+ Page 1 + ----------------------------------------------------------------- Public-Access Computer Systems News Volume 4, Number 1 (1993) ISSN 1050-6004 Editors: Dana Rooks (LIBL@UHUPVM1) and Linda Thompson (LIB1J@UHUPVM1). Issued on an irregular basis by University Libraries, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-2091. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS OCLC IMPLEMENTS FIRST STEP OF ELECTRONIC DATA EXCHANGE PROGRAM, 1 SCHOLARS PRESS TO PUBLISH THE ELECTRIC MYSTIC'S GUIDE, 2 PALS ENHANCES ERIC RECORDS, 3 GPO BBS, 3 DEMISE OF T-1 NSFNET, 4 NOTIS LINKS INDIANA & INDIANA STATE, 4 UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY INSTALLS UNIX-BASED NOTIS PRODUCT, 5 NEW EMBASE CD-ROM FROM CAMBRIDGE, 5 CAMBRIDGE, CARL, & EI TO OFFER FREE DOCUMENT DELIVERY, 6 OCLC IMPLEMENTS FIRST STEP OF ELECTRONIC DATA EXCHANGE PROGRAM Libraries with access to the Internet can now use the Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transfer bibliographic data to or from OCLC. As a first step toward Electronic Data Exchange (EDX) with OCLC members, OCLC has implemented two services. The first, Electronic MARC Subscription (EMS), is for OCLC users who have been receiving records through the MARC subscription tape service. The second, Electronic Batchload Service (EBS), is for OCLC libraries that have been tapeloading records into the OCLC system. To use either service, libraries must have Internet access, FTP capability, and a local system capable of merging or outputting data on a defined and frequent schedule. OCLC sets up an account for each EDX user. The library sends or receives data to or from its account on a regular basis. For EMS libraries, that basis is daily; for EBS users, it is weekly. For more information on the EDX capability, OCLC members should contact their regional network. + Page 2 + SCHOLARS PRESS TO PUBLISH THE ELECTRIC MYSTIC'S GUIDE In mid-1993 Scholars Press will publish the first edition of _The Electric Mystic's Guide to the Internet: A Directory of Electronic Documents, Online Conferences, Serials, Software, and Archives Relevant to Religious Studies_, by Michael Strangelove (University of Ottawa, Religious Studies Department). This represents the first time that a network-accessible Postscript document will be used as the master text for the production of a hardcopy version. The guide will be printed in three-ring binder format to allow users to add supplements. Supplements will be provided via the Net in Postscript and low ASCII text on LISTSERV and FTP file servers. Scholars Press will publish annual revised editions. The full text of _The Electric Mystic's Guide_ will continue to be fully and freely available on FTP and Listserv as a WordPerfect, Postscript, and low ASCII files. These network- accessible texts will be updated regularly. The full text of the guide will be mounted on a gopher server, which will allow Net users to read the guide from a remote site while online, without having to retrieve the document. Not only will the gopher server allow for full text, online browsing of the guide, but it will enable users to actually read many of the network-accessible files indexed by the guide. The guide will be maintained as three separate volumes. This is done to accommodate the large size of Postscript texts. Volumes One and Three of the guide may be accessed via Listserv at LISTSERV@UOTTAWA or LISTSERV@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA as MYSTICS V1- TXT and MYSTICS V3-TXT The guide may be accessed via FTP at the node PANDA1.UOTTAWA.CA in the directory /pub/religion/ as a variety of files. The gopher server should be operational by 1993. The hardcopy version will be available in mid-1993. Further details will be announced throughout the Net as the project develops. + Page 3 + PALS ENHANCES ERIC RECORDS MSUS/PALS, a cooperative library automation network of 55 libraries in Minnesota, and the developer of the PALS software distributed by Unisys, has completed a project to enhance ERIC CIJE records by adding ISSN numbers and expanding abbreviated titles to full word titles to facilitate searching by title and keyword. Approximately 450,000 of the 455,000 records in this retrospective ERIC database have been enhanced. All ISSN numbers have been put in the 773 field to facilitate indexing and bridging to serials holdings in the online catalog. This enhanced ERIC reference database is now available as a set of records for purchase by anyone interested. Contact Dale Carrison at PALSDKC@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU for further information on cost and order process. GPO BBS The Government Printing Office, the world's largest publisher, has installed a Galacticomm bulletin board. The for-fee Galacticomm BBS operates on an 80486-based PC and reportedly has nearly a gigabyte of data available. All federal agencies are now free to put downloadable files on the GPO BBS for public access. To obtain more information about the GPO BBS modem users can log on to the system at 202-512-1387. The BBS call is free, except for phone charges, but you must set up an account to actually download data. The minimum download charge is $2, with a 1 megabyte file costing about $20 to download. The following information comes directly from the opening screens of the BBS: User assistance is available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays) by calling (202) 512-1524. Depository Library staff should call (202) 512-1126. The BBS is available 22 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is unavailable each day from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., Eastern Time, for maintenance. + Page 4 + DEMISE OF T-1 NSFNET Like its predecessors, the ARPANET and the 56 Kbps National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), the T-1 NSFNET passed into history in December 1992 when the last router was moved to connect to the T-3 backbone service marking the beginning of a new networking era. When first implemented just over four years ago, the T-1 (1.5 Mbps) NSFNET backbone was state-of-the-art for the Internet, deploying new levels of speed and management. With improvements in routing technology, the Internet moved from an experimental service to a production commodity. Demands for higher speed services and increasing backbone traffic led to the T-3 (45 Mbps) backbone service implemented over the Advanced Network & Services, Inc. Network (ANSnet) that has replaced the older T-1 NSFNET technology. Meeting the challenges of building the central infrastructure for this high-speed data communications network has been the focus of a joint government, academic, and industrial partnership for the past five years. Merit Network, Inc., in association with Advanced Network & Services, Inc. (ANS), IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan, has led pioneering efforts to put in place a national network service through a 1987 cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The partnership deployed the T-1 network on schedule in July 1988, and began the T-3 network service implemented over ANSnet in late 1990. NOTIS LINKS INDIANA & INDIANA STATE NOTIS Systems, Inc. announces that PACSearch is up and running at Indiana University and Indiana State University. Library patrons at both institutions are searching the remote OPAC through a transparent connection, using the same interface and full search capabilities of their home catalog. PACSearch is the Z39.50- compatible searching component of PACLink, NOTIS's complete system for patron-initiated collection sharing. PACLink was developed in cooperation with the State University Library Network of Indiana and the SUNY Graduate Centers at Binghamton, Stony Brook, and Buffalo. PACLink provides a seamless connection between libraries' OPACs, and allows both searching of databases and electronic requesting of interlibrary loans. There are two components to PACLink: PACSearch and PACLoan. + Page 5 + PACLink is built on Z39.50, the intersystem retrieval protocol that enables communications between different library computer systems. Using TCP/IP protocol, PACLink can connect with any Z39.50-compatible OPAC or database via the Internet or through a campus Ethernet. For information contact: Charlotte Custis, NOTIS Systems, 708- 866-4944. UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY INSTALLS UNIX-BASED NOTIS PRODUCT The University of Kentucky has installed InfoBase, the first UNIX-based product from NOTIS Systems, Inc. InfoBase is the first commercially available server to fully integrate the Z39.50 communication protocol. It runs under the TCP/IP standard on the Internet. As a cost-effective alternative for multiple simultaneous users accessing locally-mounted databases, InfoBase runs on UNIX platforms in an open-systems environment, and utilizes the NOTIS OPAC interface. Currently offering ERIC and Medline, the University is adding the Expanded Academic Index, and Information Access Company's Newspaper Index, Business Index, and Company Profiles database. For information contact: Charlotte Custis, NOTIS Systems, 708- 866-4944. NEW EMBASE CD-ROM FROM CAMBRIDGE The new _EMBASE CD: Drugs & Pharmacology_ published by Compact Cambridge, a division of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, will provide access to more than a million citations, from 1980 to the present, devoted to drugs and pharmacology. EMBASE, the Excerpta Medica database produced by Elsevier Science Publishers, includes citations, abstracts, and indexing gleaned from scanning approximately 3,500 biomedical journals from 110 countries. About 350,000 records are added to EMBASE annually. _EMBASE CD_ will be updated quarterly and will be searchable using Compact Cambridge's CORE software. For information contact: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, 7200 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda MD 20814, or call 301-961-6700. + Page 6 + CAMBRIDGE, CARL, & EI TO OFFER FREE DOCUMENT DELIVERY Cambridge Scientific Abstracts has agreed with CARL Systems and Engineering Information, Inc. to offer new subscribers of CSA's scientific journals and magnetic tape databases up to $300 worth of free document delivery service with each subscription. This new service will enable Cambridge abstracts journal users to obtain the full text of journal articles and other documents. This delivery will be provided by UnCover 2 from CARL Systems. For the engineering journals published jointly by Cambridge and Engineering Information, subscribers will be entitled to $150 worth of free document delivery service, available with both new subscriptions and renewals. Article Express, Ei's document delivery service, will be the service provider. Orders for full text documents can be place with each service provider by FAX, telephone, mail, or through computer networks. After the initial free allowance is used up, subscribers will receive a substantial discount on further orders. For information contact: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Journal Sales and Marketing Dept., 301-961-6761 or FAX 301-961-6720. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Public-Access Computer Systems News is an electronic newsletter that is distributed on BITNET, Internet, and other computer networks. There is no subscription fee. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 (BITNET) or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet) that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name Last Name. PACS-P subscribers also receive two other electronic serials: Current Cites and The Public-Access Computer Systems Review. Public-Access Computer Systems News is Copyright (C) 1993 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights Reserved. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all copied material. All commercial use requires permission. ----------------------------------------------------------------- .