http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1201 25th Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (1988). Edited by Martin A. Siegel. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1260 The Uses of CD-ROM and Other Information Delivery Systems for Libraries: A Publisher's View Regazzi, John J. The delivery of electronic information to libraries is increasing significantly in both volume and forms of delivery. These forms of delivery now include online searching, local access systems, and CD-ROM, to name only a few. CD-ROM is a technology, however, that is growing the fastest and has recently generated the most excitement in the library and publishing communities. This excitement is balanced by some concerns. Such concerns are diverse. This paper, however, addresses one concern in particular. That is, how will CD-ROM and other modern information handling technologies affect electronic publishing programs in general, and therefore by extension, libraries and publishers as well? Although the views represented here are of a publisher of CD-ROM systems, these views are not intended to suggest that these technologies are suitable in all publishing environments, or for all libraries. The comments in this article are simply intended to describe significant developments and trends in electronic publishing. This article consists of three parts: case history, historical perspective, and speculation. To start, a brief case history of the H. W. Wilson Company's electronic publishing program is in order. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1259 Reconciling Design Philosophy and User Expectations Woodsmall, Rose Marie Siegel, Elliot This paper discusses the design, development, and evaluation of GRATEFUL MED, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) front end software for microcomputers that was developed to assist physicians and other health professionals to search NLM's MEDLINE database. A search is constructed by filling out a form screen with information on the desired author, title, and/or subject(s); the search can be limited to English language, review articles, or a particular journal. No knowledge of Boolean connectors or the Library's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary is assumed. The search is constructed and the results reviewed on the user's microcomputer; that is, while not connected to the NLM mainframe. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1258 Starting Out Right: The Effectiveness of Online Catalogs in Providing Bibliographic Access to Youth Edmonds, Leslie For most librarians and information scientists, the ability of children to access library material or, indeed, information in general is an abstraction. It is seen as an issue of intellectual freedom, something "they" should teach in school or an ability to be taken for granted when helping the young patron in a library setting. For a parent, teacher, or youth services librarian, it may be a source of irritation that kids may not be particularly interested in using the card catalog. The library profession has not looked carefully at how children do use catalogs, nor has it been too honest in its appraisal of just how useable online catalogs are for children. This paper will present the findings of a research project that was designed to ascertain what knowledge children bring to using the catalog, what developmental skills children have that would help them use the catalog, and what success children have with known-item catalog searches. The methodology used in this study may also provide a model for examining the behavior of other user groups for whom interfaces are designed. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1257 The Online Catalog in the Real World: Making the Necessary Compromises Crawford, Walt Online catalogs have been in existence for several years now, but they are still in their infancy as compared to other aspects of library automation and librarianship. Today's best online catalogs are more powerful, more flexible and easier to approach than were most early examples; tomorrow's best online catalogs should be better than today's. Two characteristics have always been true of online catalogs and will always be true: first, that there will be several distinctly different good designs; second, that every good design will reflect conscious choices among different desirable features, some of those choices involving compromises. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1256 Architectural and Instructional Worlds: Insights for Interface Design Siegel, Martin A. This paper will examine the design of computer/human interfaces from the perspective of two older design professions: architecture and instructional design. Insights can be drawn from these design worlds, lessons learned from their successes and failures. By sharing selected architectural images and instructional strategies, the author will attempt to draw a parallel to interface design. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1255 Have it Your Way: What Happens When Users Control the Interface Weissman, Jessica R. When computers were new, nobody had fun with them except, possibly, the people who created them. The computers themselves were locked away in special rooms and not everybody had access to them. Users, even the most serious of programmers, spent many hours going over their programs and other input just to be sure it Was perfect. The act of programming was carried out at desks, using paper and pencils. When the programmer was finished, another group of people translated the program into a set of punched cards. This was a particularly slippery and risk-prone embodiment of the hours of work the programmer had already put in. When the card deck was ready, the programmer or someone else took the stack of cards to an input clerk. The input clerk had tremendous power. She (they were mostly women) decided whose jobs could jump ahead in the line. Hours later, the programmer got back his output, generally in the form of a printout. If everything went well and there were no mistakes of form or logic, the results would be useful. If either the programmer or the keypuncher made even one tiny slip, all the hours of work and waiting went to waste. Even if the mistake was a trivial or easily discovered one, the programmer had to wait for his next turn to have his program run. In many installations, programmers got only two or three runs per day. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1254 A Consumer's Guide to User Interface Design Johnson, Ralph E. A computer system's user interface has a big impact on its acceptability and usefulness. There has been a lot of attention given to making software more user-friendly, but this has often generated more heat than light. This paper outlines the principles of good user interface design and discusses how to tell whether they are being followed or not. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1253 Systems Interfaces Revisited Penniman, W. David Lord Kelvin once said, "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind . . ." (Thompson, 1889, p. 73). This article reviews four measures that relate significantly to current concern with information systems and their users. Two of these four measures have been discussed by Hal Becker (1986) in a delightful article concerning the world's growing capacity to store and transmit data. In 490 B.C., the fastest way to send a message was through a human messenger running as fast and as far as he could. Often, he dropped dead upon completing the task (or was killed if the content of the message was displeasing). The data rate for that "system" was well under one word per minute (probably closer to 1/1 00th of a word per minute depending upon message length). Despite experiments with semaphore towers, carrier pigeons, and horseback riders, no really universal breakthrough came until the invention of telegraphy in the 1840s. With this technology, transmission rates achieved a level of about fifty words per minute. At present, we have reached transfer rates of one billion words per minute, and by the mid-1990s, the figure will exceed 100 trillion words per minute. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1252 The Management of Automation: A Review of the Proceedings of the Data Processing Clinics Rubin, Richard E. The topic for this presentation is the Management of Library Automation as viewed through the twenty-five years of data processing clinic proceedings. In a way, it is a disconcerting topic, because it generates ambivalence: have librarians managed automation, or has it managed librarians? The author's experience suggests that the introduction of new technology stimulates in employees either cynicism or a powerful existential angst. Predictably, the managerial pose that is struck when employees express trepidation concerning new technology is that they (the employees) must adapt; that the key to dealing with automation is (the employees') open-mindedness and flexibility; and that it is their (the employees') defects mental, emotional, or physical that threaten the success of automation. It is not surprising, then, that much of the current management literature, including a recent edition of the proceedings (Shaw, 1985), concentrates on why employees fear and resist technology, and how employers might dispel their misgivings. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1251 From Flow Charting to User Friendly: Technical Services Functions in Retrospect Henderson, William T. Henderson, Kathryn Luther In this presentation, the proceedings of the twenty-four preceding Clinics on Library Applications of Data Processing will be summarized to give a flavor of the issues and themes relating to technical services functions which have been denned, for purposes of this paper, as: acquisitions, serials control and management, and catalogs and cataloging. In 1963, the world was waking up to a new era of technology influencing many aspects of life. Increased technology was reported to be costing workers their jobs and causing labor unrest. Cited as evidence was the fact that on February 11, 1963, eleven electronic computers took over the jobs of the many people required to tabulate stock market figures in New York for the nationwide wires of the Associated Press (Year, 1963, p. 25). Gordon Cooper was the last of the Project Mercury astronauts to go into orbit. After a successful day and a half in space, the spacecraft's automatic controls went dead, but Cooper landed safely (p. 28). At the University of Illinois on March 2, 1963, the spaceship shaped Assembly Hall was dedicated not only did its shape reflect the times, but it was one of the first buildings in the country to make use of sophisticated computer controls (Thomas Parkinson to Rebecca Hall, WCIA, Channel 3 broadcast, Champaign, Illinois, 5 March 1988). The New International Yearbook for the Year 1963 heralded the development of thirty new commercial digital computer models, most impressive of which was the Control Data Corporation's 6600 with a central memory of 131,000 60-bit words, exceeding in speed and memory capacity all available computers. Noteworthy, too, was a new computer language, FORTRAN IV. Human-computer interaction User interfaces (Computer systems) Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMT