Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 12, pp. 87-90, 1988 0364-6408188 $3.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1988 Pergamon Press pic

A L A M I D W I N T E R CONFERENCE 19&&

WHO'S DECIDING?

ALA Automated Acquisitions/In-Process Control Systems Discussion Group

JANE BURKE

President, NOTIS Systems, Inc.

1007 Church St.

Evanston, IL 60201-3622

My role on the panel today is that of the "generic" vendor of local automated systems. As such, I represent that part of the vendor community that supplies you with your in-house automated systems for circulation, acquisitions, serials control, online catalog, etc.

The title of this discussion group is "What 's Next, and Who Decided?" I think it should really be "Who's Deciding?" because I think that systems and interfaces in this area are still emerging and are still waiting to be fully defined. In fact, the only thing that's clear is that those of us who supply you with automated systems must supply what you need if we want to continue to be your suppliers.

It is also clear that we, the suppliers, must cooperate with one another, as well as with you. None of us can do everything. In fact, it would be inappropriate for a local system vendor, like NOTIS, to try to supply your journals. On the other hand, we certainly need to work with Ebsco and Faxon to get the information from those journals into your local system.

STATUS OF " INTEGRATED" SYSTEMS

Why are new services emerging? I think it is because you, as the users of automated sys- tems, are forming a new definition of an "integrated" system.

Previously, the profession talked about integrated systems as those which suppled the auto- mation programs for managing the collection inside the library. We thought that integrated meant more than one function using the local database, such as circulation and the online catalog.

For years we attempted to describe the perfect integrated system, and we gradually added

87

88 J. BURKE

i

Pre-Ortler Or~er In Process Circulation

Resource Flies To Jobbers Claims To filnaers *Utt l l t ies Reprints *Optical Disc

Figure I. Lifeline of materials in the collection.

functions to it until we had a system that managed the collection inside the library from the point of acquisition through cataloging into circulation and display to the user.

I think that local systems have now essentially reached that level o f integration. There are a number of local integrated systems that allow for the internal processing of materials from "birth to death," from initial order to withdrawal from the collection.

Those systems have succeeded in eliminating the internal paper files of the library. There are no more paper on-order files, shelf lists, and card catalogs. They have been replaced by the automated files of the local system.

Now you are defining a new integrated system. It is happening as you see the possibilities for tying together your local system and the services offered to you by your suppliers of mate- rials and processing. The needs that you are expressing call for a further level of in tegra t ion- integration of the local system to the automated systems of those jobbers and suppliers.

Not only don' t you want to have internal paper files, you don' t want to send paper forms to those suppliers. You don' t want to send paper purchase orders to your book and serials jobber. You don' t want to wait for the mail to deliver a claim for a item. You don' t want to get a massive paper invoice at the end of the year from your serials jobber.

Instead, you expect that we will work out the links so that the local system and the com- puterized system at the book jobber can talk to one another. You expect our systems to become one integrated service for you.

SPECTRUM OF LINKS

I can use the "birth to death" analogy to describe the links that you are envisioning in this new version of the integrated system (see Fig. 1).

1. Pre-order You would like to be able to acquire basic bibliographic data about materials to be acquired

through links to:

who's oec~as? J9

• Utilities, such as OCLC and RLIN • Local resource files, such as PC based desiderata files • Optical disc files, such as BIP Plus and llibliofile.

By linking to these fries, you would like to be able to transfer bibliographic data about desir~ materials instantly so that you can use this data as the basis of ira orglcr. In other words, y0tt never want to key a bibliographic record if it exists somewhere in machine-readable fo r~ .

2. Order Once you have decided to order materials, you want to be $ble to send th!tt order electrola-

icaUy to your jobber. You don't want to print the pu rch~e order and mllil it.

3. Status Information You would also like the jobbers to be able to tell you the status of materials ¢lectronic41Jly

or to be able to query them electronically. In other words, you'd like electronic links foe:

• Status information from the supplier • Claims to the supplier.

4. Processing Information You'd like the supplier to send full cataloging and processing information with the m ~ -

rials. If the bibliographic record has been updated, or if full MARC data has become avilil- able, you'd like to receive it on a tape, in a form compatible with your local system, wbM you receive the materials.

5. Invoices You'd like to get invoices in machine-readable form from:

• Book jobbers • Serial jobbers.

And you'd like those invoices to be automatically processed by your local system, includi~!f the fund accounting aspects.

6. Binding When it's time to bind a serial, you'd like your local system to alert you and feed the infor-

mation to the binder's system. At the same time, you'd like the local system to tell itself th#t the items are at the bindery and display that fact to the user of the online catalog.

WHERE'3 THE ACTION?

My perception is that your suppliers, all of us, are working in some of these areas. There has been activity for some time in automated book ordering, and there is a lot of m o m ¢ l i -

turn now in the serials interfacing area.

90 J. BURKE

At the same time, there are some of these pieces where I don' t think much has gone on yet. For example, I don't see much movement yet in the interfacing of local systems and bind- ery systems.

In all of the areas, though, your suppliers are learning again one of the truths of library au toma t ion - i t is not as easy as it appears on the surface. The requirements are intricate and not always evident in the first examination.

There are three things that need to come together at one time to create the links for any part of the spectrum:

• The supplier must have available resources for the project. Those resources include not just money, but staff, talent, machine availability, and good solid information.

• The other suppliers involved must be cooperative. One of us can't force another one to be ready to undertake a cooperative project. Sometimes this means that one waits until the other is ready. For example, our project to process serial renewal invoices on tape is one where the serial jobbers had to wait for us to have resources freed up from other projects. It wasn't that we didn't have the desire, but with limited staff we couldn't do everything at once and we still can't.

• The suppliers must be able to get your help to define the real requirements at the most detailed level. You are the third piece of the puzzle. Without you to tell us exactly what is required, we can't do it. We need to be able to understand exactly how you work and exactly how our cooperative project fits into that work flow in order to provide you with what you need.

HOW DO WE DECIDE?

If all three of those factors are in place, how do we go about actually defining what to do? Basically, I think that we ask a lot of questions of you and of each other. We LISTEN a lot. We visit customers. We send our questionnaires and ballots.

How can you get involved? Actually, it's not very difficult. You can get involved in this process by indicat ing--pers is tent ly-your interest.

Indicate it individually to your suppliers. Don't be discouraged if you don't get an immedi- ate response. You may have to repeat yourself, and you should expect to put your interest in writing.

You can also be involved through your users' groups. If you think you have something to contribute, form a subgroup or focus group to work with the supplier. Let them know that you are willing to be involved.

OUR REAL MOTIVATION

Because those of us who are your suppliers want to continue to be your suppliers, we want to do what you want us to do. That means that you're really the ones deciding what's coming next. We will do what you want us to do i f you will help us understand exactly what that is.