University librarian urges
reference area automation
By Michael Hosmar
Of the Kmorald
Television cameras were trained on the
University of Tennessee chancellor as he handed
books from the campus library to the person
behind the circulation desk. In no time the library
employee handed the books back.
“Is that all there is to it?” the chancellor ask
ed. books in hand.
“He spent the next 20 or 25 seconds just
looking at the circulation employee,” and the
television stations had to re-shoot the entire
scene, says George Shipman, University
librarian.
On that day in the early 1970s, the chancellor
from Tennessee was inspecting the University’s
newly automated library system — a system that
dramatically increased the amount of resources
available to students and educators, while cutting
in half the time spent looking for resources.
Oregon’s eight state-funded colleges and
universities, having recently asked the
Legislature for $6 million, are saying it is time for
further automation. “It’s a monstrous project,”
Shipman says, but it’s something the University
needs in order to conduct “normal business.”
"It won’t put us on the cutting edge. It’s
basic to the University,” he says.
The Legislature won’t have a final decision
on the request until later in the session.
With the funds, the University library would
primarily convert a portion of the reference sec
tion from the manual card catalog to a computer
data base, Shipman says.
The system calls for computer terminals on
each floor of the library would enable students,
teachers and library administrators to quickly
find a variety of the library’s 360,000 records, he
says. New books would be continually added to
the data base, making record maintenance more
efficient.
Shipman says a research institution like the
University would be more attractive to resear
chers with an automated library. “With a good
system, we can recruit quality faculty and
students and keep them here.” *
Although the computer system would in
crease the efficiency of library operations, it
would more importantly “enhance scholarship"
at the University, he says.
Finding a book using the current card catolog
system is time consuming, Shipman says, and
students must look through hundreds of cards,
sometimes being referred to a number of addi
tional sources on different floors in the library.
With the automated system, he says, students
can “let the machine do this sorting and walk
ing." The computer could also store more infor
mation than a manual card catalog.
Students could tap into the system by runn
ing a computer wand over a magnetic strip or bar
code on the back of their student identification
card, Shipman says. Once on-line, the computer
would tell students if they have any overdue book
fines, whether the book they’re looking for is on
loan and, if so, the length of the book’s loan
period, he says.
With a telephone coupler system, University
professors could tap into the library’s directory
from their offices and students could use com
puter terminals in their dormitories, he says.
Educators at other institutions also could tie into
the University library records, Shipman says.
The computer system also should include:
•Key-word search that will enable the com
puter users to find a book knowing only one
word in the book’s title.
•Boolean logic search capacity, enabling
users to find a wide range of resources by
stringing together two unrelated topics,
such as racquetball and undergraduate
education.
Shipman says the computer system would
help the library staff with their jobs. They won’t
be able to do anything “exotic” with the system,
■ he says, but it will enable the "grossly understaff
ed" library to function more efficiently while
. .enhancing the student's ability to do research and
the faculty's ability to teach.
LiCld^ Continued, from Page 1.
Democratic headquarters in the
• Watergate building.
. , . Liddy said Ellsberg’s release
of the‘‘Pentagon Papers” was a
. ■ national security threat. Since
* Ellsberg had- access to other
government secrets, ■ it was
. . necessary to determine whether
he was responsible for deliver
ing” a copy of the top-secret
documents to the Soviet Em-’
bassy, he said.
Watergate, on the other hand,
had nothing to do with national
security, but had a merely
political purpose. Liddy said.
Following his speech, Liddy
was questioned, challenged and
accused in an often emotional
question-and-answer period. In
the middle of one question, a
student called Liddy anti
American, then shouted “Sieg
Heil.”
Questions ranged from U.S.
foreign policy to. the details of.
L i d d y * s best-selling
autobiography “Will.”
"The Soviet Union may be
communist, but it is not crazy,”
Liddy said. “The Soviet Union,
respects only two things: first,
superior force, and second,
willingness to use it.”
When one man accused the
United States of fanning “those
fires of misery and oppression”
in Central America, Liddy
responded that the United
States did not create those
problems.
It is in the United States' best
interest to back Latin American
countries that are anti-Soviet in
order to avoid being surrounded
by hostile neighbors, he said.
When Liddy. who makes
more than 200 speaking
engagements a year, was asked
later to compare the University
audience with those at other
“liberal” campuses he has
visited, he gave the University
audience a C-plus.
“There was an awful lot of
emotionalism out there,” he
said. "1 don't give good grades
for employing emotionalism
when what should be employed
is rationalism.”
About 300 people were turn
ed away at the door after the
Ballroom sold out. said Colin
Cooper, contemporary events
coordinator for the Cultural
Forum, which sponsored the
event.
“Mr. Liddy has proved he is
not a freak show, but an in
telligent man, whether we agree
with him or not,” Cooper said.
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