Re: Planning for Millenium

Date:         Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:28:36 -0500
From: Peter Murray <pem@PO.CWRU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Planning for Millenium
To: INNOPAC@MAINE.MAINE.ED>

--On Thu, Dec 4, 1997 11:04 AM +0000 "George M. Telatnik"
<telatnik@CANISIUS.EDU> wrote:
> We have two general concerns.  Our 43 simultneous users license has
> been adequate, but we are discussing the possible need to increase it
> in view of the expanded campus network and introduction of a
> web-based product.

Based on our experience, I'm convinced that the addition of WebPAC either
causes no difference in simultaneous users or a net decline.  About 30% of
our OPAC searches are done via WebPAC (about 6,700 in the last 10-day
period).  During that time, our "webpac" login group had at most 4
simultaneous users (a bit lower than I would have guessed, but this is a
holiday period).  During the corresponding time, our "public" login group
had 26 simultaneous users.  There are a couple of things at work here, I
think:

  * Our telnet-based users do not sit idle long in the INNOPAC -- 10
    minutes max.  When the INNOPAC session disconnects, users are taken
    back to a local menu on the PC and sit idle there, which does not
    take up a simultaneous user.

  * The INNOPAC WebPAC server is only used for the library catalog.
    Our library info screens, library home pages, and all other library
    related HTML pages and graphics are on other servers, so a user just
    looking at the library info and not searching the catalog will not
    take up a simultaneous user.

> We also plan to integrate as many of our
> electronic information services as possible onto our home page.  This
> would include access to a CD-ROM network currently running on Novell.
> We're not yet certain about how the catalog  will interface
> with our primary home page, or if it should repace it.  Your comments
> on simultaneous users and the nature of the interface would be most
> helpful.

Accessing your Novell-based CD-ROM products from an INNOPAC web page is
going to be difficult.  There is no direct link between web page and an
application running locally on a PC.  One way people have done this is by
creating special MIME types on a web server and downloading a configuration
file that the web client will use to launch an application.  This is the
W3Launch model (see http://bmbwww.leeds.ac.uk/w3launch/home.htm for more
info about W3Launch or http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Web4Lib/faq.html under
the "Launching CD-ROM or Other Applications From a Web Browser" heading).
To do this, though, requires a custom MIME type set up in the server, and
since we don't have access to the configuration of the WebPAC server we
can't add the MIME type (if it is even possible).

The more pages you put on the INNOPAC server, the greater the number of web
clients that will access the server, driving up simultaneous user counts.
This includes the primary library home page and lists of network-based
resources as you describe.

> Secondly, we'd like to know if Web OPAC sites have continued to
> provide access to a text-based version of the catalog and, if so,
> why.  We'd also like to know whether or not they expect to continue
> this access for the indefinite future.

We've been doing WebPAC stuff for over a year now, and we are not much
futher in moving away from the text-based OPAC than when we started.  One
decision we have made (via our Libary Web Task Force, not from the Systems
Office) is to only list a web-based link to the library catalog, or to put
the web link before a telnet lint to the catalog.  The theory behind this is
to keep the user in the web world if they started in the web world.  The
telnet connection to the INNOPAC is somewhat abrupt visually when clicking
on a link to the catalog.

We have stated that the text-based OPAC will continue indefinitely, but that
some features, such as ready access to electronic versions of journals and
databases will only be available in the web world (via 856 links in the bib
record).


Peter
--
Peter Murray, Library Systems Manager                    pem@po.cwru.edu
Digital Media Services                 http://www.cwru.edu/home/pem.html
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio          W:216-368-5888