Library System

Library Automation: An Overview

WILLIAM SAFFADY

SINCE 1960s, libraries have used technology in general, and compuTHE ters in particular, to automate a wide range of administrative, public, and technical services tasks. Designed as an overview of major facets of automation activity, this article surveys the current state of computer applications in six areas of library work: circulation control, descriptive cataloging, catalog maintenance and production, reference service, acquisitions, and serials control. For each area, the discussion briefly indicates the motives for automation and describes current dominant approaches, citing examples of representative products and services.

CIRCULATION CONTROL

Library interest in automated circulation control is, in large part, based on a long-standing awareness of the problems inherent in manual circulation systems. These problems include labor-intensive and timeconsuming recordkeeping work routines, inaccuracy, high personnel turnover, an inability to generate statistics about circulation activity, and the lack of an interface between circulation files and other library files which contain much the same bibliographic data. Circulation control is one of the most widely automated library operations, and i t is often the first and simplest activity to be automated in a given library, possibly because circulation control systems bear an obvious resemblance to inventory management, retail charge card operations, and other transaction processing activities which have been successfully automated in general business applications. While specific circulation policies and procedures may be subject to considerable local variation, the major component of circulation

William Saffady, School of Information Science and Policy, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222 LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 37, No. 3, Winter 1989, pp. 269-81 0 1988 T h e Board of Trustees, University of Illinois

270

LIBRARY TRENDS/WINTER 1989...