We went to the show to see what might be coming to our local libraries. Although library professionals are the main target for the show there was plenty to interest Library Users.

The Internet - finding what you want, or, finding where to find what you want

Systems to help track down information through the internet are steadily increasing. Copac seems valuable, moreover it is free and available for public use. This new(ish) catalogue lets you find out what is held by some of the major UK and Irish research libraries. At the moment (Spring 2005) Copac unites the catalogues of 27 libraries including the British Library, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, and the University of London. You can search over 30 million records, some with links to the full text, images, etc. To use Copac or get more information visit their website: http://copac.ac.uk/ Copac is financed by the Joint Information Systems Committee, which is in turn funded by the UK post-16 & Higher Education Funding Councils.

Another recent introduction, “The Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985”, was featured at the Thomson Learning stand. This gives access, through the internet, to the whole text of 200 years of the newspaper and seem truly to be a completely searchable version - illustrations, advertisements and personal notices as well as the news. We find it spot on for the research we are doing. It is easier to find a person or incident than with the long established Index to the Times used with a microfilm of the newspaper. It is marketed by the Gale Group, and you can read about it at http://www.galegroup.com/Times. It is available only on subscription; but we learned at Thomson’s stand that our library is a subscriber along with quite a lot of other local public libraries (see footnote). Another service offering the text of the Times, “Palmer's Full Text Online, 1800 -1870” is described at http://www.proquest.co.uk/products/palmers.html but we have not found a local public library which subscribes to this.

Zissor, a firm with interesting ideas on converting paper records into digital form, was demonstrating an on-line archive giving the full text of 100 years of the Daily Mirror. This is still at the stage of a “limited market test being undertaken with professional subscribers”, so we must wait for a public launch. For more information get Zissor’s website http://www.zissor.com/, and under “Customers” click on “Daily Mirror”.

Copying equipment

Copiers for libraries are getting cleverer and kinder to both books and operators. The PS 700 Minolta is a scanner which works with the original book or document ‘face upwards’ on the base, avoiding the risks inherent in turning the book or document over for each copy. The scanner’s output goes to a computer which can do all sorts of things with the image before storing or printing it (in black and white). The scanner is sold by Covergold (website at www.covergold.co.uk). Ordinary library users are unlikely to be let loose on this £8,600 machine - the maker’s literature stresses its suitability and convenience for staff when digitising library stock. ‘Do-it-yourself’ copying on a machine which allows ordinary users to copy an original placed ‘face up’ seems to be a long time coming to our libraries.

At the other end of the price scale the £200 OpticBook 3600 is the right size to have at home as well as in a library and is also designed to be kind to books. Like ordinary copiers your book etc has to go ‘face down’, but this is a scanner that can get into the corners. It copies to within 6mm of its edge, which means a book need only be opened to a right angle (easier on the book) and the page can lie flat on the copier glass. You can then copy the whole page in all but the tightest bound of books with little distortion or ‘spine shadow’. The results go to a computer so you can manipulate the image and of course print it (in black and white or colour). The scanner comes with software to ease conversion to text (“OCR”) and other manipulation. The UK supplier’s website is http://www.datamind.co.uk - there is a press release at http://www.datamind.co.uk/merchant/press.htm

Odds and ends

Self-service for issuing and returning books seems to be coming. We picked up a leaflet by Axiell whose offices are in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Some of their systems give users a printed record of the books they have returned, some help the staff by sorting the returned books. www.axiell.com or Intrepid Security Solutions, Hounslow, tel: 020 8893 9922

The Pulse People Counter keeps track of how many users come into the library. It can show which areas of the library have the most visitors and calculates how many there were per member of staff - RTA Ltd, Nottingham; www.rta-pulse.co.uk

I talked to some Friends of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and found their purpose rather different from that of many London-based Library User Groups whose first aim is simply to protect their service; - they raise money to help the museum buy things, have a very good relationship with the management and directors and work as volunteers in the museums. You can find out more at http://www.bmag.org.uk/friends_of_the_museums/. The Library Campaign’s stand was a welcome sight, reminding everyone of the importance of library users - sorry we missed their presentation.

HDRS at Harwell helps to save documents and books damaged by water, fire etc using techniques such as freeze-vacuum drying paper, either to restore irreplaceable material, or simply because book recovery costs from £1 per volume, so can be cheaper than replacement. More than 500 institutions - most UK local authorities and universities, the British Library, the Public Record Office, the National Library and Archives of Ireland and many others - subscribe to a rapid call-out service. Disasters come in many forms so HDRS has to be versatile - recent jobs include a library at Oxford where a ceiling collapse spread abrasive plaster dust over two floors and 35,000 books, and salvaging books affected by a flood at one of Lewisham’s branch libraries. Their web site is http://www.harwell-drying.co.uk/

Peer Ltd of Yeoville specialise in things that can be sold in libraries to generate income. Reading glasses seemed particularly appropriate. We rather liked the giant picture come word puzzles (sold mostly by museums) produced by The Giant Wordsearch Co Ltd whose website is www.giantwordsearch.com.

DangerSpot Books have an interesting idea for getting every-day hazards across to children; they sell picture books with “DangerSpot Stickers” that can be put on cookers, electrical hazards etc. You can find them at http://www.dangerspot.co.uk

“Information World News” says next year’s show will be at the NEC on 26 and 27 April 2023 (it seems to drift between Birmingham and London). For more information see http://www.lishow.co.uk/ and http://www.iwr.co.uk/news.

Anne Bennet and Alan Dove, May 2005

footnote . We were told at the show about our library subscribing to the “Times Digital Index”, but wondered how many other things they have that we don’t know about. Louis Barfe in The Guardian/Observer of 1st December 2004 explains that if libraries don’t advertise some of their facilities it is likely to be because of the way and the amount they are charged for them - to read this (free) go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/, click on “archive search”, then enter “barfe” and the date 1 Dec 2004.