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North Carolina Libraries

Fall 1992

N Library Telecommunications
| Nort 2

Plunkett, Dalton G
Cataloging standards for non-book

materials: a complete guide to
cataloging non-book materials in the
individual school. Beaverton,
Tigard, Oregon, Northwest Library
Service [1968]

286625

344080 c. 2

386267 c. 3

... never in the history of our country has there been so great a need to know and so
great a need to master skills required to equip individuals for continuing self-education.

" North Carolina Libraries, Fall 1967, p. 67.

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hit ce BOCA RATON, FL 33427-2348

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Volume 90, Number 7
ISSN 0029-2740

+

O RI OCT 12 1992

LIBRARY - PLRINNICALS
wi ua iL

e
RO i N A EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSIT
@

Fall 1992

mus )3="LIBRARY [ELECOMMUNICATIONS

128 Foreword, Bil Stahl
130 Libraries and Networks: An Irresistible Combination, Alan R. Blatecky

133 When Can I Put Down My Pen? If I Put Down My Pen, Do I Get A Secret Decoder
Ring?, Raymond Frankle

137 Technology Programming for Libraries, Kenneth E. Marks
143 Navigating the Internet: A Beginning, George H. Brett II
147 Navigating Some of the Library Highways with Your Modem, Eric Morgan

154 DIALOG at McDowell High School: Acquisition, Instruction, and Management,
Marty Bray

1 58 Telecommunications for Librarians: A Selective Bibliography, Jessica MacPhail

ce PP URES «ee

126 From the President

127 Over to You

161 And In Edition: Whole Languge and Its Effect on the School Library Media Center,
Susan Prillaman

166 Point: Networked Information Resources: The Wave of the Future, Bil Stahl
167 Counter Point: I'm Sorry, All Circuits Are Busy Now, Harry Tuchmayer

168 Library Research in North Carolina: Compiling a "Videography": The Trials of
Locating Information on a New Medium, Charles Croissant

170 North Carolina Books

176 Lagniappe: Tell-A~-Communication: Storytelling in North Carolina, Pat Ryckman
180 NCLA Minutes

182 About the Authors

Advertisers: Book Wholesalers, 160;
Broadfoot's, 156; Checkpoint, 169;
Current Editions, 169; Davidson Titles, Inc. 164;

H. W. Wilson, 142; Ebsco, 141; Cover: Inside a computer: diametrical opposition. Photo courtesy of Lynette Lundin, Joyner
Job Hotlines USA, 162; Mumford Books, 178; Library, East Carolina University. Art Direction by Gary Weathersbee, TeamMedia,
Quality Books, 135; Salem Press, 163; Greenville, NC.
SIRS, front cover; Southeastern Book Co., 151;
Southeastern Microfilm, 145; North Carolina Libraries is electronically produced. Art direction and design by Pat Weathersbee of TeamMedia,
Thorndike Press, 146; UNC Press, back cover. Greenville, NC. Special thanks to John Lance and Walker-Ross Printing Co., Inc., Rocky Mount, NC.

ET ST

[2 Si RT Re Sn eS a Fe MR Neer cron QPP ov RIG Efe le Tan SNE Sy EE eS UO nA IT cc ir RIOR ee a er

Janet Freeman, President

Hello? Are you out there?

In this column in the summer 1992
issue I made some rather harsh state-
ments, and to be honest, I expected to
receive some responses from you. I have
actually been concerned that ITd gone
too far. Now I think perhaps not.

A few people have told me casually
that they read the column and agreed.
Great. I appreciate their saying so, but
what are we going to do about the
problems I mentioned?

... the problem of misperceptions
and lack of understanding

each other

... the problem of communicating
with our funding agencies

(our bosses, the legislature, our
boards, our county commission-
ers, our principals, etc.)

... the problem of approaching
library service in a segmented way
rather than with an eye for the
big picture

The special issue of North Carolina
Libraries which you received recently

The Libraries
North Carolina State University

highlighted some of these problems as
well as other crises in library service. We
are in crisis or teetering on the brink of
crisis as a profession.

This issue focuses on telecommuni-
cations and technology and the implica-
tions for libraries ... and those who staff
and use them. First let me say, Iam a
computer user and e-mail user. (In fact
ITm one of those strange people who will
go to the mat to protect my use of
WordStar instead of switching to
WordPerfect.) The computer at my desk
has a role in almost every task I perform.

The availability of telecommunica-
tions is revolutionizing the services
libraries offer and the way library
personnel provide information. I think,
however, we must remind ourselves that
telecommunications and technology are
tools, and every tool is not appropriate
for every job.

For example, an automobile is not
the best tool for flattening a plastic soda
bottle before recycling it. You can run
over the bottle with the car, but you can
more easily crush the bottle with your

FEBRUARY 19, 1993

of the published seminar proceedings.

For more information, contact:

126 " Fall 1992

Tracy M. Casorso
Library Systems

The Libraries, NCSU
PO Boxe PLT

Raleigh, NC 27695-7111

hands. When you need to travel several
miles, a car is much more efficient and
comfortable than walking on your hands.

There are problems with telecom-
munications. Systems go down no
matter what reliability figures vendors
show us. Using e-mail instead of the
telephone puts a certain distance
between the sender and the receiver. It is
expensive. Not everyone has an affinity
for keyboards. Not everyone thinks in
the linear fashion often required to use a
computer.

As information providers we need to
be sensitive to these problems. We need
to work together to see that library users
learn the skills to use the most appropri-
ate tool for accessing the information
they need. We must communicate with
each other and those who fund us to
assure that there are not gaps in library
and information services.

Again I ask ... are you out there?
What do you think? How can we address
these problems?

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN POSTER SESSION
I. T. LITTLETON SEMINAR SERIES '93
THE 4TH I. T. LITTLETON SEMINAR

The I. T. Littleton Seminar Program at NCSU is a continuing seminar series on major library issues sponsored
by NCSU Libraries. The series was established 1987, to honor the contributions to North Carolina State
University by Dr. I. T. Littleton, former Director of Libraries. The theme of the upcoming seminar is document
delivery and cooperative information resource development.

A new feature of the seminar series is the introduction of a poster session program. The purpose of the poster
session is to provide an opportunity for individual librarians or libraries to share graphic representations of
current research, programs, or creative solutions to improving access to information. The planning committee
invites interested librarians, public, academic, or corporate, to submit a poster session application.

Accepted presenters will be given a time block during the seminar to share their ideas. Deadline for the receipt
of poster session applications is December 18, 1992. Final selections will be made by the planning committee;
authors will be notified by January 4, 1993. Efforts are underway to include the poster session abstracts as part

(919) 515-3339 © Tracy Casorso@NCSU.EDU * Tracy Casorso@NCSU.Bitnet

North Carolina Libraries

Over to You...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear NCLA Colleagues:

June 31, 1992 was a very special night for me, as on that night I became President of the American
Library Association. It was a doubly special night since all members of NCLA shared it with me. Several
of you were there in person. All of you were present in the contribution of $1,500 from NCLA to the
David Clift Scholarship Fund in honor of my presidency. Nothing could have pleased me more than to
have your best wishes both in spirit and as a gift to the scholarship fund. But there was more.

Another surprise came via State Librarian Howard McGinn, who presented me with a letter from
Governor Martin and a framed citation conferring on me The Order of the Long Leaf Pine. The letter
from Governor Martin reads as follows:

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the Order of the Long Leaf Pine of the State of North
Carolina. Your inauguration as President of the American Library Association brings honor to the
State of North Carolina and is a special recognition of your significant accomplishments as a
librarian, educator, and advocate for children.

I congratulate you and wish you success during your presidential year as you guide the important
work of the association. I also congratulate the American Library Association for its work in
education, combating illiteracy, defending our First Amendment constitutional rights, promoting
reading, and making the nation aware of the importance of information literacy.

I know my year as President of ALA will be full of rewards, but none will be as satisfying as sharing
the year with the membership of the North Carolina Library Association. Thank you.

Cordially,

Marilyn L. Miller

Professor and Chair, UNC-G, Department of
Library and Information Studies

President, American Library Association

Past NCLA Presi-
dent Barbara Baker,
President Janet
Freeman, President-
Elect Gwen Jackson,
and State Librarian
Howard McGinn
celebrate with
editor Frances
Bradburn after she
accepted the 1992
H. W. Wilson

Library Periodical
Award on hehalf of

the North Carolina
Libraries editorial
board at the 1992
American Library
Association Annual
Conference in San
Francisco. Photo by
Diana Young.

North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 127

F. oreword

by Bil Stahl, Guest Editor

128 " Fall 1992

The evolution of information technology has been constantly accelerating and increas-
ing in diversity over the past ten to twenty years. This evolution has not been linear, but
has many branches, with new offshoots sprouting regularly. Some branches often seem
to go in divergent directions from other branches, only to turn and merge with these
same branches later.

The development of the personal computer was initially, and in some cases still is,
feared by people responsible for operating central computing facilities. The reason for
this fear centers around the fact that the personal computer enables people to create
isolated islands of information. This, in actuality, has often happened. Many organiza-
tions have had to address the problem of controlling where omission critical� informa-
tion resides and how it is maintained.

Telecommunications is one of those branches that diverged from some areas of
information technology only to return to those areas and play a major role in their
development. The initial role of telecommunications was voice and later interconnec-
tion of interactive terminals to mainframe computers. As telecommunications speeds
increased, telecommunications was used to interconnect mainframe computers to one

another. As microcomputers became more common, software and hard-

ware that allowed them to emulate terminals connected to mainframe

computers became available. These telecommunications connections

between microcomputers and mainframe connections developed into true

networks, where the computers connected to them could do much more
ee0o than simply display what was on a remote system.

Many information technologies have converged to bring us to where
we are today and where we are obviously going in the near future. The
major development has been the digitization of information. Today
virtually all information is, or will soon be, digital. Voice, audio, image,
and video are all digital or fast becoming so. One conversion to digital
format that is often overlooked is that of telecommunications itself.
Modems were needed to convert the digital computer information to the

common analog telecommunications systems for transmission to remote computer
systems, where the signals were converted back to digital information. Digital telecom-
munications systems can move larger amounts of information faster than their older
analog counterparts. This ability of the digital systems is being enhanced almost weekly.
In addition, this increase in speed (usually expressed in megabits per second) and
capacity (often expressed in terms of obandwidth�) is coming at lower and lower
increments of cost.

As the ohighway� over which information travels, telecommunications has become
one of the dominant information technologies of the 90s. Not only has it enabled
computers to talk to one another faster, but it has greatly facilitated the blending of
information technologies. Interactive video conferencing, coupled with collaborative
computer software that allows the conference participants to simultaneously work on
the same document, is happening today. As the higher speed, larger capacity digital
telecommunications systems become more pervasive, this type of olong distance�
interaction will become more commonplace.

Perhaps more than any other technology in the past, including the printing press,
telecommunications is causing libraries to reassess what they are about. The printing
press provided copies of a work to be located on the shelves of numerous libraries.
Telecommunications allows for an almost infinite number of copies of a work to be
located on usersT desks wherever they are working " not only in libraries. While libraries
struggle to maintain collection budgets to purchase materials for the library, telecommu-
nications is causing the opposite problem for many libraries " how to keep up with an
exponentially growing array of information sources available over the networks!

Computer technology has allowed libraries to perform their tasks in a more efficient
and effective manner. While computer technology provided many new capabilities, the
library applications were still controlled by the libraries for the most part. Telecommuni-
cations, on the other hand, challenges the basic purpose of libraries in acquiring,
storing, and dispensing information, because the purpose of telecommunications is also
to provide access to information in an environment not limited by space or time.
Libraries can only be a participant in the overall telecommunications environment, not
its controlling force. Librarians are trying to figure out what their role should be.
Current library conferences and literature are filled with telecommunications-related
presentations on topics such as: local area networks, distributed processing, client-server
architecture, the Z39.50 standard, INTERNET access, and the National Research and
Education Network (NREN).

North Carolina Libraries

TD

The first part of this special issue of North Carolina Libraries on telecommunications
addresses the challenges telecommunications presents to libraries. Alan Blatecky, Vice
President of MCNC, lays out the challenge from a technological standpoint. Alan is the
chief architect of the CONCERT network, which is the most sophisticated network of its
kind in the nation. Alan calls for librarians to recognize the paradigm shift in the way
information services will be provided in the near future, and to take a leadership role in
implementing that shift.

The article by Raymond Frankle, a library director, provides an overview of the
challenges many libraries face in trying to address the paradigm shift that Alan Blatecky
describes. Ray agrees that this is the direction libraries need to move and that they must
do so quickly. However, the ongoing expectations for existing library services, the need
to retrain existing staff, and the often chronic shortage of resources are all factors many
libraries will have to overcome.

Ken Marks, in his article on developing a technology plan for the library, offers a
process to follow in addressing both AlanTs paradigm shift and the challenges Ray
outlines. This process in not a omagic bullet,� but a logical way of making necessary
decisions. As Ken points out, these decisions will not be easy.

The second part of the issue contains some practical examples of telecommunica-
tions in libraries. George BrettTs article provides a transition into this section by describ-
ing in general terms the value of network access. George provides references for some
ohow to� articles, but focuses most of his comments on many considerations people do
not automatically think of when they are planning to navigate the networks.

Eric Morgan provides a breezy introduction to the major commercial computer
network services that are available and places a special emphasis on their usefulness to
libraries. Librarians need to be aware of these resources not only for their usefulness but
because a growing number of library users subscribe to one or more of these resources.

Marty BrayTs article on the use of DIALOG in a secondary school provides insight to
the exposure to telecommunications students in secondary education are experiencing.
Marty also describes the role newer technologies such as CD-ROM bibliographic data-
bases and local area networks are having in changing the libraryTs use of DIALOG. In
addition to providing ideas for other schools, the article should serve to alert public and
academic libraries to the fact that many younger library users will be familiar with
telecommunications services.

The bibliography prepared by Jessica MacPhail provides a useful starting point for a
number of telecommunications related topics. The articles cited are meant to provide
background and to indicate the range of telecommunications related topics. Be aware,
however, that it is impossible to provide, in print, an up-to-date listing of citations on
telecommunications because the field is changing too rapidly. Even the telecommunica-
tions literature, such as Communications Week, is often out of date by the time it appears.
It is also impossible to provide a comprehensive listing of citations with any breadth of
scope, because the literature on telecommunications is perhaps more pervasive than the
technology itself.

The telecommunications section ends with a oPoint/Counterpoint� discussion by
Harry Tuchmeyer and myself on the role of librarians in providing user services for
network resources. While Harry and I take very opposite positions for purposes of
showing these extremes, both of us could argue any point on the spectrum between
the extremes. In fact, this is an issue that every library will have to debate for itself and
constantly revisit as the resources available via telecommunications systems continue
to grow.

It is my earnest hope that this issue contributes to the understanding of telecommu-
nications that librarians must have. Telecommunications is a diverse and complex field.
The purpose of this issue has been, in part, to highlight this diversity and complexity.
Telecommunication technologies provide libraries with what the cartoon character Pogo
once described as oinsurmountable opportunities.� We hope this issue will help each
reader rationally choose the appropriate set of opportunities.

North Carolina Libraries

Fall 1992 " 129

Libraries and Networks:
An Irresistible Combination

ibraries and networking are ap-
proaching a watershed that will
radically change the way we
think, the way we get informa-
tion, and the way we approach
education, research, and busi-
ness. For the last couple of de-
cades, we have been dealing with tech-
nologies that enable us to do things faster
and quicker.

Computing power continues to scale
to the point where yesterdayTs
supercomputers are todayTs advanced
workstations. Memory, storage and net-
working have also scaled; instead of Kbytes
(thousand bytes) of memory, we talk of
Mbytes (million bytes); instead of Mbytes
of storage we talk of Gbytes (giga, a billion
bytes) and Tbytes (a trillion); instead of
megabit networks, we talk of gigabits. 1

In addition, there is already a great
deal of effort on the next generation of
capabilities that are several orders of mag-
nitude more powerful still " 256 mega-
byte RAMs, Pbytes (1000 trillion bytes) of
storage, Teraflops (trillion floating point
operations per second) of compute power,
and Terabit (trillion bits per second) net-
works .

Libraries will not be a major
force in the developing
information age if they do
not aggressively adopt and
adapt technology to meet
the information needs of
their constituents.

170 " Fall 1992

by Alan R. Blatecky

Information growth

e In the information arena, we see similar
statistics.

e Three new accessible databases appear
daily (more than five thousand currently).
e The worldTs amount of information
doubles every five years.

¢ More facts and information became avail-
able in the last thirty years than in the
previous five thousand years.2

¢ One day of The New York Times has more
information than a lifetime in seventeenth
century England.3

e Ninety percent of all information pub-
lished since 1979 is/was digital.

e Fifty-six thousand new books are pub-
lished each year in the US alone (world-
wide the number is in excess of two hun-
dred fifty thousand).4

¢ More than one million magazine articles
are published yearly.s

e Forty thousand scientific articles are pub-
lished each year (one every thirty seconds).
e Eight hundred new periodicals are pub-
lished per year (some only digital, some
with video).

This means that top libraries must
double in size every twelve to fourteen
years just to accommodate the growth in
information, to say nothing of expansion
of information or libraries.�

Cost trends
While the unit costs of technology
continue to decrease dramatically
each year, library construction costs
are increasing. The capital cost to
accommodate one hundred volumes
is approximately two hundred and
fifty dollars.8 This does not include
furnishings, operational costs (HVAC,
maintenance), or staffing. On the
other hand, the costs of electronic
mass storage, compute power, and
networks continue to decrease.

For example, the cost per mega-
byte of storage has dramatically de-
creased over the last decade.

Disk Drives
Year Cost
per megabyte
1980 $625.00
1985 $125.00
1991 $6.50

By 1995 the cost per megabyte of
storage is likely to be a tenth of todayTs
cost, or around sixty cents per megabyte.
However, there are alternative types of
electronic storage which are much more
cost effective than hard disk drives. The
advances in optical and dense magnetic
tapes provide per unit costs that are several
orders of magnitude less expensive.

Mass Storage Costs (1990)
Rewritable Optical $0.39
CD-ROM $0.008
Digital Recorder $0.001
Magnetic Cartridge $0.05
Optical Tape $0.005
8mm Helical Tape $0.005

While individual workstation costs
continue to decrease each year, the more
important factor is the significant accom-
panying increase in workstation power.
Mainframe power of a few years ago is
available now at the desktop; an IBM RS6000
workstation now has the power of a single
processor CRAY X-MP supercomputer.
Workstation displays have benefited greatly
from the R&D advances increasing screen
resolution and quality. High resolution
screens are available now ata fraction of the
cost of five years ago, and this trend will
continue at an even more rapid rate as high
definition television and graphics systems
are developed.

Network increases

Similar cost reductions and performance
increases are also taking place in network-
ing. Where dial-up modems operating at
three hundred and twelve hundred bps
(bits per second) once were standard issue,

North Carolina Libraries

modems approaching thirty-four thousand
bps in speed are now available. Network
backbone link speeds of 9.6 and 19.2 Kbs
(kilobits per second, e.g., 9.6 Kbs = 9,600
bits per second) are quickly being replaced
by individual network speeds of 56 Kbs and
T1 (1,544,000 bps) lines. T3 lines (45 Mbs)
and FDDI (100 Mbs) networks are begin-
ning to be implemented all across the coun-
try. Recent passage of the High Perfor-
mance Communications and Computing
(HPCC) Act of 1991 will help ensure the

deployment of high-speed networks (giga-
bit and beyond) across the nation.
However, as network speeds move to
T3 and on to gigabits, faster isno longer an
adequate way to describe what is happen-
ing. Whereas a gigabit network is one
thousand times faster than a megabit net-
work, the real change is one of scope and
capability. Gigabit speeds provide the
capability to do things differently. The
primary mode of operation is no longer
limited to text (i.e., characters and sym-

ae |

Text and bits
To help bridge the gap between printed text and electronic storage, it is necessary
to understand how text and images translate into bits.

Text versus Storage

Document Number of bits abbr.

1 page of text 25,000. 25. kbs
10 pages of text 250,000 250 Kbs
1000 pages of text 25,000,000 25 Mbs

25 page article with 10 color images 900,000,000 900 Mbs
Library of Congress holdings 200 trillion 25 TBs-2 PBs (1,000 TBs)

Another way of looking at the information is to translate storage into
document size;
Storage versus documents

Amount of storage abbr. Number of documents

1,000 KBS 1 MBS 4 high resolution images or 320 pages of text
1,000 MBS 1 GBS 4,000 images or 320,000 pages of text

1,000 GBS 1 TBS 4 million images or 320 million pages

1,000 TBS 1 PBS 4 billion images or 320 billion pages

ASCII Text (1 TBS) (42,500 trees)

Translating even further, the capabilities already exist in current technology
to make electronic storage compellingly attractive simply in terms of cost alone.
A single 19mm tape can hold 25 Gb, or more than 1,300 medium-sized books.
Based on equivalent floor space, electronic storage can accommodate more than
fifteen hundred times as many books and articles as does storage of the physical
documents themselves.

An analysis of CD-ROM shows even larger gains. But, this overlooks perhaps
the most significant values of electronic storage " remote access and shared
resources. People who have access to a network that includes libraries have access
to those resources without having to travel to the library to see the physical
documents. The information is available to them twenty-four hours a day at their
place of work, study, or home.

This same type of table can be constructed for transmission speeds.

Transmission times





Network Speeds

Document 9.6 Kbs iS | Mobs 1 Gbs
1 page 2.6 sec. 502 see -00003 sec
100 pages 4.5 min Ly sec .003 sec
25 page article with 10 images 28hrs 10.8 min 9 Sec
Library of Congress

lower limit of 25 TBS 661 yrs 1,543 days 56 hrs

upper limit of 2 PBs 52,880 yrs) 388 yas 186 days

These tables clearly illustrate the new world for information and libraries.
Documents and articles can be accessed and retrieved in seconds at gigabit
speeds. This is in sharp contrast to the networks and technologies that libraries
typically use today (9.6 to 56 Kbs link speeds), where it can take hours to
electronically retrieve a single document or article (books could take days). The
result is that only selected documents are made available " usually those not
containing large sets of data or images.

North Carolina Libraries

bols), but relies on visual information;
images will dominate the way we use net-
works and interact with information.

The increases in network speeds and
computer power as well as reduction in
storage costs have tremendous implica-
tions for libraries and information. If
technology can provide adequate digital
storage, transmission and display of im-
ages in real time, then digital libraries are
no longer relegated to being future images
or ideals. Digital libraries themselves be-
come the basis for library development
and deployment. From this point on, it
will be very difficult to justify physical
library expansions based primarily on vol-
umes and print.

New paradigms
At the same time, it is clear also that
libraries must be prepared to do things
differently. Libraries will not be a major
force in the developing information age if
they do not aggressively adopt and adapt
technology to meet the information needs
of their constituents. For example, the
normal operating procedures of electronic
document delivery associated with slow-
speed networks and technology are totally
inappropriate for high- speed networks. It
is not adequate simply to have the card
catalog online. The goal has to be to have
the full text online so it can be retrieved
and obrowsed� over the network just as
the patron would do when walking down
an aisle of books and journals.

It is also important to note that the
definition of information is facts, figures
andimages. One way to help illustrate this

is the four tier model:
Raw Data

Information
Knowledge
Wisdom

Information is becoming much more
interactive; users find it essential to readily
navigate between raw data and informa-
tion in real time in order to get the knowl-
edge and understanding they need. This is
an iterative process which becomes ever
more important as the amount of available
information continues to increase (e.g., how
can the user quickly sift through the data to
get at crucial information). In other cases,
the process itself becomes part of the grow-
ing database. For example, an educator
reviewing results of a survey on teaching
styles would be able to add his/her experi-
ence. The result is that the database grows
every time it is used; that is, the new expe-
rience is incorporated into the database.

These types of applications are al-
ready taking place through computer
conferencing and promises to become a
significant source of information and ex-

Fall 1992 " 131

SIR ere a Sew nO ePID RP ee aS a NR aie OE oA oe eT NVA NNR Ae ne EM Real VE OP ES

pertise. This points out that libraries must
begin seriously to adopt several paradigm
shifts in order to usher in and develop the
next-generation library and information
center. One of the shifts is that libraries
must rapidly respond to accommodate
these onew� types of information sources.
Another involves navigation. On the one
hand, libraries need to develop electronic
navigation expertise to assist users. On the
other hand, in many cases, librarians will

The question is not if these

issues will be resolved, but when;
and the more pertinent question
is who is going to take leadership
to provide the information for
the electronic world.

not be intermediaries, as the users will
access the information directly.

The discussion so far has centered on
hard copy and text. However, there are
many other rapidly developing types of
electronic information such as databases,
electronic journals, scientific visualization,
and graphics. These assume that high-
performance networks will be the primary
interface for the vast majority of users.
The growing importance of video, moving
images, and high-resolution graphics to
science, education, and business will re-
quire yet other new technologies and new
approaches to handle what we call oinfor-
mation technology.� Librarians will need

. to become conversant with a wide variety
and ever-growing array of non-biblio-
graphic forms of information.

These same users are not only oat-
homeT in this electronicinformation world,
but also are the vanguard for the future.
These users depend on access to current
information (discoveries and new ideas are
shared within minutes) for their livelihood,
and seek out those information repositories
that have high-performance electronic ca-
pabilities. In many other cases, they can
not wait until the information is available
in print or travel to the source to get the
materials. They want and need access to the
video, images, and data within minutes or
hours. (Interestingly, this sort of timeliness
has contributed to the success of Cable
Network News.)

The discussion has deliberately side-
stepped many electronic information is-
sues that are beyond the scope of this
article. The topics range from copyright
and publishing issues to those of technical

132 " Fall 1992

standards for interoperability and resource
sharing. While these are significant fac-
tors that involve not only economics, poli-
tics, and inertia (substantial investments
and infrastructures used to doing business
as they always have), the marketplace and
user needs will drive the required changes
over time. The question is not if these
issues will be resolved, but when; and the
more pertinent question is who is going to
take leadership to provide the informa-
tion for the electronic world.
The discussion has also delib-
erately side-stepped many is-
sues dealing with electronic
information as these are be-
yond the scope of this article.
In essence, the tremen-
dous changes in networking,
communications, and com-
puting mean that geography
and time will no longer be
obstacles. Where you are lo-
cated will have little impact
on what you can do or learn.
Resources, expertise, and in-
formation will be the currency that flows
on the network. You will not move people
to resources, but move resources to people.
What will this mean? Faculty mem-
bers, students, and information technolo-
gists (currently more than fifty percent of
the population) will be using networking
as part of their job. Digital libraries, with
vast directories and images, will provide
information to the desktop in tenths of
seconds; from your office you will be able
to provide yet another capability with
face-to-face communications among of-
fices, libraries, and so on. It will greatly
enhance collaboration and interaction
between users and information providers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a number of factors
and opportunities face libraries that must
be addressed if libraries are to be viable
information centers for the next century:

e The willingness of librarians to adopt
a different model of what it means to be a
library " that is, a digital library. How
does a library begin to position itself to
make the transition to a digital library? Is
it necessary that all libraries become digi-
tal, or to what extent?

e A major change in the organiza-
tional structure and culture of libraries.
Libraries are organized in terms of sup-
porting a central repository; the future
model is going to be much more dis-
bursed, requiring a flattening of the hier-
archy and a move toward disbursed man-
agement of resources and staff.

e A move from increased holdings to
increased access; the goal is to use elec-
tronic networks to reach remote physical

resources.

e Libraries will have to adapt to using a
wide range of classification schemes (access
strategies) rather than try to fit all informa-
tion into one classification system, as they
draw upon information in interactive for-
mats and from a wide range of non-library
electronic (network) resources.

¢ Much more emphasis upon the shar-
ing of resources among libraries from the
outset. How can each library carve out a
unique niche or set of holdings that will be
of use to the much larger national or
global community? It will require coordi-
nated planning, purchasing and catalog-
ing to avoid duplication.

e The acquisition of technical knowl-
edge and expertise for all librarians. While
the goal is not to require that librarians be
computer programmers, it is essential that
they be technically literate and have sub-
stantial technical resources (networking,
storage and computing) in residence or on
call. In addition, it is essential that the
technology be integrated throughout the
entire organization, from top to bottom.

Libraries and networks are approach-
inga watershed which will radically change
the role of both. New paradigms are going
to be required to effect the transitions.
Only through a tight coupling of strategic
information resources and expertise with
ubiquitous, high speed network access,
will we be able to increase our productiv-
ity, remain competitive, and sustain high
quality education.

References and Notes

1 Bytes versus bits: 8 bits to every byte;
bits indicated by lower case (Mbs), bytes
by upper case (MBs).

2 Peter Large, The Micro Revolution Re-
visited (New Jersey: Towman & Allanheld
Company, 1984).

3 Richard Saul Wurman, Information
Anxiety (Doubleday, New York, 1989).

4 Bowker Annual: Library and Book Trade
Almanac 36th edition, compiled and ed-
ited by Filomina Simora, R.R. Bowker, 1991.

5 Steven Louis and Robert F. Rubeck,
oHypertext Publishing and the Revitaliza-
tion of Knowledge,� Academic Computing
(May 1989): 22-32.

6 Science News 142, 5 (August 1,
OOD arise ;

7 Wilbur Schramm and William Por-
ter, Men, Women, Messages, and Media;
Understanding Human Communication (New
York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982).

8 Wilson M. Stahl, oThe Future Impact of
High-performance Networks on Library Col-
lection, Facilities, and Services,� Metropolitan
Universities 3, 1 (Summer 1992) in press.

North Carolina Libraries

When Can I Put Down My Pen?

If I Put Down My Pen,
Do I Get A Secret Decoder Ring?

TCP/IP, UNIX,LAN, WAIS,NREN,
INTERNET,FDDI.

o you remember the days
when, if you ate all your ce-
real, your mom would save
the box tops and send them
in for a secret decoder ring?
With this ring you could write
and read messages that could
only be understood by those who pos-
sessed this special piece of equipment.
The rings were made of cheap plastic and
never lived up to childhood expectations.
As we grew up, we abandoned the child-
hood fanatasy of communicating secretly
and relied on our pens, pencils, typewrit-
ers, and now PCs, to communicate with
one another using well understood words
and grammatical structure. However, the
situation is changing dramatically. In
order to understand the characters which
appear at the beginning of this paragraph,
we need more than a decoder ring.

The letters are not a secret message
written in uncials, although for many of
us they very well could be. Few librarians
can interpret the meaning behind these
characters which make up acronyms which
have become commonly used in explain-
ing ways to communicate. The library pro-
fession has developed its own set of acro-
nyms over the decades which are used to
describe bibliographic tools, associations,
networks, and information resources.
During our educational process to become
librarians, we were trained to understand
the concepts they stood for and how to use
them in our libraries.

We are now confronted with a new
vocabulary that is invading the profes-
sion. Trying to understand it is as difficult
as trying to read classical Greek without
having taken the appropriate time and
energy to study the language. One of the
major challenges facing the profession is

North Carolina Libraries

by Raymond A. Frankle

the changing way in which information is
stored, accessed, and retrieved. Many in
the profession have the attitude similar to
that of many Americans when it comes to
a foreign language, oSo what if it is Greek
to me? If it is important, someone will
translate it into English.� Maybe that
works fora foreign language, but it will not
work for librarians who are faced with
significant changes in the way informa-
tion is stored and retrieved. Most librar-
ians will have to understand not
only the new vocabulary related to
information and telecommunica-
tion technology but also the prin-
ciples and economics behind them.

The major portion of this ar-
ticle deals with some of the signifi-
cant areas that most librarians need
to understand as they attempt to
deal with technological change. It
is written from the perspective of
one library administrator who does
not claim to know the answers,
andis still struggling with the ques-
tions. It raises as many questions
as answers. It is hoped that indi-
viduals will understand the impor-
tance of working together to help
shape the future of the profession.

As a profession, we are woefully be-
hind in understanding the implications of
information in electronic accessible form.
Unlike learning cataloging rules or Library
of Congress subject headings, which rep-
resent some of the major intellectual foun-
dations of organizing information, the
new terms listed at the beginning of the
article represent disciplines and knowl-
edge that are foreign to most librarians.
This situation has been compounded by
the fact that since the mid-1970s, when it
first began to install connections outside
of Ohio, OCLC took responsibility for all
the telecommunication connections. The
only thing we had to know about this

aspect of the system was that than if we
had a problem, just call OCLC. They took
care of everything that provided electronic
and telecommunication access to their
system. Libraries could devote their ener-
gies to learning how to catalog or do ILL
using an electronic system instead of typ-
ing cards and forms. OCLC is still around
and continues to provide telecommunica-
tion service for us. This may be sufficient
for some libraries, but for many it is not. In

As a profession, we are
woefully behind in
understanding

the implications of
information in electronic
accessible form.

order to access the database and informa-
tion services which have developed in the
past five to ten years, librarians must now
be knowledgeable of telecommunication
and computer technology. Such knowl-
edge is required even if libraries do not
wish to access external information
sources. CD-ROM products have become
common in most libraries. Librarians real-
ize the limitations of having such power-
ful sources which can only be used by one
individual at atime. In many institutions,
plans are underway to network these ma-
chines. To do so requires special knowl-
edge. Who has that knowledge? Librar-
ians who do not have the knowledge must

Fall 1992 " 133

turn to others to provide it. This can be
both good and bad. However, it is at the
crux of the problem for many of us. How
we resolve these will have a major influ-
ence on what the profession will be like in
the next ten years or so.

In his article Alan Blateckey cites some
interesting statistics such as three new
accessible databases appear daily and
ninety percent of all information pub-
lished since 1979 is/was digital. These
statistics, coupled with the technology he
speaks of, lead to different ways of seeking
information and creating new knowledge.
It is mind boggling to think that in the
emerging, high-end technologies, all in-
formation in the Library of Congress can
be transmitted in fifty-six hours or a little
over days. The point is not that one would
want to send that much data, but that a
query could search that much. At such
speeds, the existing, cumbersome barriers
of creating knowledge fall dramatically.
The pointers and classification schemes
librarians have developed to store infor-
mation sources become obsolete and irrel-
evant. When this point is reached, and it
may not be that far away, different skills
are needed to mesh patrons with the infor-
mation they seek.

To adapt will require resources. Un-
fortunately, the historical dilemma librar-
ies have faced is under-capitalization. The
recent dramatic rise in the prices of nu-
merous serial publications, coupled with
reduced fiscal resources at many institu-
tions, has made it difficult on the one
hand to consider new initiatives, while on
the other hand business can not continue
as usual. Some institutions have canceled
subscriptions, relying on the effectiveness
of electronic networks to enable them to
obtain articles from other libraries. Some
libraries have used a portion of the dollars
saved from the cancellations to provide
expanded electronic access and document
delivery to certain information sources.
They have seen this as a way to survive and
to improve service. Are they on the right
track? The decision to provide informa-
tion this way certainly saves space and
processing costs. However, what is the
true cost of the technology? Arguments
are made that technology saves time. More
investigation is probably necessary to know
for certain. It is true that the user can
access electronic information any hour of
the day or night, but what did it take to
enable the individual to access and use
these sources? The literature indicates
that unlike traditional bibliographic in-
struction programs, showing individuals
how to use electronic resources is more
labor-intensive and requires more one-on-
one interaction. Do we have the staff re-
sources to accomplish this?

134 " Fall 1992

Beyond the rudiments of showing an
individual how to logon and search an
electronic file, many librarians are finding
that the person requires additional knowl-
edge of the hardware and software. Who
should teach these skills? As an example,
much of the census data is being issued in
electronic form. When it was produced in
printed form, a user could scan the docu-
ment and ascertain that it contained the
information he needed. More than likely
it contained tables, charts, and graphs that
were applicable to his needs. To carry the
example further, the individual, if he so
desired, could have pur-
chased the document
from the federal gov-
ernment. Now the user
must have a basic
knowledge of how to
operate a PC, an under-
standing of file struc-
ture, an ability to down-
load information, and
skill to manipulate that
information using a
spreadsheet or data-
base. In addition, to use
it any place but the li-
brary, the patron must
have access to a fairly powerful PC. Whose
responsibility is it to provide such equip-
ment? Can it be done within present re-
sources? Will librarians provide more in-
formation, but less help? Because access is
machine-intensive, librarians may be in-
advertently limiting the number of indi-
viduals who can use the information.

So far we have not considered how to
handle those patrons or librarians who, no
matter how good the training, cannot
effectively use electronic technologies. Will
we create a caste system where there will
be those individuals who can onavigate�
the electronic networks and those who
cannot? Will one individual's services be
worth more than anotherTs? What should
patrons expect from a librarian regarding
electronic access? If they cannot obtain
what they need from a librarian, to whom
will they go?

Libraries and the organizations to
whom they report must seriously consider
training issues. This is no small matter.
Effective ongoing programs must be de-
veloped and put into place before new
technology is introduced and then sus-
tained to continually enhance skills. Li-
braries have depended on professional
organizations and networks such as
SOLINET to provide training. As good as
many of these have been, each library
needs to consider training and develop-
mentan ongoing, supported, and rewarded
activity within its own organizational struc-
ture. If it does not, there is little hope that

its staff can continually keep up with the
changing electronic environment. Library
administors must give staff both resources
and time to develop skills. One hour of
training without time to experiment and
make the new skill a part of the individualTs
knowledge base will be a failure.

On a more global scale, library educa-
tion needs to consider how it is preparing
graduates for the new technologies. Again,
this academic preparation must go be-
yond learning how to operate a PC or use
@ClG.

Beyond these immediate needs looms

If we do not come to grips with, and
provide leadership in the area of,
telecommunications and accessing
information technology, the profession
of librarianship will soon end.

amore perplexing issue. How long will the
information survive in the electronic for-
mat that it is in? It was created to be used
in a certain medium with a limited range
of hardware. What happens when the
hardware is not produced any longer?
Currently, hardware is changing every
three to five years. Even OCLC has admit-
ted this and is basing its systems on avail-
able technology. It no longer has equip-
ment manufactured specifically for its own
system. Unfortunately, the migration from
one level machine to another does not
assume compatibility of files or software
programs. What happens then to the struc-
tures and training we put in place under
the older technology?

Many libraries are canceling their sub-
scriptions to print materials in favor of
electronic alternatives. The difficulty may
be that several years from now, that infor-
mation may not be accessible, because in
many instances libraries do not own the
electronic data and, if technology changes,
the information may have to be repur-
chased in another medium.

A similar situation exists concerning
electronic media in general. As much as
we complain about acidic paper and its life
expectancy, we have given little thought
to the preservation of information that is
produced electronically. We are just as-
suming that it will be there. There is a
growing body of evidence that it will not.
At present, the federal government has
records from the 1960s and 1970s in elec-

North Carolina Libraries

tronic form that it cannot read because of
medium deterioration and because the
hardware on which the information was
created no longer exists. For a profession
which has considered the preservation of
human knowledge an important part ofits
responsibility, we are not doing enough in
the way of considering the ramifications
of immediate access and use in relation-
ship to long-term availability.

Perhaps the most difficult area of all is
dealing with the network and telecommu-
nications component of change. For many
libraries, access to any network is still a
dream. For others, being a member of
OCLC will satisfy their needs. However,
there is an increasing number of libraries
for which much more is required concern-
ing network access. How do they meet
that need? Except in rare instances, librar-
ies cannot act by themselves. They are part
of a larger organizational structure. With
some exceptions, librarians have not ex-
erted a major role in network planning
within the context of their parent organi-
zations, and even less on the national and
local level. If America is a society which
depends on quick access to information,
then this must change.

Several times over the past couple of
years, I have heard various speakers talk
about networks as the highways of the
future. That may be an accurate analogy,

e All in Stock
e Annotations Services

but we should stop to think about who
designed those highways and who is de-
signing the new network ohighways.� Have
you ever noticed that the new vocabulary
to describe networks and electronic media
hardly ever uses words like otype,� oread-
ing,� oliteracy:� words librarians under-
stand. Librarians are used to dealing with
words written on paper. Many librarians
have become familiar with the industry
responsible for printing books and jour-
nals. In some instances, they have influ-
enced those industries. Other librarians
know how to organize these materials to
keep similar items together. There are those
in the profession who specialize in help-
ing individuals locate and use the printed
word. This is made somewhat easier by the
fact that from childhood on, schools have
stressed skills which use and manipulate
the written word.

This is not dissimilar to learning to
drive in high school. Most of us probably
consider ourselves good drivers. However,
many of us take our cars for granted. Few
know anything about repairing a car if it
breaks. We do not want to know how it
works, just that it does. Unfortunately,
the problem arises when the car breaks
down and we are not only helpless, but
stranded. This is how we have treated our
knowledge of networks. Others of us have
assumed that because we can drive a Car,

Bringing You the
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© Electronic Ordering

we can automatically drive an eighteen-
wheeler. Even if we could get the truck
moving, we have no concept of how
heavily regulated the trucking industry is,
the complexity of the freight system infra-
structure, or the most cost effective means
to get to point A from point B. So itis with
the networks and telecommunications.
Once we want to move from OCLC as our
sole network connection to networking
out CD ROMs on a local network to pro-
viding our users with access to sources on
INTERNET, we have entered a whole new,
unfamiliar arena. What does it take to get
there? One can read articles, even in this
issue, on some of the technical details of
establishing a LAN or connecting to an
external electronic source. However, little
is usually said about the long term impli-
cations and commitments.

First, we must realize, which few do,
that when a library decides to offer infor-
mation to its users through electronic
means, it has just set up a barrier between
the reader and the information. I know all
the arguments about how we can provide
more information more quickly without
regard to time or distance. But the fact
remains, the reader must use a medium
controlled by us or someone else to get to
that information. Once a book is acquired
and placed on the shelves, no further
intermediary is required. In an electronic

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North Carolina Libraries

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JouHN HiccIns, SALES REPRESENTATIVE

Fall 1992 " 139

environment who can foretell that what
may seem free today will not havea charge
tomorrow? Do all readers have equal ac-
cess? Ifnot, how does that square with the
mission of most libraries to provide free
and equal access?

I know very few libraries that are do-
ing analysis of the true costs involved in
providing information in electronic
sources. Few can determine actual costs
versus benefit derived for any phase of
their operation.

Unfortunately, many librarians feel
competent to meet the future if they can
use a PC to do wordprocessing, create a
spreadsheet, do online searching, and ac-
cess BITNET. However, when it comes to
understanding TCP/IP or packet switch-
ing such as X.25, the numbers drop off
dramatically. Not everyone needs to bean
expert, but everyone needs to understand
better the implications for the user. What
should a library do? No matter if it is a
school, public, academic, or special library,
it is faced with similar problems such as
constrained (if not dwindling) resources,
greater demands for service, limited staff
resources, and a staff whose education and
training for the most part did not include
such areas as telecommunications, FCC
regulations, imageoriented learning, and
broadband capabilities, to mention just a
few. Librarians need to ask themselves
whether they wish to be in control; to lead,
or be led? The choice is ours, but we must
act. The decisions are not easy. The re-
source issue is not clear. However, we have
an outstanding tradition within the pro-
fession of cooperation. We need to capital-
ize on that more than ever.

If we do not come to grips with, and
provide leadership in the area of telecom-
munications and accessing information
technology, the profession of librarianship
will soon end. Even the term itself denotes
the printed sources. To give just one
illustration, there are over seven hundred
thousand nodes on the Internet Network
and nobody knows how fast it is growing.
When last I checked, more than three
hundred libraries had made their OPACs

176 " Fall 1992

Request additional information from:
Chris A. Bates (704) 529-0632
Development Committee, NCLA Public Library Section

available through this network. Compare
seven hundred thousand nodes with
OCLCTs twenty-two thousand member li-
braries. This not a completely fair com-
parison, but it gives a sense of where infor-
mation handling is headed. How many of
those Internet nodes were developed be-
cause a librarian thought or argued that it
was important to do? To whom are the
users of Internet turning to learn how to
use the network or onavigate� it? Whether
we as a profession like the trend toward
using electronic means to communicate,
store, retrieve, and create information is
not material. What we need to recognize
is that this is what is happening. There are
many problems related to electronic ac-
cess and standards, but these are being
addressed. In just two years, the Coalition
for Networked Information has had a sub-
stantial impact in getting computing
people, publishers, and librarians to work
together. In addition, Congress just passed
legislation to create a National Research
and Education Network (NREN). Esti-
mates are that it will receive over one
hundred million dollars in funding during
its first year. Although it was originally
conceived to make access to networks for
scientific and academic communities, the
final bill states that it is to support educa-
tion, and libraries of all types. Are we
prepared?

Who of us is conversant enough to
describe to our supervisors the resources
necessary to position our library to take
advantage of these new powerful tools.
Many libraries now have online catalogs.
If terminals are hardwired to the central
mainframe, the data is possibly being sent
at 9600 bits per second. If we wish to move
from a hardwired environment to one
where we can take advantage of the large
data files and higher communication
speeds which exist today, our buildings,
campuses, schools, and agencies must be
rewired. Who will design such a project?
Who will develop the standards? How will
it be paid for? Will we cancel subscriptions
to invest in telecommunications? All of
these are hard questions. Before we can

1991-93 NORTH CAROLINA PUBLIC LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT AWARD

It's never too early to plan nominations for the N.C. Publc Library Development Award. The award
recognizes an individual whose project, promotion, or service has made a significant and innovative
contribution to the development of public libraries in North Carolina during the current biennium.

Plaque and $500 check to be awarded at biennial NCLA Conference in Winston-Salem, October 1993.

move to the new paradigm of information
access and use, these questions must be
answered. If librarians do not educate
themselves to address them, they will have
little impact in the new electronic infor-
mation environment.

In times of declining and stagnant
budgets, coupled with the maintenance of
traditional library services and demands
which seem to grow each year, coming to
grips with change and the issues surround-
ing it is indeed of monumental impor-
tance. Part of the answer lies in librarians
taking a leadership role in articulating the
value of such transmission of information
to learning, research, and economic devel-
opment. If we are not prepared to give a
coherent and far sighted response, we may
need to consider how long we are going to
remain a profession. Without support of
an information infrastructure, it will not
just be libraries that fail, but schools, uni-
versities, businesses, and other agencies.

The writing is on the wall, but it is not
in secret code. We must do everything
possible to prepare ourselves and our insti-
tutions to take full advantage of the new
technologies. If we do not, the task will be
done by others. If we are not prepared to
help individuals blend data and images
and use extremely large files, or show
them how to weave through the already
existing one hundred thousand databases
on Internet, we are going to be passed by
and relegated to an archival function.

We have to put down our pens now.
We cannot wait until they run out of ink.
We need to learn the secret code, not to be
dispensers of secrets, but to serve as facili-
tators to unlock the mysterious new world
of information technology. We need to
move from rules and regulations for orga-
nizing information in a warehouse envi-
ronment to working with a variety of dis-
ciplines to create an infrastructure that
embodies the principle of free and easy
access to information to all citizens and to
make certain those individuals are able to
find and manipulate that information to
create new knowledge.





North Carolina Libraries

Technology Programming for Libraries

or some time librarians have

struggled with the fiscal conse-

quences of the increasing costs

of personnel and materials

(books and journals). Steady state

budgets and diminishing pur-
chasing power have forced a series of no-
win choices that have tended to under-
mine the delivery of badly needed ser-
vices. The search for solutions to these
problems has been extensive and often
has settled on technology, broadly de-
fined not just as automation and personal
computing but also as video, audio, tele-
phonic, and other electronic equipment
and services.

This technology has been offered as
the panacea to a range of problems, in-
cluding the fiscal challenges facing librar-
ies. Employ technology to offset the loss
of personnel. Use machines to replace the
loss of years of experience and hard-to-
find talent. Utilize technology to increase
the formats and diversify the range of
informational resources available at a dis-
tance, at no cost or minimal cost, for the
public to use. There is, however, a odark-
side� to the wondrous world of technol-
ogy. Years of experience have demon-
strated that using technologies does not
save staff; instead, more staff are needed.
Efforts to access information resources lo-
cated at a distance have proven far more
complex, costly, and time-consuming than
originally envisioned. Often, technology
is little more than a band-aid solution; the
deep-seated problem remains hidden.

And now, another more insidious as-
pect of technology is beginning to take its
toll on libraries and librarians. The cost of
acquiring, operating, maintaining, and
upgrading various technologies has be-
come another force competing for the
ever-diminishing budget dollars available
to librarians. If technologies are not ac-
quired, it is often proclaimed that librar-
ians are shortchanging their clientele and
placing them among the information-dis-
advantaged.

Unless library administrators and staff
are prepared to reconsider the organiza-

North Carolina Libraries

by Kenneth E. Marks

tion and operation of their workplace, it is
unlikely that technology will ever supply
the solutions it is capable of providing.
The fact is, there are too many librarians
o who are trying to do the same old job in
the same old way, using 18th-century
methods with 20th century tools...�! Giv-
ing up established ways and methods in
our jobs is extremely difficult and should
not be attempted in an unplanned, hap-
hazard manner.

There is a term currently in vogue that
describes the process of moving away
from outmoded methods to using
twentieth or twenty-first century
methods and tools to change the
workplace and work routines. It is
oreengineering.� oAt the heart of
reengineering is the notion of dis-
continuous thinking " of recogniz-
ing and breaking away from the out-
dated rules and fundamental assump-
tions that underlie operations.�

Although reengineering holds
great potential for improving the
integration of technologies in a li-
brary, it can wreak havoc in an orga-
nization if a proper approach is not used.
Reengineering in the absence of effective
planning and programming can be enor-
mously counter-productive to the institu-
tional health and well-being of a library.

Although most librarians have been
subject to a constant barrage of advice that
implores them to plan, planning all too
often is a haphazard, erratic effort. Too
many individuals have experiences that
seem to confirm that planning is an exer-
cise in futility. Months are spent attend-
ing meetings. Competing needs are exam-
ined in great detail. A plan is created.
Then, the plan is disregarded the first time
crucial decisions are made. As the plat-
form of a new administration or new ad-
ministrator, planning offers an attractive
allure that promises to remedy existing
and future problems. It also offers an
opportunity to put distance between a
new administration and the previous one.

The reader should not assume that the
author is opposed to planning. Quite the

contrary. Planning or programming prop-
erly carried forward is an indispensable
tool for the successful operation of any
organization, including libraries. Effec-
tive. planning, whether it is known as
strategic, long-range, or by some other
name, offers a rigor that demands a thor-
ough examination of institutional pur-
pose and commitment.

Anexample of reengineering is a tech-
nology program that can provide the frame-
work for achieving a more effective utiliza-

Efforts to access information
resources located at a
distance have proven far
more complex, costly, and
time-consuming than
originally envisioned.

tion of new equipment and systems and
the possibility of new services. The model
for creating a technology program can be
found in the process known as the build-
ing program or educational specifications.
Although there are many descriptions and
definitions of a building program, the fol-
lowing statement provides the context for
this article:
oThe purpose of the building pro-
gram is to provide the architect and
the building engineers with infor-
mation about the library and the
requirements that must be met in
the design of the library building in
order to serve your institution or
community. ...

oThe primary objective, as in-
dicated above, is to describe the
purpose, functions, relationships,
and operations of a particular li-
brary in terms of its space needs,
functional relationships, environ-
mental requirements, and all other

Fall 1992 " 137

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characteristics. Each area of the li-
brary must be covered in detail ...
emphasis ... on describing what is
needed to make the area function
effectively and efficiently. Although
dwelling on the future, the building
program should include a brief his-
tory of the library and the buildings
it ... occupied as a means of provid-
ing background to design profes-
sionals who may not be acquainted
with the institution or community.
When completed, the building pro-
gram stands as the project source
book, providing all essential infor-
mation and guidelines.

oThe process of preparing the
building program helps the library
administrator to achieve a second
objective, namely the identification
of persistent problems and concerns
in library organization and opera-
tion and working out of long-term
solutions...�3

There are several crucial phrases in
this excerpt. First, a program should de-
scribe a libraryTs purpose, functions, rela-
tionships, and operations. Second, the
program should focus on the particular
libraryTs space needs, functional relation-
ships, environmental requirements, and
other characteristics. Third, the program
should aim to describe what is needed for
efficient and effective functioning regard-
less of the cost. Reconciling the desired
functions and the realities of cost will
come later. Fourth, the program should
provide a brief historical statement about
the library.

Each of these factors can be combined
to constitute a definition of a technology
program for a library. One additional
factor, costs, will be added to this descrip-
tion. The result is the following statement
of a technology program:

The purpose of the technology pro-
gram is to provide the library ad-
ministration, staff, and parent orga-
nization with information about the
library, and define the requirements
that must be met in the selection,
integration, and use of technolo-
gies in the design of the library
organization and its services to the
institution or community.

The primary objective is to de-
scribe the purpose, functions, rela-
tionships, and operations of a par-
ticular library in terms of its tech-
nology needs, functional relation-
ships, environmental requirements,
and other characteristics. Each area
of the library must be covered in
detail; the emphasis should be on
describing what is needed to make
the area function effectively and

178 " Fall 1992

efficiently. Although dwelling on
the future, the technology program
should include a brief history of the
library and the technologies it has
used as a means of providing back-
ground to librarians, technology
specialists, and budget officials who
may not be acquainted with the
institution or community. When
completed, the technology program
stands as the source book, provid-
ing all essential information and
guidelines.

The process of preparing the
technology program helps the li-
brary administration to achieve a
second objective: the identification
of persistent problems and concerns
in library organization and opera-
tion and the working out of long-
term solutions.

There is one fundamental difference
between a building program and a tech-
nology program. That difference is the
timespan for which the program is appli-
cable. A building program will be drawn in
amanner that projects over a period of two
decades or more. While there may be
tinkering with the program, its essential
characteristics remain valid over an ex-
tended period of time. The lifespan of a
technology program is shorter, five years if
a library is fortunate, three years realisti-
cally. The result is that a technology
program should undergo almost constant
revision and adaptation.

Development of the technology pro-
gram requires a willingness to commit
individually and organizationally to the
rigor and structure of the process of self-
examination. The most efficient approach
may be to charge one individual with the
responsibility for producing the program
with the commitment of full participation
by all staff. While the staff will be indis-
pensable to the process of identifying past
conditions, present circumstances, and
future needs, the program will have some
highly technical and/or specialized seg-
ments where a single person can resolve
decisions most effectively.

The process of creating a library tech-
nology program involves gathering infor-
mation and fashioning answers to a pre-
scribed set of questions. Initially, each of
the functional areas of the library must be
identified in preparation for the descrip-
tion, analysis, assessment, and projection
that follows. There may be a tendency to
settle upon the traditional departments or
other groupings that characterize a library.
It may be that these units are too broadly-
based and that smaller groupings of indi-
viduals and functions should be used as the
basis for the investigation. The work group
may form the logical unit in this review.

Once these functional areas have been
identified, a routine can be established for
assembling the needed information. The
description of each functional areaTs
present circumstance must be prepared to
provide a base line for future decisions.
The description will examine in detail the
following items.

Purpose:

¢ What is the purpose of the func-
tional unit within the context of
the larger library organization?

Functions:

e What are the tasks the functional
unit performs?

¢ Which of those tasks are depen-
dent upon non-library units for
information, assistance, or other
support for their successful accom-
plishment?

Relationships:

¢ What relationships does the func-
tional unit have with each of the
other functional units in the library?
¢ What relationships does the func-
tional unit have with non-library
units?

Environmental Requirements:

e Whatare the existing environmen-
tal conditions within the functional
unit? Particular attention has to be
devoted to electrical capacity; heat-
ing, ventilating, and air condition-
ing (HVAC); telephone facilities; the
condition of walls, floors, and ceil-
ings; the location of electrical sock-
ets; the quality of existing lighting;
the types of furnishings (tables,
chairs, desks) and floor coverings.

¢ What is the impact of the current
demands of technology on existing
community utility networks?

Personnel:

¢ What staff are assigned to the
functional unit?

e What tasks are included in each
individualTs job description and
what are his or her unique qualifica-
tions and skills?

Users:

e Are the primary users of the tech-
nology staff or clients?

¢ What training is required for the
user population to make effective
use of the technology?

e Who, if anyone, is responsible for
providing training?

e What percentage of the
technologyTs existing capacity is
presently being used?

North Carolina Libraries

Technologies:

e What existing technologies are pres-
ently in use in the functional unit?
¢ How long have these technologies
been used in the department?

e Which staff have been trained to
use the technologies and which have
the skill to use the technologies?

e What portion of the potential of
the technologies is currently being
used?

e What is the current inventory of
equipment including the vendor,
model number, date purchased,
whether the item is under warranty,
and how service is obtained?

¢ What is the inventory of appli-
cable software available for the tech-
nology?

e What are the ergonomic strengths,
weaknesses, and requirements of
existing technologies?

¢ What specific standards for soft-
ware and hardware have been
adopted?

e What software and hardware com-
patibilities, incompatibilities, and other
deficiencies have been identified?

Budget:

e What is the budget for the func-
tional unit? It may be that the
functional unit is a subset of a larger
unit. This means that the opera-
tional costs of the smaller unit will
have to be calculated. Special atten-
tion needs to be devoted to identi-
fying all the costs associated with
the technologies used in a unit.

e What is the libraryTs or parent
institutionTs stated and actual life
or replacement cycle for the exist-
ing technology?

An important part of this descriptive
accounting is a set of blue prints, floor
plans, and area diagrams that reflect the
current physical structure of the library.
These plans should include the location of
all utilities and HVAC. A current report of
the use of existing utility capacity should
be included, as well as commentary on the
expandability of the various utilities.

The description of each functional
areaTs present circumstance must be a state-
ment of the current technological environ-
ment. All qualitative commentary should
be reserved for the next two segments of the
program: analysis and assessment.

The analysis and assessment phases of
the technology program must present a
dispassionate commentary on what has
worked and what has not worked techno-
logically. While statements regarding the
oright� or owrong� ofa decision, selection,
or operation are out of place, itis appropri-
ate to review the processes that led to

North Carolina Libraries

decisions. This is no place to second-guess
earlier decisions or find fault with the roles
of individuals. The goal is to identify
those milestones that will permit better
choices and more effective decisions to be
made in the future.

Once the description of existing cir-
cumstances has been completed and an
analysis and assessment of present tech-
nology has occurred, then a projection of
the future library technology environment
can be created. The projection phase may
be the downfall of many technology pro-
grams, for there is a temptation to be
carried away by the lure of new or prospec-
tive developments. While it is critical to
be aware of the newest technologies and
what they can do, it is equally crucial to
identify the interim steps that must occur
to move from the present to the future.
There are few libraries that can afford the
cost of being at the obleeding-edge� of
technology, but many libraries could ben-
efit from being involved in the obeta�
testing of hardware and software for new
technologies. 4

Unlike a building program where there
may be the commitment to move toa new
facility, the technology program must be
based on an evolutionary movement.
Rarely will a library be able to afford the
investment to move from one generation
of technology to another throughout the
entire organization. Instead, the principle
of ohand-me-down� utilization has to be
applied to technologies.

Again, the same categories identified
earlier provide the framework for fashion-
ing the projection of the libraryTs techno-
logical environment.

Purpose:

e What changes or shifts will there
be in the purpose, goals, objectives,
etc. of the functional unit?

e Will these be the result of broader
institutional changes, technologi-
cal changes, or changes in the func-
tional unit alone?

Functions:

e Will the tasks of the functional
unit change?

e Will the unit become more or less
dependent upon non-library units?
e Will those units be geographically
proximate or remote?

Relationships:

¢ Willrelationships with other func-
tional units in the library change?
e What new or modified relation-
ships with non-library units will be
established?

Environmental Requirements:
¢ What will future environmental

conditions be in the functional unit?

¢ How will those compare with the
environmental requirements of
other functional units? Special at-
tention will need to be devoted to
the forecasting of power require-
ments and the demand for HVAC
facilities. Downsizing equipment
does not necessarily minimize the
demands that equipment may place
on the environment.

Personnel:

e Will there be changes in job skills
required of staff?

¢ How will staff be expected to ac-
quire new or additional skills?

e What will the libraryTs responsi-
bility be to assist staff in learning
those skills?

¢ Will these changes in job skills be
reflected in job descriptions and the
task statements for various posi-
tions?

e What problems will arise regard-
ing competitive salaries for those
job skills that are needed by the for-
profit sector of the economy?

e How will the ograying� of the
library profession affect the libraryTs
ability to migrate to future tech-
nologies?

Users:

e Will there be changes in the user
population?

e Will additional training be re-
quired? If so, who provides it?

e Will the combination of improved
skills among clients, decreasing cost
of technology, and increasing user-
friendliness minimize client depen-
dence on the library?

Technologies:

¢ What technologies can be identi-
fied as potentially useful to the func-
tional unit?

e Will these technologies be new to
the library or will they represent the
evolution of technologies existing
in the library?

e What quantities of these tech-
nologies will be required to enable
library staff to perform their jobs?
e What will the marketplace for
acquiring these technologies be like?
Will there be intense competition?
Will the marketplace be closed?

e What will the ergonomics of these
technologies be?

e Will new standards for software
and hardware have to be adopted or
can existing ones be modified?

Budget:
e¢ What changes will need to be

Fall 1992 " 139

made in the budget of the func-
tional unit?

e What are the life-cycle costs of
each technology?

¢ What is a realistic lifetime for the
technology based upon the libraryTs or
parent institutionTs fiscal condition?

There are several threads running
throughout the entire technology program
that deserve special comment. A few of
them deserve some additional examina-
tion because of their importance to the
technology program.

Life Cycle Costs

Most libraries, because of their public sector
affiliation, cannot amortize their equip-
ment costs over time. The result is that
there isno mechanism to provide for saving
resources for future investment in replace-
ment or new equipment. One of the conse-
quences of this situation has been a lack of
awareness of the actual or olife cycle� costs
of equipment. As libraries become more
technology dependent, it will be necessary
to understand the life cycle costs associated
with each technology and the pieces of
equipment that are employed. The life cycle
costs include all fixed and variable costs
associated with the acquisition and use of a
piece of equipment over the entire life of
the item. This means that the complete cost
of a piece of technology must be calculated.
The purchase price of the equipmentis only
the first of the costs. Maintenance, training,
utilities, space, etc., all contribute to the
cost of using the equipment over its
lifetime.

The inability of public sector
organizations to amortize their
equipment has meant that most
libraries use equipment far beyond
what is typically considered to be
the normal life span of the tech-
nology. Generally, a three- to five-
year life span for computer-based
equipment is accepted as a stan-
dard in the for-profit sector of the
economy. In the public sector the
useful life span is usually five to
seven years and, often, much
longer. The consequence of this
enforced longer technological life
span is that the technology be-
comes increasingly less effective because
of its lack of processing power or capacity
to handle the newest software.

While public sector organizations
probably will never be able to amortize
their technologies, they should establish a
more realistic life span for that equip-
ment. Regardless of the life span settled
upon, dollars equal to an appropriate per-
centage of the dollars invested in the tech-
nology should be allocated in each annual
budget for replacement and upgrading

140 " Fall 1992

existing technologies or the acquisition of
new technologies. Unless a library can
make the budgetary commitment to es-
tablish and fund an accepted life cycle
replacement program, support for tech-
nology will always be haphazard. An ideal
budgeting approach would be to allocate
one-third of the total dollars committed to
technology to an annual budgeted fund
earmarked for either replacing aging tech-
nology or acquiring new technologies.

Maintenance

Although maintenance is a part of the life
cycle cost of technology, it deserves spe-
cial attention because its implications are
underestimated all too often. Many librar-
ies have had their first introduction to the
realities of maintenance as they have ac-
quired and operated integrated library sys-
tems. It may not be inaccurate to say that
vendors will sell a technology-based sys-
tem at very close to the break-even cost
because they know that over time they
will make a substantial return on their
investment through maintenance and sup-
port charges. Even if a maintenance con-
tract is negotiated with maintenance price
increases tied to consumer price index
increases, it is a given that there will be
annual increases that are close to the maxi-
mum allowed. These continuing charges
tend to be overlooked during the analysis
of technology vendors. Even if mainte-
nance charges are factored into the analy-
sis, it is likely that they will be underesti-
mated. Over the span of five to seven

There are few libraries that

can afford the cost of being at

the "bleeding-edge" of

technology, but many libraries

could benefit from being

involved in the "beta" testing
of hardware and software for

new technologies.

years, it is possible for maintenance costs
to exceed the original purchase price of
the original technology.

There is an associated question that
larger libraries should examine. How de-
pendent do they want to be upon an
outside organization for maintenance of
their various technological systems? If only
one or a very few technologies are em-
ployed, it may or may not be cost-effective
for library employees to do the mainte-
nance themselves. At some point, how-

ever, in-house maintenance can become
cost-effective. Budgetarily, a library may
want to consider creating a pool of dollars
that is used to acquire replacement parts
such as monitors, keyboards, etc. A supply
of these items can maintain the productiv-
ity of library personnel and minimize the
frustration of library clients by reducing
the amount of down time that occurs.

Supplies

Supplies are an invisible or transparent
variable cost as most librarians examine
technologies. The full impact of supply
costs usually hits some time after staff and
clients have become completely depen-
dent upon a particular service or technol-
ogy. A classic example is the cost of laser
printer toner cartridges and paper. There
is no question that laser printers deliver
superb print quality and that they are
extremely quiet. The fundamental ques-
tion to be answered, however, is whether
a library can afford to replace laser toner
cartridges on a weekly basis and consume
several cartons of paper per week, possibly
per day. Unless librarians settle the issue
of who bears the cost of these consumables
before they are made available to the pub-
lic, library personnel can have a difficult
public relations dilemma to resolve if they
later have to recover supply costs.

Training

Our ability as librarians to assist clients in
comprehending the potential of various
technological systems and then utilizing
them effectively will be directly
dependent upon our willingness to
become more specialized. Tradi-
tionally, librarians have provided
at least a minimally effective inter-
face between the client and various
information resources. If the li-
brarian did not fully understand
the organization of the resource,
there was the opportunity to en-
gage in extemporaneous and spon-
taneous learning with the client.
That approach will become less and
less appropriate as the number and
variety of technologies increases in
most libraries.

Another factor that should be
reviewed is training for the various
technologies. Although most libraries have
many staff who are skilled in using tech-
nologies, there is a fundamental need for
training all library staff. The budgets for
staff development or training are typically
given short shrift as library administrators
wrestle with competing demands. Unless
there is adequate budgetary support for
training library staff to utilize existing and
future technology, the potential ofthe tech-
nology will never be realized to the fullest
extent possible. Although it is easy to give

North Carolina Libraries

olip service� to training, it is quite another
matter to adjust work schedules and make
the necessary accommodations to allow for
time to train staff. Whether library staff or
clients are involved, training in the use of
technology will always take significantly
longer than planned.

Client training is something that all
too often occurs after library staff has been
buried beneath the clientsT legitimate de-
mands for assistance in the use of technol-
ogy. Not all library patrons, and library
staff for that matter, are members of the
Nintendo generation, and many will re-
quire continual and extensive support and
assistance in using technology. While
librarians have traditionally utilized a va-
riety of publications and handouts to as-
sist clients in accessing and using library
materials and collections, these aids will
be of limited usefulness in helping indi-
viduals absorb the concepts involved in
Boolean searching and the nuances that
differentiate searching one database from
another. Finally, training clients in the
use of technology becomes a real time
event driven by the immediacy of the
individualTs need. The perceived effec-
tiveness of libraries in the future may be
based almost entirely upon the clientTs
assessment of that training and assistance.

Organizational Change
Another basic issue in technology pro-

grammingis the effect of technology upon
the library organizational structure and
operations. Does the current organiza-
tional structure capitalize on available tech-
nology or does it, instead, diminish the
contribution the technology could make?
This may be one of the most difficult
investigations to make because it requires
stepping back from the environment in
which most of us have spent our entire
professional careers. This is where the
term oreengineering� re-surfaces.

Unless there is a willingness to pursue
reengineering throughout the library, the
planning and programming for new tech-
nologies will be minimally successful.
Typically, new technologies offer the op-
portunity for making fundamental changes
in the way in which services can be pro-
vided. Too often, however, there is an
unwillingness to cut away from the tried
and true and familiar processes, proce-
dures, and services. This reluctance may
be due to the desire to avoid sharp breaks
with the past and to minimize disruption.

A technology program can provide a
library with the opportunity to step back
and identify where it stands technologi-
cally and where it perceives itself to be
moving over time. Because the program is
a dynamic creation, it can be adjusted and
adapted over time, facilitating an evolu-
tionary change. In fact, if it is to serve its
real function it must be reviewed and

EBSCO

is serials service

modified on a regular basis. At any point
in time, the program should provide the
library with a properly considered assess-
ment of the role technology is to play in its
current operation. This can be especially
crucial if the library administration is faced
with budget cuts or staff reductions.

The program will be only as effective as
the commitment of the library administra-
tion and staff to produce an objective as-
sessment of current conditions and a realis-
tic projection of future opportunities. In
the final analysis, the technology program
can be a statement of how effectively the
library is prepared to utilize technology. If
the ongoing balancing act involving lim-
ited budget resources and the increasingly
competitive demands for materials, per-
sonnel, and technology can be made some-
what more rational, the technology pro-
gram will have served its purpose.

References

1 Mark Stephens, oWired: How PC Net-
works are Changing the Way We Work,�
InfoWorld 11 (March 27, 1989): 41.

2 Michael Hammer, oReengineering
Work: DonTt Automate, Obliterate,� Harvard
Business Review (July-August 1990): 107.

3Raymond M. Holt, Planning Library
Buildings and Facilities: From Concept to
Completion (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scare-
crow Press, Inc., 1989), 43.

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Fall 1992 " 141

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Library Catalog, 14th Edition

September * 1300pp. approx. * ISBN 0-8242-0831-5

Price to be announced.

The new updated and revised edition of this col-
lection development classic! A balanced list of over
6,000 of the best fiction and non-fiction titles for
todayTs secondary school students (grades 9-12).

142 " Fall 1992

so @)rel-1 Gro] | fe) sats

800-367-6770

Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Call °

118-588-8400

Fox: 118-590-1617

The H.W. Wilson Company
950 University Avenue
Bronx, New York 10452

Sears List of Subject Headings:
Canadian Companion, 4th Edition
(companion to Sears, 14th Edition)
Compiled by Lynne Lighthall

August * 72pp. approx. * ISBN 0-8242-0832-3

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This renowned subject-headings list for Canadian
users has been completely updated.

New Reference Works

Booktalk! 4

By Joni Richards Bodart

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$32.00 U.S. and Canada, $36.00 other countries.

Over 350 booktalks from acclaimed booktalker
Joni Richards Bodart. Designed to turn students
and library patrons into avid readers.

Congressional Voting Guide
Fourth Edition

A Ten-Year Compilation

By Victor W. Bosnich

June * 648pp. * ISBN 0-8242-0833-1

$34.95 U.S. and Canada, $39.95 other countries,

An Election Year Special! Voting records of the
535 members of Congress from 1982-1992.
Where do your elected representatives stand on
the important issues of the day?

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Library Programs for Babies

and their Caregivers

By Jane Marino and Dorothy F. Houlihan

June * 172pp. * ISBN 0-8242-0850-1

$30.00 U.S. and Canada, $34.00 other countries.

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plays, and books for young children and their
caregivers.

Nobel Prize Winners
Supplement 1987-1991

Edited by Paula McGuire

Fall * 144pp. approx. * ISBN 0-8242-0834-X
$35.00 U.S, and Canada, $40.00 other countries.

A comprehensive biographical reference
work covering the individuals and institu-
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The Age of Exploration and Discovery
By Janet Podell and Steven Anzovin

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explorers, scientists, and navigators of the
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The Twentieth Century

By Angel Flores

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American authors of this century in a single, easy-
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Whole Language: Literature,
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A Workshop in Print

By Lou Willett Stanek

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* ReadersT Guide to Periodical Literature and
ReadersT Guide Abstracts add 40 new titles in
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North Carolina Libraries

Navigating the Internet:

A Beginning

by George H. Brett II

oIndependence of space and time is the single most valuable service and product we can

provide humankind.�

"N. Negroponte, Scientific American, 9/91

oThe most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the
fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.�
; " M. Weiser, Scientific American, 9/91

have worked with individuals who

had extensive knowledge about

what the Internet is, what net-

works can do, and/or what the

technical specifications of the

hardware and software were. Yet
often these persons were lost when it came
to finding and using resources available
on the network. They could not navigate
the giant network of networks, known as
the Internet. The Internet connects over
750,000 computers together and is grow-
ing daily.

Finding your way around the Internet
requires some help frommaps, guides,
and colleagues. This paper will describe
one method of how one can move from
the familiar to the unknown in the world
of computer networking. The following
steps are suggested: (1) investigate and use
paper-based resources, (2) become famil-
iar with the computing resources you
have at your desktop, (3) begin using
electronic mail (email), and (4) branch
out using interactive Internetworking ser-
vices and resources.

Print Media Resources

oHowTd I learn to swim? Why my Daddy
just threw me in the water. And that was
that.� " anon.

There is some value to learning by
doing. But people-can learn even more
when they have a well-developed back-
ground knowledge. Printed media is still
one of the most accessible ways for us to
get that knowledge. The following areitems

North Carolina Libraries

I consider to be basic reading. A more
extensive bibliography is given at the end
of the paper.

John QuartermanTs The Matrix: Com-
puter Networks and Conferencing Systems
Worldwideis one of the most popular books
in the field of network support. It contains
extensive information about each of the
major networks. This bright yellow book
provides a history of networks, discusses
accepted practices when using networks,
and tells how to do various things, such as
sending electronic mail via the Internet.

Tracy LaQuey developed a thick
manual that was distributed within the
University of Texas system. Her UsersT Di-
rectory of Computer Networks from Digi-
tal Press can be compared to the white and
yellow pages of a telephone book. This
volume has listings of all the known com-
puters, their addresses, and contact people
at the sites. Also, there is good background
on the selected networks.

!%@: : a Directory of Electronic Mail
Addressing and Networks from Donalyn and
Frey is now in its second edition. This is
more of a road map than a phone book.
Many different networks require arcane
symbols to route a piece of electronic mail
(email) from point A to point Z. With this
book I have been able to help a professor of
geography send email from Raleigh, NC to
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Books are helpful, but in order to get
more up-to-date information we rely on
journals and other periodicals. There is no
lack of magazines about computers and
technology in the popular press, such as

Byte, PC World, InfoWorld, and
ComputerWorld. Also, professional or dis-
cipline-specific journals are beginning to
give more field-appropriate information
about networked information. It isa good
idea to keep an eye open for theme-ori-
ented or special issues. For example, Scien-
tific American recently dedicated an issue
to oComputers and Networks� (Sept 1991).

Resources on Your Desktop:

Your personal workstation

oKA clean desk is the sign of a warped
mind.� " seen on a novelty sign

Before you venture out onto the net-
work, it is advisable to know how to use
your desktop computer well and how to
organize the contents of your hard disk.
How well do you access information on
your desktop? Many of us just buy a new,
larger hard disk when we run out of space.
A question I would ask you is oCan you
find that memo or paper you wrote last
year, and the notes that went with it, on
your hard disk?� Many of us would have a
hard time or at least would have to spend
along time digging through directories or
floppy disks. How can we cope with this?
One of the usual outcomes from email and
other network-telated activities is in-
creased volume of files and text to be
stored on your hard disk. This can create a
serious problem for the user who is not
prepared for the flood of information.

A new breed of applications has been
designed to help these problems, basically
through two types of programs. Some were

Fall 1992 " 143

initially designed to assist with the maintenance of hard disks.
These programs usually help you keep track of directory names
and disk speed and to create electronic indices of all the informa-
tion on your hard disk. The other type of application is written
specifically to search for data buried within files on the hard disk.

An example of the first type is LotusT Magellan, for MS DOS
computers, which can be used to maintain your hard disk. In
addition, Magellan can build a variety of different indices to
permit you to work with your information base in a way that is
useful and easy to do. For example, you might create an index for
each major research project on which you are working. Or you
might just keep one very large
index which includes all the files
in all of the directories on your
disk. When you want to know
where the report on xylophones
is you would begin a query by
hitting the appropriate function
key, typing the word you are look-
ing for (xylophone), and wait for
the program to search the index
for the term. Magellan does three
important things to assist you in
your search. First, it ranks the
files found by order of the prob-
ability that your term is found.
So, a 99% would indicate that
this term is in that file whereas a
40% would not be so promising.
Second, once you choose the file
you want to inspect, Magellan will
allow you to open the file and
look at the context in which the
term is used. So, you might find your xylophone among items in
a price list, which is not what you wanted. Third, after you find
the right file, Magellan will permit you to launch the application
that is associated with the file. Say you were looking at a word
processing file: Magellan would then launch the word processing
application so you could edit the file.

Gopher is the name of a program that was designed to locate
text in files. Unlike Magellan, Gopher does not build indices of all
the files on the disk. Instead, it looks into each of the files that you
indicate by directory or specific name. One of the strengths of a
program like this is that the search capacities are usually more
extensive. Gopher will allow you to perform boolean searches,
using connectors such as oand,� oor,� onot,� and proximity.
Proximity parameters can be used when searching terms that
should be closely related to each other. For example, a name
being within two lines of a city would help identify an address.

These types of applications are very important to know
about before beginning to navigate the network.

Electronic Mail
Electronic mail, or oemail,� continues to be the best and most
basic introduction to network computing. The ability to com-
pose, send and receive messages via computer demonstrates
various aspects of networked information. One uses the local
computing resources to compose and prepare the message which
may even include sound or images. Then the network is used to
transmit the electronic mail to the receiver. At the other end the
recipient of the package can check his or her mailbox whenever
they wish. Then, if necessary, a return message can be edited and
sent. Independence from time is one of the most useful aspect of
email. For example, correspondents from different time zones
can collaborate without regard for the time differences.

In order to get started you will need several things: a personal

144 " Fall 1992

There is more information
available at our fingertips during
a walk in the woods than in any
computer system, yet people find
a walk among trees relaxing and

computers frustrating.

computer with telecommunication software and hardware, an
email account on a computer system (e.g. local mainframe,
CompuServe), an ID, and the email addresses of your electronic
correspondents. A terminal connected to a host computer can
usually be used in place of the personal computer with telecom-
munication software and hardware. The email account is most
likely an account on a campus or departmental computer which
is registered with the Internet.

Once you begin exchanging email you will gain confidence
and branch out into other activities. There are a variety of
activities that take place on the Internet through email. One of
the most widely used applica-
tions is the mailing list, or
oVistserv�.

The listserv is an electronic
newsletter or network forum.
Mailing lists focus on a particu-
lar subject or interest area. For
example, I am working with
the Coalition for Networked In-
formation in the working group
on directories. We have created
a mailing list, CNIDIR-L, where
we can continue discussion we
have begun at various national
meetings. In fact, because this
list is open to the public, wecan
involve many more people in
our work than just those who
attended a meeting.

Mailing lists, known as
moderated lists, can be con-

- trolled by an editor. An advan-
tage of the moderated list is that it permits the moderator to
collect and assemble messages into coherent groupings. Moder-
ated lists can function in a manner similar to scholarly journals
that use the process of peer review. However, unlike print
journals, the time to publication is not months nor years, but
hours or days.

There is one other function of electronic mail that is not well
known. This is the batch mode of computing. Certain systems
permit a user to send email that will actually do different
applications. For example, some systems support database que-
ties of large indices. Other systems will permit a remote user to
request file transfer to be delivered to their local computer.

" M. Weiser,

Scientific American, 9/97

Interactive networking
"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by
billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children
being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representa-
tion of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in
the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light
ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constella-
tions of data.�

" William Gibson, Neuromancer

After learning to manage your local system and to send and
receive electronic communications via the Internet, you may
have a sense that there must be more. There is. This is the
interactive world of the Internet.

At this point one truly begins navigating the network. A
number of different applications will help in these electronic
voyages. Currently the Internet that most of us use adheres to the
TCP/IP protocol. This protocol is a collection of programs that are
needed to permit computers to communicate successfully over
the networks. In fact TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control

North Carolina Libraries

Program/Internet Protocol. The major TCP/IP programs illustrate
the types of applications that are done on the network: terminal
emulation, file transfer, mail transfer, and news transfer.

Remote terminal login is supported by the program otelnet�
which can be found as a stand alone application or within other
telecommunication packages. NCSA Telnet is perhaps the best-
known stand alone version. Telnet permits you to log onto a
remote computer to use its resources as long as you have permis-
sion to do so. This is how many of the supercomputers are used.
An account is created for the researcher on the supercomputer.
From then on, wherever that person is, as long as he or she has
access to a personal computer or terminal with access to the
Internet, he or she can use the supercomputer resources.

Not everyone needs the ability to run programs on remote
computers. Many times what is necessary is the transfer of data
from one point to another. The Internet file transfer program is
known as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP is used to move files
from system to system or from the personal workstation to other
computer systems. If you have an account on the two systems
you wish to work with, you can log onto each with your ID and
then transfer files to and from the permitted working spaces.
Another method known as oanonymous FTP� permits users
without accounts on the computer where the files reside to
transfer files to and from remote computers. To do an anony-
mous FTP session, you would log onto the remote computer as
~anonymousT and type ~anonymousT or give your email address as
the password. Once on the system you will be restricted to the
files you are allowed to access. Anonymous FTP is used by many
users as one of the primary means for acquiring public domain
software and shareware from the network.

As mentioned earlier in this paper, the files at your personal
workstation are likely to increase as you use the Internet. Once
you discover how to use anonymous FTP, this will be more likely.
It is worth a warning at this point. There are many millions of
bytes of data and programs archived all around the network. In
fact many of the individual files and programs available are very
large. Keep this in mind when you download to your personal
workstation. Not everyone has forty or fifty megabytes of local
storage available. If you plan to download files to floppy diskettes
be aware of what the limits are. An 800 kilobyte file will not fit on
a 360 kilobyte diskette without special file compression software.

Where are we going from here?

In hopes of making networking more acceptable to end users,
organizations are trying to make the systems easier to use. In
recent years the use of menus has become common. A menu
system presents you with a screen of choices and letters or
numbers that are used to select the specific function that you
require. Recently the move has been towards the graphical user
interface (GUI), also known as windows. In a window environ-
ment a user can use a pointing device such as a mouse to make
selections. Once the selection has been made then the program
completes whatever action is necessary.

There are a growing number of host computers that provide
the user with an easy-to-use menu to navigate networked infor-
mation. One of the most popular is ~libtel,T which began on
computers that used the Unix operating system. This menu can
be seen in use on the electronic bulletin board service (bbs)
offered by UNC-Chapel HillTs Office of Information Technology.
This bbs is accessible from the Internet by using the command:
telnet bbs.oit-unc.edu. Follow the instructions given on the
screen. Once you arrive at the main menu you can select the
number for other services. This will take you to a screen that lists
many of the states and other choices. From this point the bbs will
telnet you to those other resources which include libraries, NSF
grants information database, weather database, and more.

North Carolina Libraries

In addition to programs that are available on the host
computer we are seeing improvements with oclient� programs
located on your personal workstation. The Wide Area Informa-
tion Server (WAIS) from Thinking Machines, Inc., is one such
program. This client software has been written for a number of
different personal workstations. It is designed to permit the user
to ask questions of databases that are out on the Internet. There
are three basic components to the client: source, question, and
response. The source list contains the electronic addresses and
other information about the databases that you wish to query.
The question list contains questions which are repeatedly asked.
The response area is part of the individual question. In the
response area you will see those files which meet the criteria of
your question. Thus, WAIS permits you to build a personal
reference library of questions and resources for you desktop.

More products like ~libtelT and WAIS will become available in
the future. These advances will come from various sources.
Software and hardware manufacturers are creating new products
that make greater use of the network for productivity. Individual
organizations are focusing on the needs of their constituents and
creating tools for networked information. Often these tools can
be useful to other groups outside the original environment.

An important organization in the development of such
oclient� tools is the Coalition of Networked Information (CNI).
CNI was formed by CAUSE, EDUCOM, and the Association of

~ Research Libraries to oexplore the promise of high performance

computers and advanced networks for enriching scholarship and
enhancing intellectual productivity...� (CNI First Year (March,
1990-June, 1991) Report). Libraries interested in participating in
the development of tools to allow users to utilize more effectively
network resources should consider becoming involved in CNI.

Specialists in Micrographic & Optical
Imaging Technology

¢ State-of-the-art electronic records management
¢ Microfilm, computer data, and paper imaging
* Statewide equipment maintenance

e ANSI, AIIM, & N.C. state standards

Authorized Dealer

MINOUA

Raleigh ¢ Charlotte » Asheville * Wilmington
Call Toll Free - 1-800-532-0217

Fall 1992 " 149

A Closing Thought
oMost important, ubiquitous computers will help overcome
the problem of information overload. There is more informa-
tion available at our fingertips during a walk in the woods
than in any computer system, yet people find a walk among
trees relaxing and computers frustrating. Machines that fit
the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter
theirs will make using computers as refreshing as taking a
walk in the woods.�

" M. Weiser, Scientific American, 9/91

Bibliography

Arms, C.R. (ed.) "Campus Strategies for Libraries and Electronic
Information." EDUCOM Strategies Series on Information
Technology. Digital Press, Bedford, Mass., 1990.

Bailey, C.W. "Library-Oriented Computer Conferences and Elec-
tronic Serials." [Available to subscribers of PACS-L computer
conference], 1991.

Bailey, C.W. "The Public-Access Computer Systems Forum: A
Computer Cconference on BITNET." Library Software Review,
9 (1990): 71-74.

Barron, B. "UNTTs Accessing On-Line Bibliographic Databases."
University of North Texas, Danton, Tex., 1991. [Available
by anonymous ftp from host vaxb.acs.unt.edu, directory li-
brary; filename LIBRARIES.TXT (ASCII) or LIBRARIES.WP5
(binary for WordPerfect 5.1 file]

Bowers, K., et al. "FYI on Where to Start: A Bibliography of
Internetworking Information." (Network Working Group.
Request for Comments: 1175, 1990). [Available by anony-
mous ftp from host nic.ddn.mil, directory rfc; filename
RFC1175.TXT]

Cisler, S. NREN : The National Research and Education Network.
LITA newsletter, 40, 11 (2) 1990: 1-3.

Farley, L. (ed.) Library Resources on the Internet : Strategies for
Selection and Use. ALA, Reference and Adult Services Divi-
sion, Machine-Assisted Reference Section, Direct Patron
Access to Computer-Based Reference Systems Committee,
Chicago, 1991. [Available by anonymous ftp from host
dla.ucop.edu, directory pub/internet; filename libcat-guide,
or from host vaxb.acs.unt.edu, directory library; filename
libcat-guide]

Frey, D. and Adams, R. !%@: : A Directory of Electronic Mail
Addressing and Networks. 2nd ed. O'Reilly and Associates,
Sebastopol, CA, 1990.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. Ace Books, New York, 1984.

Interest Groups. SRI International, Network Information
Systems Center, Menlo Park, CA, 1990. [Available by anony-
mous ftp from host ftp.nisc.sri.com, directory netinfo;
filename interest-groups; also by e- mail command SEND
NETINFO/INTEREST-GROUPS to mailserver@nisc.sri.com]

Kahle, B. An Information System for Corporate Users : Wide Area
Information Servers. Thinking Machines Corporation, Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1991.

LaQuey, T.L. UserTs Directory of Computer Networks Accessible to
the Texas Higher Education Network Member Institutions. Digi-
tal Press, Bedford, MA., 1990.

Listserv lists. (1991) [Available via e-mail to
LISTSERV@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU, send message SEND
LIST GLOBAL]

Lynch, C.A. and Preston, C.M. "Internet Access to Information
Resources." Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology (ARIST), 26 (1990): 263-312.

National Science Foundation Network Service Center. Internet
Resource Guide. NSF Network Service Center, Cambridge,
MA, 1989. [Available online via telnet to carl.pac.org] [Avail-
able by anonymous ftp from host nnsc.nsf.net, directory
resource-guide, or via e-mail request to resource-guide-
request@nnsc.nsf.net]

Parkhurst, C.A. (ed.) Library Perspectives on NREN : the National
Research and Education Network. American Library Associaton,
Library and Information Technology Association, Chicago, 1990.

Quarterman, J.S. The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing
Systems Worldwide. Digital Press, Bedford, Mass., 1990.

St. George, A. and Larsen, R. Internet - Accessible Library Catalogs
and Databases. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
NM.; University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1991.[Avail-
able by e-mail message GET LIBRARY PACKAGE to
listserv@unmvm.bitnet] [Available by anonymous ftp from
host nic.cerf.net, directory cerfnet/cerfnet_info:, filenames
internet- catalogs-04-91.ps (Apple Postscript) internet-cata-
logs-04-91.txt (ASCII version)]| [Available by anonymous
ftp from host ariel-unm.edu, directory library; filenames
internet.library (ASCII)]

Strangelove, M. and Kovacs, D.K. (ed.) Directory of Electronic
Journals, Newsletters and Scholarly Discussion Lists. Associa-
tion of Research Libraries, Washington, 1991. [Directory of
electronic journals available by e-mail to
LISTSERV@UOTTAWA.BITNET, send message:

GET EJOURNL1 DIRECTRY
GET EJOURNL2 DIRECTRY]

Thorndike Press
Large Print Books

i...

800/223-6121
Fax: 207/948-2863

146 " Fall 1992

P.O. Box 159, Thorndike, ME 04986

Ben Byrd

104 Big Oak Circle, Madison, AL 35758
205/837-1891

North Carolina Libraries

Navigating Some of the Library Highways
with Your Modem |

by Eric Morgan

This article describes a myriad of non-traditional information sources accessible with your computer and
modem. These descriptions proceed from the least expensive source (ISAAC) to the most expensive
(CompuServe). In between are descriptions about the North Carolina Information Network, regional online
catalogs, bulletin board systems, The Well, ALANet, Prodigy, and America Online. Each source is described in
terms of its scope and ease of use. This paper provides brief instructions on how to access these sources. (It
does not describe how to use your communications software.) It then demonstrates how these sources can be
used to provide better library service and facilitate professional development. Finally, this paper encourages
librarians to think of a computer as the primary tool of the profession.

ISAAC

The following quote comes directly from ISAAC. oISAAC, the
Information System for Advanced Academic Computing,
provides information for IBM users about software and
hardware for instruction and research in higher education.
ISAAC is funded by IBM and operates at the University of
Washington. Access is free to all faculty, staff, and students
currently affiliated with an institution of higher education. It
is possible to access ISAAC via modem or via the Internet
computer network.�

Using ISAAC (and many of the other services listed here)
is much like going to a special-interest group meeting at ALA.
It provides the means for discussing common problems; itTs
an incarnation of the otwo heads are better than one�
philosophy.

ISAAC is divided into many conferences (or discussions).
Some of the conferences of particular interest to librarians
include the following:

¢ Campus networking

e Education

e Humanities

e Institutional research

e Languages and linguistics

e Learning disabilities

e Libraries

¢ Multimedia technologies

¢ Social sciences

¢ Telecommunications technical exchange
e Instructional computing

e Instructional technology transfer centers

Within the Libraries section, there are a number of interesting
topics being discussed:

e VTLS

e IBM librarian software

¢ OCLC EPIC price

¢ Developing library skills

¢ Copy of NREN BILL in HOUSE

e Mini-library needs help

e ELECTRONIC CLASSROOM

* opac

¢ CD-ROM Network

e Freshman year conference

¢ Collection development software

e Info wanted on how your library decides what to
order

e NOTIS systems announcements

e 1991 ALA Annual Conference

e Dynix announces two new innovative modules

e Internet addressable journal search systems

¢ Computerized grant sources, Looking for

ISAAC (like the other services listed here) is an informa-
tion gold mine, although it is not a traditional library infor-
mation source. The information found in these discussions is
the sort you encounter when talking to a person face to face.
It typically contains names, addresses, telephone numbers,
citations, opinions, hardware and software reviews, questions
and answers, meeting announcements, calls for papers, etc.

The difficult thing about ISAAC is that it is not search-
able; browsing will be the only way to retrieve something of
interest. For this reason ISAAC is not a good source for
reference information.

ISAAC is better suited for professional development. Visit
as many conferences as you want. Pose questions to the other
readers. Read what other people have to say. Offer your
opinion. This process will help solidify and polish your
professional goals and objectives and at the same time
contribute to library/information science.

To access ISAAC, simply use your communications
software and dial 1-800-237-5551. Once connected you can
register by typing oregister� in lower case as your access
code. Contact the ISAAC office if you have questions at
(206) 543-5604.

North Carolina Information Network (NCIN)

The North Carolina Information Network (NCIN) is a conduit
for many of the information services that the North Carolina
Division of State Library provides. It ois a link between
widespread sources of information and local libraries of all
types, using the latest computer telecommunication tech-
nologies.�

a

North Carolina Libraries

Fall 1992 " 147

Once logged onto NCIN you are presented with the

following menu options:

e View a bulletin board on the screen

e View information stored in a data base

e State Library Dynix Catalog

e State Archives MARS finding aids

e Download a bulletin board

e Display your user information for verification

e Electronic mail system

Some of the bulletin boards contain full-text oarticles,�
others are lists of data. These bulletin boards are not used to
exchange ideas with fellow telecommunicators; they are
intended to disseminate information about libraries and the
state government. (See Appendix A for a detailed description
of the bulletin boards.) The bulletin boards are updated
regularly and at this writing include:

e State government vacancies

¢ Listing of all state contracts in selected areas

e Calendar of events

e Listing of state construction bids

e Statistical information in 12 general subject areas

¢ Listing of Department of Transportation highway
contracts

¢ Local government programs

e Listing of professional librarian positions

e Information for childrenTs and young adult librarians

e General summary of changing news about NC
libraries

e Library management information

e Summary of events in the NC General Assembly

NCIN also hosts a state calendar database and a state job-
opening database. These databases are searched by filling out
an electronic form and submitting the query. The results are
then displayed.

Another unique aspect of NCIN is MARS. MARS was
developed by the North Carolina State Archives as an auto-
mated finding aid system to materials held by the State
Archives. MARS is a system for record location and retrieval
rather than information retrieval. Its purpose is to direct you
to records that contain information you are seeking rather
than to present the information itself. For example, when
looking for information about Zebulon B. Vance, MARS will
report fifty-six items in the Samuel ATCourt Ashe Papers that
contain references to Vance or are in some way associated
with him and will indicate the locations of those items.

MARS includes archival information in the follow-
ing categories:

e Account Books

¢ Audiovisual/Iconographic Collection
¢ Bible Records

e Cemetery Records

e Church Records

¢ County Records

e Federal Records

e Foreign Archives

e Map Collection

e Military Collection

e Miscellaneous Collection
e Municipal Records

¢ Newspaper Collection

¢ Organization Records

e Plans and Drawings

e Poster Collection

DonTt forget the electronic mail capabilities of NCIN.
Anyone who has used electronic mail knows its benefits: fast
response time, elimination of postage costs, elimination of
otelephone tag�. Since every institution that uses NCIN has
an electronic mailbox, you can send electronic mail to most
libraries in the state.

There is no cost for most libraries to use NCIN (public
school libraries are the exception). Since each institution is
different, the best way to learn how to access NCIN is to
contact the State Library for more information

Online catalogs within North Carolina

Besides the North Carolina Division of State Library, there are
a number of other library catalogs you can access. Dialing
another libraryTs catalog has many potential uses: (1) to find
the title and then look it up in your own collection; (2) to use
as an alternative to OCLC for ILL purposes; (3) to use as a
collection development tool; (4) to create a useful bibliogra-
phy of obtainable books; and (5) to compare or resolve
cataloging difficulties.

In North Carolina, there are basically two ways to
connect to remote online catalogs with your modem. The
least expensive is through LincNet. LincNet is a communica-
tions network run by UNC Educational Computing Services
(ECS). Most, if not all, post-secondary educational institu-
tions across the state have a LincNet node. Many institutions
have their own LincNet number and many have their own
policies concerning public access. Call the nearest institution
and ask their computer operations center about their policies
and procedures concerning LincNet. If you can gain access to
LincNet this way, use the command odir ?� to get a list of
available services. Then use the command oconnect� to access
these services.

The other, more expensive way to connect to remote
online catalogs in the state is to call them directly. Below are
the telephone numbers of some online catalogs across the state
and instructions on how to log on. A word of caution is in
order. Use these telephone lines with discretion. The libraries
have a limited number of dial-up ports which are primarily
intended for the librariesT immediate clients. As a matter of
courtesy, do not stay on the line too long. (Unless otherwise
noted, your communications setting should be set at 8 charac-
ter"bits, 1 stop-bit, and no parity.)

Triangle Research Library Network (TRLN) is made up of
the libraries of Duke University, North Carolina State Univer-
sity, and UNC-Chapel Hill. They each maintain individual
catalogs, but they are searchable simultaneously. Together,
they form one of the largest collections in the nation. There
are several numbers you can dial to access TRLN. Choose the
one most convenient to you: (Your communications setting
must be set at 7 character-bits, 1 stop"bit, and even parity;
enter obye� to exit and manually hangup.).

e dial (919) 515-3980 and at the oenter dest� prompt
enter olib*�.

¢ dial (919) 549-8211 and at the # prompt enter olib�
press return a number of times until you get the o?�
prompt and begin.

¢ dial (919) 962-9911 (300 or 1200 baud) or (919) 962-
9921(2400 baud) or (919) 962-9931 (9600 baud) and
at the # prompt enter olib� press return a number of
times until you get the o?� prompt and begin.

UNC- Charlotte is accessible only at 1200 baud. Dial
(704) 547-3200 or (704) 547-3300. When asked for a connec-

148 " Fall 1992

North Carolina Libraries

tion enter oc aladdin� and you will connect to the online
catalog. Enter *bTc (control-b control-c) to exit and manu-
ally hangup.

Dial (919) 395-3700 to log onto UNC-Wilmington. At the
oSelect Service,� prompt enter olib�. You will get a "con-
nected" message. Enter o?� and you will be asked for a
terminal type. Choosing vt100 is a safe bet.

There are other accessible catalogs across the state,
including those at North Carolina A&T, the Public Library of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg, and UNC-Greensboro.

Bulletin board systems (BBSs)

Bulletin board systems (BBSs) represent another fruitful and
non-traditional source of information underutilized by
librarians. Libraries and librarians can use BBSs to store,
organize and disseminate information as well as retrieve
information.

Typically, an individual or organization has set up an
oelectronic bulletin board� for the purposes of discussing
issues related to the parent organization. This electronic
bulletin board usually consists of a microcomputer, a modem,
and BBS software. It is relatively inexpensive to set up. Just
about any computer and modem will do, and some of the
most popular BBS software programs are shareware.

There are a many BBSs sponsored by libraries, and the
number is growing all the time. A good beginning source for
library-oriented BBS telephone numbers is the oDirectory of
Electronic Bulletin Board Systems in Libraries and Related
Organizations� sponsored by the American Society for
Information Science and edited by Audrey N. Grosch. A few
of the BBSs from this list are described below:

The first is ALF, the Agricultural Library Forum. oThe
National Agricultural Library Bulletin Board provides a
channel of communication to librarians, technical informa-
tion specialists, extension workers, researchers, scientists,
and others on agricultural information activities.� Call (301)
344-8510.

Another is Wellspring. oWellspring is sponsored by the
Biomedical Library of the University of California-Irvine, and
is free of charge to all University of California students, staff,
and faculty, and the general public. The main areas of focus
are health and medicine, computer viruses and badware,
personal computer education and communication.� Call
(714) 856-7996 or (714) 856-5087.

Wellspring and ALF both use BBSs to disseminate infor-
mation about their parent institutions. They would both be
good places to post reference questions. Neither is a good
place to discuss librarianship.

The Library User Network BBS is sponsored by Metropoli-
tan State University. It is oa bulletin board dedicated to the
search for information in libraries, online catalogs, and other
indexes of all sorts. It is intended to be an open forum for
discussions, guest editorials, reviews, specialized bibliogra-
phies, and short articles or stories by BBS users.� Call the
Library User Network BBS at (612) 772-7635.

On the other hand, oThe HI Tech Tools BBS has been
established specifically for librarians who are involved in
implementing current technology in their libraries. This
includes, but is not limited to: automated circulation and
catalog systems (particularly FollettTs Circ Plus and Cat Plus),
CD-ROM database applications, and online database
searching (e.g. DIALOGTs Knowledge Index). Portland

North Carolina Libraries

(Oregon) metropolitan area teachers and students are also
welcome, with areas established especially for them.� This
BBS is an excellent place to discuss library related issues
especially since it oechoes� its library discussion with other
BBSs across the country.

The HI Tech Tools BBS files section contains two particu-
lar categories of interest to librarians: (1) The Future of
Information Access, and (2) Files for Librarians. Each of these
sections contain long lists of text files (full-text articles) you
can download, including the following:

¢ RIGHTS.ALA - Library Bill of Rights

e ACCESS.ALA " Regulations, policies, and procedures
affecting access to library resources and service: An
Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

e FAVLIB.TXT " Favorite online numbers for librarians
e OIS7.TXTO " Online information sources

e CDROM.TXT " Networked CD-ROMS by Judy Koren
e WAIS.TXT " Wide Area Information Services interface
e¢ NREN272.TXT " 1991 Senate Bill 272, Computing,
education and libraries

To access HI Tech Tools simply use your modem to call (S03)
245-4961.

The Cleveland Free-Net is a service with a lot more
money and consequently offers a greater variety of services.
(It isnTt really a BBS, but since there is no cost to use the
service except a long-distance telephone call, I put it here.)
This is how Free-Net describes itself:

oFor the past five years, Case Western Reserve Univer-
sity has been experimenting with free, open-access,
community computer systems as a new communica-
tions and information medium ... Running on the
machine is a computer program that provides its users )
with everything from electronic mail services to
information about health care, education, technology,
government, recreation, or just about anything ...
Anyone in the community with access to a home,
office, or school computer and a modem can contact
the system any time, 24 hours a day. They simply dial a
central phone number, make connection, and a series
of menus appears on the screen which allows them to
select the information or communication services they
would like. All of it is free and all of it can easily be
accomplished by a first-time user ... the system is
literally run by the community itself. Everything that
appears on one of these machines is there because
there are individuals or organizations in the commu-
nity who are prepared to contribute their time, effort,
and expertise to place it there and operate it over time.
This, of course, is in contrast to the commercial services
which have very high personnel and information"
acquisition costs and must pass those costs on to the
consumer ... With this in mind, in September of 1988
the Community Telecomputing Laboratory was
established at Case Western Reserve University.�

Once youTre logged onto the Free-Net, you are provided
with a number of menu choices. Of particular interest to
librarians are The Library, headlines from the newspaper USA
Today, the weather, and full-texts of a few books, poems,
essays, and speeches.

The Library is a link to the the public library system
around Cleveland, but it is also a link to library systems

Fall 1992 " 149

around the country. With the Cleveland Free-Net, it is possible
to access and use the online public access catalogs (OPACs) of
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL), MELVYL at the
University of California, and Boston University.

You can also use The Library to choose the Electronic
Bookshelf. It contains the full-text of the Bible, Holy Koran,
The Book of Mormon, The World Factbook, and GAO Reports.
These texts are searchable so you donTt have to download
the whole thing.

Other full-text sources come from a sections called the
Freedom Shrine. It contains more than a few poems, essays,
speeches, legal documents, and other historical documents
that are not copyrighted. Again these documents are
searchable so you do not have to download the entire thing.

The Cleveland Free-Net also contains news. It is sup-
plied directly from USA Today in our own Greensboro, North
Carolina. Each story consists of one headline and one
paragraph. These services are only the tip of the iceberg. To
use the Cleveland Free-Net call (216) 368-3888.

Prodigy

Prodigy is a service you have probably seen advertised on
television. It is a popular service in the sense that its greatest
appeal is to the public. Like AOL and CompuServe, Prodigy
provides access to the latest news, weather and sports. Like
AOL with its graphical user interface, Prodigy is easy to use
and requires Prodigy software. It is also inexpensive; it costs
$7.95 per month plus .30¢ for every message sent beyond
the 30th message. It also has a copy of GrolierTs Encyclopedia
online. That is where the usefulness of Prodigy stops.

If you use Prodigy on a Macintosh, you will lose the use
of MacintoshTs best features. Prodigy takes over your entire
computer; it eliminates the menubar. Consequently, you
can not use the otherwise ever-present cut, copy, and paste
functions. Nor can you use MultiFinder to switch from
application to application. Be forewarned: Prodigy runs on a
Macintosh but it is not a Macintosh program.

Another problem with Prodigy is there is no way to save
information. It does not capture text as it scrolls off the
screen. You canTt even save the news articles except by
doing a screen capture. To add insult to injury, just about
every screen is one quarter filled with advertising.

About a year ago Prodigy was having problems because
the software was inadvertently ostealing� information from
usersT disks. This has given Prodigy a bad name, but I
believe they have cleared the problem up.

Prodigy is an ookay� service for the consumer but not
particularly useful to the librarian. This is especially true
when it is compared to the other resources listed in the
article.

If you are interested in Prodigy then call or write:

Prodigy Services Company

P. O. Box 791

White Plains, NY 10601

1 (800) 776-3449

The Well

The Well (Whole Earth Lectronic Link) is an electronic
conferencing service located in California, but accessible
from just about anywhere. Like ISAAC, The Well hosts
discussions on a number of topics, but The Well is closer to
CompuServe in its variety. Everything from computers to
gardening, sports to politics, and business to the Grateful
Dead is up for discussion on the Well.

Of particular interest to librarians is Apple Library UserTs
Group (ALUG) Online. It hosts discussions on any and all
issues concerning libraries and librarianship. Some of the
more interesting discussions include:

e Libraries and Internet

e Hypermedia

e True Tales From Chicago ALA

e Information about ALUG

e Apple Telecom programs

e Accessing AppleShare from remote sites

¢ Computer novices seeking help

e Al in Libraries

¢ Multi-media in libraries

¢ Help for teaching writing?

e Public Access Computers

¢ What Libraries are producing CD-ROMs

e Libraries and politics

e Librarianship in the 90Ts and BEYOND

¢ News From the Nets

e ALA in Atlanta June 1991

e Macintosh Text-Retrieval Software

¢ Library Automated Systems (non-Apple)

e Patron privacy versus the historian

e Checking out the FidoNet messages on K12Net -

Internationally
¢ Copyright law and the 21st century library
¢ What online catalogs do you use or have created?

Another interesting discussion to visit is INFO, a
conference about communication systems, communities,
and tools for the information age. This conference is more
active than ALUG Online. It has discussions like the future
of books and publishing, online searching, expert systems,
television, and the Internet.

A significant difference between The Well and most of
the services previously listed is that The Well is searchable
and consequently, could be used as a reference source as
well as a serial. For example, I wanted to know what had
been written in ALUG Online about BBSs. So I visited the
conference and entered find oBBS�. The Well responded
with a very long list of topic, response, and line numbers
containing oBBS�. After perusing this pseudo-index and
choosing a particular topic and response, I navigated to that
topic and response, displayed the information, and logged
off. The result was a clean and neat listing of BBSs across the
country. The same technique could be used for many
reference queries. For example, suppose you wanted to
locate peopleTs opinions about a particular software pro-
gram. You could use The WellTs directory listing and choose
a conference. (The conference is like a database.) Navigate to
the conference, issue a find command, view the results, and
download individual items. The technique is the same as
traditional online searching except the medium is less
structured and it contains non-bibliographic information.

The best way to connect to The Well is through the
CompuServe Information Network. Call (800) 848-8990 and
navigate the automated answering service to retrieve a local
CompuServe number. Call the retrieved number with your
modem. Once connected enter owell� at the oHost Name:�
prompt and follow the instructions to register. The Well
charges you $10/month for membership + $2/hour for
connect time + $4 to $12/hour to use the CompuServe
network. (People who like long-distance bills can call The
Well directly at (415) 332-6106.)

_" CC ere ee eee

150 " Fall 1992

North Carolina Libraries

ALANet

ALANet, an electronic service no longer sponsored by ALA, is
mentioned here only because you may have heard about it
and didnTt know what it was. ALANetTs purpose was to foster
electronic communication between libraries, librarians,
information vendors of all types. Unfortunately it was rather
expensive, and not heavily used. Because of these problems
and competition from other communications links (the
Internet, Bitnet, commercial information services) ALANet
ceased to exist February 29, 1992.

America Online (AOL)
Of all the services described here, America Online (AOL) is
by far the prettiest and easiest one to use. Like The Well and
CompuServe, AOL is a commercial enterprise providing
information. Its greatest strength is the ease in which a
person can retrieve the latest ephemeral information: news,
sports, and weather. It also hosts technical support from
many software vendors and contains plenty of shareware
and public domain software files.
To access AOL, you need their free communications

software, available from:

America Online

8619 Westwood Center Drive

Vienna, VA 22182

(800) 827-6364

The logon procedure is simply a matter of clicking a few
buttons and entering your password. It would be difficult to
make a simpler interface. Once logged on, you are presented
with the Welcome screen. From here you can navigate to:

* current news to create a personalized newspaper,

¢ textual or graphic weather forecasts,

e airline reservations,

e a simple encyclopedia

¢ a opost office� to mail notes and files to others
subscribing to AOL,

e discussion groups on just about any topic imaginable,

e stock and business reports,

e editorials, and

e libraries of shareware, demonstration, and public
domain software.

I particularly like the news and weather services. With
AOL I can browse their list of news articles, download them at
the speed of my modem, save them to my hard disk, and read
or edit them at my leisure. The weather maps are just as easy
to retrieve and are as reliable as any other published weather
forecast since they all come from the same source, the
National Weather Service.

AOL is fairly inexpensive. You are billed $6 every month,
even if you do not use the service. Each month the first hour
used is free. After that the rates are $12/hour between 7 AM to
6 PM and $6/hour between 6 PM and 7 AM. Time spent
uploading files is free.

CompuServe Information Service (CIS)

The CompuServe Information Service (CIS) is the
granddaddy of conferencing services. It reaches around the
globe, hosts conferences on just about any topic imaginable,
and is a standard location for the latest shareware and
public domain software.

CIS is accessible with your simple communications
software or their Information Manager programs. If you use

North Carolina Libraries

your communications program, you will have to navigate
CompuServe with its command language or menus. The
command language is your best option, but learning it takes
practice.

The alternative is to use their Information Manager for
DOS or Macintosh computers, a graphical user interface
(GUI). It does work, but itTs not as elegant as AOLTs and not
nearly as fast. In many cases the Information Manger only
adds to your online time.

CompuServe contains information not found in many
other information services except DIALOG or BRS. For
example, vast amounts of financial and business data can be
retrieved from CompuServe at the drop of a hat.
(CompuServe is owned and operated by the H&R Block
Company.) For example, CompuServe can give you access to
an electronic ValueLine, S&P Index, Dun & BradstreetTs
Market Identifiers, InvesText, and the Thomas Register. It
also offers demographic reports, reports on mutual funds,
and brokerage services. All of these services are surcharged.

A unique database CompuServe provides is the
PHONEFILE. This database allows you to search the white
pages of almost any telephone book in the country.

CompuServe also provides a window to the databases in
DIALOG, BRS, Vu/Text, and NewsNet via a service called

_ IQuest. Through a series of menus, a search strategy is

formulated. The database is searched and the first ten
citations are returned. The minimum charge for these first
ten citations is four dollars. The advantage of this approach
is that you do not have to know searching command
language, nor do you have to have an account with any of
the database vendors. On the other hand, you retrieve only
the last ten citations entered into the database and you have

top publishers

great personal service
comparative prices

high fill rate & fast delivery
full processing

for more information please call:
ROBERT MOSER
CHAPEL HILL

1-800-223-3251

Representing quality adult and juvenile publishers

Fall 1992 " 141

little control over the search strategyTs details. (You do have
the option to retrieve more citations for more money.)
IQuest is designed for the non-expert who searches for this
sort of information infrequently.

A number of Information Access Company (IAC)
databases available on CompuServe: Business Database
Plus�"�, Computer Database Plus�"�, Magazine Database
Plus�"�, Health Database Plus�"�. Since these databases
contain full-text journal articles, they can be sources for
cost-effective document delivery. Searching these databases
is more flexible than IQuest since you have the option of
using menus to create search strategies or writing your own.
The first time I tried it, I was looking for a particular cita-
tion. A few minutes and about $5 later, I had retrieved my
two-page article. I tried again with a second citation and
retrieved it in less time and for less money. This particular
article hadnTt even made it to the newsstand! This service
costs at least an extra .21¢ per minute plus $2.50 for each
complete article.

If used effectively, this sort of service could be a boon to
the small library. Consider using this service to supplement
ILL. Traditional ILL turnaround time is at least a few days.
Telefacsimile will take at least an hour. At photocopy rates
of .10¢ per page, a typical article will cost $1 to copy an half
and hour of time. With the CompuServe service, the article
request can be filled in less than 15 minutes and delivered
via email. The only thing you lose are any graphics within
the text. In short, electronic full-text article delivery is
becoming cost-effective with a computer, communications
software, modem, and access codes.

Two unique services from CompuServe are the Elec-
tronic Mall and its monthly CompuServe Magazine. The
Electronic Mall allows you to purchase a cornucopia of
merchandise including books, computers and software,
foods, office supplies, and apparel. Because of the mer-
chantsT low overhead, you can purchase these things more
cheaply than in retail stores.

CompuServe Magazine features articles on CompuServeTs
services. It also describes how other people have used
CompuServe to accomplish their own specific goals. Even
though CompuServe Magazine is loosely disguised advertising,
it can help you use CompuServe more effectively.

CompuServeTs pricing structure rivals DIALOGTs in its
complexity. It comes in three flavors. The standard pricing
plan includes unlimited connect time to use a wide variety
of services for a membership of $7.95 per month. The plan
includes:

the basic news, sports, and weather services

e the Reference Library (encyclopedia, Consumer
Reports, PetersonTs College Database and Healthnet)

e Electronic Mall

e Money Talks (Basic Current Stock Quotes, Issue/
Symbol Reference, and Mortgage Calculator)

¢ Games & Entertainment

¢ Communications Exchange (limited electronic mail)

e Travel and Leisure

Notice that this plan does not include the extended
services like electronic conferences. Any time you use services
other than the ones listed above, you are charged for connect
time ($12/hour for 1200-2400 baud users and $22.80/hour
for 9600 baud users).

With the Alternative pricing plan, you are simply charged

$2.00/month plus connect time (again, $12/hour for 1200-
2400 baud users and $22.80/hour for 9600 baud users). If
you are an infrequent user of CompuServe, then the Alterna-
tive pricing plan is for you.

The third plan is the Executive Service Option. For an
extra $10/month you can receive discounts on selected
CompuServe products, access more extensive financial
information, and increase your personal storage area.

Lastly, you should note that many of the services you
may be interested in as a librarian will incur surcharges.
These surcharges have their own pricing structures ranging
from flat fees to the sum of connect time and reports,
citations, or full-text articles.

CompuServe has grown up. It started out as a overgrown
BBS. Now it has the potential of becoming a full-blown
library. Since CompuServe changes at such an alarming rate,
it is a good idea to purchase a book like CompuServe from A
to Z by Charles Bowen (Bantam Books, 1991).

For more information about CompuServe call or write:
CompuServe Information Service
P. O. Box 20212
Columbus, OH 43220
(800) 848-8990

Summary

This article has listed a host of non-traditional information
resources accessible with your modem ranging from the free to
the quite expensive. The only limitation you have, besides
money and hardware, is your ability to navigate these resources
effectively. It takes practice to use these tools, just like it took
practice to learn how to use the card catalog. When you look
beyond the medium of these resources, you discover that they
are very similar to the resources you traditionally have been
using. They have their own strengths and weaknesses just like
printed materials. These resources represent the new paradigm
for librarianship.

Every profession has its tools. Surgeons have scalpels.
Carpenters have hammers. We have computers. Our profes-
sional skills include retrieving, organizing, storing, evaluating
and disseminating information. In the not-too-distant past,
this information manifested itself solely in printed form: books
and magazines. Nowadays, more and more of this information
is located in computers, which are extraordinarily efficient
tools for retrieving, organizing, evaluating, and disseminating
information. What computers lack is intelligence; they donTt
know how to provide these services. That is where we come in.
We can (and should) combine our professional skills with the
efficiency of a computer to provide more timely and complete
information services.

192 " Fall 1992

North Carolina Libraries

Appendix

This is a more detailed description of some of the bulletin boards sponsored by NCIN.

NCCAL " A calendar of meetings and continuing education programs for librarians in North
Carolina and nationally. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCCAL.

NCDATA " A twice a month service of NCIN and the State Data Center of North Carolina.
It provides the most current, authoritative statistical information available in 12 general
subject areas: Population and Housing; Vital Statistics and Health; Social and Human
Services; Education; Law Enforcement, Courts and Corrections; Environment, Recreation and
Resources; Energy and Utilities; State and Local Government Finances and Elections; Em-
ployment and Income; Business and Industry; Agriculture; and Transportation. Information
is given for each county. This data updates the 1984 edition of the County Profile Book.
Updates will be posted every other Wednesday. Large data files will be transferred on a more
frequent schedule. CURRENT FILE: 1990 Census State Population Counts. The Bulletin
Board will be updated twice a month on Fridays. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCDATA.

NCJOBS " Listing of professional (MLS required) librarian positions open in North Carolina.
For the audiotape version, telephone 919/733-6410. To list a job vacancy, contact Vicki
Wheeler at the State Library at 919/733-2570 or use Electronic Mailbox #62953518. TO
ACCESS: TYPE NCJOBS.

NCKIDS " Includes information for childrenTs and young adult librarians contained in the
State LibraryTs youth services loose-leaf service mailed to public libraries and library schools.
Updated weekly. If you would like to contribute to NCKIDS, send copy to Cal Shepard at
Electronic Mailbox #62957236. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCKIDS.

NCLIBS " A general summary of constantly changing news about NC libraries
and/or librarians. This board is updated on Fridays. The first week of each month will
contain general library news. The second week will contain network news. Periodical
holdings are provided as network news in the second and sometimes as general library news
in the first week of the month when available. If you would like to contribute your holdings
to be uploaded, send an ASCII diskette to Diana Young at the State Library. The third week
will contain information customarily found in FLASH. The fourth week will contain recent
acquisitions of the State Library in the field of library and information science. Questions
and/or comments should be addressed to the person listed in each heading or to Diana
Young, Email #62953515. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCLIBS.

NCMGMT " (Management) provides library management information about and/or from all
types of North Carolina libraries. Content depends on what you are willing to share "
planning documents, polices, procedures, statistical information, articles, surveys, etc. First
priority will be given to information provided in machine readable form " either through
the electronic mailbox or on an IBM compatible 40 - track floppy diskette submitted as an
ASCII file. The information provided will only be available through the bulletin board. The
board will be changed every Friday and will begin with public library five -year plans cur-
rently being submitted to the State Library. Submit information to Diana Young, NC State
Library, 109 E. Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 2761 1; Email # 62953515; NCDCR Prime
SLAD.DJY; Fax # 919/733 - 8748. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCMGMT.

NCNEWS " A summary of events in the North Carolina General Assembly. Produced by the
North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina Information
Network. Updated by 3 pm on Tuesdays and Fridays as material is available. TO ACCESS:
Type NCNEWS.

NCBUS " A listing of all State contracts in these areas: Term Contracts; Automotive,
Construction Equipment; Highway Maintenance Equipment; Drugs; Hospital/Laboratory
Equipment/Supplies; Fuels. Also includes State contracts in these areas: Printing Forms;
Publications; Office/Educational Equipment and Supplies; Institutional Furniture/Equip-
ment, Food, Textiles and Chemicals; Contractual Services, Electrical Equipment, Telephones;
Data/Word Processing Equipment; Copiers. TO ACCESS: TYPE NCBUS.

North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 153

DIALOG at McDowell High School:

Acquisition, Instruction, and Management

fashion design student
needs to obtain biographi-
cal information on Ameri-
can fashion design.

A student in an environ-
mental class needs informa-
tion on the effects of acid

rain on Mount Mitchell.

A student in the American history
class needs to know the name of the first
secretary of state for the Republic of Texas
and his relationship with McDowell
County.

A student in the current events class
needs to locate an article about the Rus-
sian coup in a magazine to which the
library does not subscribe.

These and other questions have been
answered using DIALOG, a telecommuni-
cations service that provides access to vast
amounts of current information when-
ever it is needed. How this service has
been and is continuing to be used, as well
as how we teach our students to use it, is
the subject of this article.

History:

McDowell High School, a high school with
approximately fifteen hundred students,
began subscribing to DIALOG asa result of
a 1989 assessment of the nature of re-
search in the library. This assessment
demonstrated that a better way of access-
ing the periodicals collection was needed.
The answer to this problem seemed to be
through the use of telecommunications
because otelecommunications technology
enables school library media specialists to
use rapid communication and shared task-
ing to meet usersT information needs as
well as to enhance library media program
management capabilities.�! In selecting a
database vendor, several resources were
consulted including Dorcus HandTs (1988)
article in School Library Media Annual.2
DIALOG was selected over other telecom-
munications database vendors because the
information available through DIALOG
was most aligned with curricular needs,
educational materials support, and train-

194 " Fall 1992

by Marty Bray

ing available for the staff. DIALOG is a
collection of more than three hundred
databases from which a person with a
computer, modem, and password can ac-
cess a vast amount of information. In
order best to balance budgetary constraints
with the information needs of our stu-
dents, we selected Classmate, a service
that DIALOG offers to schools. Classmate
is a collection of approximately one hun-
dred twenty databases which best meets
the research needs of a majority of high
school students at a lower price than full
DIALOG service. These databases include
ERIC, Medline, and America: History &
Life. By accessing Classmate students may
obtain information such as magazine cita-
tions, full text articles on historical topics,
and stock market analysis. While the num-
ber of databases available to students is
fewer than with DIALOG, the content of
the databases within Classmate has not
been limited. Our students use these data-
bases to obtain information which is not
available in the school library or in other
libraries in McDowell County.

When Classmate was first introduced
into the school, it was used primarily as a
resource for eleventh and twelfth grade
advanced English classes. As services such
as InfoTrac (a CD-ROM magazine index)
have been added to the collection,
ClassmateTs role has become one of ac-
quiring specific and current information.
An example of this occurred last year when
a business class needed information on
various industries. A search on Classmate
yielded all of the information required by
the class, including data regarding prod-
ucts manufactured and current stock ex-
change statistics. The use of Classmate
resources provides a level of information
that not only allows students to do pri-
mary research, but also more importantly
motivates them to pursue levels of aca-
demic research they would not do other-
wise. This was demonstrated powerfully
by two students doing research on a serial
killer. By using Classmate, they were able
to research the topic more fully than if

they had relied solely on print resources.
After the assignment was completed, the
teacher commented that the level of mo-
tivation demonstrated by these students
was far greater than she had experienced
or expected.

During the 1990-91 school year, an
additional media specialist was hired to
help with computer services at the high
school. Since the library staff at McDowell
High School views Classmate as an impor-
tant resource for students conducting re-
search, integrating the use of Classmate
into the curriculum is one of the responsi-
bilities of this new position.

Requirements For Accessing DIALOG:

In order to access Classmate, the MHS
Media Center uses a Tandy 1000 SL/2
computer with an internal modem and
printer as its telecommunications termi-
nal. McDowell High School has a dedi-
cated phone line in the media center just
for Classmate. A dedicated phone line was
installed for two reasons: the first was the
heavy usage that our existing phone line
was receiving, and the second was the
anticipated heavy usage of Classmate. As
the role of Classmate has changed, this
second dedicated phone line is now being
used for other electronic services such as a
facsimile machine. The software, DIALOG
Link, necessary to access Classmate, comes
from the company and can easily be con-
figured to the individual requirements of
any media center. While other telecom-
munications software can be used, this
particular piece of software saves a great
deal of time and frustration because it
performs many tasks automatically. When
Classmate was first implemented, the two
media coordinators attended a DIALOG
Classmate oTeach the Teacher� workshop.
This workshop covered setting up a tele-
communications workstation, installing
the software, and using the command
structure of Classmate. Furthermore, the
contents of each database and instruc-
tional strategies utilizing Classmate were
discussed. Several manuals for use with

North Carolina Libraries

Classmate were given to the participants,
and hands-on activities were emphasized.
The cost of these seminars was approxi-
mately forty-five dollars per person. There
is no annual subscription fee to Classmate
and no long distance fees because it is
accessed by a toll free number. The com-
pany does charge a fee of fifteen dollars per
hour of connect time. Even at this rate the
costs of using Classmate remain reason-
able. Currently, without student limita-
tions on usage, our library spends an aver-
age of fifty dollars a month, which trans-
lates to less than four cents per student a
month. Student overdue fines are used to
support the service.

Teaching:
One of the advantages of using a computer
as a research tool is that it promotes a high
degree of motivation among students. This
holds true for Classmate as well. As men-
tioned before, using Classmate has en-
couraged several students to delve
more deeply into research topics
that they would not have pursued if
they had used only printed refer-
ence sources. Most of the students
using Classmate are juniors or se-
niors completing some type of En-
glish project. However, sophomore
students are introduced to Class-
mate during general orientation to
the library and made aware that the
service is available when other
sources have been exhausted. Later
in the year, a specific orientation
session is conducted regarding the
use of Classmate for those students
who are doing a research project.
Planning a search strategy with
the teacher is the first step in actually
teaching Classmate to the students. Many
curricular areas use Classmate to complete
research projects: English classes use the
service to find criticism on literary figures
and their works; current events and his-
tory classes use databases, such as UPI
News, to conduct up-to-the-minute re-
search on relevant topics; science and en-
vironmental classes use Classmate to re-
search topics such as the effects of acid rain
on Mount Mitchell; and the business classes
use Classmate to track stock market data.
We prefer that students use Classmate
in small groups to facilitate better the
learning process. After the staff has an
understanding of the types of topics that
the research will cover, we do some pre-
liminary searching on the service to en-
sure that the students will experience some
initial success with the service. Since the
session is conducted in conjunction with
an actual research project, we allow stu-
dents to access the full range of databases
available to them through Classmate.

North Carolina Libraries

After introducing the concept of ac-
cessing databases via telecommunications,
we work on the concept of keyword or
Boolean searching. Boolean logic is an
important concept for the students to grasp
if they are to use Classmate effectively.
Also, more and more electronic reference
sources, such as InfoTrac, utilize keyword
searching as a means for retrieving infor-
mation. We have used several strategies
for teaching Boolean logic. They usually
include brainstorming for keywords, an
explanation of the operators (AND, OR,
and NOT), and examples of actual search
strategies. These concepts are taught in
small groups using other electronic re-
sources that utilize Boolean logic such as
the libraryTs online catalog, so that stu-
dents can better grasp these concepts be-
fore actually accessing Classmate. After
the Boolean operators are explained, the
command structure of Classmate is ex-
plained. A menuing system is available

One of the advantages
of using a computer as
a research tool is that
it promotes a high
degree of motivation
among students.

which helps the student navigate through
Classmate. The command structure is not
that difficult to master and actually saves
the student a great deal of search time.
Students are provided with a packet of
information which covers these concepts
(See Appendix for example) as well as the
databases available. Also in the packet is a
worksheet for them to plan their search
strategy before accessing Classmate.

At this point a demonstration of Class-
mate is conducted. If a small group is
involved, the demonstration takes place
on the telecommunications terminal. Ifa
large group is involved, then an LCD panel
connected to the terminal is used. Next,
students are allowed to use Classmate in-
dividually. At this point the process be-
comes time-consuming. A search can take
up to five minutes, which when multi-
plied by thirty students can easily con-
sume an entire class period or more. As a
result, more than one day in the library is
planned for the class. During this time,
every student is taken through a session

on Classmate. Finally, a follow up is done
with the teacher to determine the success
of the project.

Since DIALOG charges the school for
the amount of time actually spent on the
service rather than a flat monthly fee, we
do not allow students access to Classmate
unsupervised. Instead, we will either al-
low them to make an appointment to use
the service or let them fill out a search
sheet and the media coordinator will actu-
ally conduct the search for the student.
The student picks up the printout of search
results at a later time. This process saves
the student and the media coordinator a
lot of time and seems to be the more
popular of the two options.

Problems:

The biggest problem with Classmate is the

amount of time that it takes to supervise

students while they perform searches. This

problem has been addressed by allowing
students to make appointments with
the media staff and by the develop-
ment of a system for requesting
searches.

The second problem encoun-
tered with Classmate is that the cost
of the service prohibits extensive
use. This problem has been ad-
dressed through the acquisition of
resources on CD-ROM which havea
one-time fee and unlimited usage.
Since other electronic resources such
as the Online Catalog and CD-ROM
databases have been introduced,
Classmate is no longer being uti-
lized as a primary resource. This
trend does not necessarily mean that
students are receiving inferior infor-

mation. On the contrary, the information
received though sources such as InfoTrac
generally meets studentsT information
needs quite well. These resources also
allow students to learn to use electronic
resources without the pressure created by
limited access to the resources both in
terms of time and physical accessibility.
Classmate does have several advantages
over these resources, both in terms of the
amount of information available and the
timeliness of the information; therefore,
we continue to use Classmate, although to
a lesser extent than before.

The final problem encountered with
Classmate is the limited accessibility of the
service due to the fact that the library can
only maintain one dedicated phone line.
While this problem has been addressed
primarily though scheduling, a trend is
beginning to develop where students use
those resources more readily available, such
as InfoTrac and SIRS, rather than request a
Classmate search, even though the infor-
mation in Classmate is superior.

Fall 1992 " 159

SSS SRS Seely 5 wa ogden |S Ep me Ne ce PM or en ees nd SNES SEES re age ee Saar Oya SG ce ae rg ec RN ac ETN gee cree Se ae

Using DIALOG " The Future

As more and more electronic resources
become available to the student, the role
of Classmate in research has and will con-
tinue to change. The terminal which was
once used exclusively for Classmate is now
also used for FrEdMail and the TI-IN Long
Distance Learning service. FrEdMail is an
educational telecommunications service
that allows, among other things, students
to communicate with other students across
the state and country. The TI-IN Long
Distance Learning service allows students
to participate in distance learning via sat-
elliteand computer. The dedicated phone
line that was once used exclusively for
Classmate will now be used to link the
high school with the countyTs two junior
high schools through fax machines. Fi-
nally, a new local area network allows
multiple stations to access the libraryTs
CD-ROMs, online catalog, and the various
telecommunication services. A local area
network, or LAN, links the computers of
the library electronically allowing patrons
to access resources such as the online cata-
log, InfoTrac or any of the other electronic
resources of the library anywhere a com-
puter is available. It is also possible for
multiple stations to access Classmate if the
school has access to multiple phone lines

and a modem that will meet the demands
of multiple users.

This network may also be accessed via
modem from computers outside of the
library. Future plans for the network will
take advantage of this potential and allow
students to dial into the network from
home. Although McDowell County is a
rural county with a limited tax base, a
small but growing number of students are
gaining access to personal computers ca-
pable of accessing the local library and
online information services such as Class-
mate. A far larger number of students are
already familiar with computers or ma-
chines that use computers (the ubiquitous
Nintendo, forinstance). For those patrons
who do not have access to a home com-
puter, offering laptop computers for check-
out may be a solution, especially as the
price of these computers continues to fall.

Teaching students to use Classmate
provides them not only with an under-
standing of how to access electronic re-
sources, but also of the concept of tele-
communications which students will in-
creasingly find vital in conducting accu-
rate and timely research. It is also impor-
tant to show students how to use Class-
mate in the context of all of the resources
available to them in the media center. At

BROADFOOT'S OF WENDELL
6624 Robertson Pond Road

Wendell, NC 27591
Phone: 1-800-444-6963

Locate NC Authors through our now-being-published
Contemporary North Carolina Authors Packets

McDowell High School we have just imple-
mented a network that brings together
CD-ROM resources such as InfoTrac, The
Information Finder (World Book on CD-
ROM), an online catalog, and the Social
Issues Resource Series (SIRS) on CD-ROM
on multiple work stations. We teach the
concept of Classmate as being another
resource rather than the only source that
students have available to them to use for
research. This helps the student under-
stand the concept that information is avail-
able from a variety of sources both in and
outside of the media center.

Conclusion:

oThe explosion of information and instruc-
tional technologies has formed the basis for
our evolution from an industrial to an
information society.�2 As this evolution
continues, schools must teach students how
to use services such as Classmate, as well as
foster in them the critical thinking skills
that they will need to survive in such a
society. Services such as Classmate culti-
vate these critical thinking skills as the
student selects appropriate databases,
chooses appropriate terms to describe his/
her topic, selects the appropriate informa-
tion received, and incorporates the infor-
mation into his/her research project.

NORTH
CAROLINA

NC BOOKS/AUDIOVISUALS ~ BLACK HISTORY MATERIAL
FOR THE YOUNG, OLD, & IN-BETWEEN
Spring & Fall Catalogs " Are you on our mailing list?

Two Different Locations Serving Different Needs

176 " Fall 1992

Genealogists & Reference Librarians
Request the Latest Catalog of Source Material from:

BROADFOOT PUBLISHING COMPANY

1907 Buena Vista Circle, Wilmington, NC 28405
Phone: (919) 686-4379 or Fax (919) 686-4379

North Carolina Libraries

APPENDIX

Steps for using DIALOG

1. Choose a topic that you will be researching.

2. Decide which databases will most likely contain the information you are looking for. (See Handout)

3. Decide what words will best describe your topic on the worksheet. These words are called concepts or
descriptors. Consulting the ReadersT Guide and InfoTrac will help you choose descriptors. Generate a list
of as many descriptors as you can that best describe your topic.

4. Fillout the Search Worksheet using the descriptors you listed in step three. Put one descriptor under each
concept listed on the Search Worksheet. AND and OR link your descriptors through the use of Boolean
Logic. AND is used to narrow your search by more specifically describing what it is you are looking for and
OR is used to broaden your search by creating more options in the search command.

Be sure to include the databases that you will use to locate your information. Use the abbreviations that
DIALOG uses for each database to save you time and money when conducting your search. If you are
looking for a specific author, include that on the search worksheet.

5. At the bottom of the sheet is a space to write out the specific search strategy that you will be using. You
may use the back of this sheet to complete this if you wish.

Specific commands that you will need to know include the following:

B_ Begin a new database.

Example: B NEWS1
This command will make the computer access Newsearch for you.
F Finda particular term or terms linked using Boolean Logic.
Example: F George and Bush and Iraq
This command will make the computer look for any news items that have the words George, Bush
and Iraq in it.

AU= This is the author command, giving you articles written by a specific author.
Example: AU= Bray, Gerald
This will give you a number of articles written by Gerald Bray.

D_ Display any citations that any search has turned up.
Example: D $1/L/ALL
When the computer finishes a search it will give you the number of citations that that particular
search yielded. You may look through these citations to see which ones you want to use. S1 is
the number of the search that you have performed. L is the type of display that you want to see.
L stands for long and means that you will see all of the information associated with that article.
S will give you just a citation and is more economical to use at this point. ALL tells the computer
to give you all of the citations included in this search. You can ask for specific citations by typing
in a number such as 5 or a list of numbers such as 1-S.

T This command will cause the computer to scroll through any citations that you tell it to. It works
just like the Display command except that the information will scroll up the screen until it is all
received by the computer. This command is very economical and convenient as you will see in
the next step.

6. Log-on to DIALOG by pressing F5. The computer will go through a log-on sequence and then ask you at
what level you would like to search. Type in 2 to indicate that you will be performing your search manually.
Enter your begin command for the database you would like to use and then enter your search commands.
After the computer has searched a database, it will tell you the number of citations that it has located. You
may then use the display command to see any citations you choose. If you are sure that you would like
to see all of the citations indicated, use the T command. The information that is sent to the computer will
be saved in memory.

7. You may enter a new database at any time by typing a new begin command (B EDUCI for example).

8. When youare finished, hit the F5 key and choose the log-off option from the menu. You will then be out
of DIALOG. After you have left DIALOG and when you change databases, a report of how much time you
have spent will be displayed. Make a note of this information on the Search Worksheet.

9. After you have performed the log-off, use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the information
that you saw during your search. Use the F4 key to mark the beginning and end of any information that
you want printed. Next, press the F8 key to call up the print menu. From this menu choose option 2, \PTRSS
M for marked portions of text when prompted.

10. When you have finished, return the search worksheet to Mr. Bray and make your requests far a magazine

or microfiche, if appropriate.

References
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mumunications for School Library Media Centers,� in School Library Media Quarterly 19 (Spring 1991): 153-160.
2 School Library Media Annual, ed. J. B. Smith (Englewood, CA: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. , 1988): 141-149.
3 School Library Media Annual, ed. J. B. Smith (Englewood, CA: Libraries Unlimited, Inc. , 1990): 59-66.

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Interlibrary Communications Net-
work]: Interlibrary Loan on a Wide-
Area Network in Kansas.� Online 15
(Mar. 1991): 55-56+.

Hempel, Ruth M., and Barbara A. Ward.
oA Hospital Microwave System for
Library Telecommunication.� Bulletin
of the Medical Library Association 76
(Oct. 1988): 339-41.

Horwitt, Elisabeth. oLibrary Tests
Worldwide Availability of Images.�
Computerworld 25 (8 July 1991): 47, 56.

oIntegrated Voice/Video/Data System
Puts Indiana Prairie Schools on
Leading Edge.� T H E Journal (Techno-
logical Horizons in Education) 19 (Aug.
TOD) RSs

Rice, J. O. oUsing Interactive Communi-

cations Technology to Extend Biblio-
graphic Instruction to Off-campus
Students.� In The Off-Campus Library
Services Conference: Proceedings, edited
by Barton M. Lessin, 213-24. Mount
Pleasant, MI: Central Michigan
University Press, 1986.

Rockman, Ilene F. oReference Uses of
Campus Computer Networks; A
Bibliographic Guide.� Reference
Services Review 18, no. 2 (1990): 39-44.

Smith, Diane H. oOh, What a Tangled
WEBB... Washington Electronic
Bulletin Boards.� Database 12 June
1989): 22-28.

" NETWORKS AND LIBRARIES "

Anderson, Mary Sieminski. oNetworked
Information: Issues for Action [topic
of the spring conference of the ACRL
New England Chapter].� Computers in
Libraries 11 (May 1991): 33-35.

Arms, Caroline R. oA New Information
Infrastructure.� Online 14 (Sept.
1990): 15-22.

Birchfield, Marilee. oCasting a New Net:
Searching Library Catalogs Via the
Internet.� Paper presented at the
Illinois Library Association/College
and Research Libraries Forum Fall
Conference (Urbana, IL, November 8-
9, 1990), 6 pp., 1990.

Britten, William A. oBITNET and the
Internet: Scholarly Networks for
Librarians.� College and Research
Libraries News (Feb. 1990): 103-7.

Brownrigg, Edwin Blake. oThe Internet
as an External Economy: The Emer-
gence of the Invisible Hand.� Library
Administration and Management 5
(Spring 1991): 95-97.

Civale, Cosmo M., Jr. oConnecting
Library and Classroom Environments
Via Networking.� Media and Methods
27 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 32-34.

Drake, Miriam A. oNetworking within
the University [based on a presentation
made to the 6th annual LINX userTs
meeting, 1987, Boston, Massachus-
etts].� Technical Services Quarterly 6, no.
3 (1989): 15-22.

Jacob, Mary Ellen L. oLibraries and
National Library Networks.� Bulletin
of the American Society for Information
Science 16 June/July 1990): 8-9.

Kalin, Sally G. Wayman, and Roy
Tennant. oBeyond OPACs.. . the
Wealth of Information Resources on
the Internet.� Database 14 (Aug.
1991): 28-33.

Kemper, M. oLocal Area Networking:
The Management Problem.� In The
Library Microcomputer Environment:

Management Issues, edited by Sheila S.
Intner and Jane Anne Hannigan, 187-
206. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1988.

Kibbey, Mark, and Nancy H. Evans.
oThe Network Is the Library.�
EDUCOM Review 24 (Fall 1989): 15-20.

LaGuardia, Cheryl M., et al. oCD-ROM
Networking in ARL Academic Libraries:
A Survey.� CD-ROM Professional 4
(Mar. 1991): 36+.

Larsen, R. L. oThe Colibratory: The
Network as a Testbed for a Distributed
Electronic Library.� Academic Comput-
ing 4 (Feb. 1990): 22-37.

Law, Derek G. oNetworking and Issues
of Retroconversion.� IFLA Journal 16,
no. 1 (1990): 52-54.

Lynch, C. A. oLibrary Automation and
the National Research Network.�
EDUCOM Bulletin 24 (Fall 1989): 21-26.

Planka, Daniela. oNetwork Directory
Services.� Library Hi Tech 8, no. 4
(1990): 93-103.

Tregloan, Don. oNetworks for Resource
Sharing.� Media and Methods 25 (May/
June 1989): 16+.

Woods, L. B., et al. oNetworking:
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.�
Resource Sharing and Information
Networks 6 (Oct. 1990): 5-16.

Wright, Kieth C. Workstations and Local
Area Networks for Librarians. Chicago:
ALA, 1990.

" LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE "

Bruder, Isabelle. oVisions of the Future:
Education and Technology in the
1990s and Beyond.� Electronic
Learning 9 (Jan. 1990): 24.

Kibirige, Harry M. oInformation
Communication Highways in the
1990s: An Analysis of Their Potential
Impact on Library Automation.�
Information Technology and Libraries 10
(Sept. 1991): 172-84.

Mayo, John S. oThe Telecommunications
Revolution of the 1990Ts [address, 13
September 1990].� Vital Speeches of the
Day 57 (15 Dec. 1990): 151-55.

Montgomery, K. Leon, and Fritz E.
Froehlich. oTelecommunications
Education for Schools of Library and
Information Science in the 1990s.�
Bulletin of the American Society for
Information Science 16 (June/July
1990): 26.

i el

North Carolina Libraries

Fall 1992 " 199

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160 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries

K
w a edition go0

Editor's Note: Beginning with this volume, North Carolina Libraries will publish at least one article that is unrelated to each issue's specific theme. The
Editorial Board is delighted to introduce this feature to address the increase in excellent unsolicited manuscripts which merit publication.

Whole Language and Its Effect on the
School Library Media Center

by Susan Prillaman

n educational movement, which began quietly enough

in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom in

the 1970s under the umbrella term of oteaching lan-

guage across the curriculum,� became a rallying cry for

educators throughout the United States and Canada in
the 1980s. It will likely continue unabated in the 1990s. In North
America, it is called Whole Language. There are literally hundreds
of journal articles and many books being published to describe
what it is, what it isnTt, and how to do it. This paper examines the
evolution of Whole Language, its current theory and practices, as
well as its effect on the school library media center.

A Definition

The best working definition of Whole Language this author has

come across is:
It is not a practice. It is a set of beliefs, a perspective.
Practices such as journals or thematic units become Whole
Language because the teacher has a set of particular beliefs
and intentions ... Just as babies learn to speak language
through hearing and using it, so reading and writing in
older children should be acquired in the same way, as an
integral part of the functioning community.!

Whole Language is also the basis for a grassroots movement
that has been led on the local level by teachers and librarians who
have perhaps held this world-view of teaching for years and now
have a support group locally, nationally, and internationally.
Educators, including media specialists, who subscribe to Whole
Language generally share these beliefs: children learn to read by
reading; reading is part of the language acquisition process that
also includes listening, writing, and speaking; and learning in any
one of these areas of language assists the learner in the other two.

Evolution

In the 1960s, linguists Noam Chomsky and Michael Halliday
and a reading specialist, Marie Clay, published their findings on
research focused on language acquisition and use. Their conclu-
sions, which were to shape education for decades to follow,
showed that if children are immersed in significant and real
language experiences, they absorb it and can use it.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was an international exchange
of ideas, practices, and research bearing on the application of the
linguistics research and findings. New Zealand, Australia, and
Great Britain, with Canada following suit, became the acknowl-
edged leaders in olanguage across the curriculum.� Researchers
here and abroad took ChomskyTs, HallidayTs, and ClayTs findings
and looked at reading comprehension, story grammar, and other
aspects of how children learn to read. oThe work of the Center

North Carolina Libraries

for the Study of Reading, the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, as well as the Wolf, Huck, & King study on critical
reading, convinced us that children need well-constructed sto-
ries [emphasis mine] in order to make sense out of print."2 The
importance of the fundamental need of a well-written story,
narrative, or a real language experience when working with
children is underscored.

Teachers and librarians are having their long-held beliefs
about the importance of early language experiences borne out by
the research of people like Gordon Wells, who reported his
findings in the Meaning Makers. He asked the questions, oWhat
is it that is required then, for children to be able to extend their
command of language to include the written mode? Are there
preschool experiences that prepare some children more effec-
tively than others to take the learning of writing in their stride?
If so, what sort of experiences at school can best help children to
make up for what they have missed at home?�3 His most
poignant evidence reveals that the simple act of reading aloud
real literature to young children makes a significant difference in
how they continue to acquire and use language in a school
setting. Educator and author, Jim Trelease, has added a second
volume to The Read-Aloud Handbook that can be used to put into
practice what Wells has proven with his research.*

In the United States, Kenneth Goodman has been a leading
proponent of the Whole Language Movement and has assisted in
its adoption by teachers and librarians. His best known book,
WhatTs Whole in Whole Languages is an overly emotional and leftist
political appeal for Whole Language to be adopted everywhere by
everyone for everybody. However, if the reader ignores the pathos
and politics and reads the text, it is easy to see how it has had its
effect on spreading othe gospel.� (Unfortunately, there are no
footnotes or bibliography from which those interested readers
could find further evidence to support his claims.) His wife, Yetta
Goodman, as President of the National Council of Teachers of
English (NCTE) and Dorothy Strickland, as President of the Inter-
national Reading Association, were very active in organizing an
effort to get the results of important research on language acquisi-
tion out to the troops in the frontlines (i.e., classroom teachers and
librarians). Goodman and Strickland, who were followed by Sheila
Fitzgerald (NCTE) and Bernice Cullinan (IRA), organized a group to
plan Impact Conferences and to publish and distribute relevant
research.6 In California and Canada, Reading Initiatives were
begun wherein teachers and librarians worked together to develop
programs that were successful in bringing authentic literature into
the curriculum and, perhaps, more joy into the learning environ-
ment. Of equal interest to the organized approach to disseminat-
ing information on language across the curriculum, is the develop-
ment of support groups across the country. One such approach is

Fall 1992 " 161

known as TAWL, Teachers Applying Whole Language. It began as
a small San Francisco organization and has grown rapidly into an
international federation. It may turn out that the TAWLs of the
world will actually have a more immediate effect in changing how
the educational establishment provides a satisfying learning envi-
ronment.

Has there been a change already in how states are providing
an oenvironment rich in literacy events� and teaching language
across the curriculum? Is it an indication of how or if Whole
Language is being applied? Information from the oReading
Initiative Survey� of 1988 shows that seven states have begun
literature/literacy initiatives (North Carolina is one them); six-
teen report integrating language arts; fourteen states have begun
local literature-based programs; and three states (Missouri, New
Mexico and South Dakota) report no change in the basic skills
approach.� The author believes that Arizona is the leader in
implementing a language across the curriculum.

What isnTt Whole Language? Ifa librarian and a teacher were
to take seriously the publishersT advertisements that come across
their desks, they might believe that you can buy It in a kit,
workbook, or basal text. Whole Language proponents do encour-
age a oprint rich environment� but they also encourage oauthen-
tic literacy events� rather than those contrived in programmed
learning, skills sheets, or basal texts. Whole Language purists
believe that basal texts would only be examined in a Whole
Language classroom if the student were studying changes in
school culture over time. Altwerger et al. conclude that Whole
Language isnTt:8

(1) the whole-word approach that is taught as a subskill of
reading. Whole Language is not another term for teaching skills
in context.

(2) the Language Experience Approach where the teacher

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162 " Fall 1992

allows a student to dictate a story to her because othe implicit
notion about writing...was that it amounted to taking dictation
from oneself (i.e., composing occurred prior to transcribing).�
Whole Language practitioners have come to believe that the act
of writing and meaning making occur simultaneously.

(3) Open Classrooms or Open Education that became all the
rage in the 1960s and 1970s, albeit these authors believe that
Open Education was a necessary precursor to Whole Language.
Both movements held that the learners should be active partici-
pants in the planning and execution of instruction.

The Montessori Connection

As this author studied Whole Language, she observed continued
evidence of a similarity between the Montessori approach to
literacy and Whole Language. After re-reading some of Maria
MontessoriTs works and those of her proponents and practitio-
ners, these connections became obvious:

1. A belief held by both Whole Language and Montessori
philosophies that a child who draws will eventually write letters;
that drawing is a natural precedent to writing.

2. Whole Language proponents hold that children learn to
read and write in the same way (i.e., wholistically) that they learn
to speak the language. Montessori states, oAs spoken language is
at the same time a natural function of man and an instrument
which he utilizes for social ends, so written language may be
considered in itself, in its formation, as an organic ensemble of
new mechanisms which are established in the nervous system
and as an instrument which may be utilized for social ends.�9

3. A Whole Language classroom and a Montessori classroom are
both child-centered rather than teacher-centered. The following de-
scription, taken from a Montessori book, really describes both types of
classrooms: oThe teacher serves the child. She prepares the environ-
ment, creating an orderly, attractive, and interesting classroom. She
establishes the structure or ground rules for behavior and sees that they
are followed. She gives individual and group lessons on the use of
materials. She frees the child, within the structure of the classroom, to
move, to talk, to make choices, and to become interested in working
with the materials.�10

4. Learning to read in both types of classrooms depends upon
the childTs first learning to recognize the words for real objects
in the classroom environment. Montessori states, oI do not
consider as reading the test which the child makes when he
verifies the word he has written ... What I understand by reading
is the interpretation of an idea from the written signs ... writing
aids the physiological language and reading aids the social
language ... We begin then with ... the reading of names of objects
which are well known and present ... Reading, if it is to teach the
child to receive an idea, should be mental not vocal.�11

5S. Reading out loud daily to students from a real story as
opposed to a basal text is an important part of the day for both
types of classrooms.

6. Science, mathematics, geography, music, and art are
taught in both types of classrooms with real materials and real
experiences. Often the lessons are designed to integrate and
relate them one to another.

This ocursory glance,� as opposed to an in-depth study of the
relationship between Whole Language and Montessori, is pre-
sented simply to show that both methods work because they
respect the childTs spirit, innate curiosity, and growing intellect.
Practitioners of Whole Language could very well learn useful
methods from studying Montessori methods that have been
developed over the past ninety years.

Effect on the Library Media Center
Whole Language may be relegated to the heap of discarded
educational bandwagons if it is not studied, researched, and

North Carolina Libraries

implemented using the basic strategies that are already known
concerning successful change in the school environment. Change
is a process, not an event. It can be measured through time with
the involvement of people. Jean Brown states that othere are
three distinct phases to planned change: ... adoption, implemen-
tation, and continuation.�12 Administrators are key elements at
the adoption and continuation phase; teachers and media spe-
cialists are the key element in the implementation phase. When
Whole Language is successfully adopted in a school, the media
specialist can play a central role if she has substantial knowledge
of Whole Language and how it is fostered in a classroom setting,
and if she is able to provide instruction in specific skills either by
modeling it in her own instruction or by applying it in coopera-
tive planning sessions. In all likelihood, in a Whole Language
school, the librarian-teacher will continue to be a strong advo-
cate for literacy as well as develop a strong partnership with the
teachers in planning curriculum in terms of resource-based
learning.

A Whole Language Library Media Center

The media specialist can fill a unique role as instructional leader
in the school. It is imperative, though, to have a clear vision of
what change is desired and how to get there. Classroom teachers
can be overburdened with the sheer enormity of their day-to-day
tasks. The social problems of the 1980s and 1990s require the
teacher to be teacher, guidance counselor, and social worker
simultaneously. When teachers are given the additional goal of
implementing Whole Language in their classrooms, the media
specialist must be ready to help manage the change. Teachers
alone cannot be expected to be aware of all the currently available
learning resources, as well as what are emerging resources and
technologies. Teachers can come to rely on the media specialist
to locate, acquire, organize, and teach teachers how to use them,
as well as to teach students the same skills within the context of
Whole Language. The successful media specialist will need to be
conversant in Whole Language as a philosophy and an evolving
set of practices. In the past, she was looked upon as an isolated
resource, rather than as a planning partner. She was someone
who taught library skills and organized books and reference
resources. She was the person who gave teachers a free planning
period oncea week. Ina Whole Language school, the first change
that is made isin terms of her role and responsibilities. She needs
to move beyond isolation into a more central role of cooperative
program planning and team teaching. The process will involve
oproviding personalized information for specific teachersT needs
and facilitating each teacherTs use of the new program by
clarifying meaning and solving individual problems.�!3_ The
media specialist will become an instructional leader if she has the
vision of what Whole Language can accomplish coupled with a
clear understanding of the school, the curriculum, and the
community. Whole Language must be understood in the con-
text of the correct strategies. This involves very real shifts in the
perception of how children learn and how the environment for
the learner is prepared, in the active observation by teachers of
the learners, and in the concurrent cooperative planning among
teacher, student, and librarian. When Whole Language is adopted
across the curriculum and/or throughout a school, it will become
necessary for the media specialist to move beyond the boundaries
of her library media center into the classroom, into the commu-
nity, and beyond. She will be called upon to bring the commu-
nity and world into the school through knowledge of real
resources, telecommunications, and emerging technology. Be-
yond being a coordinator of educational resources, though, she
must stand as an advocate for the children in her care. She must
advocate the childrenTs right to real literature experiences as
such, rather than as a mere part of a unit on a given topic. She

North Carolina Libraries

must also help teachers remember that children have the right
to a fantasy life lived through literature and that the library media
center is the rightful place for a child to continue that experience.
The library media center should continue to be a haven for
children, where they can explore literature on their own without
judgment and without pressure. It can continue to be a place
where children learn that seeking and finding information for
the sheer joy of it is possible.

Conclusion

The librarian-teacher can be a valuable resource person and
provide the instruments for meaningful change by casting a
critical eye at the professional collection she usually maintains
for the other members of a schoolTs faculty. If she is the first to
decide that Whole Language is worthy of investigating for her
school, she can buy and make available titles recommended in
current library and reading journals. She can start a file of
reprints from teaching magazines and research journals on the
topic. She should visit schools that are implementing Whole
Language and invite speakers to her school. She can join a TAWL
and share the literature that they publish. Electronic bulletin
boards, such as Micronet in North Carolina, are a way for media
specialists to communicate with others and share ideas, ask
questions and become informed on current local practices using
Whole Language as the framework. Most of all, the teacher-
librarian needs to understand what Whole Language is, what it
isnTt and, because she is the expert on her school as a community,
if Whole Language would work or not.

Jeanette Veatch captures this new vision of where teacher-
librarians fit into the whole language revolution: oYou have a
tradition of allegiance to individualized student choice and
learning, to a multiplicity of information sources, viewpoints,

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Fall 1992 " 163

a

and communication formats. You, among all your peers in the
school, may be best equipped to understand, interpret, and
model the whole language approach to teaching and learning.� 14

References

1 Bess Atlwerger, Carole Edelsky and Barbara Flores, oWhole
Language: WhatTs New?,� Reading Teacher 41 (November 1987):
144-54.

2 Bernice Cullinan, oLatching on to Literature: Reading
Initiatives Take Hold,� School Library Journal 35 (April 1989): 27.

3 Gordon Wells, The Meaning Makers (Portsmouth, NY:
Heinemann, 1988), xii.

4 Jim Trelease, The Read-aloud Handbook (New York: Viking
Penguin, Inc., 1979).

5 Kenneth Goodman, WhatTs Whole in Whole Language
(Portsmouth,N.H.: Heinemann, 1986).

6 Cullinan, 28.

7 Tbid., 29.

8 Atlwerger.

9 Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method: the 1912 Text.
Translated by Anne E. George (New York: Schocken Books, 1964),
310.

10R. C. Orem, and Marjorie F. Cobern, Montessori: Prescrip-
tion for Children with Learning Disabilities (New York: Capricorn
Books, G.P PutnamTs Sons, 1978), 50.

11Elizabeth Hainstock, The Essential Montessori: An Introduc-
tion to the Woman, the Writing, the Method and the Movement (New
York: New American Library, 1986), 83.

12Jean Brown, oNavigating the ~90Ts " the Teacher-librar-
ian as Change Agent,� Emergency Librarian 19 (September-
October 1990): 22.

13Shirley Hord, and Leslie Huling-Austin, oEffective Curricu-

DAVIDSON TITLES, INC.

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164 " Fall 1992

lum Implementation: Some Promising New Insights,� The EI-
ementary School Journal 87 (September 1986): 106.

14Jeanette Veatch, oEn Garde, Whole Lanugage,� in School
Library Media Annual: 1989 (Englewood, Col.: Libraries Unlim-
ited, 1988), 11.

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Whole Language:
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Fountas, Irene C. and Irene L. Hannigan. oMaking Sense of
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Goodman, Kenneth, E. Brooks Smith, Robert Meredith and
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Manning, Gary and Maryann Manning, eds. Whole Language:
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Newman, Judith M. and Susan Church. oMyths of Whole
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Smith, Frank, ed. Psycholinguists and Reading. New York: Holt,
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Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. oUsing ~RealT Books:
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Whole language: its implications for the
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Barron, Daniel D. oWhole Language and Literature-based
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Baskin, Barbara and Karen Harris. oStories Caught in the
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Egnor-Brown, Rose. oLiterature Based-language Arts: Toward a
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Hodge, Francis. oTaking the Drill Out of Reading.� Publishers
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Writing and Reading: The Whole Language Approach.�
Ohio Media Spectrum 41 (Winter 1989): 29-33.

Zola, Meguido. oThe Tao of Whole Language.� Emergency
Librarian 17 (November-December 1989): 9-15.

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North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 169

PoInt

Networked Information Resources:
The Wave of the Future

by Bil Stahl

s professionals, librarians have long undervalued their knowledge and skills, or in some cases

misplaced them. The bedrock of librariansT knowledge and skill is not in their knowledge of

arcane Classification systems, or even their ability to organize information per se. Their

fundamental value is in being able to identify the value of various types of information

resources for the ouninitiated� user. Few librarians work with experts on finding information

resources of value directly related to the expertTs area of expertise. (I am not talking about
locating facts for researchers.) However, what every user needs from the library is help in finding
information in areas with which they are not very familiar.

The librarianTs knowledge and skill in connecting ordinary people with information are generally
not found elsewhere. Library online catalog systems were one of the first, and still are one of the few,
systems designed to be used by large numbers of non-specialists on an infrequent basis. With
technological advancements, the expectations of society have risen, and many system developers,
database managers, and other system administrators are faced with supporting the olibrary"typeT� user.
They are looking for help and guidance. A few have identified the library profession as a source for this
help. Others do not know where to go. Librarians ignore this opportunity to step forward to fill this role
at the risk of their future.

Telecommunications has significantly heightened the concern over the oinformation explosion.� The
growth of the Internet, which interconnects over 750,000 systems, is occurring at the rate of more than ten
resources added daily. A major concern among the users of the Internet is how to keep track of all of these
resources and be knowledgeable about their content. The Coalition for Network Information (CNI), which
ismade up primarily of library and computing professionals, is addressing this problem, but its resolution will
require significantly more effort on the part of the library community. However, many librarians despair
because libraries do not oown� these network resources, and they do not fit into our classification systems and
service models. This despair is a waste of energy because it is apparent that libraries will no longer oown�
significant numbers of the available information resources that people will routinely use. We will never have
a single organizational system that can effectively accommodate the uncontrolled growth of network
information sources in any acceptable or timely manner. Librarians must stop slavishly trying to protect their
old modes of operations and aggressively seek ways to blend the appropriate mix of old and new operations.
Wealso must developthenecessary processes to change this blend within daysand weeks, rather than months
and years.

Libraries must budget significant amounts of time and money for understanding the new
resources, and the means of accessing them, that telecommunications technology has made possible.
Then librarians must incorporate them into their menu of offerings to their clientele. This means that
adequate equipment and telecommunications services must be acquired even at the expense of
collections, the libraryTs whole concept of collection development must change to oaccess develop-
ment,� and the scope of oBI� must broaden greatly.

While Iam not suggesting the demise of the library as we know it today, our current model will account
for less and less of the significant value of future libraries. Nor am I suggesting that each library must
individually solve all of the problems that these new network information resources pose. Libraries have a
strong and successful tradition of benefiting from collective efforts. What 1am strongly recommending is that
every library invest this year in the technology to provide general access to networked information resources
by the reference staff and by the users of reference departments, and that these resources become part of
reference services. This might require tracking down the people in your parent organization who are
responsible for telecommunications and selling them on the importance of providing sufficient, not token,
connectivity to the ooutside� world. This will also require library staff to understand adequately concepts such
as TCP/IP, TELNET and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Professionals are urgently needed to deal with the exploding amount of electronic information
becoming available. This need must and will be met. At this juncture, it is up to us to decide if librarians
will be the ones to fill the need. We will not be at this juncture long. By not deciding and not taking
action soon, we will in fact have made the choice to pass our role on to someone else.

166 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries

NN eee

I'm Sorry, All Circuits Are Busy Now

by Harry Tuchmayer, Column Editor

here is something terribly wrong out there. I donTt know exactly what it is, but I suspect
it has something to do with the fact that an average individual canTt even use a telephone
without getting some instruction. Thus, when I read all these wonderful articles about the
vital role telecommunications will play in managing the information explosion, I am
reminded about all those ads that I remember as a kid which glorified chemicals and
plastics as the solution to modern life. As we now know, this revolution in our daily lives
came with a heavy price " pollution. Are we now at that same point with telecommunications? Have
we reached information overload?
As far as I can see, telecommunications isnTt solving the problem; itTs
merely attempting to manage the mess. Sure, all these networks and

information services sprouting up all over are causing us to rethink the way Per, ha Pp i s ad | I boils down to

we do business, but should they? Are we to become slaves to this new 4 4 3
industry? Are we supposed to throw away our Harlequin romances and JUS t how much information

cancel our subscriptions to newspapers in order to provide access to the .

multitude of information gougers? IS enough, and who IS
I know I probably sound hysterical, but ITm not so sure I like the to d e Ci d e

direction we are headed. I for one actually like paper, and | think most f

other people do, too. While I agree with Bil that we must o... aggressively

seek ways to blend the appropriate mix of old and new operations,� I canTt " Tuchmayer
believe we must invest heavily in this technology. How many indexes and
how many services are enough? We seriously need to look at our mission
and decide just how many indexes are needed to augment our collections, While | am not sugges ting
but letTs not lose sight of our objectives, and letTs remember who our clients 5 :
are. We need to help them sift through the mess of information, not the demise of the library
overwhelm them with sources. .

Perhaps it all boils down to just how much information is enough, and as we know it tod ay,
who is to decide. But really, folks, do we actually need 750,000 systems, .
growing at a rate that would put rabbits to shame? As everyone tries to cash our current m odel Wl | |

in on this information madness, isnTt it our responsibility to be a little bit
more selective? After all, do you buy every new reference source that comes

account for less and less of

out, or make it your mission to purchase every title regardless of its review? H fj

Rather than applaud this madness, shouldnTt we put a stop to it? The the SIg nificant value of
Coalition for Network Information needs to do a lot more than merely keep future libraries
track of and be knowledgeable about these resources. They need to inform T
the consumer about the unnecessary duplication and needless proliferation " Stahl

of databases, networks, and bulletin boards. Quality, not quantity, used to
be a motto many libraries lived by. And while ITm not suggesting a return to
those days, I am calling for a halt to the unquestioning belief that somehow this is all a good thing.
There is a silver lining. The growth of the telecommunications industry has made it painfully clear
that it is time to reevaluate the whole concept of collection development. The revolution in the
information industry goes far beyond the world of telecommunications; it has affected publishing and
consumer attitudes about information access. Clearly, these are issues of great importance to us, and we
have waited too long in considering their impact. Also, as Bil says, we need to become more
knowledgeable about such concepts as File Transfer Protocol, TCP/IP and the like. Librarians cannot
afford to let the high tech world of telecommunications pass them by. After all, our patrons depend on
us to interpret these resources and expect us to help them through this maze of information choices.
But letTs not all jump on the band wagon at once. I know that while my kids are always interested
in playing with the latest toy, they often return to their old favorites. More often than once, theyTve
discovered that this glitzy new toy is not all its cracked up to be. And even when they have discovered
something new, they still can play with only one toy at a time.

North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 167

See

Library Research in North Carolina

" Ilene Nelson, Column Editor

Compiling a "Videography":

The Trials of Locating Information on a New Medium

by Charles Croissant

In late fall of 1991 the Music Library Association published my
book, Opera Performances in Video Format : a Checklist of Commer-
cially Released Recordings, as number 26 in their Index and Bibliog-
raphy Series. This work had its genesis as a semester project in a
seminar on bibliography at the University of Illinois; the profes-
sor was Dr. Donald Krummel, a noted music bibliographer. My
interest was caught one day by a remark of Dr. KrummelTs with
regard to the ochallenges� of dealing bibliographically with
nonbook media. I was aware of the growing number of opera
videos becoming available commercially, in both cassette and
laser disc formats, and I decided to explore the forms of biblio-
graphic control existing for these items. I soon realized that I was
on my way to compiling something I think can be designated a
videography, that is, a list of video recordings with a defined
scope, exhibiting a logical organization tailored to the needs of
its intended audience.

Embarking on my quest in February 1990, I discovered that
there was really nothing available that contained succinct and
usable lists of video recordings in a format that answered the
needs of music and fine arts librarians, or even the needs of
interested music lovers. All that did exist, I found, were trade
publications and catalogs issued by distributors. These were
marketing tools. They did not necessarily aim at comprehensive-
ness (the distributorsT catalogs, for example, naturally contained
only that particular distributorTs items), and none of them were
organized along the lines I was envisioning as I considered the
needs of my chosen audience. Still, they provided the essential
base from which to gather information.

The most important of these trade publications is Videolog,
the video counterpart of Phonolog. Like Phonolog, it is a looseleaf
publication for which update pages are produced roughly ten
times a year. Many media libraries maintain a copy of Videolog,
but it is really intended for retail stores; it is a good example of the
bibliographic drawbacks that are common to all such trade
publications. The publishers of Videolog do not actively collect
information; they solicit distributors to send them copy describ-
ing that distributorTs videos. In other words, they simply print
whatever information a particular distributor sees fit to send
them. The result is that there is no consistency from one entry to
the next in terms of the information included. My goal was to
create, for each video, citations containing at least a fixed
minimum set of data elements. It was not often that an entry in
Videolog provided every single element I wanted to include in a
citation. Videologis divided into sections devoted to feature films,
foreign films, educational films, music-related video, etc. Within
each section, organization is alphabetical by the title of the video.
I discovered a number of problems with these title listings.
Various performances of the same opera might appear under
wildly different titles, and thus appear quite some distance from
each other in the catalog " you might see for example, Luciano
Pavarotti sings Il Trovatore among the LTs; or VerdiTs Trovatore

168 " Fall 1992

among the VTs; or The Troubador among the TTs. None of these
lists deals satisfactorily with foreign-language titles; (especially)
foreign initial articles are a problem. WagnerTs Das Rheingold was
as likely to turn up under D for Das as under R for Rheingold.

I was convinced that a videography of opera performances,
organized along traditional bibliographic lines, would be a useful
enhancement of these trade publications, and that with the
information I was locating, I could hope to achieve a comprehen-
sive list of opera recordings in video format that had been commer-
cially released up to that point in time. For operatic performances,
itseemed to me that the most useful organization would be by titles
entered alphabetically under their composers. I next set out to
develop a citation format that would meet the needs of my
audience. This was something of a challenge, as there were hardly
any models to build on.

I aimed at the traditional two-fold goal of the cataloger: to
identify uniquely each manifestation of a work and to collocate
all the manifestations of the same work. In regard to collocation,
I found that in the context of video recordings this meant
identifying and collocating individual manifestations of the
same performance of the same work. This emphasizes a peculiar-
ity of the video market: once a particular performance has been
recorded, the recording is frequently acquired not just by one,
but by several distributors, and each releases the recording under
its own name, with its own identifying number. Certain features
may be present in one distributorTs release that are not present in
the othersT, as, for example, subtitles or an introductory interview
with one of the starring singers. I needed to find a place in my
citations for all such pieces of information.

The first level of organization for my list was by composer, in
alphabetical order. Under each composerTs name I used the
standard collocating device of the uniform title for each opera
and listed the operas alphabetically by uniform title. Under each
uniform title heading, the individual performances were listed in
chronological order according to the year of the performance.
Performances were uniquely identified by the following se-
quence of information: the title used on the recording itself, the
year of performance, the performing ensemble (opera house,
orchestra, etc.), the conductor, the director, concluding with a
list of the principal singers.

Then came the additional information: language of perfor-
mance, whether in color or black and white, and citations of any
reviews of the video I had been able to locate. Up to this point the
information included was common to all manifestations of a
given performance; now I could proceed to list each individual
distributor of this recording, with the information unique to that
distributorTs release: catalog number, timing, presence of sub-
titles. The trade publications provided me with an initial list of
titles. In addition to Videolog, I consulted VarietyTs Video Directory
Plus on CD-ROM, and all the other published video catalogs I
could locate. Yet another source of titles was sound recordings

North Carolina Libraries

catalogs such as Opus (the Schwann catalog), Gramophone, and
Fanfare. | also set about acquiring as many distributorsT catalogs
as I could find; I worked from distributorsT address lists in Videolog
and from advertisements in opera magazines. I had decided that
my videography should have an historical dimension; that is, it
would list all the performances I could trace that had appeared in
video format during the history of the medium, regardless of
their current availability. This was in contrast to the trade
sources, which naturally confined themselves to items oin print.�
I needed additional sources both for this historical dimension
and for locating missing information on the currently available
items. My strategy was to search the OCLC database for catalog-
ing records of the items on my list.

Another objective of my videography was to lead users to
reviews of opera videos. I went through the English-language opera
magazines (Opera News, Opera Quarterly, Opera Canada, and the
English journal Opera) beginning at about 1982, when the first
opera recordings became available in video format. I incorporated
into my entries citations for all the reviews I located in these
publications and in others. The reviews themselves often supplied
me with missing bits of information. I used Music Index, the major
periodicals index in music, as well as the Humanities Index on CD-
ROM for reviews appearing in less specialized magazines. I also
visited large video stores and classical record stores in Chicago that
stocked opera videos, finding it helpful to check the information
on the containers of opera videos against my citations (by doing so,
I also located several new releases that had not yet made it into
Videolog). Finally, I contacted distributors directly by telephone, in
an attempt to track down elusive pieces of information or confirm
information. It was not always easy to describe my project exactly,
and in some cases it was clear that the person on the other end of
the line was not particularly interested in listening to my explana-

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tion. I am glad I took the trouble to make these phone contacts,
however. In some cases, I was able to determine that a particular
video, though widely listed in catalogs, had never actually been
released, and I sometimes got information, such as names of
performers, that was not available from any other sources.

A listing under the composerTs name was inappropriate for
two classes of videos I included in my videography: videos
devoted to one particular artist and videos devoted to several
artists or containing excerpts from several works. To encompass
such performances, I created two appendices. In the first I listed
(by the artistTs name) videos showcasing an individual artist. The
second appendix listed videos featuring excerpts from several
works; these I listed under the videoTs title. A final set of indexes
provided access to the recordings by way of the titles, performers,
and ensembles involved.

In summing up, it can be said that the characteristic experi-
ence of a researcher dealing with a new medium, or even with the
newest products of an established medium, is that he or she must
turn to sources within the publishing industry, to publishersT lists,
advertisements, distributorsT catalogs and the like. I have seen my
function, in common with other researchers dealing with recently
produced materials, as sifting through information that exists in
these disparate sources and bringing to this mass of information
some degree of consistency, coherency, and ease of access.

Mr. Croissant's videography may be obtained by sending a
check for $15.00 to the Business Office of the Music Library
Association, P.O. Box 487, Canton MA, 02021.

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Fall 1992 " 169

NoRTH CAROLINA�

Robert G. Anthony, Jr., Compiler

orn and educated in North Carolina and now residing near Raleigh, Margaret

Maron (rhymes with baron) is a veteran mystery writer. Previous novels, most

featuring New York Police Department (NYPD) smart cop Lieutenant Sigrid

Harald, have been nominated for the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and American

Mystery awards. In BootleggerTs Daughter, Maron forsakes the streets of New York

for fictional Colleton County, North Carolina, just east of Raleigh and the
setting of her earlier mystery novel Bloody Kin (Doubleday, 1985).

The authenticity of the setting is the strongest point of BootleggerTs Daughter. Wonderful,
true to the ear description abounds without intruding on the plot. From Main Street to
Possum Creek, Colleton County feels and smells like home. While its focus on crime weaves

a darker texture, MaronTs style is close kin to the humorous exaggera-

tion in Clyde EdgertonTs stories of Listre, North Carolina, and the

smiling through the tears sentiment of rural Alabama in Fannie
Margaret Maron. _flageTs Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Bootlegger'T s Daughter. In Colleton County nobody locks the door, at least not before
New York: Mysterious Press, 1992. 261 pp. $18.95 dark. There are plenty of political barbecues, great fields of tobacco,
gore ; ISBN 0-89296-4 45-6. ponds loaded with large-mouth bass, country stores with old-fash-

ioned drink coolers, and a mouth-watering litany of southern home

cooking. (oSupper was the usual pork barbecue, cole slaw, hush

puppies, and sweet iced tea.�) People read the Raleigh News & Observer

and discuss the Jesse Helms-Harvey Gantt United States Senate race.

Family is everything; who your daddy and granddaddy are determine
your place in the community and the legitimacy of your actions. Yuppies from Raleigh and
the Research Triangle, as well as a few damn Yankees, are gradually encroaching on the
tranquility of Colleton County, but the patterns and rhythms of life are still governed by
tradition.

The story opens with Deborah Knott, a young attorney, deciding to run for district
judge. DeborahTs family is old and well known " perhaps too much so, for her daddy, Kezzie,
is notorious for his bootlegging activities. Kezzie is politically powerful, but his reputation
greatly affects Deborah and her political aspirations.

At the same time Deborah is asked by Gayle Whitehead to investigate an eighteen-year-
old unsolved murder. When Gayle was only a baby someone kidnapped her and her mother,
Janie. Three days later the two were found in an abandoned mill. Gayle was still alive, but
Janie had been killed. As Deborah campaigns across the district she questions people she has
known all her life about the murder and discovers secrets long buried. The story proceeds
at a good clip, intertwining campaign dirty tricks with new murders, until all is revealed in
an exciting, if slightly contrived, denouement.

While Maron exhibits thorough knowledge of police procedure, she softens the edges
with humor that sparkles throughout the novel. As Deborah notes, oNorth Carolina houses
our State Bureau of Investigation in what used to bea school for the blind on Old Garner Ferry
Road south of Raleigh. Some of us donTt let the agents forget it either.�

The book dust jacket introduces BootleggerTs Daughter as oA Deborah Knott Mystery.�
HereTs hoping Deborah and her family and friends in Colleton County will be back soon. It is
good to see a strong, independent, thoroughly southern woman appear on the detective scene.

This novel is recommended for all public libraries and for those academic libraries
collecting North Carolina fiction.

" Suzanne Wise, Appalachian State University

170 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries

Ithough they constituted the vast majority of the population for over two

hundred years, the ocommon� people of North Carolina have rarely been

studied in depth by historians. Travelers in the colonial period and observers

before the Civil War commented that such people made a lasting impression on

them. It was they who gave North Carolina its character. The planter and

professional class and the very poor have been the subject of many books and
articles. Now we can understand the large middle group of people who left their mark on
much of the state.

Farmers who owned small tracts of land and artisans who provided
services, most of whom rarely held public office, were numerous in all
sections of North Carolina. Self-sufficient, poorly educated if educated at
all, generally honest but sometimes not, law-abiding but willing to take
, matters into their own hands when necessary, these people made the best

Common Whites: of the work God had called them to do. Nevertheless, they recognized the
° inequities that existed between themselves and the wealthy planter and
Class and Culture in Antebellum go eceraie

North Carolina. Cecil-Fronsman relates the role of the common people in different
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992. sections of the state and how their obetters� managed to lull them into
274 pp. $34.00. ISBN 0-8131-1777-1. contentment with their status. He discusses their understanding of
slavery which led them to accept it with little or no question for a long
time. He also refers to the hard life they led, their limited resources, and
the self-sufficient economy under which they struggled. The importance to them of honor

and religion and the role of folklore and superstition are covered.

The reference to contemporary documents, particularly petitions to the legislature and
letters to the governor, make this an especially moving and realistic account. In many
respects it is reminiscent of Guion B. JohnsonTs Ante-Bellum North Carolina.

Although this book is the outgrowth of the authorTs doctoral dissertation and is carefully
documented, its style no longer betrays its origin. Its detailed index will make Common
Whites a useful reference tool. Its variety of unusual topics will surely suggest subjects for
term papers or feature stories for newspapers. It will also be welcomed by any reader
interested in the years before 1865.

Bill Cecil-Fronsman.

" William S. Powell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

nruly Women begins with the premise that women whose behavior violated

law in the antebellum and Civil War South are the logical focus for studying

resistance to the white male domination of the political economy of that era.

Like many of the new social histories written in the last twenty years,

BynumTs book analyzes womenTs lives at the grassroots level. She has chosen

to study those disorderly and discontent white and free black women whose
behavior became part of the court records in three North Carolina Piedmont counties:
Orange, Granville, and Montgomery.

Women who complained in court about their husbands, or, vice versa; those who broke
the laws governing social and sexual behavior; and those who resisted the Confederate state
are the focus of her study. This necessarily leaves out a great many women in these counties.
Those who were part of the social and economic mainstream and those
who were slaves do not appear often in the court records. Instead, the
sources used by Bynum record episodes from the lives of women who were

U. nruly Women: jot usually part of the Piedmont yeomanry, the planter class, or slave
The Politics of Social and Sexual society. They tended to be poor white women, single women (especially
° unwed mothers), and poor free black women. Bynum contends that race,
Control in the Old South. class, and gender were dominant elements in the power structure that
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, caught these women in its legal web. She argues that the need to keep
1992. 233 pp. $34.95. ISBN 0-8078-2016-4 (cloth) women dependent on marriage for position in society, to maintain the
0-8078-4361-X (paper). racial purity of white womanhood, and to deny adult status to blacks were

among the most important underlying assumptions of this system.

In a book whose six chapters are liberally annotated and illustrated
with tables, maps, and charts, Bynum compares and contrasts the social structures of the
three counties. She looks at popularly held views of black versus white womanhood and the
reaction of the courts to miscegenation. She also assesses how the paternalistic court system
enforced laws relating to property, divorce, and domestic relations. In the final chapters,
Bynum searches court records for signs of white and black womenTs resistance to the Civil

Victoria E. Bynum.

SE on EI EST

North Carolina Libraries FallT1992 == 471

y UNRULY

~The Politics of Social & Sexual Consro! in the O South

WOMEN

War through illicit trade, rioting, and support for draft evasion.

Bynum acknowledges that the three counties she chose do not represent the traditional
view of the Old South, but she sees in their economic and social structure a good example of
the diversity of the South as a whole. She recognizes how thin the record is for those voiceless
members of society whose point of view is represented only by what the court chose to record.
Consequently, she sets up a feminist theoretical framework for these women and writes about
them as if they were conscious activists in a fight against male-dominated society. Her
introductory chapter is useful in explaining her premise for the book, but it is jargon-laden and
assumes a modern feminist motivation for the actions of nineteenth-century women. This is
otherwise a strong and well-documented piece of historical research that does reveal the types
of behavior that caused women to become entangled in the court system and the responses of
the judiciary to those violations. Her analysis of the motivation for the courtsT handling of these
cases, that is, maintenance of the political and social status quo, is borne out more clearly by
the historical record than her assumption that these women were struggling oto carve out a
space for themselves in a society that condemned and marginalized them.�

Victoria E. Bynum is a womenTs history professor at Southwest Texas State University.
Her bibliography, which includes primary sources (numerous manuscript collections, public
records, newspapers, and books), along with about two hundred additional secondary
sources, is a gold mine for anyone studying the social history of this region of Piedmont North
Carolina. A detailed index also makes topical and proper name access easy. BynumTs book
is of interest for academic libraries and any North Carolina library building local history or
womenTs history collections.

" Linda McCurdy, Duke University

omen finding strength is the unifying theme that links the eleven short
stories of Jill McCorkleTs Crash Diet into a cohesive pattern of voices.

The speakers represent variety in age and race but similarity in develop-
ment of coping skills, each one facing disorienting experiences with reserves
of courage and occasionally piercing insights into the human female

condition. Along with the hard-earned insights come grit, determination, compassion, and
irresistible doses of high good humor.

Known for her earlier novels, including The Cheer Leader, July 7th, Tending to Virginia, and
Ferris Beach, McCorkle has moved into the challenging genre of short stories with confidence
and agility, notwithstanding her initial hesitations about whether she could be a successful
oswitch hitter " able to go back and forth between novels and stories.� She can.

Unlike the novels, the southern setting for most of these stories seems almost coinciden-
tal: one can easily imagine the characters doing the same things with the same motives
anywhere in the United States. In the title story, a deserted wife substitutes a buying spree
for food binging, charging everything on her wayward husbandTs MasterCard. oMigration
of the Love Bugs� reviews the adjustment problems facing an older woman who has retired
to Florida with her husband. The widow in oDepartures� finds temporary
solace in watching small family scenarios at shopping malls and airports.

In one story, however, the southern setting seems vital to characteriza-

HiLMeCorle, tions and plot. oWords Gone Bad� reveals the poignant relationship of

Crash Diet: Stories. Mary and Bennie, close friends and co-workers in the custodial department

Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books, 1992.
253 pp. $16.95. ISBN 0-945575-75-0.

NS
172 " Fall 1992

at a large southern university. Both have experienced the bitter blows of
racism, yet life has dealt a kinder hand to Bennie in giving him religious
faith, a sunny disposition, and a supportive wife. Mary, on the other hand,
has had only her repressed love for Bennie to see her through. Now, as
Bennie tells Mary that he is retiring, she struggles to affirm some kind of
belief in herself and her world without his daily presence. oIf you throw a piece of trash to
the ground then I'll do my damnedest to make you feel like a worthless pig. And all the while
I'll hold my head way up high because maybe, just maybe, I am on my way to something.�

With four novels and this book of short stories on her résumé, as well as other short works
that have appeared in literary journals and magazines such as the Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, and
Seventeen, Jill McCorkle has left North Carolina to teach creative writing at Harvard
University. For now, North CarolinaTs loss is HarvardTs gain. But it is hoped she will be back,
bringing with her the attention to plot detail, sensitivity to character motivation, and
universality of theme that will no doubt figure in anything she writes. Crash Diet: Stories is
highly recommended for all public libraries and for college and university libraries that
feature modern fiction collections.

" Nancy Ray, Southern Pines Public Library

North Carolina Libraries

he University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the oldest state-sponsored

university in the nation and in 1995 will celebrate the two hundredth anniver-

sary of its opening. In recognition of its impending bicentennial, the university

commissioned William D. Snider, retired editor of the Greensboro News & Record,

to write the first comprehensive history of the institution since Kemp Battle
published his magisterial two-volume account in 1912.

Snider writes fondly but objectively of the institution from which he graduated in 1941.

He does not gloss over the universityTs low standards in its earliest years when it was barely

more than an advanced academy, nor does he sugarcoat the universityTs

poor record of opening its doors to black students after World War II.

As one might expect from the author of Helms and Hunt: The North

William D. Snider. Carolina Senate Race, 1984, he is at his best in describing the political
° i]. context in which the university first struggled and then thrived.
Lig. ht on the Hill: The excellence of SniderTs analysis of the political milieu is offset
A History of the University of North by his inadequate treatment of educational issues, both within the
Carolina at Ch apel Hill institution and on the regional and national levels. Relying almost

exclusively on secondary sources and neglecting two decades of
scholarship on the history of American higher education, Snider
superficially addresses or ignores altogether the kinds of questions
that should receive more prominent attention in the history of any
academic institution. For example, while he recounts the conflicting
curricular preferences of founders William Richardson Davie and Samuel Eusebius McCorkle,
he fails to carry forward the story of curriculum changes except in a cursory fashion. He
identifies with brief biographical sketches some of the more prominent graduates, especially
those who occupied administrative posts; but he does not investigate the social and
economic background of the student body as a whole. His account of the Reconstruction
university focuses entirely on its political difficulities and misses the significance of efforts
by the much-reviled Solomon Pool and by Kemp Battle, first as trustee and then as president,
to transform the college into a true university. More seriously, he does not explain how one
of the leading universities in the South was shaped by larger societal and educational
influences and how it might have been different from or similar to other institutions. Only
in his description of student unrest in the 1960s and 1970s is there a sense that the university
was affected by forces outside the state.

In spite of these limitations, SniderTs work does have a place in the historiography of the
university. It will satisfy the interest of most general readers and will stand as a thorough
chronicle of the universityTs political fortunes within the state. For the specialist on higher
education, however, the definitive history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
remains to be written.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1992. 370 pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-8078-2023-7.

" Robin Brabham, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

oThis is what nobody in the wide world understands, she thought.
This happiness. Small victories.�

ouiseTs plaintive appeal for lifeTs little pleasures sets the tone for BinghamTs Small

Victories, a somber story full of pathos. Set in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1958

with interludes in Kentucky and Massachusetts, the novel chronicles the lives of

a southern-born and bred family, three generations linked by despair and

tragedy.

Sisters Louise and Shelby Macelvene live alone in a homeplace full of
memories of their mother and father running a military boarding
school. Over the years after her fatherTs death, Louise cares for the
childish and childlike Shelby, mentally handicapped after an acci-
dent during childhood. LouiseTs responsibility to Shelby becomes

Small Victories. her driving force when State Senator Tom, cousin to the spinster
sisters, decides it is best for everyone concerned to have Shelby

Cambridge, Mass.: Zoland Books, 1992. 298 pp. institutionalized.

$20.95. ISBN 0-944072-20-8. Louise unleashes a maelstrom of family secrets in letters to Tom,
Jr., away at college, as she attempts to draw ranks to persuade the elder
Tom to return Shelby to her home. As young Tom absorbs the sorrows
of the familyTs history, the heavy weight of the familyTs past encircles
him. oWhat is inherited is the way we all have to stop, quit ... give up. I donTt know how
to put it. There isnTt much sap in this family anymore.�

Sallie Bingham.

North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 173
a

a

Young Tom is the only hope for illuminating the darkness. As thin as it is, the thread for
renewed, revitalized life is woven into TomTs response to the familyTs past and in his exodus
from its stranglehold. LouiseTs life revolves around ShelbyTs, has no definition of its own
outside the role of caretaker and historian. TomTs mother and father live lives of material
wealth and impoverished souls. It is Tom upon whom rebirth depends.

BinghamTs writing at times soars but is more often a methodical telling of a dim tale with
characters and events at times so morose as to be almost unbelievable. The encompassing
darkness and string of catastrophes prompt the reader to question BinghamTs inspiration and
motivation. How much of this reflects BinghamTs own family history can be discovered in
her family memoir, Passion and Prejudice (Knopf, 1989).

Small Victories is most appropriate for public library collections and may provide for the
the academic library collection insight into the Bingham family psyche. Other writings by
Bingham include the novel After Such Knowledge (Houghton Mifflin, 1960), as well as two
collections of short stories, The Touching Hand (Houghton Mifflin, 1967) and The Way It Is
Now (Viking, 1972). In 1985, Bingham established the Kentucky Foundation for Women
which is the publisher of The American Voice, a feminist literary magazine.

" Sharon Snow, Wake Forest University

any books have been written about the Outer Banks. This latest one is a

fascinating study of those famed barrier islands along the North Carolina

coast. The authors are naturalists, and they provide an interesting

combination of science and history in a beautifully written style. Lazell

is a scientist who has published extensively and Alexander, a former

English teacher and newspaper editor. Their friendship began in 1957

when they began observing and collecting animals together in Tennessee.

John Alexander and James Lazell. | This common interest eventually brought them to the Outer Banks.

3 Their goal is to describe the unique ecosystem of the Outer Banks
Ribbon of Sand: and show how it has influenced animal and human life, exploration, and

The Amazing Convergence of the experimentation on the islands. They also present arguments for and
against human intervention to stabilize and develop the islands.

Ocean and the Outer Banks. The authors begin by describing the natural forces of sand, wind,

Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books, 1992. and water along the coast, explaining how the Outer Banks were formed

238 pp. $18.95. ISBN 0-945575-32-7. and how they have survived. Later they show how the forces of nature

affected manTs settlement on the islands, providing interesting accounts

of the Lost Colony, BlackbeardTs defeat, and the Wright BrothersT aviation

experiments. They also describe the distribution of flora and fauna and

the ecological balance maintained by various species on the islands. The authors conclude

~..,| by discussing current controversies over oil and gas exploration, dredging and jetty
a construction, and the fate of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

There is a bibliography for each chapter and an extensive index. Source materials
include scientific articles, government documents, books, and newspapers. Drawings and
maps throughout the book provide clear illustrations of coastal processes. Libraries should
preserve the book jacket because it contains an aerial photograph that is referred to several
times in the text.

Ribbon of Sand is a comprehensive study of the ecology of the Outer Banks from a
naturalist point of view. It covers the scientific, political, and social elements that have
created and sustained these barrier islands, and provides insight for their future. This

informative and interesting book is appropriate for all libraries.

IK r

/ JOHN ALEXANDER & JAMES LAZELL

" Arlene Hanerfeld, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

COMPILERTS NOTE: For the past five years, during which I have served as book review editor of this journal, many colleagues in the
Tar Heel library community have cheerfully contributed book reviews to this column. Their reviewing skills, willingness to take the time
to write reviews, and interest in informing fellow librarians about newly published North Caroliniana have been truly impressive and
reatly appreciated. To them, and to the other readers of oNorth Carolina Books,� thank you.

Beginning with the next issue of North Carolina Libraries, Dorothy D. Hodder will assume the book review editorship. She
encourages comments and suggestions concerning the oNorth Carolina Books� column, which should be sent to her at the New Hanover
County Public Library, 201 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, N.C. 28401.

174 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries

Other Publications of Interest

In 1891, the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School was established at
Greensboro to train young white women as schoolteachers. Today, one hundred years later,
approximately twelve thousand women and men attend the school, now known as the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where they pursue studies in a variety of
disciplines. In Changing Assignments: A Pictorial History of the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, longtime UNC-G history professor Allen W. Trelease has gathered
more than five hundred photographs illustrating the development of the school. As would
be expected, many of the images depict major campus events, such as the construction of
buildings and the arrival of male and black students. But most show people engaged in daily
collegiate life at an institution ever evolving to meet its mission. (1991; University Book Store,
Elliott University Center, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
27412-5701; 214 pp.; $29.95.)

The Historical Publications Section of the North Carolina
Division of Archives and History has recently released Addresses
and Public Papers of James Grubbs Martin, Governor of North
Carolina, Volume I, 1985-1989, edited by Jan-Michael Poff. This
1,089-page volume, the latest in the DivisionTs series of governorsT
documentaries that began with Thomas W. Bickett (1917-1921),
covers MartinTs first term. It includes his inaugural address, mes-
sages to the General Assembly, selected speeches and statements,
and a roster of executive orders. Libraries may request a copy at no
charge but are asked to submit $3.00 to cover mailing costs. (1992;
Historical Publications Section, Division of Archives and History,
109 E. Jones Street, Raleigh, N.C. 27601-2807; 1,089 pp.)

First published in 1955, North Carolina & Old Salem Cookery,

by Beth Tartan, has proved to be as much a staple in many a Tar Heel kitchen as sugar, salt,
and spice. Now, several dozen new recipes are included in a new and revised edition of the
book recently published by the University of North Carolina Press. Tartan not only provides
several hundred recipes in all, but she also tells the significance of various foods in the
culinary heritage of the Tar Heel state. (1992; University of North Carolina Press, P.O. Box
2288, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27515-2288; 382 pp.; $29.95; ISBN 0-8078-2035-0 (cloth); $16.95; 0-
8078-4375-X (paper).)

North Carolina provided more troops to the Confederate cause during the American
Civil War than any state. In Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina,
Stewart Sifakis has compiled a reference guide to facilitate research on those Tar Heels who
wore the gray in that bloody conflict. This volume, one in a series on the southern states, is
divided into three sections"artillery, cavalry, and infantry. Each section includes a listing
of its military units, and, for each unit, official name, nicknames, and organizational details,
such as date and location of creation, names of commanding officer and other field-grade
officers, command assignments, and battles and campaigns in which the unit participated.
Occasionally, titles of narrative histories of particular units are given. (1992; Facts on File, 460
Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016-7382; 187 pp.; $24.95; ISBN 0-8160-2289-S.)

Considered a classic description of life in the Appalachians,
Cabins in the Laurel, by Muriel E. Sheppard, was first published in
1935. This study of mountain folk in ae Toe River Valley in North CAD [ N 5
Carolina also included 128 powerful photographs by noted Chapel | FN p00 Py
Hill photographer Bayard Wootten. The University of North Caro- f N cc H Ie
lina Press has chosen Cabins in the Laurel as the inaugural volume
in its Chapel Hill Books series, which will publish new editions of
the best books about the South or by southerners. The new
Sheppard is a large-format edition and includes Wootten photo-
graphs specially produced from the original negatives. (1991;
University of North Carolina Press, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, N.C.
27515-2288; 287 pp.; $29.95; ISBN 0-8078-1986-7 (cloth); $16.95;

0-8078-4328-8 (paper).)

PHS BY BAYARD WOOTTEN

North Carolina Libraries

- "e

Fall 1992 " 179

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aguiapepeT (North Carcliniana

compiled by Plummer Alston Jones, Jr.

Editor's Note: "Lagniappe/North Caroliniana," the newest feature column of North Carolina Libraries, is envisioned as a comple-
ment to "North Carolina Books." As such, "Lagniappe/North Caroliniana" will feature reviews of materials in various non-book
formats presenting fictional or nonfictional accounts on North Carolina or the Southern regions which include North Carolina
(e.g., the Appalachians, the Southeast, the Old South, the New South, etc.). Publishers and creators of nonbook materials which
meet these criteria should forward materials for possible review. Reviews of up to 250 words are welcomed and will be consid-
ered for publication. Send materials and reviews to Plummer Alston Jones, Jr., c/o Iris Holt McEwen Library/LaRose Resources
Center, Elon College, P.O. Box 187, Elon College, NC 27244-0187.

Tell-A-Communication:
Storytelling in North Carolina

by Pat Ryckman

efore fiber optics, before modems, before faxing, radio, and the Morse code, there was

storytelling, the oldest form of telecommunication. The prefix tele, meaning otrans-

mission over a distance,� aptly describes storytelling. Traditional North Carolina

stories have traveled great physical distances " the Jack tales from Europe and Brer
Rabbit from Africa " as well as temporal ones. For centuries the tales have been passed
down father to son, mother to daughter, generation to generation. These stories have
proven to be an enduring means of communicating values and our cultural heritage; oral
communication is immune to censorship, war, and mildew.

The power of storytelling lies in the unique relationship between the teller and the
listener. In storytelling there is no artifact created " no book, drawing, or video. The story
depends on at least two people, the teller and the listener, and the experiences each brings
to the meeting. The story is never told or heard in exactly the same manner twice; it
evolves from telling to telling and from generation to generation.

The best way to experience storytelling is to bring a storyteller and a group of listeners
together. Many North Carolina libraries have access to a wealth of talent " excellent
storytellers on their staffs or a storyteller in the community to call upon. Or one may
consult the annual National Directory of Storytelling (National Association for the Preserva-
tion and Perpetuation of Storytelling, P. O. Box 309, Jonesborough, TN 37659; $7.95 plus
$3.50 shipping) for names and addresses of over a dozen storytellers from this state. Second
best exposure to stories is via sound recordings. Although the telling loses some of the
intimacy and interaction of a face-to-face delivery, the nuances of speech are preserved and
the flavor of the original story comes through in a way that no story in print can match.

The following is a selection of sound recordings of tales by North Carolina tellers
recommended to complement live storytelling in the library. These recordings are recom-
mended for all North Caroliniana collections; most of the recordings are also appropriate for
childrenTs collections (exceptions noted below).

Chase, Richard. Richard Chase Tells Three Jack Tales. (197?, Folk-Legacy Records, P. O.
Box 1148, Sharon, CT 06069; telephone: (203) 364-5661; LP [cassette available Fall 1992];
$9.98 plus $2.00 shipping).

Richard ChaseTs publication of The Jack Tales in 1943 and Grandfather Tales in 1948
helped set in motion the current interest in and revival of storytelling in this country. In
this recording he recounts versions of oJack and the KingTs Girl,� oJack and the Robbers,�
and oJack and the Three Sillies,� which he adapted from the stories collected from Roby

Be RE Py NTRS OCTANE. F(T atv bs SS eo Ey a a
*Laegniappe (lan-yapT, lano yapT) n. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. [Louisiana French]

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176 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries

Monroe Ward of Beech Creek in the late 1930s. The stories were passed down to Ward
from his maternal grandfather, Council Harmon, who, according to family history, learned
them from the early settlers of this country. This recording was made in a two-room
schoolhouse in the Tennessee mountains with the students serving as a very appreciative
audience.

Hicks, Ray. Ray Hicks of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, Telling Four Traditional Jack
Tales. (1964; Folk-Legacy Records, P. O. Box 1148, Sharon, CT 06069; telephone: (203)
364-5661; LP [cassette available Fall 1992]; $9.98 plus $2.00 shipping).

Ray Hicks is a national treasure. Born on Beech Mountain in 1922, he is another
member of the storytelling family first documented by Richard Chase, having learned the
stories from his grandfather, John Benjamin, another grandson of Council Harmon. These
four tales, oJack and the Three Steers,� oBig Man Jack, Killed Seven at a Whack,� oJack and
Old Fire Dragon,� and oWhickety-Whack, into My Sack,� all have European roots but are
throughly Americanized in HicksTs versions. Jack, a mountain farm boy, relies on his wits
and a good bit of luck to overcome a giant, outfox the king, and even capture Death in a
sack. The recording requires repeated careful listening to catch all the wonderful turns of
phrase and mountain dialect. Ray Hicks has also been recorded by June Appal Recordings
(306 Madison St., Whitesburg, KY 41858; telephone: 1-800-545-7467). Jack Alive! (com-
pact disc or cassette, $8.98 plus $1.75 shipping) is a collection of personal anecdotes,
stories, and mountain lore. A video, FixinT to Tell About Jack (June Appal Recordings,
$29.95 plus $1.75 shipping) shows Hicks in his home and fields, sharing his philosophy of
life and one Jack tale, oWhickety-Whack, into My Sack.� (Younger children may have
difficulty understanding HicksTs speech.)

Torrence, Jackie. Legends From the Black Tradition. (1982; Weston Woods Studios, 389
Newton Turnpike, Weston, CT 06883; telephone: 1-800-243-5020; cassette; $9.00).

The story of oHow Brer Rabbit Outsmarted the Frogs� begins with a magical lead-in:
oBack in the days when the animals could talk... .� In Jackie TorrenceTs stories, the
animals talk once more. Her voice can bring a frog, glistening and throbbing in the
moonlight, to life for any listener. Torrence, a former High Point Public Library staffer, has
achieved a national reputation in storytelling. This ALA Notable recording offers a
sampling of her wide repertoire"an animal tale, some nature lore in oHigh John the
Conqueror,� stories based on historical figures, and her version of the classic John Henry
tale. Other cassette recordings of her stories available from Weston Woods include
Country Characters, offering three mountain tales and two ghost stories, and The Story
Lady, which includes stories from TorrenceTs childhood.

Davis, Donald. Listening for the Crack of Dawn. (1991; August House, P. O. Box 3223,
Little Rock, AR 72203; telephone: 1-800-284-8784; double cassette; $16.95).

Donald DavisTs two recent books, Listening for the Crack of Dawn and Barking at a
Fox-Fur Coat, are truly delightful, but these stories must be listened to rather than read
silently to do them full justice. Listening for the Crack of Dawn is now available on
cassette, complete with DavisTs gentle mountain inflections and warmth. These stories
about growing up in fictional Nantahala County, North Carolina, in the 1950s and 1960s,
have universal appeal and an uncanny ability to unlock memories from oneTs own child-
hood"memories of a favorite aunt, an inspired teacher, or a ten-year-old partner in
devilment. The tale of a special teacher, Miss Daisy, is a story about the power of
storytelling. Miss DaisyTs imagination not only tames a roomful of restless fourth graders,
but also has the power to overcome the near-death of a crippling stroke. Davis has many
other excellent recordings in print, including Live and Learn, with more family stories,
and More Than a Beanstalk, featuring traditional Jack tales, both available from Weston
Woods Studios.

Smith, Kathi. Cherokee Legends I. (1990; Cherokee Publications, P. O. Box 256, Cherokee,
NC 28719; telephone: (704) 488-2988; cassette; $9.00 plus $2.90 shipping).

Kathi SmithTs opening for this recording acknowledges the power of direct communi-
cation: oWe are a fortunate people in that we have never had to rely on pen and paper but
rather word and deed.� The CherokeeTs closeness to nature is evident in these traditional
myths. The stories explain phenomena in the natural world such as oHow the Rabbit Lost
His Tail,� oHow the Crow Turned Black,� and oHow the Milky Way Came to Be.� The
recording uses Native American music to set the mood and help transport the listener to a
time when the world was young.

a

North Carolina Libraries Fall 1992 " 177

"_"_______e"ee"""""""""""
The Folktellers. Tales to Grow On. (1981; Weston Woods Studios, 389 Newton Turn-
pike, Weston, CT 06883; telephone: 1-800-243-5020; cassette; $9.00).

Cousins Barbara Freeman and Connie Regan-Blake left their library jobs in 1975 to
tell stories full-time. Their repertoire includes songs, chants, contemporary tales, a two-
act play, and creative retellings of traditional Appalachian stories. This ALA Notable
recording includes two mountain stories collected by Richard Chase in the 1940s and
published in Grandfather Tales (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1948). oSody Sallyraytus� is a
tale about a difficult trip to the store for some baking soda, with sound effects provided
by an autoharp. The long tale, oWicked John and the Devil,� (22:30 minutes) is a
hilarious encounter between a blacksmith, who was omean, and ornery, and uppity, and
bigotty, and lyinT and thievinT and carryinT on,� and the Old Boy Himself"the Devil.
This tale illustrates the unique power of storytelling to transmit ideas over space and
time. Its roots can be traced to Hessia where it was collected by the Grimm brothers and

first published in 1812 as oThe Blacksmith and the Devil� (The Complete Fairy Tales of
the Brothers Grimm, translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes, Bantam, 1987).

Roberts, Nancy. Six North Carolina Ghost Stories. (n.d.; BroadfootTs of Wendell, 6624
Robertson Pond Rd., Wendell, NC 27591; telephone: 1-800-444-6963; cassette; $9.95).

Although Roberts reads rather than tells the stories on this recording, the six
supernatural tales offered here represent an important part of the American oral tradi-
tion. Ghost stories, the offspring of European fairy stories and the forerunners of our
urban myths, attempt to explain the unknown and instruct the listener on how to deal
with the supernatural. Ghost stories are always closely associated with a particular place,
including, for example, Maco Station, Salem Tavern, and Big Lick, some of the settings
for RobertsTs stories. The six legends presented here are enhanced by RobertsTs some-
what breathless delivery and appropriately creepy sound effects.

Holt, David. Hairyman. (1987; High Windy Audio, P. O. Box 553, Fairview, NC 28730;
telephone: (704) 254-3133; cassette; $9.98).

David HoltTs music is an integral feature of his storytelling. His banjo is a blasting
shotgun, his guitar a creaking door, and his harmonica a pack of running hounds. In
the best storytelling tradition, Holt takes a classic tale and makes it all his own with the
addition of sound effects and dialogue. oBarney McCabe,� the story of a brother and
sister who, with the help of their dogs, outsmart a witch, is from the black tradition of
St. JohnTs Island, South Carolina. oThe Magic Fiddle� is built around a standard folktale
theme"a young manTs act of kindness wins him a magic instrument which saves his life
at the moment of crisis. One of HoltTs contemporary tales, oThe Hogaphone,� describes
his Uncle IkeTs unique method of communication, and how it saved him from a rampag-
ing bear.

Storytelling, the most ancient form of telecommunication, is flourishing in North
Carolina today. Talented professional and amateur tellers are collecting, embellishing,
and transmitting traditional stories to audiences around the state, thus assuring their
preservation for future generations. North Carolina storytellers also offer a wide reper-
toire of contemporary tales, some of which are sure to become classics. By developing a
collection of recordings, North Carolina libraries can help extend this rich oral tradition

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178 " Fall 1992 North Carolina Libraries