Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)
KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY
Library automation in Finnish research libraries (7) Are there any disadvantages to be seen in the Finnish development? If we accept, as an unavoidable necessity, the slow development and the modest costbenefit ratio of the old-fashioned solutions of yesterday, fairly few disadvantages or direct failures can be seen. Things were done and the results can be used also in a modern setting without difficulties. One obvious weakness has, however, to be pointed out. The existence of only one single powerful unit for automation planning was, of course, a prerequisite for common databases as well as for the decision on the unified library network. This policy did, however, bring also some disadvantages with it. This must be said quite unindependently of the excellent work that the unit has done. The point is that individual libraries had too little expertise in automation. This has become apparent now when the new systems are being installed at the universities. Libraries or computer centres have to acquire more knowledge on their local system as well as on library automation in general. Solutions based on a mainframe will not remain the only computer applications in the libraries. (8) It is useful to discuss the selection of one and the same product for all university libraries as a separate question. It has been asked whether the monopoly of one company will prove to be a disadvantage compared to all its advantages. Nobody can answer this question satisfactorily yet, because the experience has so far been rather short. Of course we would have been happy to receive many enhancements sooner than what has been the case. We do not yet know how the pricing policy will develop. There will certainly still be many other questions. The advantages are more obvious. There will emerge a real network where participating libraries are working together in real-time and drawing benefits from the work done in other libraries. Software is being developed continuously, which means that the system is being kept up to date. Enhancements and improvements in the system will be available automatically to all libraries. The structure of formal user groups on both national and European level guarantees the influence of libraries in the further development of the software. And last but not least, the data structure used in the system is the Marc-format, which opens new ways if, for one reason or other, the system has to be changed to another. Finnish research libraries are happy in having avoided a situation, where one library has chosen a certain ready-made computer system and another library another system. Different systems do not necessarily communicate with each other without highly sophisticated programmes which are needed as bridges between them. „ Gondolatok a k onyvt arban " 149
