Emerging services: From Mesopotamia to “technogeeks”

Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 12, pp. 91-95, 1988 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

ALA

MIDWINTER

0364--6408/88 $3.00 + .00 Copyright © 1988 Pergamon Press plc

CONFERENCE

1988

EMERGING SERVICES: FROM MESOPOTAMIA TO "TECHNOGEEKS" Automated Acquisitions/In-Process Control Systems Discussion Group A D R I A N W. A L E X A N D E R The Faxon Company 809 April Sound Ct. Fort Worth, TX 76112

I ' m particularly pleased that Carol asked me to participate in this discussion today, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the topic at hand is a popular one around my company, and has been for several years. Secondly, it interests me personally. When I moved to the vendor c a m p in 1981, I had just completed my fifth year o f service as an academic librarian. My library was in the process o f examining automated library systems just as seriously as you can examine those things, but the problem was that there weren't m a n y of them to examine. The only two names that come to mind now are CLSI and Dataphase, and back then we were basically talking about circulation systems and online catalogs; certainly not such exotic creatures as acquisition and serials control systems. After four years in the somewhat unexciting arena of bookstacks and card catalog cabinets, I returned to the glamorous world o f library automation by way of my present employer, and was immediately thunderstruck by the number of automated systems and products designed for libraries during that time, especially in view o f the fact that Faxon intended to develop interfaces with a number o f them. That revelation led me immediately to conclude that I would quickly need to absorb two sets of facts: what these various systems were, and what an interface was. Bill Atkinson, the father o f the highly regarded H y p e r C a r d program, recently asked attendees at a lecture in New York how m a n y had used his new software. About 400 hands went up. Then he asked, " H o w many of you know what it is?" Only a few of those 400 hands remained aloft. I cite this anecdote because it reminds me of several discussions I had with clients about two years ago when Faxon began marketing interface services in earnest, but I think our collective consciousness has been elevated enormously since then. I will, therefore, direct my remarks toward the types of automated services that are emerging now within 91

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t[~t library/vendor/publisher continuum, and how we as a collective group can all benefit ff(i~l them. I would like to start by describing the various types of new services which are being offered [~, rhaterials vendors. For the most part, they are services which are designed to enhance the lity to exchange information between the vendor's system and the library's local system. bile I will be drawing primarily on my knowledge of Faxon's efforts in this area, the services I will mention here are fairly representative of the vendor community as a whole. The second part of my paper will address the process by which vendors decide on various new services, with particular emphasis on the role which libraries play in this process.

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INVOICE D O W N L O A D I N G Probably one of the most useful new services for libraries with an acquisitions system in place is the capability to acquire from vendors invoice data in machine-readable form. Posting payment information by keying the data in manually from a paper invoice is labor-intensive and runs the risk of data input errors by bleary-eyed, overworked staff. An interface between the vendor and the local system enables the library to receive the invoice data in an electronic format and load it into the acquisitions system, posting payment information to the proper acquisitions record automatically. This type of interface generally requires that the materials vendor and the systems vendor get their respective "technogeeks" together to work out programming which will permit linking of records from the two systems. As an example, Faxon can provide invoice information on 16 track tape cartridge to its clients who use the INNOVACQ system. The library must first provide us with the appropriate INNOVACQ record number for each subscription. This data is loaded into the library's invoice history file at Faxon. The invoice data is loaded onto a tape cartridge, which is then sent to the library. A loader program in the INNOVACQ system reads the tape and posts the payment information to the appropriate order record, based on the INNOVACQ number in the Faxon invoice record. Most vendors who are developing interfaces with local systems can provide invoice data in several media, including nine track magnetic tape, 16 track magnetic tape cartridge, and PC diskette. The ASCII format is, of course, the most widely used, but some vendors can also supply data in IBM's EBCDIC format as well. More significant for the future, however, will be the ability of vendors to download invoice data by electronic file transfer. Indeed, it is this medium that also holds the greatest promise for the other important new services related to acquisitions, the uploading of orders and claims from the local system to the vendor.

CLAIM AND ORDER T R A N S F E R For several years now, various vendors, including Faxon, have possessed the capability to accept online transmission of claims and orders from libraries using their respective systems. I6variably, however, this medium requires that the vendor re-enter the data into another part o f his system before sending it on to the publisher. Perhaps more importantly for the library which has an acquisitions a n d / o r serials system, it means input of the same data into both the local system and the vendor system. The goal for the library is to enter order or claims data into the local system once, and to

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have that data sent to the vendor without additional significant human intervention. The electronic media used for invoice downloading could be utilized in this process, but the diskette, cartridge, or tape would then have to be transported to the vendor via mail or parcel delivery, resulting in a processing delay. The solution then would seem to lie with the utilization of electronic file transfer technology. In the local system, orders and claims could be loaded into a file, either as they are processed or in a batch at the end o f the day. Once the file is created, it could be transmitted electronically to the vendor system for processing, using standard file transfer software such as Network Datamover for synchronous communication, or Kermit for asynchronous transfer. As an example, I would like to describe briefly the way in which claim information is transferred from Faxon's Microlinx serials control system to our mainframe. Microlinx users can regularly review their check-in file to identify issues which require claiming. When the user tells the system to claim an issue, that data is loaded into a separate file on the PC's hard disk. Each Microlinx user is provided with file transfer software and is assigned a regular time during the week for this activity, usually at night. At the appointed hour, the mainframe system dials up the user's modem, establishes a link, and extracts the claims file. The claims data is transferred from the library's PC to Faxon's mainframe literally in a matter of seconds. The benefits of electronic transfer of claims and orders would seem to be readily apparent. For that most frustrating of serials problems, claims, the matter of timeliness is absolutely essential. For both orders and claims, accuracy is critical; re-entry of the same data at each stage o f the process always presents the potential for mistakes. Once the order or claim reaches the vendor, however, the job is only half complete. The data must then be sent on to the publisher, and electronic file transfer is becoming an increasingly important medium in that leg of the journey as well. Just as libraries and vendors have increasingly turned to automation for faster, more accurate processing, a growing number of publishers have begun to realize cost efficiencies from the receipt of claims and orders in electronic format. Presently, over 40 major journal publishers accept subscription order data on magnetic tape from vendors such as Faxon. Some of these same publishers also have online connections to vendor order and claim files for even faster retrieval of information. During the past two years, Faxon and Pergamon Press in Oxford, England have developed a twice weekly electronic transfer process from vendor to publisher. This year, that capability will be expanded to include downloading of claims responses to Faxon's claim file, which can be queried by users of our Datalinx system. We hope soon to have involved in this project another major scholarly publisher who will also download to our title file information concerning publication schedules, delays, etc.

SISAC A cautionary note regarding the use o f electronic transfer technology by publishers should be issued here, however. The number of publishers showing an interest in this area is relatively small at present. In fairness, it should be noted that those who are showing interest tend to be major scholarly publishers. I am convinced that it will never become widespread without the adoption o f an industry standard for electronic data transmission of order and claim information. Since late 1982, librarians, vendors, and publishers who are committed to such a standard

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have been working toward achievement of this goal through the Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee, or SISAC. This group has indeed developed, in cooperation with NISO (Z39), a standard code, based on ISSN, chronology, enumeration, and other data, which is specific to the article level. SISAC is also developing a standard communication format for the electronic transmission o f order, claim, and acknowledgment information for serials. Assuming that library, vendor, and publisher were all automated and supported the SISAC format, order and claim information could be transferred quickly and accurately along the continuum in both directions, with a minimum of human intervention, resulting in cost efficiencies for all concerned. The SISAC order and claim format is modelled after its companion format for book ordering, BISAC. Library automation systems designed to handle variablelength MARC records should also be able to accept BISAC and SISAC records with some software modification, since all three are based on the ANSI "Bibliographic Information Interchange" standard. Among system vendors already participating in the implementation o f the SISAC code are OCLC, Innovative Interfaces, Dynix, Sydney, and Faxon, to name a few. Several materials vendors, including Blackwell and others, have endorsed the use of the format as well. A test o f the SISAC serial issue identifier code and bar code symbol began in 1986, with 22 publishers representing 56 titles participating. This year, Kluwer will publish all its titles with SISAC identifiers. Widespread adoption of the SISAC code will undoubtedly be tied to continued proliferation of automated systems in the publisher community, but they are also watching carefully the level of interest exhibited by libraries and vendors. As Tina Feick, current president of the North American Serials Interest Group, recently noted at a program in Dallas, the publishers want a clear sign from the other segments o f the industry that they, the libraries and vendors, will utilize the format. Only then, says Feick, will the publishing community do likewise.

W H O DECIDES? The subtitle of this program is "What's Next and Who Decided?" In the invitation I received to participate, this question was posed in several variant forms, most dealing in one way or another with the issue o f the library's role in the process. It is the sort of question which should be posed in various ways, because there are several avenues open to libraries in this regard. As a sales representative, I feel that I play a major role in this effort, because it is I who have the most frequent, and usually the closest, contact with the libraries in my territory. The decision-makers in my company, therefore, can expect to receive regular reports from me on automation activities in my area. We also depend heavily on user groups for the acquisition of data which will prove useful in determining the direction o f future developments. Since 1981, Faxon's LINX Users' Meeting has convened annually and has proved to be an excellent forum for this purpose. Enhancements to our original systems, such as Datalinx and SC-10, have been a direct result o f library input at these meetings, as was the decision to develop a micro-based serials control system, Microlinx. Our efforts in the development of interfaces with some of the major automated library systems has been fueled in large part by the emergence of joint users groups which meet regularly at ALA with representatives from both vendors. Presently, three such groups exist for libraries which use Faxon subscription services, and I know that other vendors have encour-

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aged the formation o f similar groups. I believe that the success o f system interfaces will depend ultimately on how active and effective these joint user groups become. Their legitimacy must be accepted by all parties concerned, and their input must be valued by the vendors involved. Market surveys can also be useful tools in determining future directions of automated services. Many o f the enhancements which are included in the latest release o f Microlinx are a direct result o f a survey taken o f Microlinx users last summer. Surveys are also good vaiidators. They can often objectively confirm many o f the subjective conclusions we marketing types have reached. Just as often, however, they can disprove or at least diminish the significance o f some o f those conclusions as well. Any company which is heavily automated must have a systems staff which, among other things, can explore and ultimately create new services, or enhance existing ones (both internal and external). Since library materials vendors are engaged in a relatively low margin business, the resources which they can dedicate to this research and development function are somewhat limited. In deciding on what new services will "emerge," the general rule of thumb for the vendor is to follow the dollars. By that, I mean simply that the vendor must give priority to those services which will be of most value to the largest number of existing and potential clients. Certainly, others here today can speak more directly to this issue from the systems vendor standpoint, but my perspective suggests that they face the same constraints with respect to emerging services as do materials vendors. Therefore, the importance of thoughtful, objective, and practical library input becomes even more evident when viewed in this context.

CONCLUSION The services I have mentioned here can be provided now; the technology already exists. But to paraphrase the Victorian era Bdtish statesman, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the concept of system interfaces "is like the great word M e s o p o t a m i a - i t is a blessed word. It deludes the earnest and it imposes on the simple." What is required o f both the earnest and the simple now is a common understanding of the needs, as well as the constraints, which drive each party's decisions. The benefits which can be realized are worth the effort as well as the risks.