Online library systems

[Tony Barry]

At 7:04 AM 14/7/97, Ken Feser wrote:
>at a Dynix library.  I have heard that part of the function of UniVerse is
>to port old Dynix code from the Pick mainframe operating system over to
>Unix, but I don't know if that is accurate.
>
>Does anyone have any comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the
>software underpinning Dynix and other library systems?  For one thing I am

The Pick operating system is really a relational database which is ideal
for library systems beacuse of the complexity of the data.

GEAC shifted to it with their advance product

Urica uses it but this is marketed under different names in different
places by Sanderson's computers.

The Pick operating system (sold by differnt vendors as UniVerse, Prime
Information, Reality, Relevation etc) is used extensively in the finance
industry and hospital markets as it is suitable for vertical applications.
You could compare it with the more mainstream DBMS systems like Oracle or
Ingres.

In fact it makes more sense for an application vendor to build their system
on top of an established database system rather than writing their own.
One of the problems of library ILMS systems is that most are based on old
80s designs when the DBMS systems were not good enough to cope with the
complexities of library systems and where they were ran too slowly on the
hardware of the time.

Vendors who operate their own database must maintain that software as well
as the purely library parts of the operation.

You either end up paying for an established DBMS like the Pick varients
where the support costs and experience are spread over 10s of thousands of
sites or you pay vias the costs of the ILMS where a one off database might
only be used by hundreds of sites.

Tony

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