Library Technology Guides

Friedman, Morton H .

In 1897, as a special service to the blind, the Library of Congress established a small reading room stocked with approximately 500 books and music items in raised type. In 1974, a comprehensive internal study was begun by the Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (DBPH) in preparation for the automation of a library program that circulated approximately 12 million tapes, records, machines, and brailled books in that year. This paper is the description of a three year plan and a system study designed to produce a computerized union catalog and an in-process file for both DBPH and a network of almost 200 libraries throughout the nation.

A national program of free library services is available to the nation's handicapped as a joint effort of the Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (DBPH) and a network of regional and subregional libraries throughout the United States. The Library of Congress selects and produces full-length books and magazines in recorded form (disc and cassette) and in braille, and distributes them to 54 regional and over 125 subregional libraries, which circulate them to eligible persons. Reading materials are sent to readers and returned to libraries by postage-free mail.

Established by an act of Congress in 1931 to serve blind persons, this program was expanded in 1966 by Public Law 89-522 to include people with physical impairments that prevent the reading of standard print. Appropriations for the Division are made annually by Congress. In fiscal year 1975, $11,400,000 was budgeted at the federal level. Regional and subregional libraries receive funding from state and local sources. During fiscal year 1974, the combined federal, state, and local expenditures for this library program totaled over $17 million.

Anyone who is unable to read or use standard printed materials as a result of visual and physical limitations may receive services. A recent survey indicates that as many as 7.6 million persons may be eligible. Of this number, over 1 million have a visual handicap and 6 million are physically impaired by paralysis or weakness caused by conditions such as cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis.

Approximately 420,000 children and adults are currently taking advantage of the program-19,000 borrow braille and 401,000 borrow recorded materials produced for and played on special record players, cassette players, and other products manufactured to DBPH specifications. In 1974, nearly 12 million items were circulated to readers in the United States and Puerto Rico and to American citizens temporarily living abroad.

The organizational chart in Figure 1 highlights the functions of DBPH. All automation and system efforts originate from the Project Coordination Office, which operates on a staff level.

DBPH also has several unique characteristics:

1. DBPH has been assigned a combination of typical and atypical library and bibliographic center operations. Typical operations include reference, ordering, etc. Atypical operations include book selection for reproduction in special media, management of copyright clearance (reproduction permission), solicitations, development and testing of playback equipment, distribution and control of playback, equipment, etc.
2. DBPH deals with a user population requiring bibliographic descriptions that are specialized beyond standard library cataloging. To meet these user needs, DBPH must modify, to various degrees, the Library of Congress' cataloging standards (e.g., the MARC format).
3. DBPH provides little or no direct service to other Library of Congress divisions, except in specialized reference areas; it is essentially outside the normal processing, storage, and circulation systems of the Library of Congress, both manual and automated.
4. DBPH has a continuing national service responsibility with a network of regional and subregional libraries, and a relationship with various agencies producing materials for the blind and physically handicapped. To meet its goals, DBPH must be in a position to cooperate effectively with these agencies.
5. To develop an effective long-range plan for a bibliographic information system for the blind and physically handicapped, DBPH must give equal weight to internal and external system requirements. Of course, compatibility of these dual considerations is desirable, but when conflict between them arises, DBPH, by its mandate, must respond first to the external demands.

The development of an integrated bibliographic information system for the blind and physically handicapped is a long-range project. Funds have been allocated by the Congress to DBPH to begin work on the first phase of the project-the development of a bibliographic center for the blind and physically handicapped. It is expected that this work will be accomplished during the three-year period from fiscal year 1975 to fiscal year 1977.

This phased effort toward a national system recognizes the necessity of the initial development of a standardized machine-readable, core data base at DBPH; the development of national standards and procedures; and the orderly formulation of a long-range plan for implementation of a national system. Thus, the first three-year program will focus on the automation of bibliographic records.

In developing an automated system, DBPH has five basic goals:

1. to increase the effectiveness of service to the blind and physically handicapped;
2. to promote effective communication about bibliographic materials between agencies serving the blind and physically handicapped;
3. to make maximum use of appropriate Library of Congress operations, equipment, and bibliographic standards;
4. to reduce the per-unit cost of processing materials in DBPH; and
5. to devise a foundation for a national bibliographic system for the blind and physically handicapped.

THREE-YEAR AUTOMATION PLAN

In preparation for developing an automated bibliographic control system, a three-year automation plan was devised. An overall objective was specified, various tasks and subtasks were delineated for each year or phase of the project, and a total cost estimated. The three-year plan provides overall guidance in developing a complete system design and implementation schedule. It is understood that changes in requirements or other unforeseen developments may postpone, eliminate, modify, or add some tasks.

Phase 1: System Analysis, Design, and File-Building
Fiscal Year 1975

Phase 3: System installation, testing, and Monitoring
Fiscal Year 1977

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The DBPH Bibliographical Information System will contain three subsystems:

• In-process subsystem
• Union catalog subsystem
• Management information subsystem

The in-process subsystem will track the status of every title entered into the system, from the point of selection for print copy to the creation of the final authoritative bibliographic record and distribution of the books produced. The record of each title is updated with additional information as the title goes through the various stages of processing: order and receipt of print copy; review and selection; copyright clearance; cataloging; limited production (i.e., production in limited quantities by volunteers, either in braille or as cassettes); and mass production (i.e., records, cassettes, and braille produced on a printing press, in quantities sufficient for distribution to all network libraries); and distribution.

The in-process file will be a union file in the sense that it will include copyright requests from the network as well as the bibliographic records of titles not produced by DBPH. The file will be available for on-line searching and update at DBPH.

Each record representing a title in the in-process file will contain three types of information: processing status, management information, and bibliographic data.

Titles residing in the in-process file will include not only those titles in the processing and production cycle but also those titles that will not be completed for such reasons as denial of permission to reproduce (copyright), loss during processing/production and technical production problems, such as extensive illustrations, language difficulties, and document length. Management and bibliographic information concerning all such titles remains in the in-process file. Status codes will be changed to indicate that these titles are no longer in-process and are considered "dead" as of the date the change is entered. This will enable a person searching the file for purposes of selection, for example, to determine that the title has previously been considered but was not cleared for copyright.

Dead titles remaining in the file for five years will be permanently transferred to a history tape, available only for batch production of management reports.

If a rejected title is reconsidered, the appropriate changes in status code and entry date will be made through on-line access, if the title is less than five years old, or through a monthly update of the history tape, if the title is more than five years old. Should the item be accepted for production at this time, the old entry will be purged from the history tape and reentered in the in-process file as a new item.

Titles completing the processing and production cycle will be transferred out of the in-process file. The management information associated with these titles will be transferred to the management information subsystem, which supports various management reports, and the bibliographic data will reside in the union catalog subsystem, which supports the book and microfiche catalog and other publications requiring the bibliographic record.

Figure 2 includes an overview of the DBPH Bibliographic Information Subsystem and of the relationships between its major components. Figure 3 is a more detailed picture of the cataloging process.

SYSTEM ACCESSIBILITY

For the system to operate most efficiently, an access authority scheme must be established to identify the type of access available and the personnel who are to access the system.

It is of the utmost importance that the security of the data base be maintained. In order to assure that changes to the data are made by authorized parties only, security codes will be developed to permit appropriate parties to modify those files in their area of major interest. The chart in Figure 4 indicates the sections and staff permitted to interface with the system and the type of action involved. The following terms are used:

• Query—Search for information.
• Change—Input, update, deletion, merging, or sorting of data.
• Professional (P)—Professional librarian or the equivalent.
• Technician (T)—Nonprofessional librarian with decision-making responsibility within the scope of the tasks assigned by a supervisor.
• Clerk (C)—Clerk typist, secretary, or equivalent.
• Yes—Direct interface with the system.
• Indirect (I)—The section indicated requests that the action specified be accomplished by another section. (The term is used only in cases where volume of activity does not justify hands-on access to the system.)
• Blank square—No interface with the system.

Those sections needing direct access on a continuous basis should receive a terminal; all others will share a terminal located as conveniently as possible. Since the volume of activity can only be estimated at this time, no final decision concerning the actual location of terminals has been made.

INDIRECT ACCESS

Some type of regular access must be made available to the regional and subregional librarians and staff of volunteer organizations, scattered throughout the country, who cannot tap computer resources directly. Provision of this access will be accomplished through three products, one circulated annually and two others monthly throughout the DBPH network of cooperating libraries and agencies. The annual union catalog will be supplemented with a current-year cumulative monthly update. The Library Union Monthly Production (LUMP) will be issued monthly, as stated.

THE UNION CATALOG

The union catalog will contain a full bibliographic description of each title. This description will have been developed in accordance with the DBPH cataloging manual and the MARC internal format for special materials, which contains all applicable internal MARC tags and additional tags developed to meet unique DBPH requirements (annotations, collation, narrators, etc.). Full descriptions will appear under the main entry, alphabetized by author or title. The description will also include holdings information described in terms of material location code, book number, collation, lending conditions, and producing library or group code (if different from material location). Figure 5 is a sample complete entry in the union catalog. Indexes will be provided under the following additional access points:

• Subject heading
• Book number—including DBPH and local library numbers—generally used to identify medium (talking book, braille, etc.) and shelf location of books
• Narrator—person recording the book onto disc or cassette. (Many readers base their book selection partly on personal preferences for certain narrators.)
• Dewey number

Index entries will refer the reader to the appropriate full record in the main entry (author or title) section of the catalog. If there is a DBPH book number, it will be included in each index entry.

Media and Frequency of Issue

The DBPH Union Catalog will be issued annually, in both print and microfiche. This is the major product of the DBPH Bibliographic Information System. The hard copy version of the catalog will be produced in six-point type (similar to newsprint size), permitting three columns of entries per page. This should be read easily by the normally sighted and by those with some visual limitations. Discussions with selected network librarians indicate that this size is acceptable. Smaller sizes are considered to cause some eye strain when used frequently.

To assure that this type size is fully acceptable, a test catalog will be produced and distributed to the DBPH network. Feedback over a three month trial period should be sufficient to either confirm the choice or provide justification for a larger size, a different format, or layout changes. The number of pages and total cost could be substantially increased by such adjustments.

Microfiche at 42X reduction will be produced concurrently with the print version. Microfiche permits the use of a less expensive reading machine by the libraries than would be the case with microfilm. In addition, the microfiche reading machines under consideration are capable of projecting a large image on a screen for librarians with visual problems.

There are significant advantages to be gained by issuing the catalog in book form. For example, a recent survey of selected network libraries indicates a strong preference for a printed catalog because a book catalog: (a) can be used without special equipment; (b) is portable and relatively easy to handle and scan; (c) allows the insertion of notes; (d) can be used for initial reporting of unique titles and holdings of the network libraries; and (e) has a wider potential distribution outside the network, e.g., to hospital libraries, nursing homes, and retirement communities, where a large number of users or potential users may be located.

The cost and/or size of the book catalog may outweigh these advantages. Projections based on various systems surveys indicate that by 1979 a print catalog could cost over $250,000 and consist of twenty-five volumes (900 pages each). Thus, disadvantages could eventually force the print edition to be discontinued, leaving only the microfiche version.

THE LIBRARY UNION MONTHLY PRODUCTION

The Library Union Monthly Production (LUMP), derived from the in process subsystem, will contain brief entries for all titles, regardless of their stage of production, including an indication of the status of each title.

There are currently 1,500 titles in-process at any one time. It is estimated that for every ten titles that are eventually included in the union catalog, there will be five dead titles. Four out of every ten titles considered for production are rejected, and one out of every ten copyright requests is denied. All dead titles five years or older will be transferred to the history tape prior to the issuance of LUMP. The probability that a five-year-old title will be produced is low.

DBPH has been informed that the Government Printing Office would require a minimum of six weeks to produce and distribute a print issue of LUMP. At this rate of production, the lag time in terms of the currency of information would be compounded at each successive issue. In view of the scope, frequency of issue and currency requirement of LUMP, the only feasible medium is microform. Computer output microform (COM) has a turn-around time of three to five days. LC is considering the acquisition of in-house COM-production capability, but now relies on outside resources.

UNION CATALOG MONTHLY UPDATE

DBPH plans to issue an update to the union catalog, which will be cumulated monthly and printed on microfiche. This update will provide complete bibliographic information under the main entry with indexes by subject heading, book number, narrator, and Dewey number, as a minimum. Each index entry will contain author and title.

Currently, librarians must use DBPH-provided catalog cards and examine an estimated sixty-six separate catalogs in order to perform a thorough search. Several card catalog files are searched by DBPH staff members in answering requests. Under the new system, when searching for any title, only three sources will have to be consulted: the union catalog, its monthly supplement, and LUMP.

CONCLUSION

The automated system will provide DBPH personnel and the network libraries with improved access to the available material for blind and physically handicapped readers. The three-year plan established the guidelines to be followed in producing a computerized catalog. As a result of the system study, a series of milestones have been proposed. They are:

1. Fall 1976—Production of the DBPH union catalog containing network libraries' holdings.
2. Spring 1977—Beginning of monthly union catalog and the in process listing.
3. Fall 1978—Production of the DBPH union catalog containing network libraries' holdings and cooperating independent agencies' holdings.

As with all good systems, much can happen between now and three years from now. As Murphy's Law explains, "If something can go wrong it will." Until outputs are actually produced, the system, or any module of it will not be considered operational, because a system will be judged by the timeliness, the quality, the relevance, and the usability of its products. When we can so evaluate the outputs, then we can determine whether the system is successful. Somehow all the wonderful plans, charts, computations, and tables mean little compared to user reaction. It is likely that a year from now we will present our progress and a year after that, our successes, compromises, and, if any, our failures. There is as yet no conclusion to this article, only fingers crossed and further work to translate design plans into operational reality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published Documents

Cylke, Frank Kurt. "Planning a Future of Improved Library Services for Blind and Handicapped Readers," Blindness (1973), p.1-5. Washington, D.C., American Association of Workers for the Blind, 1973.

Cylke, Frank Kurt; Kamisar, Hylda; Garretson, Ralph; Grannis, Florence; and Zabel, Ellen. "Nationwide Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped," in The Botcker Annual of Library & Book Trade Information. 20th ed. New York: Bowker, 1975. p.81-89.

Herman, Steven J. "Information Center Profile: Library of Congress, Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped," Information News and Sources (Nov. 1974), p.287-88.

Kamisar, Hylda and Pollet, Dorothy. "Talking Books and the Local Library," Library Journal99:2123 (Sept. 15, 1974).

Library of Congress. Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1974.

Library of Congress. Films and Other Materials for Projection. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1974.

Library of Congress. Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Fact Sheet. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1974.

Internal Documents

Library of Congress. Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. "Cataloging and Editing Manual for Special Materials." Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1975.

Library of Congress. Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. "Guidelines for for Writing Annotations." Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1975.

Library of Congress. Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. "Internal Specifications for Special Materials." Washington, D.C.:

Library of Congress, 1975. Library of Congress. Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. "Procedures Manual: Retrospective Cataloging Project." Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1975. Systems Architects, Inc., "Final Report: Design of an Automated Library Information Storage and Retrieval System for Library of Congress Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (DBPH) Contract No. LC-