MAJOR LIBRARY TECHNOLOGICAL EVENTS
This technological timeline of events caused a
reflection of several History Channel programs to surface within me and I
carefully thought of each year of significant to add to this essay. This essay revealed that the first computer
was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. After working with a computer for three
years, library automation training was urgently needed in the library
workforce. After learning about
automation, cataloging library materials in a system with methods was designed
by Sanford Larkey. A concerned for
retrieving information had to expand from punched cards to online retrieving. Other major events that are covered in this
essay are the beginning of electronic mail, the beginning of Online Computer
Library Center and AACR, the first use of Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC),
then there is the Web OPAC and shared cataloging, the adoption of the @sign for
email addresses, the using of the interlibrary loan system, the phrase “surfing
the internet”, the beginning of the digital library federation, the first
library technology blog, the founding of LibraryThing a social cataloging and
lastly, the launch of WorldCat.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1946-First Computer
The first computer called ENIAC was unveiled at the
University of Pennsylvania in 1945. The
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer) was credited with
starting the modern computer age according to the research on www.pbs.org.
There is evidence from this article that ENIAC was a product of World
War II. In another research, Wilburh
(2003) stated that the ENIAC in 1946 was the first electromechanical computer
and that it was partly a response to the needs of the military to decipher
enemy codes. Also according to Wilburh
(2003), by the end of the 1970s about 80% of the information processed was text
even though numbers were the focus of computers earlier. With the increase of computer usages, our
lives have changed in many profound ways (Cain, 2003).
1949-Library Automation
The first generation of library automation was
developed by Dr. Estelle Brodman while she was completing her doctoral degree
and teaching at Columbia University according to Peay and Schoening
(2008). It was highlighted in this
research that libraries have explored the application of computing technologies
to library operations and that Dr. Estelle Brodman contributions have had a
major impact across health sciences libraries as stated by the authors (Peay
& Schoening, 2008). Dr. Brodman led Washington University School
of Medicine (WUSM) library in a national role in promoting automation in
libraries by having several conferences with representatives from nineteen
states and Canada. According to the
development plan for the Periodical Holdings in the Library of the School of
Medicine (PHILSOM) by Dr. Brodman, this was proven to be an important
advancement in library automation (Peay & Schoening, 2008). After the plan in put in place, the effects
of automation on library staffing can changed the workflow according to Fay and
Feher (2012).
1952-Library Cataloging
At a meeting of the Medical Library Association,
Sanford Larkey who is a physician and librarian applied computer methods to
library cataloging and research to the Welch Medical Library Indexing Project
in June 1952. This project was stemmed
as the earliest applied computer methods to library cataloging (Larkey, 1953). The article provided information on how “IBM
machines were activated by an electrical current set up by contact of brushes
through the holes punched in the cards” stated Larkey (1953). Today in cataloging, the resulting data must
provide insight into libraries’ use of changed headings and their success in
maintaining currency and consistency, and the systems needed to support the
current pace of heading changes according to the researcher, Hearn (2009).
1954-Library Information Retrieval
Information retrieval system started with punched cards
and microfilm before the widespread of computer technology in libraries. Punched cards were a data-processing card
through which holes were punched in columns that related to specific data or
facts. Although punched cards were used
in the libraries beginning in 1936, it was not until 1954 when the Walthamstow
Public Library used the punched-card for charging and discharging books (Black,
2007). During this time the commenced of
microfilm service in a large number of libraries in the Washington, D.C. were
filling the requests of other libraries for resources among the library
collection (Black, 2007). According to
Bruce R. Schatz (1997), the Director of the Digital Library Research Program in
Urbana, IL, information retrieval has been a challenge for professional
librarians (p.327). In this century,
online information retrieval is available with Internet Web searchers
interacting with information sources distributed across the international
network (Schatz, 1997).
1965-Electronic Mail
A manager and system programmer at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology named Tom Van Vleck and one of his colleagues named
Noel Morris implemented both electronic mail command and a text messaging
facility in 1965. The MIT Computation
Center begun in 1961 and by 1965 there were hundreds of registered users from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other New England colleges
(Vleck, 2012). Passing messages to each
other only works between pairs of users who share a common file directory
according to Vleck. Emails will go from
computers in the libraries to courtrooms, if records and information is summons
by the courts.
1967-OCLC: Online Computer Library Center and AACR
Frederick G. Kilgour, a librarian, an educator, and an
entrepreneur, is the founder of the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) in 1967
along with holding the position of first president and chief executive (p.
561). In OCLC, the online shared
cataloging system and the online union catalog called WorldCat were introduced
into the field of librarianship. OCLC
and WorldCat library network and database changed the way people use libraries. The Ohio College Library Center was set up as
a nonprofit corporation and a membership organization. On the computers, online union catalog and
shared cataloging system enable libraries to catalog books quickly and
efficiently and also to order catalog cards. Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR) was
implemented on March 20, 1967 to follow when cataloging library items on the
computer (Taylor, 2012).
1969-First OPAC in Use
The first online public access catalog was used at the
IBM Advanced System Development Division Library in Los Gates, CA. Early online catalogs provided the same
access points as the card catalog. These
first online catalogs were intended to bring a generation of library users
familiar with card catalogs into the online world according to Antelman,
Lynema, and Pace (2006). The OPAC
changed the traditional card catalogue system by allowing data to spread within
computer and then be retrieved immediately through the online public access
catalog system in any format (Husain & Ansari, 2006). Library users have many more means of
searching and accessing information in various formats on the OPAC than through
the traditional card catalogues. With
the OPAC, users can search methods and information displays (Husain &
Ansari, 2006).
1971-Web OPAC and Shared Cataloging
Web OPAC is an OPAC that is provided on the web to
anybody that can access the internet from anywhere. There are similarities with OPAC and Web OPAC
such as searching and browsing with optional phrases that are coordinated by
the site. The differences are OPAC usage
is limited, and Web OPAC usage is global and with OPAC, the users have to
follow the program of the particular software in that library but with Web OPAC
html files are hyperlink to the subject areas or disciplines (Husain,
2006). Web-based catalogs have an
advantage over the catalogs with local networks by integrating into the global
information system of the library as well as into other organizations
(Ortiz-Repiso & Moscoso, 1999).
The
first library to do online sharing cataloging resources electronically was
implemented on August 26, 1971 by Michael Hart’s Project Gutenberg (Estes,
2011). According to Michael S. Hart, the
use of an USB flash drive is like having several virtual libraries available on
“key chains, necklaces, and bracelets” to list a few (p. 268). Also with the use of Project Gutenberg,
e-books emerged around this year (1971).
The purchasing of e-books has increased in many libraries electing to
make e-book available by their online catalogs (Wu & Mitchell, 2010). This
book-length publication in digital form can be read on portable devices such as
e-readers and tablets as noted by Glenda Browne and Mary Coe (2013).
1971-ARPANET Adopts @ Sign
Ray Tomlinson invented the first
e-mail program to communicate between computers on ARPANET in 1971. ARPANET adopted Ray Tomlinson’s @ sign for e-mail
addresses that enables international connection (Johncocks, 2006). The Advanced Research Projects Agency
Network (ARPANET) was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and was used
to send the first message between computers in 1969 (Cerf, 2009). The inventing of the @ sign was a surprised
to Ray Tomlinson and his co-workers because he vocalized not to tell anyone
about the program because they were not supposed to be working on it.
1979 Interlibrary Loan System
By using a computer-driven interlibrary loan system,
libraries began lending and borrowing resources in 1979. Interlibrary loan system proved to be a profitable
tool for libraries, especially for those libraries in consortia resource
sharing. By libraries working together
in consortia, the needs of the patrons can be met with lower costs and faster
turnaround time in receiving the requested items (Breeding, 2013). In resource sharing through interlibrary loan
system, technology issues such as automated submission, tracking, application
programming interfaces and monitoring of requests and workflow tools are
effective in managing the distribution of the library items. This phenomenon (interlibrary loan) grew and
developed as a legitimate library service because libraries could no longer
afford to purchase everything that their patrons wanted or needed and the
introduction of technology into the process increased in delivery of documents
and presented better reduced turnaround time (Kilpatrick & Preece, 1998).
1992 Phrase “Surfing the Internet”
The phrase “surfing the internet” was coined by Librarian
Jean Armour Polly who is the cofounder of the Publib discussion list was named
administrator for systems and technology in 2020 at the Liverpool (N.Y.) Public
Library as stated in American Libraries
(May 2002). In the spring of 1995 a
survey of users of the library’s two-year-old Internet service was posed by the
Seattle (Wash.) Public Library Internet Survey Committee (Harvey & Horne,
1995). Many of the Internet users who
responded to the committee questionnaires became Central Library patrons. The users were at the computer terminals for
hours of time exploring a number of information resources, accessing their
emails, surfing on the World Wide Web for popular subjects like art, music,
dance, theater, film information, and more (Harvey & Horne, 1995).
1994 Digital Library Federation
Digital Library Federation is a network of libraries
and related agencies which is made up of practitioners who want to advance
digital resources for research, teaching, and learning according to the DLF
website at http://www.diglib.org/ This organization of libraries and related
agencies created the Service Framework for Digital Libraries to view and
transformed activities within libraries into modular services that
support. From this group was proposed
Collections Digitization Framework which is a service-oriented approach to
digitization in academic libraries (Tharani, 2012). The Digital Library Federation (DFL) would
like for academic libraries to move from using digitization as a project but to
move to reimagine digitization as part of the library services by following a
framework design with the functions such as decide, deploy, digitize, describe,
deposit, display, and direct (Tharani, 2012). The Collection Digitization
Framework provides a common understanding and vocabulary for digitizing the
library collections. In the libraries a
vast of information is digital. Even
prominent research university libraries and Google are planning on digitize
over ten million volumes in the next few years (Heath, 2006).
1995 First
Library Technology Blog
The first library technology blog was started by Jenny
Levine who is a specialist and guide for the American Library Association’s
information technology department. The
name of Jenny Levine blog site is “Librarians’ Site du Jour”. Blogs
are popular in the field of technology and the latest form of communication of
ideas. The engagement of global
discussion and the influences of society can be impacted by blogging on the
Internet (Natarajan, 2007). Blogs can
take on several difference forms such as a diary, a news service, a collection
of links to internet resources, a series of book reviews, and others. But most blogs display current material
daily, weekly, and monthly with older materials archived on the site for browsing.
Blogging and Web 2.0 have been used to enhance
the Ohio State University Library Non-Roman Cataloging to produced efficiency
and integration of cataloging resources (Chen, 2009).
2005 LibraryThing
Librarything, a social
cataloging website, was founded on August 29, 2005 by Tim Spalding which is
accessed at http://www.librarything.com/press/
He started cataloging his own library
for academic and bibliophile friends.
Today, LibraryThing is used by book lovers to organize their personal
book collections (Westcott, Chappell and Lebel, 2008). In 2007, LibraryThing offer LibraryThing for
Libraries (LTFL). Social tagging does
not need to be concise and master metadata standards for tagging like
traditional cataloguing (Lu, Park & Hu, 2010). Implementing social tagging in the library
systems an understanding of how users tag the collections and what vocabulary
are used. The understanding will help
libraries make decisions on how to implement tagging.
2006 WorldCat
The launch of WorldCat.org
happened in 2006 with sharing the library holdings of more than 10,000
libraries on the web. WorldCat is a
worldwide union catalog that seeks to make library collections and services
through popular search engines. Online
Computer Library Center (OCLC) opened WorldCat program in order to access
library collections and services for web users (Nilges, 2006). WorldCat Local was used by University of
Delaware in Newark, Delaware to evaluate how the new search and delivery
interface on cancellation requests (Gaffney, 2012). This interface is designed
reflect local resource sharing policies and make it easy for users to place an
interlibrary loan request from within WorldCat Local.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, every significant
event in library and information technology is an added brick to the building
of library technology to the world. The
beginning year in this essay was 1946 but a major event in library technology
started in 1901 when the U. S. Library Congress produces printed catalog cards
and shared cataloging began. Only a few
milestones were included in this essay to present an image to the audience on
how far technology in librarianship increase over the period of time.
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