http://hdl.handle.net/2142/882 11th Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (1974). Edited by F. Wilfrid Lancaster. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/911 The Minicomputer: Its Role in a Nationwide Bibliographic and Information Network Waite, David P. In January 1974, Information Dynamics Corporation introduced to the library community a nationwide on-line bibliographic and information net- work called BIBNET. Installations have begun and operations are expected to go into full swing in the summer of 1974. Hardware and software systems being installed at user locations, as well as data entry points, employ mini- computers (see figure 1). This paper will describe the several applications of minicomputers in this large-scale computing network. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications National networks http://hdl.handle.net/2142/910 A Role for the Minicomputer in Library Education Schabas, Ann H. Damon, Gene A. This paper discusses how one library school, the Faculty of Library Science at the University of Toronto, uses a minicomputer. The pleasures and problems we have experienced with our mini relate to the environment of the school and its educational objectives. They are not necessarily generalizable, but they may provide some insights into the potential of minicomputers. At the outset we should emphasize the newness of our system. We are feeling our way; undoubtedly we are making some mistakes, but we are learning a great deal in the process and are very optimistic about the future. We hope to demonstrate the potential of minicomputers for library education in a way that will be useful for anyone considering a mechanized support system and concerned about the expense and commitment of a large-scale operation. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications Library Education Education practitioner experience http://hdl.handle.net/2142/909 The University of Chicago Library Data Management System Payne, Charles T. This paper describes the computerized library data system designed and built at the University of Chicago. The project is supported by grants from the Council on Library Resources and the National Endowment for the Humanities and is an extension of an earlier project at Chicago supported by the National Science Foundation. The Chicago system is large and complex, and can be viewed from a number of different aspects, all important to an understanding of the total. The Chicago system is a large data base system; it is also a library data processing system, a data management system, an access system, and a data communication system. It has both hardware and software components, and it makes use of two computers: one large, one small. The University of Chicago Computation Center facility provides the main com- puting power and data base management. A smaller, front-end computer handles the library's network of forty to fifty terminals and provides a high-speed interface to the Computation Center. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications practitioner experience http://hdl.handle.net/2142/908 The Application of Minicomputers to Problems of Information Retrieval Negus, A.E. Although minicomputers can be used in many types of information retrieval facilities, this paper deals primarily with bibliographic reference re- trieval systems. There are two main reasons why it is attractive to consider using a minicomputer for on-line applications: (1) the relatively low cost and (2) the hardware and software provided. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications Information Retrieval http://hdl.handle.net/2142/907 Systems Design for a Minicomputer-Based Library Data Management System Lourey, Eugene D. In the past, most automated systems employed large, general purpose processors, or very specialized applications software, usually both. An approach employing either method does not support library automation in any but the largest and best-financed libraries. Smaller libraries must either affiliate with these larger libraries or share equipment with nonlibrary applications. In either case, processing methodologies, standards and equipment decisions are made outside the affected library by persons unfamiliar with their requirements. Current technology and pricing make this approach to library automation unnecessarily restrictive to individual libraries and unnecessarily expensive for the library community. Equipment selected for its suitability in library-type problems combined with generalized data management software designed for library applications will make dedicated, self-contained systems cost effective for most libraries. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications Systems design practitioner experience http://hdl.handle.net/2142/906 Management Aspects of the Use of the IBM System/7 in Circulation Control Kershner, Lois M. In the fall of 1972, the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries installed the IBM System/7-2790 Data Communication System for circulation control replacing an IBM 1030 Data Collection System which had displaced a manual system in 1969. This article will describe the System/7 installation at the University of Pennsylvania with emphasis on the management aspects of the system with only brief mention of circulation procedures or processing programs. Reference will be made to variations in S/7 implementation by six other libraries. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications practitioner experience management http://hdl.handle.net/2142/905 The Minicomputer and its Use in Library Operations at the University of Maryland Hamner, Walter G. Minicomputers are being put to work in many different environments. With every repetitive paper handling task, there is a potential minicomputer application. According to a recent study by International Data Corporation, pub- lishers of EDP Industry Report, worldwide shipments of minicomputers will jump almost 50 percent this year, to a shipped value of $835 million. 1 By 1977, minis should represent a $2.5 billion business. Some promising fields are: business and banking, where mini-based point-of-sale and accounting systems are just beginning to tap the potential of autotransaction; support of data entry systems and telecommunications networks, where minis are used for message-switching; automated manufacturing, where minis are used in closed-loop systems; and customized packages that give sophisticated users clusters of inexpensive minis for on-line jobs that once required large machines. Minis are being shipped at a rate of 2,800 per month, and the installed population will outnumber general-purpose computers before the end of 1974. IDC expects that within five years the mini shipment rate will be 10,000 per month. The marketplace for minis is diffused, fragmented, and hard to define. Most manufacturers sell their machines as tools most minis are dedicated to a single function. Currently, 58 percent of minis and 96 percent of mini-peripheralsproduced in the United States go to OEM sup- pliers. Potential end-users of minis are attracted by their increasing ease of use, even more than by their declining prices. Larger memories allow program- ming in higher level languages, rather than in machine languages. For example, Microdata has just announced a new small business system programmable in simple English sentences. Raytheon has announced a new mini that will be available on a rental basis, and a new mini array processor ($57,000) that can add two arrays of more than 16,000 numbers each into a third array, from a single instruction, and twenty times faster than the CPU could do the job under standard program control. The mini market currently supports at least fifty viable suppliers. IBM has not really entered the mini market, but rumors persist of a "System/2." If it ever appears, a true IBM minicomputer could change the shape of the industry. An important educational application involves the effective use of mini- computers to handle the acquisition and circulation systems in university libraries. The study of minicomputers and their successful application to library data processing should certainly include a review of the Singer Company's System 10 minicomputer 2 and point of transaction terminal system in use at McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland. We feel that we have taken an innovative approach to the library's biggest headache effective circulation control without impairing service to our students, faculty or staff. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications practitioner experience http://hdl.handle.net/2142/904 Minicomputer Characteristics, Economics and Selection for an Integrated Library Management System Grosch, Audrey N. When the term "minicomputer" initially was coined it denoted a physically small, low-cost computer using available technology and designed to perform a specific function. Usage of these devices was limited mainly to the laboratory, certain process-dependent industrial tasks, and special-purpose computational problems. Today, the minicomputer is no longer limited to such systems. However, not all computing specialists, library systems analysts, and librarians realize that the situation is rapidly changing and will continue to do so. Sometimes the feelings one experiences when discussing mini- computers, particularly as independent processors, may be conveyed by the following verse : Automation Is Vexation, Quarternions are bad; Analysis Situs Is only detritus I wonder: Have I been had? 1 The misconceptions which were based on the qualities of minicomputers until the last few years were: 1. slow instruction execution time and cycle time, 2. small memory with lack of expansion, 3. lack of peripheral equipment, 4. lack of peripheral device interfaces, 5. low reliability and unsatisfactory maintenance services, 6. poor programming instruction sets, 7. lack of vendor-supplied software, 8. greater programming difficulty, 9. lack of character addressability, 10. lack of hardware multiply and divide, and 1 1 . image as front-end processors requiring large host computers for file updating and output processing. This paper seeks to dispel these misconceptions in the broad sense, although one can see that individual minicomputers have specific strengths and weaknesses dependent upon the end application use. The minicomputers considered here are machines available currently and developed in the last two to three years. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications Minicomputers --Economics http://hdl.handle.net/2142/903 A Hardware Tutorial Divilbiss, J.L. In a practical sense, the minicomputer age began in 1964 with the Digital Equipment Corporation's introduction of the PDF 8. Potential com- puter users who had been unable to afford a $500,000 machine found that for the then remarkably low price of $27,000 they could purchase a general purpose computer, limited in power, to be sure, but nonetheless a real computer. The price was achieved by a combination of several factors: a simple, classical, no-frills, logical design; a superior packaging technique for the electronic circuits; and, most important, use of a short word length. Most of the large computers of that era were using word lengths ranging from about 30 to 50 bits, the length being influenced by considerations of accuracy and instruction format. By cutting the word length to 12 bits, DEC was able to greatly reduce the hardware needed in the arithmetic unit. A short word length limits neither accuracy nor type of operations performed, but it often means that computation proceeds more slowly. For example, numerical com- putations may require cumbersome multiple precision routines in order to secure adequate accuracy. In simple terms, short word machines achieve low hardware costs at the expense of execution efficiency. Since there are many applications in which the slowest computer is still much faster than the application requires (e.g., a computer controlling a lathe) the loss of execution efficiency may not be important. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications tutorial hardware http://hdl.handle.net/2142/902 Minicomputers and Library Automation: The Stanford Experience Davison, Wayne This paper will briefly review Stanford University's library automation system, BALLOTS, and the computing environment in which it is imple- mented. The system currently utilizes a PDF 1 1 /45 as a communications controller and uses a programmable CRT display terminal. The paper will consider in detail these two current applications of minicomputers and also discuss the proposed use of another minicomputer to support circulation activities. In conclusion, some of the more general considerations and implica- tions of using minicomputers to support library operations will be discussed. Libraries --Automation Minicomputers --Library applications BALLOTS