This is the first issue of INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS - it was previously announced under the title CD-NET NEWS, but its title has been changed to reflect its new, wider coverage. Please see the editorial for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IIIIIIII NNN NN NNN NN III NN N NN NN N NN III INFORMATION NN NN NN NETWORKING NN NN NN NEWS III NN N NN NN N NN III NN N N NN N N IIIIIIII NN NN NN NN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Issue 1 May 1992 ISSN: 0996-2774 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS is an electronic journal produced by the UK's JNT Information Networking Group: it is automatically sent by electronic mail to members of the CD-ROM-NETWORK@JNT and CDROMLAN@IDBSU mailing lists, can be consulted on and retrieved from the BUBL Bulletin Board in the UK, and is available for ftp on the LIBSOFT archive at the University of Western Ontario. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITORIAL by Michele Shoebridge, Birmingham University GENERAL CD-ROM licenses: European moves towards a standard practice by Richard Gartner, Bodleian Library SPAG: the CD-ROM Standards and Practices Action Group, by Michele Green, Context Limited TECHNICAL CD-ROMs and PC-NFS by Edmund Sutcliffe, U.C.N.W. Computing Laboratory, Bangor MXSUB: a utility to allow SCSI drives to run products requiring MSCDEX NEWS ITEMS FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES HOW TO GET COPIES OF INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITORIAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CD-ROM technology has been one of the most significant developments to impact on libraries in the last decade. The growth of this new type of service from databases mounted on stand-alone PCs giving single-user access to the provision of networked access has occurred in a surprisingly short space of time. This transition has raised important issues, both for users and vendors of CD products. Where libraries have been the key players in providing wider access to CDs, they have been lured into the unfamiliar territory of networking which has been seen as the panacea of the 1990's. Choices have had to be made - Optinet, SCSI Express, Corel Drive? UNIX or pc? The introduction of networking has brought a reliance on outside suppliers, improved co-operation between libraries and computing services and helped to develop new skills in library staff. It has also given libraries the opportunity to integrate a whole range of other networked information services alongside databases on CD. In the United Kingdom, the Joint Network Team (JNT) which oversees the JANET network, recognised the networking implications of CD-ROM and set up a Group to advise them. This Group, which is made up of librarians and information professionals and Computer Centre staff, has as its brief "to focus on networked information services provision within academic communities at an institutional level, paying particular attention to the integration of CD-ROM". The Group was initially known as the JNT CD-Rom Networking Group, but after much discussion within the Group, and in consultation with the JNT, the name has been changed to reflect this wider brief and will now be known as the JNT Information Networking Group. Specific aims of the Group are to get national funding for various projects that will make access to networked information sources easier for the end-user and to encourage an exchange of information within the profession on all aspects of providing this kind of service, concentrating on CD networking in the first instance. It is for this reason that the Group is launching INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS (formerly CD-NET NEWS but of necessity changed to fall in line with the new name of the group, not just to confuse people - honestly!). The intention is to present case studies from world-wide sites which will help those institutions thinking of networking information sources, thus eliminating duplication of effort; to focus on good practice and to highlight new developments in the market, giving practical evaluation wherever possible. Another useful role for the newsletter may well be to put pressure on vendors regarding the vexed question of licensing and on CHEST (Combined Higher Education Software Team) to encourage them to obtain site licences for certain databases. The role it can take relies largely on the response received from the profession. Hopefully it will be a positive one! Michele Shoebridge Systems Librarian University of Birmingham, UK --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CD-ROM licenses: European moves towards a standard practice by Richard Gartner, Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK Moves are under way in Germany on work towards standard guidelines for the form of CD-ROM contracts: the Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Bibliotheksverbaende (Federal Union of German Library Societies) and the Boersenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (the German Booksellers' Association) have formed a working party to look at basic concepts to underlie CD-ROM contracts in the future. They have produced a discussion document, based broadly on EUSIDIC's code of practice and guidelines, to form the basis of negotiations with the German book trade, and hope to establish contact with librarians throughout Europe to coordinate moves in this area. This is a potted form of some of the more interesting (and controversial) recommendations of the working party:- - libraries should be able to obtain complete rights of ownership when purchasing CD-ROMs: if this is completely impossible, a time-limit for usage should be excluded from licensing agreements. - limitations on use should never exceed the current authors' rights: no limits should be imposed on printing and downloading of data - restricted use should primarily concern itself with the prevention of the unauthorised copying and re-packaging of data for resale - out-of-date CD-ROMs should be returned only in exceptional circumstances, for instance to protect data in sensitive areas - charges for networking should be based on simultaneous access, not the number of workstations attached to a network: on a medium-term basis, moves should be made towards a flat rate for all use of CD-ROMs in libraries - parity should be provided with printed material as regards VAT and legal deposit. Some moves in these directions have already taken place: some companies (for instance Wilsondisc) grant full ownership rights to their subscribers, most now network on the basis of simultaneous access or make no charge for single-site networking at all, and many no longer require the return of outdated discs. Legal deposit is one major area where libraries are beginning to wake up to the need for action: a few areas, such as the Laender of Bavaria and Baden Wuerttemberg in Germany, already require the legal deposit of non-book media, but this is very much the exception - much of the enormous amount published on CD-ROM is not collected in anything like as extensive a fashion as would be made possible by a system of copyright deposit, and much is likely to be lost for future generations. The British Library is making moves in the United Kingdom towards pressing for legal deposit for its own collections, although it seems unlikely, at present, that this will be granted to the other copyright libraries. Please direct any queries or suggestions to Margot Wiesner, Die Vorsitzende, Stadt- u. Universitaetsbibliothek, Bockenheimer Landstr. 124- 138, 6000 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel: +49 (0)69 21239238 Fax: +49 (0)69 21239404. She would be particularly interested to hear from any journals who could publish the paper, or to hear any suggestions or comments. ***** SPAG: the CD-ROM Standards and Practices Action Group by Michelle Green, Context Limited, UK The CD-ROM Standards & Practices Action Group (SPAG) is an organisation of CD-ROM publishers, producers and associated companies. The formal objective of CD-ROM SPAG is to develop the use of CD-ROM in its widest context to its full potential, recognising the importance of interfaces with other optical and magnetic media in the mixed media future. Group Background In late 1989, a small group of UK CD-ROM publishers and producers decided to form a cooperative organisation to encourage the development of consistent standards and practices across the CD-ROM publishing industry. The formation of the group was spearheaded by Sally Whitaker of J Whitaker & Sons and Dr Phil Holmes, then of Jordan Information Services. From the beginning of 1992, the Group has been building up a paid membership. The membership of CD-ROM SPAG is drawn largely from CD-ROM publishers. The focus of the Group's activity is, however, on the user. The Group concentrates particularly on the user wishing to integrate CD-ROM products with each other and with other software or information sources in an office or library environment. Group Objectives The formal objective of CD-ROM SPAG is to develop the use of CD-ROM in its widest context to its full potential, recognising the importance of interfaces with other optical and magnetic media in the mixed media future. Achieving this objective means making the use of CD-ROM and related products as easy as possible for the end-user. To this end, CD-ROM SPAG will recommend and where necessary develop appropriate standards and practices. CD-ROM SPAG Forum The Forum is made up of individuals from member organisations. Forum members are expected to have direct experience of the use of CD-ROMs and be willing to share their knowledge openly with other members. They must be prepared to take an active role at meetings and other organised activities. The Forum meets about six times a year to exchange information and conduct therapeutic brainstorming sessions. Projects are outlined and then proposed to the CD-ROM SPAG Board for completion. The Forum also communicates with standard bodies worldwide and is in the process of setting up formal liaison channels with CD-ROM user groups. User Group Input A meeting was held at the Computers in Library Conference at Olympia on 19 February between Forum members and representatives of user groups. Several issues were raised; the most important item being the lack of reliable communication between the Forum and user groups. As a result of that meeting Nicky Whitsed of Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School and Richard Biddiscombe of Birmingham University, are organising a preliminary meeting between user group representatives. The purpose of that meeting will be to specify the precise issues that they feel the Forum should tackle as a first priority. Current Issues The CD-ROM SPAG Forum has begun work on some of the issues that are likely to be raised. A short list of the items the Forum sees as being high priority includes: - CD-ROM Software Installation - Help Desk Guidelines - Documentation and Sales Literature: Minimum hardware and software specifications - Networking - Technical and Licensing Issues - Memory management Should you wish to add to this list or make any comments, please contact Michelle Green at the address below. Facsimiles or letters would be appreciated. Michelle Green Chair, CD-ROM SPAG Forum c/o Context Limited Tranley House, Tranley Mews London NW3 2QW England Tele: +44 (0)71 267 7055 Fax: +44 (0)71 267 2745 Editorial note: a meeting will be held shortly between CD-ROM SPAG, UK Online User Group, the Library Association Information Technology Group and the JNT Information Networking Group to advise SPAG on the best means to get user views through these representative groups in the UK Library community. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL ISSUES --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CD-ROMs and PC-NFS by Edmund Sutcliffe, U.C.N.W. Computing Laboratory, Bangor, UK Introduction The majority of CD-ROM network installations in the UK use Novell Netware as a network operating environment. However, Netware is not the only network operating environment that is in common use in universities and polytechnics in the UK. PC-NFS, a product of Sun Microsystems, lets a PC access filestore on a Unix (or other sort of multi-user system) that supports NFS. Typically this would be used to let a PC user access his or her Unix filestore as if it were another hard disk on their PC. This has advantages in a mixed PC and Unix environment, allowing the easy interchange of files between the two environments. It also means that your local Unix host can double as a PC file server. At Bangor they have been doing this for some time. When they wished to offer a CD-ROM service they decided to do it on PC-NFS. In the following article, Edmund Sutcliffe of the UCNW Computer Laboratory explains how he did it. CD-ROM's and PC-NFS For sometime here at Bangor, we have been running diskless PCs with Sun's PC-NFS software. The PCs remote boot using the BOOTP protocol from a number of machines including HPs, Suns and Vaxes running TGV Multinet. It is possible on all these machines to mount various CD-ROMs and export them as disks to the PC's which can mount them and then access them as if they were additional PC disks. For example it is then possible to do directories of CD-ROMs and run programs directly from the CD-ROM. This is great except that the most search software and application software which is run on DOS machines using CD-ROMs requires the existence of the MicroSoft CD-rom EXtensions (MSCDEX) before they can run. This is a utility which is loaded by the PC at boot time (technically known as a TSR) and which allows MSDOS to interface with the CD-ROM drive via the device driver shipped with the cd-rom drive itself. Until recently it was rare for the DOS search software to use more than two of the functions provided by MSCDEX: i) to find out if MSCDEX is loaded and which version of MSCDEX was in use, ii) to ascertain which drive letter is mapped onto the CD-ROM drive. This makes it possible to write a dummy TSR which provides these functions. Such a dummy TSR has been written by Digital Solutions, of Queensland, Australia, who made it available to the public domain earlier this year - their note about this product follows this article. This saved me considerable development time. It works very well with most of the English, text based CD-ROMs allowing the software provided with the CD-ROM to work first time. Here at Bangor we provide Whitaker's "Book's in Print", which uses BRS/search, "CAB", which uses Silver Platter software plus one or two others that users want occasionally. Some more recent CD-ROM's also use an additional MSCDEX function to try to detect the "Unique Volume ID" on each CD-ROM. This is much harder to fake as it varies from CD to CD but probably could be added in without too many problems, but the source code for the MXSUB utility, which produced the dummy MSCDEX stubs used by applications, written by Digital solutions, is not available and so a rewrite of it will be necessary. I have been more interested in providing the audio services as well as the text services available on the CD-ROM. The approach I'm taking to these problems is as follows: There is a public domain Client-Server CD-ROM software available for reading DD1 Electronic Books on CD-ROM available from: nic.cic.net::/pub/netsoftware/deserver-2.0.tar.Z which provides a nice mechanism for sharing CD-ROM info with less powerful clients. Also there are several control programs for CD-ROM drivers on Sun's which run as X widgets (ie they are used with the X-windows windowing system) which also provides audio connections, the best of which is a thing called Xcdplayer which can be obtained by anonymous ftp from various hosts. The simplest way to track down a copy is to use the "archie" archive searcher. Hopefully with the addition of the V3 socket libraries (currently in beta test) for PC-NFS it should be possible to provide an rpc connection mechanism to pass on MSCDEX calls. If I am successful down this route I will of course publicise the information. All of the above programs mentioned are in the public domain and most come with source. Since this article was written there have been some further developments regarding the MXSUB utility described above: Digital Solutions, the writer of the MXSUB program a distributed earlier, have agreed to release the source code into the public domain. It was written with a now defunct C compiler and so needs work be recompiled. You can do anything you like to it so long as Digital Solutions continue to be referenced in the documentation and source code and any modifications you make are left under the GNU Copyleft idea. I hope to try and co-ordinate changes for this, I am in the middle of doing some work on Unique Volume ids which seems to be the one that causes the most problems. (sub function 05h). If you make any modifications I would like to know about it. Edmund J. Sutcliffe Internet: edmund@bangor.ac.uk U.N.C.W Computing Lab. Phone: +44 (0)248 351151 x2409 Sackville Rd, Bangor Fax: +44 (0)248 354259 Gwynedd LL57 1LD U.K. ******** MXSUB.EXE - MICROSOFT EXTENSIONS SUBSTITUTE (MAY 1990) By Digital Solutions Pty Ltd PO Box 178 Margate Qld 4019 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 (0)7 883 1851 The Problem..... While LANtastic supports CD-ROMs on work stations without Microsoft Extensions (MSCDEX.EXE) being loaded, some programs for accessing CD-ROMs make requests to MSCDEX for certain information. These programs would abort on work stations because MSCDEX was not present. The Solution..... We wrote MXSUB.EXE as a substitute for MSCDEX on work stations. As a general rule (though not necessarily the case) CD-ROM programs read the CD-ROM via normal DOS calls. However, several (World Book's Infofinder was one) ask MSCDEX for the number of CDs actually available (Sub-function 0h) and what the associated drive letters are for those CDs (sub-function 0Dh). MXSUB sets these values via parameters at load-time, and services these Int 2Fh function 15h calls according to these parameters. The Usage..... Let's say you have two CD-ROMs, set by Net Use commands as drives S: and W:. You would then load MXSUB like this... MXSUB S W ...MXSUB will then report back to you the fact that it installed successfully and the drive letters it will supply as available. Note that it does NOT actually service requests to these drives, merely reports their presence and number as previously described. MXSUB uses about 5K of RAM, and should be loaded before you run your CD software. Do NOT load MSCDEX or your CD Driver (.SYS file) on your work station, only on the server. MXSUB worked for Infofinder (World Book), Groliers Encyclopedia and CDATA86 (Australian Census). If a program makes a call to a MSCDEX sub-function other than 0h or 0Dh, MXSUB will abort the program, showing the full register information, particularly the sub-function called, at the top of the screen. If this happens, PLEASE WRITE IT DOWN exactly as it appears, and write to us or phone, and tell us also what program you were running. We will endeavour to add this sub-function to the list supported by MXSUB. Kind Regards, Daniel Churchman National Sales Manager - LANtastic (AUSTRALIA) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS ITEMS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- LICENSING Two more suppliers have recently abolished additional networking fees for single-site access to their products. The Wilsondisc range, which includes the MLA Bibliography, and the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities and Applied Science and Technology Indexes, allow free single site access, and now also grant full ownership rights to subscribers. The British Library have recently announced that the British National Bibliography may be networked freely within a single site, whatever the size. CD-ROM NETWORK REGISTER The Library Information Technology Centre, in association with UKOLUG, have established a Register to record the development of CD-ROM networking. It records details of CD-ROM network installations in UK institutions, including technical details of network and CD-ROM network software used, hardware, which databases are installed, and any problems (and hopefully, solutions) encountered. If you have a CD-ROM network in operation at your institution, and haven't lodged details with the LITC, please contact Caroline Moore, Library Information Technology Centre, South Bank Technopark, 90 London Road, London SE1 6LN Tel: +44 (0)71 334 3260. THE HARD DISK ALTERNATIVE TO CD-ROM by Terry Hanson, Portsmouth Polytechnic At least two companies, Silver Platter (Electronic Reference Library) and CD-Plus (PLUSNET 2), are now offering databases for storage on hard disk as an alternative to CD-ROM. The information is stored on one or more large, 1.2 GB, hard disks and updates are delivered by CD-ROM in the case of Silver Platter and by DAT tape in the case of CD-Plus. Where the size of the database requires more than one disk, as in the case of Medline, then the search software is capable of cross disk searching as with CD-ROM. The most significant advantage of this approach is a much better search speed than is possible with CD-ROM. The fastest CD-ROM drives currently available, from Hitachi and NEC for example, have an access time of a little under 300 milliseconds (Ms). The average hard disk access time is around 20 Ms or less. Also the networking of information on hard disk should present fewer problems than CD-ROM. The most obvious disadvantage of this approach is the expense that will be necessary in purchasing large capacity hard disks. The current price of a 1.2GB hard disk is in the region of 1500 Pounds Sterling. If you need four of these then the workstation or server become very much more expensive than if CD-ROM drives were used. Also the cost of the subscription is higher than for the conventional CD-ROM arrangement. Both companies will supply the necessary hardware as a complete workstation or alternatively the user may by the software only and purchase the hardware from elsewhere. The databases currently available in this manner are: From Silver Platter: Medline and ERIC From CD-Plus: Medline, Cinahl, NLM Health database, Cancerlit For more information contact: Silver Platter. Tel: +44 (0)81 995 8242 CD-Plus. Tel: +44 (0)71 433 3834 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND CONFERENCES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29 May 1992: CD-ROM Networking: strategies and solutions: one day seminar organised by ASLIB. Venue: Training Centre, Information House, 20-24 Old Street, London EC1V 9AP UK Tel: +44 (0)71 253 4488 Further information: Barbara Hobbs, at same address. June 1992: SPAG (CD-ROM Standards and Practices Action Group): meeting for CD-ROM producers and publishers on providing support for networked CD-ROMs. Contact: Patrick Gibbons, Stable Software Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)81 675 9683 6-8 July 1992: JUGL Conference and AGM. Venue: University of Newcastle- upon-Tyne. Contact: Alan Jeffrey, The Robinson Library, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 4HR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)91 22 7658 21-23 Sep. 1992: Information Networking: conference organised by Meckler. Venue: Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Further information: Meckler Ltd., 247-249 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1HQ Tel: +44 (0)71 931 9985 8-10 Dec. 1992: Online/CD-ROM Information 92 Venue: Olympia 2, London. Further details: Jean Mulligan, Learned Information Ltd., Woodside, Hinksey Hill, Oxford OX1 5AU, UK Tel: +44 (0)865 730275 Please send details of any similar events for inclusion in future editions to:- Caroline Moore, Library Information Technology Centre, South Bank Technopark, 90 London Road, London SE1 6LN, UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HOW TO GET COPIES OF INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS is available electronically through the following sources:- 1) the CD-ROM-NETWORK @ UK.AC.JNT discussion list: to add your name to this list, simply send a request to CD-ROM-NETWORK-REQUEST @ UK.AC.JNT 2) the CDROMLAN @ IDBSU mailing list: to join this list send a message to LISTSERV @ IDBSU containg the single line "SUBCRIBE CDROMLAN Yourfirstname Yourlast name" eg. "SUBSCRIBE CDROMLAN Alan Smith" 3) on the BUBL Bulletin Board in the UK: to access this connect to GLA.BUBL (or 00007110004011). The POST facility may be used to email copies to your mailbox. 4) back copies are available by ftp from the LIBSOFT archive at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. To access this archive:- a) FTP to HYDRA.UWO.CA (129.100.2.13) b) Login as ANONYMOUS, and give your email address as a password. c) Type CD LIBSOFT to change to the LIBSOFT directory. d) Type GET + filename to retrieve the file you want (GET INFNETNEWS1.TXT for this issue) e) Type CLOSE to close the connection f) Type QUIT to leave the FTP software. The filename for this issue is INFNETNEWS1.TXT. Any other distribution lists or archive sites who would like to disseminate or archive copies of INFONETNEWS NEWS, please contact Richard Gartner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (GARTNER @ UK.AC.OX.VAX). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL BOARD ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION NETWORKING NEWS is produced by the UK's Joint Network Team (JNT) Information Networking Group: its editorial board comprises:- - Richard Gartner, Bodleian Library, Oxford, OX1 3BG UK Tel: +44 (0)865 277060 Email: GARTNER@UK.AC.OX.VAX - Michele Shoebridge, Main Library, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT UK Tel: +44 (0)21 414 5835 Email: M.I.SHOEBRIDGE@UK.AC.BHAM - Doug Moncur, Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD UK Tel: +44 (0)904 433815 Email: D.MONCUR@UK.AC.YORK - Paul Leman, Computing Service, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK Email: CS1PJL@UK.AC.SHEFFIELD.PRIMEA Any contributions for future issues should be sent to any member of the editorial board. Suggestions, comments etc, are most welcome. Any archive site or distribution list requiring copies, please contact Richard Gartner at the above address.