance at- tached to information services by the highest levels of scientific and technolog- ical management in the U.S.S.R. and in the constituent republics. Their commit- ment is reflected in the resources being assigned to development of improved in- formation services. Four new buildings are being constructed in Moscow alone for All-Union scientific and technological in- formation services; staffs are being ex- panded; third-generation computer systems will be installed at numerous sites begin- ning in early 197 4; and new buildings are underway or were recently completed for n early a dozen republic and interbranch services. In short, the Soviets know where they want to go, and they are devoting con- siderable resources to achieve their na- tional objectives. The second half of the symposium be- gun in Moscow was held in Washing- ton on October 1-2. At that time U.S. and U.S.S.R. representatives sought agreement on areas of continued coopera- tion which will be reported to the Joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. Commission on Cooperation in Science and Technology when it meets in Moscow. A report of the June visit by the U.S. team to the U.S.S.R. will be available through the National Technical Informa- tion Service. 122 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 6/2 June 1973 PERTINENT PUBLICATIONS ISAD Cable TV Information Packet Now available from the American Li- brary Association's Information Science and Automation Division is a thirteen-piece packet of materials on Cable Television. Included in this information kit of articles, bibliographies, policy statements and sug- gestions are the following: • Annotated Bibliography on Cable Television for Librarians, Brigitte L. Kenney and Susan Bunting • CATV: Visual Library Service, Brig- itte L. Kenney and Frank W. Norwood • Cable Television-A Bibliographic Review, James Schoenung • Cable Television: State-of-the-Art and Franchise Recommendations, Advisory Memorandum by Nowell Leitzke • A Glossary of Terms for Cable Tele- vision and Other Broadband Com- munications, Merry Sue Smaller • Guidelines for Planning a Cable Te1e- vision Franchise, Sidney Dean, Jr. • Letter to Joe Fischer, Jr., from C. La- mar Wallis, Director of Libraries, Memphis Public Library and Informa- tion Center • Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) Position Paper on Cable Television, Jon Shafer • Planning for Urban Telecommunica- tions, Kas Kalba • Public-Cable, Inc. Statement • A Report on Cable Communications and the District of Columbia Public Library, Lawrence E. Molumby • San Francisco Public Library Video Center Policy Statement • Video/ Cable Activities in Libraries, Brigitte L. Kenney and Susan Bunting Packets are available for $2.50 each. Send order to: Cable TV Packet, Donald P. Hammer, !SAD, American Library As- sociation, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Please make checks payable to the American Library Association.