Editorial - The electronic library: myth or virtual reality?

The fifth Dawson's Research Seminar at Loughborough University in September this year is to be devoted to the idea of the electronic library, and will cover topics such as electronic journals, electronic publishing, and 'towards the virtual reality library'. It sometimes appears that we may be inexorably heading towards that rather questionable goal of 'the paperless library', although, personally, I doubt if it will happen in my lifetime. Unfortunately the Seminar in question is due to take place more than a month after my deadline, but before it is published, and so the proceedings of the day cannot form the basis of this Editorial. However, the receipt of an invitation this week did cause me to consider the many ways in which computers and electronics have impacted on the work of British academic libraries during the last two decades and also to look at some of the gains and losses along the way.

Automated book circulation systems have been a common feature of larger academic libraries since the early 1970s. On the whole, they are now reliable and efficient at recording loans, generating reminders, and flagging items sought by other readers. This is particularly so once the first generation of 'mechanical' punched card readers gave way to 'electronic' light pens. It is often now difficult to remember the cost in manpower, and the sheer drudgery associated with these most basic library functions in the past. In the 1960s it was almost a commonplace assumption that the issuing of books was the librarian's true professional function. If, sometimes, the computerised book issue systems can appear to the user to be rather mechanistic in terms of loan periods, and imposition of loan regulations, it is more often due to the failure of the library concerned to operate their system flexibly rather than any inherent problems with the software.

The article by Dr Jon Warwick in this issue reviews some of the sophisticated ways in which automated issue systems can be used as tools to provide management information on the use of different parts of the bookstock. This in turn can assist the professional librarian in carrying out their job of stock selection and budget allocation more effectively. Taken to their limits computerised book issue systems could be used for more sinister purposes, to monitor the reading and book borrowing habits of targeted individuals. I have yet to hear of any instance where a librarian has allowed this kind of misuse of the information systems for which they are responsible. However the potential for individual monitoring of reading habits does exist, and the need to retain confidentiality in such matters has been recognised in the Code of Professional Conduct issued to members of the Library Association ten years ago.

The compilation and maintenance of catalogues is another basic library function which is ideally suited to computerisation, and automated systems have likewise been a commonplace for many years. The standardization of the MARC format, the introduction of Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) programmes, and the advent of large scale co-operative cataloguing has revolutionised the cataloguing process in most large libraries. It has also drastically reduced the manpower requirements needed to keep pace with the growing number of publications produced annually. One obvious result has been changes in the curricula of LIS schools, where formerly substantial time was devoted to practical cataloguing and classification. This has now given way to the much more theoretical consideration of the wider problems of organising and retrieving information.

Inevitably, it was some years before computer catalogues became as 'user-friendly' as their hard copy alternatives. The earliest versions were printed-out onto paper or Computer Output Microfiche (a format never very popular with library users). Few libraries undertook major retrospective re-cataloguing programmes in the early years, and it was not until the advent of the large scale co-operative databases that this because financially feasible. However dramatic reductions in computer processing and storage costs, together with improvements in the design of user-interfaces have given rise to online public access catalogues (OPACs).

In many university libraries, it is interesting to see how well students and staff have taken to the OPAC terminals, compared with the hopelessly cumbersome card, sheaf, or microfiche catalogues that proceeded them. It usually takes only one or two visits before they gain confidence in their use, and thereafter many readers prefer to explore the OPAC, rather than entrusting their enquiry to some intermediary such as the Readers' Adviser. The latter function has not been made redundant by this change, but relieved of a great weight of simple enquiries, leaving them more time to assist those with more complex needs, or else that decreasing minority who are still frightened to use computers.

In many academic departments library users have office microcomputers which are connected to the campus-wide local area network. This provides the ability to consult the local library OPAC, reserve books, and make suggestions for purchases, all without moving visiting the library. In Aberystwyth we can likewise access the nearby National Library of Wales, or any of the other academic library OPACs that are connected to the U.K.s Joint Academic Network (JANET), or else overseas by means of INTERNET. JANET is also a means of access, to a range of other information services for the academic community as well as commercial online information retrieval services. Shortly, my colleagues and I will also be able to access the library's most heavily used CD-ROMs in the same way. Likewise, I now regularly consult the electronic Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL), based at Glasgow University, for a variety of current information relating to library and information studies - such as addresses, details of conferences, the current contents of journals etc. These were all once information services which were once received from the local library.

Taken together this access to both local, and the wider academic networks provides a wonderful facility for maintaining current awareness, checking facts, references or citations, or else locating works. The associated disadvantage however is that users with such access tend no longer to visit the local library as often as before, and so have less direct contact with library staff. As a result librarians are less aware of the specific user needs and are less likely to be able to alert them to new publications. Hence users receive a less personalized service. Likewise, the benefits of serendipity when skimming through a shelf of new accessions, or when browsing through a card catalogue, should not be underestimated.

Most library automation packages are not limited to circulation and cataloguing, but will also contain an associated acquisitions module. Thus the record keeping tasks involved in producing orders, keeping track of their progress, checking invoices, and generally controlling expenditure are frequently now automated. One major advantage of this aspect of computerisation is that the order records can be integrated with the library's catalogue. Thus when searching the local OPAC users are frequently able to find out whether a title is in stock, on order, or on loan. All of these systems include the facility to provide additional and more effective management information.

Similarly, there are automation modules available for inter-library loan requests, both as modules for larger automation packages, or else software specifically designed to store and then transmit requests to the British Library or other academic libraries through JANET. There are also many experiments in progress relating to electronic document delivery. However in spite of the possibilities for automation in this area, the bulk of interloan requests are still received and supplied through the post and in hard copy - either as electrostatic copies or else by sending the original.

Hitherto the complicated record keeping task of ordering serials, recording the arrival of parts, their subsequent binding or disposal, and the checking of subscription invoices, has been the area of academic librarianship least subject to automation. Part of the problem has been due to the diverse nature of periodical publications, the intermittent and sometimes unpredictable publishing patterns, and differences in definitions as to what constitutes a serial. However, serials automation modules are now becoming available. Inevitably they will be unreliable to begin with, or else only suitable for collections of a certain size, but as with cataloguing and circulation systems will soon improve and be taken for granted along with the other features of library automation.

One further area where computers have had a considerable impact in academic libraries in the last few years has been in the facilitation of communication through electronic mail. Academic librarians have become regular users of Email to communicate with their users, or else with colleagues in other libraries. This may be done directly to named individuals, or pre-defined groups, or else globally through one of the many electronic discussion groups that are available via JANET. Each day a service such as LIS-LINK contains messages from academic librarians advertising staff vacancies, making announcements, seeking advice on particular items of equipment, asking for information, or else comparing notes on general policy issues - such as what do you do to a student who seeks to evade the book detection system. Some of these lists are targeted at special interest groups (such as LIS-RAREBOOKS), whereas others are limited to specific categories of staff such as University Librarians (LIS-SCONUL).

Much of what has been outlined above relates to the automation of traditional library functions; the use of computers to assist in the tasks of organising, handling, and retrieving information stored in a printed form. The transformation to the truly electronic library would, of course, involve storing and providing the information in a machine readable form, directly to the user's own computer terminal. The truly electronic library will only be feasible after the widespread use of electronic publishing.

The first tentative moves in this direction are undoubtedly beginning to happen with the publication of many major reference works, bibliographies, catalogues, collections of poetry and prose etc on CD-ROM, and increasingly in other optical formats. It is also to be seen in terms of the electronic journals, and bulletin boards that are now available, and the growth in the online industry. All of these developments have brought untold benefits to those scholars who have taken the trouble to achieve a degree of computer literacy. Undoubtedly they will continue to improve and become yet more accessible and easy to use. Yet if the electronic library did ever become a commonplace the users would also lose a great deal that is difficult to describe or define.

During the last few months I have had the pleasure of working in the Duke Humphrey Library at Oxford, Chetham's and the original John Ryland's Libraries in Manchester, and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. These are quite different buildings and library services, but all serve to inspire their readers in some indefinable way. This may be as a result of their architecture, their history, or by the accumulated scholarship that has taken place within their walls, or is stored within their collections. Even the British Library's famous round reading room at Bloomsbury, (which sometimes sounds to me more like a railway marshalling yard), has its own active group of supporters, who would like to see it preserved in its present function. Nobody working at a computer screen can ever share this sense of inspiration or fellow-feeling with the world of scholarship.

In spite of all the enormous benefits brought to libraries and their users by the computer, I do not think that the printed word in the form of the codex will ever be supplanted entirely. As a regular computer user, I now find it far easier to think and write at a keyboard, rather than with a pen in my hand, but I have never lost the pleasure of handling and reading books. In fact, it could be argued that the whole idea of the electronic library is a nonsense. Once potential users have access to all the information services necessary to satisfy their needs, from their own computer terminals, then the whole idea of the library becomes redundant.

David Stoker

With acknowledgments to Bill Hines, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.