First Issue - May 1983

last modified: 2/11/97

Middle May, 1983 Volume 256, Track 01

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS

With just cause and feeling your are probably wondering what is this trash and why hasn't file thirteen received it already? WLN (not the bibliographic utility) came about for lots of reasons. I am in contact with a lot of people in a lot of different places, sharing a lot of different ideas, and getting a lot of feedback. My better half has threatened severe (and we are not talking sleeping on the couch here) retaliation if I don't drastically reduce the monthly tithe to Ma Bell. Twenty Ronnie Reagan inflation fighters come in nice little books for $4 (available everywhere by the way) and although the covers are rather drab they provide for the dissemination of information (albeit at a snails pace.)

If I were a hardware wizard I'd set up an email bulletin board on my little piece of fruit and let you dial me up. That has problems as well. I couldn't use the ][ while you were talking to it: we would have to get another Ma Bell line (mega bucks again!) because you know who would never get to call her sister in MN: and more importantly the printed word is still a fairly effective way of kicking ideas around. Great Zeus, still a librarian at heart.

This irregular (irreverent? irrelevant?) journal is meant as a very of the record way of sharing some ideas, news, and views with people who mean a lot to me. The comments are totally mine and I am responsible for every word. If you get upset, go ahead and sue me. It will be on your conscience that a beautiful lady and an innocent six year old will be forced to face the brutal winters of northwest Illinois in a tent because the court took away my trailer. Enough BS - on with -

Library Micro News

COMPUTER CAT PRICES SLASHED TO $995

Well boys and girls, moms and dads, and those of you who aren't sure, this amounts to a reduction of 50% in the COMPUTER CAT software cost. The last thing librarian's need to be is programmers: there needs to be reasonably priced, effective software for you to use. CC is good stuff (if you don't mind truncated fields and using a subject heading for your ISBN data) and lowering the price means more people are going to be able to afford it.

Small libraries need small solutions. Budgets and microcomputer use have a direct correlation, and the less expensive good software is (and be sure to count CC in the good category) the more libraries will be able to use micros.

Any software jobbers/vendors in the audience? Scope out the letters section in April BYTE. See what happened to JRT PASCAL? Cutting the price from $29 to $29.95 rather increased their sales. I am sure you would be concerned about increasing your user's group.

Speaking of user's groups, Betty also sent the first issue of Computer Cat User's Newsletter. A job well done. Anybody for starting a DB MASTER or Visicalc user's group? It sure would be nice to share templates rather than grinding them out every time we had another application.

LSC LA SURPRISE?

Bob Sk been hinting that they may have a new offering ready for LA. The LIBRARY SOFTWARE COMPANY has built a reputation for sensibly priced, good working software. The new system will have wide appeal. I can assure you from talking with Bob that almost every school will be able to use their new offering. It's going to require a hard disk drive, but mega prices is dropping so fast we will all have it before long. Look for it in LA. If it's not ready then, it will be released shortly after. I don't think they are going to hold the release just to make me look bad.

MAGAZINE CONTROL UPDATE

Bob St has reworked some of the routines in his MAGAZINE CONTROL SYSTEM and slicked up the program considerably. Forget the returns when printing holdings lists. Follett (the US distributor) began shipping the new versions in April.

This points up something we should all be doing. When your are working with something, relate it to other programs that you use. Think about what a micro can do and some the things that a particular program does not do. Then DON'T hesitate to contact the producer and ask them to spiff up their stuff.

Some time ago I was reviewing a package for the bible of lisci. It used a particular vintage of a nursery rhyme to help children analyze decision making. At one instance the program used putting sleeping powder in the town's water supply as an option for Wee Willie Winkie. Later on the same program offered NODOZE as a solution to Little Boy Blue's crisis. I called the program author and told her the program wasn't bad overall, but there was no way I was going to recommend a program for 5th and 6th graders with content such as that. You could hear the wheels spinning over the string connected between the tin cans. she had forgotten she had included those particular items in the program and promised to have it revised immediately. Sure enough ten days later I got an update with the objectionably items replaced. I'd tell you some more stories, but the Xerox bill is running up and it's time for our

TRACK 01 CONTEST

What's the best thing you can do with a copy of K-12's CATALOG CARD AND LABEL WRITER program?

Winner will receive a complimentary copy of my review of that program. No one will publish it. The winner will find out why.

SWAP SHOP

This portion of the newsletter will be devoted to the second oldest profession - Barter (we all know what the oldest one is.) If you've got some stuff you no longer use and would like to trade it with someone else, drop me a note. I am not responsible for the condition of these items, the quality of the photographs, or notes written in the margin.

OFFEREDThe Computing TeacherMay 82 (5 copies) Dec 82 (5 copies) Classroom Computer NEWS April 83 (5 copies). Will trade for other computer/ed journals or Monty Python albums. (no Softalk please. Contact No. 9 c/o Wired Librarian's Newsletter

Smithy's Corner

I realize the SOURCE provides the latest scoop on parameters. I don't have a subscription, and the time I looked at it they don't have the numbers I need. Until producers start unlocking their software sow e don't have to send it back to them to be re-copied (and have it our of action for four weeks) I am going to back up everything I can.

I am a strict interpreter of copyright. I am not trying to rip anyone off; I just back up the original so that when the munchkins pull the disk out of the drive while it's spinning and burn the disk the rest of the kids don't suffer. I cannot, in good conscience, throw my (or my school districts) money around. Micros were meant to be used. Software protection should not keep $40,000 dollars worth of hardware idle because a $75 disk gets burned by a rugrat. I think we do a reasonable job of teaching kids to use the machines, but everybody (yours truly included) makes mistakes.

Enough morals, If anyone has parameters that work for them, I would be happy to share them in this newsletter. Be sure to include the version number and all the details.

NEXT ISSUE

A NOTE TO SOME

Some of you may have served in some capacity as one of my editors at one time or another. This thing is written solely for librarians using microcomputers. It is not submitted for publication and anything here should not be used. If you want product info, contact the producers.

I consider all of you to be my friends. I have not toned things down, and THE WIRED LIBRARIAN'S NEWSLETTER may cause you some headaches. Ignore as much of it as you care. Problems get solved with frank discussion, and this thing hopes to get my friends together. If you want a legit newsletter, might I suggest Jim Deacon's COMPUTERS IN THE MEDIA CENTER NEWS . Please do not list this newsletter anywhere as a source for library microcomputer information.

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Beware of anyone who claims to know "all about microcomputers." We knew very well what we have done, and we know something about what we have seen, but there is too much to know everything. This may sound negative but my only interest is to save microcomputers from the disgrace of video, our last great "educational savior." If your willing to try things, write newsletters at 3:59 on a Sunday morning, and take a chance that a microcomputer may do something for your library then you may get somewhere. They sure will not solve all of your problems.

If this first issue has cause you the discomfort of praying to the porcelain god, or in anyway got you so fired up you no longer want to be on the mailing list, please let me know. If you have something you would like to share among friends, take of couple of minutes and write. Together we might be able to make some sense out of the hype and squalor of mass market pressure. They can take your body but they can't take your mind.

STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY

Contributions are appreciated but not expected. If you have a book of inflation fighters you don't know what to do with that would be cool; I wouldn't have the slightest idea of what to do with negotiable securities.

Dedicated to Robert Elliot Purser. I've never met him but he had the right idea.