A trip to SIBL

[Karen G. Schneider]

A trip to SIBL... these are field notes, a quick and dirty trip report,
just part of my notes from the combat zone of library automation.  Delete
now if you're expecting major conclusions or strict analyses.

Friday afternoon, my library's project officer, and I (I'm now a contract
librarian for the EPA) went on a fact-finding mission to SIBL, NYPL's new
Science, Industry and Business Library.  We are considering some library
projects (including some "sledgehammer architecture" to take down walls
created by the architect who designed the library without librarian
input--Dale from Texas, you NEED a librarian on that team, regardless of
how "amiable" the nonlibrarians are! Nuff said!).  We thought we'd see how
NYPL was doing stuff... nothing terribly planned or specific.  I brought my
camera.  We took the train uptown and walked 3 blocks to the old B.
Altman's.

We were really intrigued by the library and I encourage all librarians
going to ALA to visit this library "in action" and get a feeling for it.  I
thought I'd share some of our impressions and conclusions with librarians
involved in bringing automation into libraries.

First, what really struck us (besides the metal entry doors, which made me
think I was entering a refrigerator) was the magnificent ubiquity of
computing.  Our eyes were big as saucers at what appeared to be fields of
computers everywhere you go, each one occupied on the middle of a Friday
afternoon.  I described it as "in your face automation"--it took my breath
away to see so many computers in one library.  I did see books--including
range after range of citation indices--but what commanded our attention
were first the computers, and second the staff, at service areas, dishing
out information and assistance at a rapid clip.  (This is no doubt serious
"No Doze" librarianship!)

We walked around to see what people were using the computers for.  On the
main floor we noticed many of the users had Netscape open and were
searching the Internet.  We didn't get too close to see what folks were
doing (you don't do that in NY anyway) but I had the sense people were
deeply absorbed in things important to them (I don't like the term "work,"
which implies that's all libraries are good for).  For the record, most of
the computers were Gateway 2000 150s with 17" monitors, and they were
attached to printers with vendacards on them.

We also noted a bank of computers against a wall were IBM P-100s with small
monitors dedicated to LEO, the online catalog for the branches.  I am
guessing these are donated late-model CPUs with old-generation monitors and
performing admirably as dedicated "book catalogs."

We went downstairs and saw yet another field of computers, several huge
information desks, an area just for "electronic" services (which made me
chuckle, given what we had seen so far), a room for microfilm and videos,
and people, people everywhere, standing on line for information as numbers
blinked overhead, riveted before computers, buried in books in an
info-garden apparently designed for traditional reading, sitting quietly on
benches, or copying away in copying cubicles.  As we strolled through the
first field of computers, we saw computers dedicated to specific CD-ROM
titles.  I've seen this in other libraries--rather than try to network a
broad range of titles, dedicate computers to specific titles and leave it
at that, no networking, menuing or similar problems.  You need a lot of
computers and space to do this, and your population needs to be able to
come to the library, but should you happen to have meet these conditions,
there is a certain logic, we discussed, in this approach. It may even be
more affordable. I've seen this done elsewhere, and we discussed it for our
library. (A point: your trustee, project officer or funding authority may
not have considered this as an option.  Seeing this in work is very
educational.)  This isn't to discuss networking vs. not networking
CD-ROMs... it's just a service approach worth considering in a certain set
of circumstances.  We were intrigued by little black boxes on the
computers,which we imagined performed all kinds of magical functions, but a
librarian explained they were supposed to be signs, but weren't
operational; she added, helpfully, that paper signs were taped to the
computers (indeed they were).

As we strolled past the banks of carrels (nice carrels, with discrete
privacy shields just high enough to give someone personal space but not so
high to induce that grade-school-study-carrel feeling) we saw an area just
for laptops.  At one a young woman was poring over her laptop, papers and
books scattered around (something you can't do at the big computers, which
take up a lot of the carrels' real estate).  At another, a team of young
men were quietly discussing a project displayed on their laptop.  In
addition to the power connections, at these carrels we noted Ethernet
jacks, Mac printer cables and serial cables for PCs.  These weren't as
heavily used as the other types of carrels, on this particular afternoon,
but I wondered--if this is what it is like in May of 1996...!

I didn't take notes inside the electronic services area--I recall feeling
saturated (perhaps, sated?).  Oh yeah, another field of computers and a
service desk of hoppin' staff, been there, done that, surfed the website...

We took the fancy elevator up and I, unfamiliar with the library, asked,
"how high up does it go?"  Two very sophisticated New Yorkers sneered and
one said, "one flight," and the other, noting my camera, said "the Empire
State Building is just two blocks away."  They walked away before I could
tell them were were tourists from the Federal Government...

The browsing magazines were just the right height, and had the lift-up
shelving I covet.  O.k., a tiny point, but I liked them, as well as the wee
wooden stools just right for perching to browse the mags.   A very large
person might feel silly sitting on them, but I thought they were perfect.

Later on, outside the library, I realized a couple things.  First, and
admittedly I need to take another trip to SIBL and take a few more notes, I
didn't see any commercial Internet services.  This preliminarily confirms
my own sense that as much as I want to use these, many of them are not
quite ready for prime time.  Otoh, in my library we are looking hard at
FirstSearch, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts and perhaps UMI, and as my PATH
train began whizzing to Hoboken a lightbulb went over my head I realized
that with recycled computers (e.g., old 486DX's) we could treat these
services like standalone CD-ROMs.

Second, I realized that even close up I really had no idea what people were
looking at, even on the 17" monitors, since that wasn't the focus of my
attention.  I'm pondering adding a line about "minding your own business"
or "giving others privacy" to our electronic-access policy--I don't see how
anyone could possibly get offended by what others are doing unless they are
paying far too much attention to someone else's activity.

I'm going back to play more, take a few more pictures, let my brain roam
over what I see.  SIBL is excellent brain food for librarians.

Karen G. Schneider
opinions mine alone