Library Micro News

The Gathering of the Clan

Each year The American Lunatic Association (AKA ALA) host an annual bash and WLN: not the bibliographic utility, takes the opportunity to preview what’s going on seeing as this is the biggest get together of the bibliographic year. In years previous we have focused on the exhibit hall replete with the questions I am going to ask the vendors. This year the format is outdated: the micro will no longer be a novelty at the show. It will almost be easier to count the booths that don’t have hardware in them. There is one booth the deserves exception: for the first time in it’s corporate life Apple is going to be there and highlight Apple library software. Personal Bibliographic Software, Follett, Richmond, Micro Trends (with their CD ROM running on an Apple ][ - which certain folks in Pennsylvania don’t believe can happen) Electronic Bookshelf, K-12 Micromedia and others. Make it by booth 1528/30 for a looksee.

Instead I am going to focus on some events that are going on that I am going to make. The micro is all over the program in a variety of hats. This is the pick of the pickings as me sainted pappy would say.

Monday, June 30th 8 AM to 11AM. LITA is sponsoring a microcomputer meeting. These are the heavy hitting mainframe junkies who are waking up the fact that all of their consulting business in the big world is drying up.  My interest is to see where their heads are at – with a principle concern of how these guys are planning to invade the micro world. Remember: mainframe junkies think all problems can be solved with more memory and more storage: tight code to them is unimportant because they don’t understand micros.

Monday, June 30th 2PM to 5:30PM LITA Templates for Microcomputers Interest Group. ME is chairing this one, and it will deal with efforts to get templates into the hands of librarians.

Monday, June 30th 8PM to whenever we finish. The Wired Librarian’s Intelectual Development and Social Hour. Go to the Hilton, pick up a courtesy phone and ask for Eric Anderson. We’ll tell you where we’re at.  Bring your own firmware. For those who would like a little tease: corporate is going to be there and be listening. Be there or be square. Bring a friend and see if we can answer the burning question: How many show up from Southeast Iowa?

Tuesday, July 1 9AM to 12PM. Second APPLE LIBRARY USERS GROUP MEETING (at NYPL in Lincoln Center) Red Frockman, creator of Boca Raton, the font that keeps you thinking will share a View from Apple.  Almost all of the rest of the time is planned for discussion groups.  The overflow crowd from the first meeting (Chicago, same time same station film at ten) went away psyched.  We’ll have to see what goes on this year.

I would like to say that I am attending the IBM user’s group meeting, but so far nobody knows to know where it is, when it is, or what will be on the agenda. Maybe they’ll talk about how they can get the ALA character set on a rom so they can charge more for hardware.

HOW TO GET RID OF THE COMPETITION

Here’s a foolproof  business idea, for those of you in the corporate running dog lackey mind. Set up a conference. Ask you competition to come down and speak, giving them the impression you’ll pay transportation and lodging.  While he is there BS em about how many people said they were coming down to hear him speak and how he helped make the conference a success.  Tell him it’s time to put down the gauntlet and work together for a better library world for all.  After the conference, welsh on the expense check. Laugh as VISA hounds him for the cash he spent making you look good. Hey Skoops, you seen a check for the plane fare yet?

PBS Buys out Pro-Search and In-Search

Victor Victorious – who has one of the most dynamite piece of Mac software in the Market in Professional Bibliographic Software (PO Box 4250 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 313-996-1580) got  a hold of me and told me that he had acquired the Pro-Search and In-Search product line form Menlo Corporation in Santa Clara, CA.  Victor’s taking over the whole ball of wax, including marketing, slales, and support. His stuff is dynamite, so he should do well. Got any anti-trust lawyers up there Vic?

    New Software………….Pinpoint

The last time Skoops and I were together (never room with this dude if you snore) he was doing an AppleWorks demo with some desk accessories from Pinpoint Publishing  (2823 Steinmetz Way, Oakland CA 94602 415-530-1726) that imitate the Mac brethren. As long as you remember you are on a ][, they pull it off nicely.  Eight little utilities at the snap of an “Open Apple P”. Slick job folks. It’s principle design is to enhance Appleworks.

The appointment calendar handles today through 1990 in either a monthview or a day view.  It automatically pulls the date from your entry.  The calculator handles only addition-subtraction-multiplication-and division to sixteen digits, but I rarely work in anything more complicated or bigger without a spreadsheet. The communications option is simple but adequate for light duty work and includes autologon macros, files transfers and answer. No printsky as you gosky. There’s a simple phone dialer which allows you to dial from within an AppleWorks record (fairly slick) and a graphic program for merging things like MousePaint pictures. There’s a notepad-I never use mine on the Mac-and a neat Quicklabel option for printing a label. Muy slckamundo here folks. Finally there is a million dollar utility called the typewriter, which makes the ][ mimic a selectric. For the quick and dirty it’s quick and dirty and neat. The documentation is great, informing on using Pinpoint with other software and stepping through program functions in a logical sense. If you’re a heavey duty Appleworks user, there are much features here. Beware the dreaded disk file however: this thing sings in the 3 ½” world. Four stars and running (but still not a Mac). Pinpoint also provides a RAM enhancement kit for those who have souped up the ][e’s.

     Electronic Bookshelf

Jerry and Rosie are still pumping away in their garage in Indiana, and they sent a whole bunch of title disks over to prove they’re alive and kicking. (RR#9, Box 64, Frankfort IN 46041 317-324-2182) I have avoided the particular award names, but you in your state will recognize them. So far they’ve done the award winners for this year for: Arkansas, Alaska, Georgia, Iowa (How  ‘bout them Hawkeyes!), California, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, and Minnesota. If you run reading contests or need a micro slant to reading motivation give ‘em a holler. They also said they were thinking about a Electronic Bookshelf user’s group for AASL.

     Diversidos now works with 3 ½” Drives

Bill, Build a Better Moustrap, Basham the father of DiversiDOS, DiversiCopy and DiversiDial (Diversified Software Research, 34880 Bunker Hill Rd. Farmington, MI 48018) sent the latest rendition of the latter two our way. Dial, which uses seven modem boards in tandem to set up a CB Simulator. I’ve had too much telecommunications lately. I still can’t believe as I travel round the country, that folks haven’t heard of DiversiCopy. It is the quickest, cleanest disk copy (for unlocked stuff only) there ever has been. The new version works with RAM boards and 3 ½” drives. For those of you who have a lot of copying to do, you should scope this one out.

     Santa Claus and it ain’t Even July

Frank Winston of BitCards (30 W. Sevice Rd., Champlain NY 12919 514-274-1103) sent A Christmas Adventure over to our offices. I’m not real good at adventure fantasies, floating funky elves and all the rest, but I got hooked on this one real quick. Nice graphics and for the most part non-threatening. The kicker is a customization routine that allows you to send it to someone with a couple of personal messages in the play of the game. Hallmark does micros, hey? If you are into fantasies, want to send one with a little personal hi ho silver, and send a little cheer, it’s $25 well spent.

     Other News……..Troutner and the GT Student

Neat lady and micro phanatic JoAnne Troutner is trying her hand at the newsletter business. She’s doing a neat little pub titled Computers and the GT Student (gifted and talented for those not in the ed bus). The premier issue concerned problem solving and had all sorts of neat task cards and nine of her excellent software reviews. It’s $12/year from Creative Computer Enterprises, 3002 Roanoke Circle, LaFayette, IN 47905. There’s a notation that she’s not accepting PO’s. Smart lady, good job.

     What a Rip Off……..For REAL

I got word that the following hardware was ripped off from the Ferguson-Florisiant (MO) school district. Take a few minutes to check your new hardware to see if any of the following serial numbers are there. If you spot them call Morrie Reece 314-532-5001.

Motherboard: A984974858; DriveS A984984148, A984987871, A984986460, A984992248(DUOKISK); Numeric Keypad A98498050; Imagewriter A984990140; also ripped off were three super serial cards, a system saver, and a pair of extended 80 col cards. If you see this stuff floating around, give em a holler.

     Sunburst…..A class act

I recently, out of the blue, received a new Magic Slate (me primo ][ WP) disk and a letter explaining that an error would occur creating long files or filling a disk. The new disk had the bug fix in place, and a phone number for questions. Marge, you run a class act. Too bad more software vendors don’t have your style.

     Library Journal/School Library Journal at it again…..

I was all set to rip LJ/SLJ for their next round of “special announcements of microcomputer software” once again asking me for the best four releases but was going to let it slide. Then I scoped out the May “Library Computing” Section. In it were two outrageous pieces about teaching kids online searching. Both Kim and Kachel missed the issue completely when they talked about the costs of the system: neither mentioned how much it was going to cost to get the hard copy of the documents the citations were from into the kids hands. Anybody who has ever taught anyone to use the Reader’s Guide knows that gut frustration when the tutee finds six citations and your library can only supply one of them. Kachel refers to that idiotic document, “ACCESS PENNSYLVANIA’ where every high school kid is going to learn online searching. If you want to teach online searching skills, use something cheap like ERIC Microsearch; if you are going to do searches with the kids on real live data bases you better ask for another $10 grand for periodicals. NOTHING IS WORSE THAN TELLING SOMEBODY THERE IS INFORMATION FOR THEM AND THEN NOT BEING ABLE TO PROVIDE IT. Maybe someday the purported hotshots at this respected journal will wake up and find out what micros are really about. We ain’t holding our breath, we just waiting for another batch of antideluvian reviews.

     Jerry’s Kids

For those of you not on a saintly bent, the library world is watched over by St. Jerome. Gretchen Hinman (Jerome Etc. 2104 E. Bangor Way, Anaheim CA 92806) sent a couple of her terracotta statues over for a view, and these things are outasight. The 10” figurine comes on a stained slab and the 3” figurine. If you need something to class your office up or are into statuary, this is for you. The ten incher is $40+$4.75 P&H and the three incher is $8.50+$3 P&H. Dynamite stuff.

     The Mac Page

Only In the Wired Librarian’s Newsletter

     “The Mac”Library Control System

While I was north of the border visiting with Annie and all the good folks in BC (ey, whatta crew, ey? Wanna do a JUMBLE? ey) I ran into Mark McKinney (Castlegar Computers Ltd. 619 Columbian Ave., Castlegar B.C. VIN 1G9 604-365-7754) who had a circ system up and running in the Apple booth. Besides the CASPR offering, it is the only other full blown Mac library system up and running.

It’s got some neat features. Mark whipped out a Videx credit card size barcode reader, which I have been trying to talk developers into looking seriously at, and talked about using that as an input device. Points there. ‘The Mac’ has acquisitions built in, and searches by accession number (god who uses these anymore?) dewey, ISBN, author, title and subject. IT has reserves and patron files as well.

It’s got some real problems as well. First off it’s canned Omnis 3, which is not bad in and off itself but it’s not original code either. You drag the rest of the program around with you no matter where you go. It only stores 30,000 records on a 20 meg drive, which again shows it’s Omnis heritage. It also has some generic problems: it was designed specifically for one shop and shows it.

I tried to think back of the early day of ][ systems and compare it to the first offerings. On one hand it uses today’s technology-there’s nothing slouchy bout the Omnis interface-micely. The Videx can change the way we run libraries-checking things out when we take folks to the shelves. On the other hand everything is Geneva 12. Perhaps they’ll put the nose to the grindstone and slick it up some. Lots of potential, but not ready for 10,000 libraries.

     MacCards

Norman Kline (CASPR, 3486 Golden State Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95051 415-247-0982) sent the real live alphas yesterday. I cranked on it for about an hour and it is coming along nicely. Norman claims it will be ready to ship August 1, and as far as I can see it’s heading that way. We showed you the MacCards screen last month, now I can get card and label displays and save records. The search is neat. The price has been fixed (at least at this time) at $99. Don’t delay, get yours today.

     Passages: with apologies to Gail Sheehey

     It was very sad for me to read three week ago the John Dvorak was hangin up the ghost and departing from InfoWorld.  The dude knew his micros in and out, he could write lucidly about them, and gave us the gossip that this industry feeds on in a way that ticked everybody off. I thought almost immediately of a line from a movie I can’t remember. A gangster type sticks a gun in a guys face and says “No more of this charming repartee. Sit down and shut up.”

An Index to the Online Issues

1983 - When there were four microcomputers at the ALA show

December 1984

1985 - wow we've got hard drives !!!