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