Among Friends
| LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY UPDATE |
The past few months have seen considerable change and improvement in
the electronic services that the Library is able to offer. Through the
generosity of a donor, the hard work and planning of many staff members,
and recent advances in technology, the Library will be able to offer
better access to the online catalog, new multimedia services for faculty,
and will show a brand new face to the online world.
 Josiah
For most of us, the millennium really arrived this January 1st. However,
Millennium is also the name of a major software upgrade to the Library's
online catalog. The vendor for Josiahās software, Innovative Interfaces
Inc., has focused its development efforts for the past two years on
rewriting Josiah to take advantage of newer technologies. As part of
the Millennium package, Brown will be acquiring a number of major user
enhancements. These improvements are add-ons to the existing system
and will be phased in over the next few months. They include:
Indexing and display of tables of contents of books
in Josiah. This service will allow for the inclusion
of full tables of contents to Josiah records for newly received
books. . In addition, the entire Josiah database will be scanned
retrospectively and approximately 100,000 records will be upgraded
to include detailed contents. The tables of contents will be searchable
by author and by title. This finer level of indexing will greatly
enhance users' ability to find specific, topical chapters and
essays in books and festschrifts, which are currently searchable
only under their collective titles in Josiah.
Keyword indexing. The two existing Josiah keyword
indexes will be replaced by a single one capable of searching
all fields in the bibliographic record. This feature will greatly
enhance users' ability to identify titles of interest be expanding
the amount of bibliographic data that can be searched.
Scoping. This feature will enable users to limit
by type of material or by location prior to conducting a search.
Thus music students could limit a search to titles at the Orwig
Music Library, and chemistry students could limit a search to
titles held by the Sciences Library.
Integration with the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Users will be able to search the online Encyclopaedia Britannica
automatically for information relevant to a Josiah author or subject
without rekeying the search request.
East Asian vernacular support. The Millennium
product will support the input and display of bibliographic records
in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean vernacular fonts. This feature
will better support the teaching and research needs of Brown faculty
and students in the East Asian Studies program.
Email Circulation notices. Users will have the
option to sign up to receive circulation notices via email. This
will mean faster notification time for users, and a savings in
staff time as well. |
Multimedia Laboratory
Thanks to the generosity of a donor, Eleanor H. Gimon, a former member
of the Corporation and its Library Committee, a multimedia laboratory
for instructional support is being established on the twelfth floor
of the Sciences Library, and is expected to be operational in the spring
of 2001. Its purpose is to provide equipment for use by faculty (or
their proxies) who want to do scanning and editing work themselves,
as part of projects related to instruction or research at Brown. It
will also be available for use by Library staff.
The Lab features two workstations, one for scanning, one for video-editing.
The scanning station will process hard-copy source materials at high
resolutions. The flatbed scanner will accommodate up to tabloid-size
(12 inches by 17 inches) materials at high resolutions, and the slide
scanner will produce versions of film slides and negatives at even higher
resolutions. Optical character recognition and image manipulation software
will also be available. Taking advantage of groundbreaking new technology
from Apple Computer, the video-editing station will feature high quality
capabilities. Users will be able to achieve near broadcast quality results
when using footage shot with a DV camera, and will also be able to convert
footage from traditional analog tape formats such as VHS. Finally, users
will be able to output to tape formats or to compress finished video
projects to files for delivery over the Internet or on CD-ROM.
The Lab staff will offer their technical expertise in planning projects.
Eleanor H. Gimonās gift enabled the Library to take quick action to
meet a perceived need on the part of faculty. The Lab bearing her name
is a first step toward the goal of a greater Library contribution to
classroom instruction, especially through the reformatting of selected
items from its collections for electronic delivery to students.
Redesign of the Brown Library Web Site
In January 2001, the new Brown Library Web design was opened to the
public. It was designed by a group of Library staff, the Web Interest
Group (plus a very talented undergraduate, Tom Beresford), with input
and feedback from the Brown community. The purposes of the new design
were fourfold:
More choices: Increase the number of choices
available directly from the Library's home page while maintaining
an uncluttered look. The new home page has sixty direct links
to Library resources and services, compared with only twelve on
the old.
Consistency: A consistent, unobtrusive, and intuitive
navigation system. All main pages (over 125 separate pages) have
a side panel of choices leading to the nine main categories on
the home page, along with buttons leading to Josiah, the Library
Home Page, the Brown Home Page, a site search, an a to z site
index, Library hours, and the campus map.
User-friendly: Low-graphics equivalents have
been produced for most pages in order to facilitate printing,
to provide alternatives for users with disabilities such as vision
impairments, and for users with older browsers or with advanced
browser features turned off.
Flexible Structure: Room for additions, and ease
of change. As the Library reorganizes, and adds services and functions,
there is a growing demand for new pages and sections on the Library
web. Pages were reorganized along more logical lines to facilitate
updating. Features added in the new design include a page of frequently
asked questions, an a to z site search, and a quick search of
Josiah on the home page. |
Adapted from text written by Nori Duncan, Curator, Art Slide Library,
Pamela Pollard, Head of Media Services, Rosemary Cullen, Head Special
Collections Librarian, and Howard Pasternack, Library Systems Officer
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Last Updated: Thursday, 12-Jul-2001 14:24:38 EDT
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