Lloyd.Rasmussen@f432.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Lloyd Rasmussen) (05/06/91)
Index Number: 15399
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
As someone who works for NLS, but not in the automation area, I think
I should clarify one thing. Someone said that the BLND database can't
be made available because it contains confidential information.
That's not the case.
The BLND database, updated and release by NLS, and distributed by
BRS, is the database of NLS materials, and also contains many
cataloging records for books from other libraries, including part of
RFB's catalog. It is the one which might eventually be put on CD-ROM.
Most of the regional libraries have some kind of automated
circulation system, either READS, DRA, or another one. These systems
have a lot of book information in them, but their primary purpose is
to help libraries send out the books individual patrons order, keep
track of what a person has already received, help with sending books
by user profiles, check books in and out, maintain address lists, etc.
This database is different for each regional library, and of course is
loaded with confidential information. Some libraries have talked
about ways to make parts of this material accessible in some way, but
I'm not aware of any that have been able to do so.
Interested persons might want to get the flavor of this stuff by
contacting their local public or state libraries. Here in Montgomery
County, Maryland, the county library's catalog and holding status are
on line on a public phone number which so far is free. The system is
also connected into the CARL system from Colorado, which includes an
interesting system t get abstracts from many magazines for the past
year or so.
I hope we will be able to do something better for bibliographic
access, because it will help to spread the usage out, taking some of
the pressure off new books and making better use of the existing
collections. Then I suppose we'll discover that there aren't enough
copies of the old stuff to go around.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Your book's not in yet.
We'll try to have it next year without fail.
We are not your corner store, we cannot do anymore,
After all, you know, just one percent read braille.
(NFB library song, which Mr. Cylke really gets a kick out of;
when he teaches a university course on federal libraries, he plays it
for the class to show that this is one library program that is
important enough to write protest songs about.)
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Internet: Lloyd.Rasmussen@f432.n109.z1.fidonet.orgLloyd.Rasmussen@f432.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Lloyd Rasmussen) (05/14/91)
Index Number: 15566
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
The database was really set up to help library personnel in the regional
and subregional libraries to find material for all consumers. Before it
was made available, sometime in the late 70's, there was and continues
to be the microfiche catalog, which is updated I think quarterly. I
think that BLND is also only updated quarterly, although I could be
wrong about that. I have worked with BLND with a VersaBraille and a bit
with speech (on library time) several years ago, and it certainly works
with about any type of terminal you could come up with. Some of the
problems in broadening the access and reducing its price are:
Who will answer all the user questions? You can get a taped manual
for the BRS system from NLS now. Searching these things and keeping
from picking up hundreds of records you don't want is something that
takes practice, and will never be for the average library patron, now
matter if it became free.
Most databases of any value in this country are for sale, not free.
The question is how many book or magazine titles do you want to trade
for access to BRS by a few hundred of the 700,000 patrons we have using
the program.
It would not hurt to write a letter to Frank Kurt Cylke, Director,
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, 1291
Taylor Street, NW, Washington, DC 20542. Changes don't come overnight.
Some of them never come at all, but are superseded by events. I think a
reasoned discussion of this topic should continue.
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