A Hypertext Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors: The Potential and Reality
by
Robert E. Clayton B.A.
A Master's Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Arts degree of the Loughborough University of Technology
September 1993
Supervisors: Anne Morris, BSc, MSc, PGCE Loughborough and
John Sumsion, OBE, MA Cambridge, MA Yale, Hon FLA
Department of Information and Library Studies
(C) R. E. Clayton, 1993 Abstract
This dissertation consists of three broad sections: the demonstration of the need for, and the feasibility of creating, a Hypertext Reader's Guide to Fiction Authors; a description of the actual process of making a prototype Hypertext Guide and the factors involved therein; and a summary of the results from the field-testing of the Guide. From the outset, the Hypertext Guide was conceived as a utility to aid the compiler of the second edition of "A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors", Roy Huse, the guide originally being compiled by Peter Mann. Research into the background of fiction borrowing by library users, and of the concept of Hypertext, suggested that such a computerized utility would not only aid the compiler, but could also be designed for use directly by library users. With these factors in mind a prototype guide structure was created on Hypercard software for Apple Macintosh computers. This Hypercard structure was successfully used to manipulate and enhance the raw data that would form the second edition of the Reader's Guide, and an independent computerized Guide was created. This Hypercard Guide was then taken in to three public libraries in Leicestershire (Loughborough Library, Mel ton Mowbray Library and Leicester Central Library) for one day each, where library users were asked to use the Guide, and to answer a questionnaire about fiction borrowing and their evaluation of the Guide. Very favourable responses were recorded for all aspects of the Guide, with over 90% of users that responded to the questionnaire stating that they would use a book version of the Guide, and 93% of those that actually used the Guide stating that they would use it again, if available. The dissertation concludes by suggesting that these responses seem to indicate that a Hypercard version of the Guide could be published in its own right, and that the Hypercard Guide would be a valuable tool for updating future book editions of the Guide.
ii Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisors, Anne Morris and John Sumsion, for their constant time, attention and encouragement throughout the making of this dissertation. I was extremely fortunate to be granted the loan of an Apple Macintosh computer by the Leicester Computer Centre, to whom I am most grateful, whilst the staff at Loughborough Library, Melton Mowbray Library and Leicester Central Library gave me invaluable time, space and advice. This dissertation could not have been created without the support and practical assistance of my family and Zoe.
iii Dedication
For ZOil, Avis, Chris and Louisa
iv Contents
lBft Title Page i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Dedication iv contents v List of Tables ix List of Figures x
Chapter 1 Public Libraries And Fiction 1 . 1 Fiction In Public Libraries 1 1. 2.1 Selection Of Fiction By Borrowers 1 1 .2.2 Success And Failure At The Shelves 2 1.3 Guidance And Stock Arrangement 3 1.4 A Digital Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors 4 1.5 Aims Of This Dissertation 5
Chapter 2 A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors - On Paper 2.1 The First Edition 7 2.2 The Case For A New Edition 9 2.3 Compiling The New Edition - Theory 10 2.4 Additions To The New Guide (Including Genre) 11 2.5 Aims Of The Revised Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors 13 2.6 Compiling The New Edition - Practice 13
v Chapter 3 Hypertext - A Brief Conceptual History 3 • 1 Vannevar Bush And The Memex 1 6 3.2 Mechanics To Electronics 17 3.3 Graphics And The Mouse 18 3.4 Levels Of Use 19 3.5 Text Vs. Hypertext - General 19 3.6 From Concept To Reality 21 3.7 What Is Hypercard? 21
Chapter 4 The User And The Hypercard Guide 4.1 Why Use Hypercard? 24 4.2 Organization Of The Guide 24 4.3 Text Vs. Hypertext - Specifics 26 4.4 Extensions To The Guide In Hypercard 28 4.5 Navigating Through The Links 33 4 .• 6 Hardcopy From Softcopy? 33 4.7 Natural Language Order 34
Chapter 5 The Compiler And The Hypercard Guide 5.1 Hypercard As An Information Handler 36 5.2 Navigation And Correction For The Compiler 36 5.3 Creation Of A Hypercard Document 38 5.4.1 Compiling The Guide - Theory 38 5.4.2 Compiling The Guide - Reality 39 5.5 Conclusion And Brief Recommendations For Compilation 41
vi Chapter 6 Design And Scripts Of The Hypercard Guide 6.1 Format And Presentation Of Data 45 6.2 The Buttons - Theory 46 6.3 The Background 51 6.4.1 The Scripts 51 6.4.2 Button Scripts 52 6.4.3 Field Scripts 56 6.5 Final Notes 59
Chapter 7 Creation Of A Hypercard Guide 7.1 From Raw Data To The Guide 60 7.2 Importing The Data 60 7.3 Cross-Linking Authors 63 7.4 Natural Language Order 63 7.5 Creating The Indexes 64 7.6 The Help Section 65 7.7 Advantages Of Hypercard Links 65
Chapter 8 Field Testing The Bypercard Guide 8.1 Background 72 8.2 Methodology 73 8.3 Choosing Fiction Books 74 8.4 Using The Hypercard Guide 81 8.5 Improvements And Extensions To The Guide - Users' Perspectives 87 8.6 Brief Summary 89
vii Chapter 9 Conclusion 9.1 Aims Of The Dissertation 90 9.2 Process Of Creating The Guide 90 9.3 Commercial Potential 91 9.4 Further Extensions And Developments 92 9.5.1 Evaluation Of The Guide As A Data Processor 93 9.5.2 Evaluation Of The Guide As A Guide 93 9.6 Conclusion 94
Biblioqraphy 95
Appendix 1 Hypercard Scripts AL1 Button Scripts 97 A1.2 Field Scripts 99 A1.3 Background Scripts 102 AL4 Creation Scripts 103
Appendix 2 Questionnaire 113
Appendix 3 Data From Field Testinq Of Hypercard Guide A3.1 Responses to Question 3 (Favourite authors) 116 A3.2 Responses to Question 20 (Anything disagreed with) 117 A3.3 Responses to Question 21 (Other useful additions) 117 A3.4 Responses to Question 22 (Final comments) 118 A3.5 Collected comments of librarians who used the system 118
viii List Of Tables
~ 'Table 1: The Core Authors For The First Edition 8 Table 2: Breakdown Of Library Users Surveyed 73 Table 3: Use Of Public Libraries For Self Or Others 74 Table 4: Methods Of Looking For Fiction Books 75 Table 5: Genres Looked For By Library Users 76 Table 6: Arrangement Of Fiction Stock, Users' Preferences 77 Table 7: Methods Used To Find New Authors 78 Table 8: Use Of Library Staff When Looking For Fiction 79 Table 9: Familiarity Of Library Users With IT 80 Table 10: Library Users willing To Use Hypercard Guide 81 Table 11: Potential For Use Of Hypercard Guide In Public Libraries 82 Table 12: Usefulness Of Guide 82 Table 13: Ease Of Understanding Information 83 Table 14: Ease Of Reading Information 83 Table 15: Differentiation Of Sections Of The Guide 84 Table 16: Ease Of Movement Between Screens 84 Table 17: Clarity Of Screen Layout 85 Table 18: Clarity Of Instructions 85 Table 19: Evaluation Of On-Screen Help 86 Table 20: Potential For Use Of Hardcopy Reader's Guide 86
ix List Of Figures
Figure 1: Pages From The First Edition Of The Reader's Guide 25 Figure 2: Primitive Screen Design For Hypercard Guide 27 Figure 3: Primitive Screen Design With Search Button And Thumb Index 29 Figure 4: Primitive Screen Design For Author Index 30 Figure 5: Primitive Screen Design For Genre Index 32 Figure 6: Process Of Compiling Second Edition Of Reader's Guide 43 Figure 7: Proposed Process Of Compiling Future Editions Of Reader's Guide 44 Figure 8: Final Screen Layout Of Hypercard Guide, Main Section 48 Figure 9: Final Screen Layout Of Hypercard Guide, Author Index 49 Figure 10: Final Screen Layout Of Hypercard Guide, Genre Index 50 Figure 11: The Menu Screen 54 Figure 12: The "Author Search" Display For Multiple Authors 57 Figure 13: The Creation Card 61 Figure 14: The First Help Screen - "Previous" And "Next" Navigation 67 Figure 15: The Second Help Screen - The "Author Search" Button 68 Figure 16: The Third Help Screen - The Alternatives List 69 Figure 17 : The Fourth Help Screen - The Genre Lists 70 Figure 18 : The Last Help Screen - The Thumb Index, "Back" and "Print" Buttons 71
x Chapter 1 Public Libraries And Fiction
1.1 Fiction Borrowing In Public Libraries This dissertation is concerned with aiding adult library users in their selection of fiction books from the huge choice on offer in the average public library. It has been estimated that two-thirds of library borrowers enter libraries looking for a novel for pleasure [1], and this is borne out by the Public Lending Right statistics, which suggest that around 50% of all actual loans are of adult fiction, with a further 17.5% covered by junior fiction (for the year 1989)[2]. However, it is clear that the issue figures quoted cannot be directly equated with reader satisfaction, as any library assistant will confirm, since novels may be returned unfinished or unenjoyed by readers. A study by Spenceley [3] found that 27% of books returned by borrowers had not been finished, and up to 40% of the books had not been enjoyed (although this was in the more specialised area of "modern serious novels"). Other studies have yielded similar results, such as Turner [4] reporting 29% of novels unfinished, 25% of her sample "not sure" if they had enjoyed what they read, and a further 15% who "had not enjoyed" their book.
1.2.1 Selection Of Fiction By Borrowers Since it is clearly desirable to provide library users with material that they will want to read and enjoy, the way in which readers select their books must be investigated, in order to find out if there are areas that cause problems to readers, and how such problems may be overcome. Goodall [5] presents an excellent overview of the research available on this subject, which suggests that the two main selection methods are searching for a particular author or title, and undirected browsing of the library shelves. These two approaches also tend to be used
1 together, as a reader is clearly likely to pick up an item that looks interesting, even when looking specifically for a different author. Several studies attempted to break down satisfaction with the items chosen by relating this to the selection method used, with very interesting results. Spenceley [6] found that when readers had chosen a book by recognising the author and title, the satisfaction rate was over 90%, and when the author alone was recognised a positive reaction was given for 67% of the items. Books chosen by browsing only achieved a 40% satisfaction rate. Turner discovered a similar pattern of results, with the only items that were definitely not enjoyed coming from those chosen by browsing (19% not enjoyed), although this was by far the most popular way of selecting items (80% of items were selected this way in her study)[7].
1.2.2 Success And Failure At The Shelves This information suggests that users are more likely to enjoy books by authors that they are familiar with, which is perhaps obvious, as the reader already knows they enjoy the particular style of the author. It is maybe surprising, therefore, that so many items are chosen by browsing, but further research casts a slightly different light on the picture. Sear and Jennings [8] found that 52% of their respondents had been unsuccessful in looking for a particular author, although the authors were very diverse. Goodall [9] notes several other studies with similar findings, and outlines her own study, where 43% failed to find particular authors or titles, but 97% actually borrowed books. This suggests, again not surprisingly, that readers look for particular authors in the first instance, but if unsuccessful will continue browsing in the hope of finding something enjoyable, rather than leave the library empty-handed. Since browsing is not always particularly successful (although undoubtedly not an activity to be discouraged) it seems clear that additional aids to readers of fiction should be considered. The need for guidance is backed up by the comments from readers included in Goodall's study: "[The] A-Z [sequence of authors] is
2 daunting ... unbroken", "you need to know your authors to use the A-Z", "I can't remember the names of the authors" [10].
1.3 Guidance And Stock Arrangement Some sort of guide to fiction authors seems to be the most logical way of informing readers of the contents of the library, since users tend to enjoy most the writing of authors known to them. If the users could be directed to novels by authors who work in a similar area to their favoured author, it seems likely that they would be encouraged to read and enjoy novels previously overlooked. However, the problem of users forgetting the names of authors must be borne in mind, as a long list of unfamiliar names is easy to forget when looking through the library shelves.
The main barrier in the library itself to directing readers to similar authors is the scattering effect that the A-Z sequence has on types of literature. Many libraries attempt to mitigate this effect by arranging books into shelves of genres, most frequently in the case of Science Fiction, Romance and Crime novels [11]. However, this approach is usually piecemeal, with most authors left in the A-Z sequence. Spiller [12] investigated the categorization of books in libraries, and found that 59% of his sample preferred categorization on the shelves, 24% preferred one alphabetical sequence and 16% had no preference. Sear and Jennings [13] found that in their survey one-fifth of books were selected on the basis of genre, despite the fact that the libraries being surveyed did not group or even label novels into genres! Goodall gives an overview of the arguments for and against categorization thus: Briefly, categorization is better for people in a hurry and who generally select one type of book. Alphabetical sequences are better for those selecting particular authors more often than browsing. Also a[n A-Z] sequence •.. is suitable for titles which are not easily categorized. Obviously having both arrangements increases the number of places one has to look for a particular book ... [14]
3 ,• Since the physical arrangement of fiction cannot be simply resolved, some form of directional aid will probably be most useful, and indeed many such aids are used in libraries at present. Booklists on bookmarks are common in many libraries [15], as are lists of recent publications. However, a unified guide to authors is likely to be of more use to readers, as a single document is much easier to consult when searching for ideas than a scattered variety of ephemeral items. Peter Mann's "A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors" [16] is perhaps the best example of this idea, and is the primary concern of this dissertation. The Guide takes the form of a collection of cross references from a list of primary authors to other authors who work with a similar style or approach. Sear and Jennings [17] found that 82% of their respondents felt that such a list would be either fairly or very useful. Since Peter Mann's Guide was published in 1985 and is currently out of print, the publishers (now the Library And Information Statistics Unit at Loughborough University) took a decision to revise and reprint the Guide in 1993, and much of this dissertation is involved with the development of the new volume.
1.4 A Digital Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors At this point it is probably wise to point out some of the problems involved in the scope of creating a guide to fiction authors. As has already been noted, a huge number of different authors are borrowed by library users every year, and in order to be useful, a guide must cover a substantial number of these authors. A balance must also be struck between very popular authors, who are most likely to be looked-up by the reader, and less well-known authors, to whose work the reader will be directed. The quantity and complexity of these interrelations would suggest that some form of IT would be useful to handle the data, and this will be discussed at some length in the following chapters. It was decided at the outset of this dissertation that not only would such handling facilities be desirable, but that a working model should be developed, which, if successful, could
4 save a good deal of time and effort in producing the new version of the guide. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the realization of a digital guide in some detail. It was decided that the guide should be created in a Hypercard environment, due to the advanced possibilities for linking sections of data that Hypercard allows. Chapters 3 outlines the background to the Hypercard system, and the advantages and disadvantages of applying it to this project.
1.5 Aims Of This Dissertation This dissertation sets out to 1) Illustrate the background to "A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors", first and new editions. 2) Describe how a Hypertext Reader's Guide may be developed. 3) Produce a working Hypertext Guide. 4) Show how the Hypertext Guide can aid the processing of the data that forms the guide. 5) Field-test the Hypertext Guide and describe the results. 6) Draw out the implications for future editions of the Guide, and comment on the commercial viability of the Hypertext Guide.
References [1] Mann, Peter H., Preface to: Deborah. Goodall Browsing in Qublic libraries. 1989. [ 2] Hasted, A. et al. PLR loans: a statistical investigation Qart 2. 1991 , pp. 24-25 [ 3] Goodall, Deborah. op. cit. pp. 92-93 [4] Turner, Susan E. A survey of borrowers' reaction to literary fiction in Beeston Library, Nottinghamshire. 1987, pp. 32-33 [5] Goodall, Deborah. op. cit. pp.67-73 [6] p.18 [7] pp.31-34 [8] p.91 [9] p.91 [10] p.56
5
,r [11] Marriott, Richard. Choosing fiction: helping readers to help themselves. 1993. p.6. [12] Spiller, David. The provision of fiction for public libraries. 1979, p.36 [13] Goodall, Deborah. op. cit. p.57 [14] Goodall, Deborah. op. cit. p.59 [15] Marriott, Richard. op. cit. p.3 [16] Mann, Peter H. A reader's guide to fiction authors, 1985 [17] Goodall, Deborah. op. cit. p.105
6 Chapter 2 A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors - On Paper
2.1 The First Edition Peter Mann's "A Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors" was originally published in 1985, and sold 1,050 copies in total, after being reprinted due to the high demand, with the text remaining unchanged. The objective of the guide, as touched on in the last chapter, was to provide an index of alternative authors to those readers who had either exhausted the supply of novels by their favourite writer, or simply wanted to read books by a different author, but without the risk of picking something completely unsuitable from the library shelves. The format of the book was as simple and straightforward as possible, to quote the guide itself: "All authors on the left hand side of the page are starter authors. The names on the right hand side are suggested alternative authors" [1] • Both the alternative and starter authors were listed in alphabetical order, with particularly strong alternative authors indicated by one, two or three asterisks. The way in which the guide was compiled was devised so as to limit the subjectivity of the recommendations as much as possible (although no guide could claim to be completely reliable in such a subjective matter as fiction writing). A list of 61 core authors (listed overleaf) was drawn up, representing some of the most popular authors at the time of compilation. This listwas sent out to approximately 600 librarians, who were requested to list alternatives for each author from their own knowledge of fiction wri ters [2]. These lists were then compiled and collated, and the resulting mass of information was edited to form the guide. As may be expected, many of the alternative authors were cited many times by the different contributors, and this fact of multiple recommendation formed the basis for inclusion in the guide. If an author was cited only once, unless there were good reasons for her/his inclusion, s/he would be
7 Table 1: The Core Authors For The First Edition
Kingsley Amis Robert Ludlum Isaac Asimov Alison Lurie Beryl Bainbridge Alistair MacLean H.E. Bates Ed McBain Saul Bellow Olivia Manning Phyllis Bentley John Masters Malcolm Bradbury Iris Murdoch Ray Bradbury Edna O'Brien John Dickson Carr Jean Plaidy Barbara Cart land J.B. Priestley Raymond Chandler Douglas Reeman Agatha Christie Harold Robbins Jon Cleary Anya seton Catherine Cookson Nevil Shute A.J. Cronin Wilbur Smith Len Deighton C.P. Snow Mazo De La Roche Muriel Spark Monica Dickens Howard Spring Margaret Drabble Danielle Steel Daphne Du Maurier Marguerite Steen Scott Fitzgerald Mary Stewart Ian Fleming Leslie Thomas Frederick Forsyth John Updike Dick Francis P.G. Wodehouse Nadine Gordimer John Wyndham Wins ton Graham Frank Yerby Graham Greene Arthur Hailey Ernest Hemingway Georgette Heyer Hammond Innes Louis L'Amour D.H. Lawrence All of these authors survived John Le Carre into the second edi tion of Doris Lessing the guide.
8 omitted from the guide. Similarly, if an author was cited many times, depending on the strength of support for the link, one, two or three asterisks would be placed by the name to indicate the likelihood of the author being a good alternative. All of this, however, would merely result in a slim volume for just 61 authors. To widen the scope of the guide, all of the alternative authors were given their own separate headings (the starter authors being distinguished by being underlined) against which the author(s) from whom they were referenced were listed. This resulted in some 900+ authors being included in the guide.
2.2 The Case For A New Edition Since the original guide was published in 1985, and was out of print, the publishers (The Library And Information Statistics Unit at Loughborough University Of Technology) decided to revise and publish a new edition of the guide in 1993. The interval of eight years necessitated a new edition for a number of reasons. On the most practical level, many authors gain or lose in popularity over such a timescale, and a republication is an ideal time to include or weed out such authors. Given the fundamental interconnectedness of the entries in the guide, it would also seem sensible to undertake a complete revision rather than to add and delete authors piecemeal, as it is quite possible that authors could be overlooked accidentally in such a process. Research by LISU [3] indicated that there was a substantial demand for a new edi tion from libraries who had bought the original guide, and it should also be borne in mind that a revision would be essential to encourage libraries to buy a new copy: it is very unlikely that a librarian would buy a copy of the same book purchased seven or eight years ago. The opportunity to revise also allows for improvements to be made in the guide that were not possible at the time of the first publication. Given that the first edition was generated from references for just 61 authors, extending the number of core authors would be quite feasible, given the application of IT, and the method for choosing these authors could also be improved.
9 2.3 Compiling The New Edition - Theory The Public Lending Right Statistics show which authors are most frequently borrowed from public libraries, and as such are an ideal source for the core authors for the guide. Of the top 100 authors borrowed in the UK, 87 are adult fiction writers [4], and given their popularity, they are likely to be the authors "most looked for" by library borrowers. To include these as core authors would give the guide a sound base in practical mass appeal terms, and the PLR statistics could be used to further broaden the appeal of the guide, by including prominent authors from particular fields, popular "up and coming" authors, and writers who are well-known, but perhaps do not make the top 100 [5]. It was decided that 120 authors should be selected as a core in such a way, to which authors from the first edition who, it was felt, should remain in the guide could be added. From this point the guide was to be compiled in a similar way to the first edition, but with a number of extra stages. The list of core authors was to be sent out to the bibliographic departments of twelve library authorities, rather than individual librarians,' and when returned the majority view of the appropriate alternatives would be complied [6]. The guide was then to be sent out to five new library authorities, and five previously used in the compilation, to go through the new text and delete, substitute and add authors as appropriate. These doubly revised texts would then be compiled, and the alternative authors would be given a main entry, as with the original guide. The double checking should not only result in (hopefuliy) more accurate representations of the authors, but also expands the scope of the authors to be considered, as the second revisors will have many more names associated with each author, which may trigger further ideas for authors to be included. Previously expanding the guide was more mechanistic, by just making alternative authors into main entries, whereas with this method more intellectual effort is expended on the alternatives before the final revision. The resulting text would then be once more reassessed by the compiler, as it was felt that it would be unreasonable to give the reader a list of less than four
10 alternative authors, or more than twelve as such a list would be likely to overburden the reader, rather than aid in the selection of a new author [71. This listing would then form the bulk of the guide.
2.4 Additions To The New Guide (Including Genre) The projected new edition would not stop with the listing, however. In addition, it was decided to include a list of li terary prizewinners from recent years, to broaden the area covered by the guide from the purely popular to "quality" writers of fiction. It was also decided to asterisk those authors in the main body of the text who were named as prizewinners in the new section [81. The most substantial change to the Reader's Guide was the decision to add genre designations to all of the authors listed in the guide, in parentheses after their name. This decision was caused by several factors, probably the most important being that a genre would give the user an additional cue to the type of book written by the author, and thus aid the user in the selection of new authors. It is also the case that since many libraries arrange parts of their fiction stock by genre, the designation would aid the user in actually locating the author in the library. Another more technical factor was that many authors write books in several different styles. A good example of this is Evelyn Anthony, who writes both thriller and historical novels. It is easy to see that an author could be listed as an alternative to one of these categories of writing, but not the other, which could confuse the users of the guide. A more extreme case is that of Graham Masterton, who writes both historical romances and horror stories. One could easily imagine the problems arising from a recommendation to this particular author. It was decided, therefore, that authors working in multiple genres should be given multiple entries, each with an appropriate list of alternatives, and that all authors should be given a rough designation of genre. The fact that many readers choose books by genre (see chapter 1) reinforces the decision to
11 note the type of book written, although there are problems associated with this decision. The two major issues that arise when dealing with genre are: i) debate about whether an author's work should be narrowly defined by one or two words, and H) what to do with authors whose work fits no established genre. The second point can be dealt with relatively easily, by creating a safety-net "general" category. This is roughly equivalent to the A-Z sequence in a library which also shelves books by genre: books with no designation (usually the majority) are simply general fiction. This avoids forcing authors into unsuitable categories, or creating "snap" genres, which can get out of hand. The more general first point raises many questions of literary taste, but it should be remembered that the genres are intended only to provide guidance to readers, not a straight jacket for authors. Through the consultations on the guide, dubious assignations should be weeded out, and the "general" category should be preferred in the event of a real divergence of opinion. The genres to be used in the guide were based on those that it was found had some popular support in libraries (presumably indicating reader demand for the categories)[9]. These genres were:
Adventure, Romance, Crime, Science Fiction, Country Living, Sea Stories, Family Stories, Short Stories, Fantasy, Spy Stories, Historical, War Horror, and Westerns. Humorous,
12 2.5 Aims Of The Revised Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors The second edition of the Reader's Guide, therefore, aimed to provide the library user with a comprehensive tool for finding new fiction authors in a structured manner, by linking authors that are felt to work in similar areas or styles. The guide aimed to cover both popular and less well-known authors, and to be as concise as possible, since long lists of names do not aid users in the search for books particularly well. In recognition of the changes in popularity of authors over time, the guide did not seek to be a final statement, but rather would be updated regularly, with an interval of three years being envisioned at the time of publication [10]. This need was particularly pointed out by libraries responding to a LISU questionnaire on the need for an updated version of the guide. To quote one of the librarian's comments: " .. Most printed sources have to be updated manually as they aren' t revised frequently enough" [11] . Publication of the new edition was to be in November of 1993, to coincide with National Libraries Week. This was a relatively short timescale, necessitating work on the revision to be undertaken and carried out as swiftly as was possible.
2.6 Compiling The New Edition - Practice Given the scope of the Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors, and the projected length of the second edition (with the number of authors included looking to exceed 1,000), it was clear that the prospective amount of data to be compiled, sorted, revised and edi ted was immense. The complexi ty of cross-checking linkages between authors, with the additional factor of genre specifications, seemed to indicate that tackling the job by hand would be vastly time-consuming, especially considering the number of revisions intended for the text and the publishing deadline. Handling the data manually could be done in several ways with varying degrees of success. On the most basic level, photocopies of the original text could be altered by hand (crossing out and adding authors and genres), and indeed much of the revision of the text was eventually carried out in this way, for reasons
13 noted in chapter 5. A slightly more sophisticated method would be to create a card file, with a separate card for each author, including the genre and list of alternative authors. This would make it easier to search for particular authors, and cards which would become quickly full of crossings out and so on could be easily replaced, which is not necessarily the case for a photocopied sheet wi th the entries for several authors. The card file also clarifies for the creator the discrete references for each of the authors, rather than causing confusion with entries which run over several sides. It was clear that such a laborious manual system of compilation could be improved by applying some form of IT to handle the data, and present it in a useable manner, ideally one that could be checked, edited and printed out in its new form. The most basic way of transferring the information to computer would be to enter it into a word processor, which can easily alter and manipulate data into a print-ready form. Unfortunately this system would prove to be very awkward to check and cross check, possibly even worse than using a pencil and photocopies, .for several reasons. Firstly, the document would be of great length, approaching 200 pages, and although most word processors offer search facilities for particular words, it would be very difficult to check for omissions of authors. For instance, if the creator wanted to check that there was a main entry for Ruth Rendell, a find facility would turn up all of the occurrences of the author as an alternative, but would not stop where the missing main entry should occur. The creator would have to time consumingly scroll through the whole document to find each entry for each author. It is likely that a print-out of the document would have to be constantly cross-checked and updated, which somewhat defeats the object of the exercise. It also goes without saying that a spell-check facility could not be used on a guide composed almost entirely of personal names. Another option would be to input the data into some form of filemaking or spreadsheet package. Whilst such systems have more advanced facilities for finding and sorting data, the compiler of the new guide would still have to do most of the work of
14 turning secondary authors into main entries. What was really required was a package which could be programmed to perform complex operations on the data, from the perspective of the interrelated nature of the information in the guide. The package should also present the data in a clear form, if possible in a way defined by the compiler. If such a friendly package could be found, it should also be possible for the electronic version of the guide to be published as a source in its own right, in addition to the book version of the guide. This possibility is investigated further in chapter 4. To find such a package it was necessary to investigate the concepts of Hypertext, and how these could be applied in real situations. This is the subject of the next chapter of this dissertation.
References [1] Mann, Peter H., A reader's guide to fiction authors. 1985. [2] ibid. [3] Marriott, Richard. Choosing fiction: helping readers to help themselves. 1993. pp. 1-2. [4] LISU, Reader's guide to fiction authors - revised proposal and work plan. 1993. [5] ibid. [G] Huse, Ray. Verbal report to Reader's Guide Steering Group. 1993. [7] LISU, Main points agreed at Reader's Guide Steering Group. 1993. [8] Huse, Ray. op. cit. [9] Marriott, Richard. op. cit. p.G. [10] LISU, Main points agreed at Reader's Guide Steering Group. 1993 [11] Marriott, Richard. op. cit. p.2.
15 Chapter 3 Hypertext - A Brief Conceptual History
3.1 Vannevar Bush And The Memex The idea of Hypertext systems was a product of the evolution of information storage and retrieval, and the problems associated therewith. The underlying concept of Hypertext was first outlined as early as the 1930s by Vannevar Bush, in an article called "As We May Think" [1], which was involved with the way an individual could organize their personal store of information. Bush was concerned with the explosion of information and how it could be organized. In a letter to a funding agency he asserted "Unless we find better ways of handling new knowledge generally as it is developed, we are going to be bogged down ... " [2]. He conceived of a mechanical device, called "the memex", which could be used to retrieve information stored in microfiche form, and could code links between selected items, and thus form a trail of associated information. Bush felt that traditional methods of indexing were too limiting, as alphabetical or numerical arrangement too easily split up related ideas and concepts, and instead he postulated the linking of related items by the user, who could also add footnotes and comments to the information. He saw the trails as being analogous to the mental links between pieces of information in the user's mind, but whereas mental links may decay over time, memex trails would remain, and could be recalled in their entirety at any time. Bush summarized the idea as " ... associati ve indexing ... any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another ... the process of tying two i terns together is the important thing" [3]. The concept of the memex can also be seen as a development from the annotations and footnotes that have been used in paper texts for centuries.
16 3.2 Mechanics To Electronics With the advent of the electronic computer, the possibility arrived for a memex-like system to be developed without intricate mechanics. The term "Hypertext" was coined by Ted Nelson in 1967 to emphasise the fact that text, although physically one dimensional, usually has many internally connected concepts [4]. A simple example would be the theme of this chapter. The concept of an information explosion leads to a mechanical idea of how to store this information (microfiche), and another of how to organize the information (memex). The mechanical storage of information is then superseded by electronic information storage, which could be organized by the concept of Hypertext, which is a descendant of memex. This can be represented by a geometric network: Information Explosion I I I Microfiche (------) Memex I I . Electronic Text (------) Hypertext
Whilst with a traditional method of indexing materials, there might be no connection between articles on these subjects (books on microfiche probably would not be stored next to books on the memex), the concept of Hypertext allows permanent links to be made between the ideas. The user could follow these trails, and add new links and notes with an ease not possible with usual indexing methods. The idea of a computerized Hypertext has three basic features: 1) "Nodes", which are basically data in any form, including text or images. 2) "Links", which connect two nodes. These can either be hierarchical, as with memex and Hypertext, above, or cross referential as with electronic text and hypertext. 3) "Attributes", which are additions to nodes or links, which may just name the node or link, or may perform a certain
17 procedure when activated (such as asking which of several nodes the user wishes to look at, etc.) [5] The entire system must also, obviously, include a software package on which it can run. The first computerized Hypertext system was developed in the 1960s, by Douglas Engelbart, and was called "The Augmentation System". This system involved organizing data into files, from which users could set up directories and indices, which could then be used to navigate between the files. This could be done either by typing or selecting a part of the display [6]. One of the most important developments in the project was the creation of the mouse, which is basically a hand-held keyboard extension. The movement of the mouse controls the movement of an on-screen cursor, and a button on the mouse controls whether the cursor is active or not, allowing parts of the display to be selected with ease, and with the impression of direct manipulation of the data by the user.
3.3 Graphics And The Mouse The invention of the mouse was a large factor in the development of graphical user interfaces, such as Windows, which largely rely on the metaphor of direct manipulation of representations of data by the user. This kind of computer interaction is often cited as the most preferable form for many users, and most importantly for novices to the system. Other methods of interaction, such as using a command language, or menu selections, tend to require more training and familiarity with the tasks to be performed. As Schneiderman states, "Direct manipulation is appealing to novices, easy to remember for intermittent users, and with careful design it can be rapid for frequent users" [7]. The idea of direct manipulation has been a central part of the growth of Apple Macintosh computers, which generally favour the control of on-screen data via Window manipulation, clicking and dragging of Icons by using a Mouse, and utilizing Pull-down menus (the WIMP system). This type of interface is an important part of the Hypercard software system,
18 which will be described later. Direct manipulation, by working in terms of visual representations of data, can also be seen as the fore-runner of virtual reality systems, in which the user is -entirely immersed in visual representations of the information with which they are dealing.
3.4 Levels Of Use As has already been briefly mentioned, the concept of Hypertext may be seen as working at two levels. The first, the "authoring" level, is basically the stage at which data is entered into the system by the user, is edited, links are created, and attributes are added. The second, the "browsing" level, is simply where information may be retrieved by the user through following links in the mass of data. In his original article, Bush saw no divorce between these levels of use, as the system was primarily for personal use, which therefore should always be open to new links and attributes from the user. However, it is easy to see that commercial applications of Hypertext might benefit from restricted access to the authoring level, particularly if the application acts as an important source of reference material for multiple users. It should be noted that an application with no authoring facilities simply becomes a highly structured database, and cannot really be called Hypertext. Probably the best way of maintaining the integrity of a Hypertext document would be a facility to alter the extent of changes a user could make, in accordance with the wishes of the owner of the data.
3.5 Text Vs Hypertext - General One of the most important advantages of Hypertext over hard copy or traditional forms of soft-copy (computerized) text is the ability to organize the text differently depending on the perspective the user is holding at the time. It is important to remember that the text is not in a disorganized state, but rather is multiply-organized. According to the trail being followed,
19 the same user could thread through the same material in several different ways, and get something new out of it every time. For instance, if the user had a collection of writings detailing the lives of great thinkers of the 19th Century, a trail could be laid that showed how ideas developed through the period. Another trail could show parallels between the life experiences of the thinkers, and another could relate certain of the thinkers with other documents detailing the political changes of the 19th century. This ability to connect material in different ways is virtually impossible in hard-copy forms, as physical documents tend to be read in a linear manner, paragraph by paragraph, and even when links are made with other documents, since the links are mental they are subject to decay over time. Adding footnotes and annotations is half a step towards organizing the data, but does ~ot begin to approach the complexity that can be achieved with ease and speed on Hypertext documents. However, this complexity is not achieved without a price. Problems have been noted not only in the current systems which run Hypertext-like environments, but also in the concept of Hypertext itself. Conklin [8], has noted two major problems wi th Hypertext environments: disorientation and cognitive overhead. Disorientation is obviously the possibility that by threading through trails without a steady image of a structured page, the user can lose sense of where they are, and where they are heading. Cognitive overhead refers to "the additional effort and concentration necessary to maintain several tasks or trails at one time" [9]. These problems occur not only to the author creating the Hypertext, but also to the user browsing the document. The author must ensure that all of the linked paths through the data are coherent, whilst the browser must be sufficiently at ease with the system to follow the trails and take in the information. Another problem is common to all soft-copy texts compared to hard-copy and that is the speed of reading and comprehension. Most studies show that reading from paper is faster than reading from a computer screen, and although larger screens can improve reading time, they still do not match paper [10]. There is
20 little doubt that some of the reasons for this are the familiarity of paper, its tangibility/tactile nature,' and its portability. It should be borne in mind that clear screen designs (including layouts and fonts) and speedily responsive systems may improve reading times. As other forms of on-screen writing, such as word processors become more common, users will also become more familiar with reading from VDU screens.
3.6 From Concept To Reality As has been outlined above, Hypertext is a general concept for a way of manipulating and linking data, which could be applied to any reasonably large computer system. However, designing a Hypertext-like software environment, let alone introducing a specific program and set of data to be handled is (as indicated above) very far from a simple task, and indeed requires a formidable degree of familiarity with the particular computer system and with programming in general. Fortunately there are commercially available software systems which create a Hypertext-like software environment, into which a user may introduce her/his own particular data, links and attributes. One of these systems is the Hypercard program.
3.7 What Is Hypercard? Hypercard is a software programme for the Apple Macintosh brand of computers, which embodies many of the concepts of Hypertext. Bill Atkinson, its creator, calls it an "authoring tool and an information organizer" [111. The program basically gives the user an environment where data can be placed, linked, and have various operations performed on it, with the aid of a special programming language designed for Hypercard. Data that has been transformed into Hypercard documents (called "Stacks") by other users can also be used on any Macintosh running Hypercard, allowing information to be easily distributed using floppy disks. The clearest metaphor for the way Hypercard organises the presentation of data is that of a card file: each card (which is usually the size of the VDU screen) may hold a piece or group of data (the node), which can be connected
21 (linked) with any other piece of data on any other card by a short program in the "Hypertalk" scripting language (which controls the attributes). The author may thus create a network of information through which a user may move, to search for the data they require. The group of cards is called a stack. Given the "friendly" environment of Apple Macintosh computers, learning the basics of Hypercard is relatively easy. The familiar WIMP interface is maintained, and a short guide to Hypercard is included with the program, which familiarizes the user with many of the facilities available. There are five main elements to the Hypercard system: 1) Stacks. As already noted, these are Hypercard documents, consisting of a number of cards (always at least one), usually with a common theme. 2) Backgrounds. As the name suggests, a background is a basic layout shared by a number of cards, and may consist of graphics, fields, and buttons. A "calendar" stack, for example, would have a background grid for the days in each month, and a space for the name of the month, the details of which would be filled in on each of the twelve cards individually. 3) Cards. The basic location for data, which can be in the form of graphics, text, and even sound and video. 4) Fields. A field is a container for text, which can be manipulated by the user. Fields can be placed on cards or backgrounds. 5) Buttons. A button, as the name suggests, is a region of the card which can be activated by clicking on it with the mouse to perform a particular function (such as moving to another card, or finding a piece of data). Again, buttons can be placed on cards or backgrounds.
Hypertalk scripts, which the user may write to perform different functions, may be attached to any of these elements of Hypercard, making the system very flexible. The Hypercard software also includes a "Help" stack, whose purpose is obvious, and includes the guide to Hypercard mentioned
22 above, a message box, which the user can type Hypertalk commands in to for immediate effect, and a "Home" stack. This is a special group of cards which includes a visual display of the most commonly used stacks, and "preference" cards, which allow the user to control how much of Hypercard's capabilities can be used. For instance, if the author wishes to prevent other users from changing the backgrounds of cards etc., s/he may set the level of control to "Browsing", which only allows the stack to be looked at, not altered. This facility can be extremely useful, as mentioned in the "Levels Of Use" section. Hypercard is thus a very powerful software program, which represents data in a way very close to the concept of Hypertext. The next chapter of this dissertation deals with why Hypercard was chosen for this particular project, and draws out the differences, from the reader's point of view, between a text guide and a Hypertext guide.
References [1] Bush, V., Aswe//laythink, Atlantic Monthly. July 1945, reprinted in: Lambert, S. and Ropiequet, 5., eds, CD-ROM: the new papyrus. the current and future state of the art. 1986, pp.3-20 [2] Bush, V., Extract from a letter to a funding body, printed in: Rada, R. Hypertext: from text to expertext. 1991, p.70 [ 3] Bush, V. , As we //lay think. op. cit. p.16 [ 4] Rada, R. op. cit. p.1 [ 5] ibid. p.25 [6] ibid. p.23 [7] Schneiderman, B., Designing the user interface. 1986, p.60 [8] Conklin, J., Hypertext: an introduction and survey, Computer. 1987, 20 (9 ), pp. 1 7 - 41 [9] ibid. p.40 [ 1 0] Rada, R., op. ci t. p. 1 3 [ 11] Goodman, D. The original conversation with Bill Atkinson, in: Goodman, D. The complete HyperCard 2.0 handbook, 3rd ed. 1990, p.851
23 Chapter 4 The User And The Hypercard Guide
4.1 Why Use Hypercard? The decision to use Hypercard for this project was based on several factors. The most decisive factor was, of course, the fact that Hypercard was readily available to the author, and immediately seemed to be appropriate for the kind of data handling that needed to be undertaken. One of the most important aspects of the theory of Hypertext is the ability to organize and structure data, which was obviously an important part of revising the Reader's Guide, bearing in mind the quantity of information involved. The "friendly" Macintosh environment enabled experimental structures to be created and tested very rapidly, which was particularly crucial given the short timescale of the project. Given the possibility that the Hypertext guide could become a commercial proposition in its own right, it should also be noted that Hypercard allows for improvements to the program in the future, by adding external routines (called XCMDs) written by an experienced programmer, which would improve the speed and performance of the guide.
4.2 Organization Of The Guide The original book-format Reader's Guide to Fiction Authors was organized in a very simple form. The main authors were listed alphabetically, each with a number of alternative authors shown next to their name. Pages from the first edition of the guide are shown overleaf (figure 1). Since the authors did not have equal numbers of alternatives, several authors may appear on one page, but only one on another (pages 76 and 77), which may be slightly distracting for the reader, particularly in view of the many alternatives sometimes given (41 for Winston Graham) and the surname-first format. The basic application of the Hypercard system to the Reader's Guide is perhaps obvious. Each card could
24 Figure 1: Pages From The First Edition Of The Reader's Guide
GORDIMER, Nadlne Smith. Wllbur Saldwin. James Steen, Marguerite Sanks, lynne Reid Thompson, Kate Bellow. Salll Van Del" Post. taurens Brink. Andre ** White, Patrick 8rophy, Brigid Cary. Joyce GORDON, Katharlne Cloete, Stuart Gordimer. Nadine Drabble. Margaret * Hasters. John (mecheta. Buchi Godden. Rumer GORDON, Mary Gordon, Katharine O'Brien, Edna Hux1ey. Elspeth Jacobson. Dan GORDON, Richard Jaffe. Rana erenin, A.J. Jhabvala. Ruth Prawer ** Dl~ckens. Monica Joubert. EIsa Thomas. Les1 ie Kaye. M.M. Updike. John lee. Harper Wodehouse. P.G. * lessing. Doris ... Verb"~ Frank Manning.Ollvia Masters, John GOUDGE, Elizabeth Morri son, Ton i Bentley, Ph,l1is * Hortimer, Penelope De La Roche. Mazo Murdoch, Iris Dickens. Monica * Naipaul, V.S .• Du Mallrier. Oaphne * Packer. Joy· Graham, W1nston paton. Alan • Manning, Olivia Rubens. Berntce Seton, Anya • Schreiner. Olive Steef\ Marguerite Scott, Paul Stewart,Mary Slaughter. Carolyn
76 77
GOULD, Lols Kaye, H.H. Francis, Dick laker, Rosalind llewellyn. Richard GOWER, Iris Macdonald, Malcolm Cookson, Catherine Qu1g1ey, John Salisbury. Carola GRAHAM, Wlnstan Shears. Sarah Ambler. Eric Shute. Nevl1 Archer. Jeffrey Smith. Wilbur Bates. H.E. Stewart, Mary Bentley, Phyll is Thompson, Kate Bragg, Melvyn Trollope, Anthony Canning. Victor Val Baker. Oenys Carr. Phl1 ippa West, Morris Cleary. Jon Whitney, Phyllis A. Cordell, Alexander Yerby, Frank Craddock. Fanny De la Roche, Mazo ••• GRANT, MJxwe 11 Du Maurier. Oaphne ••• Cleary, Jon Ounnett. Oorothy Eden. Doro thy GRASS, GUnter Fast, Howard Bellow. Sail! Gallico. Paul Updlke. John Ga I sworthy. John Gaskin. Catherine GREENE, Graham Golon. Sergeanne Bellow, Saul Goudge, El izabeth De Polnay. Peter Greene, Graham Golding. W111iam Hardwick, Hollie Hemingway, Ernest ••• le Carre, John •• Hill. Pamela " Jacob, Naoml Maugham, W. Somerset •• Jagger, Brenda Orwell, George • ,. 25 carry. the record for each main author, with the list of similar wri ters . The computer could be programmed to search for a particular author the user specified, or the user could browse through the guide like a card file. This simple format would replicate all of the information contained in the guide, but whether this new format would be particularly useable is another matter.
4.3 Text Vs. Hypertext - Specifics It is worth briefly illustrating the relative advantages and disadvantages of paper and Hypercard to the project at this point. Probably the greatest advantage of paper is that it is a familiar format, especially for fiction-reading library users. Since the guide is not intended to be read cover-to-cover, but rather is an "index of possibilities" the fact that users are familiar with finding information in books may be seen as an advantage. The printed form allows a reader to flip quickly through the text and with the alphabetical layout find the author(s) s/he is interested in relatively quickly. However in some ways this strictly alphabetical sequence replicates the problems of the A-Z sequence of authors. Readers may become confused or distracted by the quantity of information provided - was it Richard Adams or Robert Adams I was looking for? Ellis or Elizabeth Peters? - due to the way the text consists of nothing but lists of names. In particular where a list of alternatives stretches over more than one page the reader could be disorientated in their search. By restricting each author to a single card, or screen, Hypercard may somewhat alleviate this problem. However a primi ti ve text-to-computer straight conversion would produce more navigation problems than it would solve. Figure 2 shows an image of such a primitive design. To see the disadvantages, one merely needs to imagine the reader wishes to see the entry for Craig Thomas - the "next" button would have to be activated several hundred times to get there! This problem is, of course, easily overcome by adding a "search" button, which
26 F igu •• 2! Primitive Screen Design For Hypercard Guide
AUTHOR Marian BABSON
VOU MIGHT LIKE: Catherine AI Margery ALLlNGHAM Josephine BELL Nicholas BLAKE Christianna BRAND John Dickson CARR Raymond CHANDLER James Hadley CHASE G.K. CHESTERTON Peter CHEYNEY Mary Higgins CLARK
27 allows the user to specify the name of the author they wish to look up, and which will take them straight to the desired record. But again, supposing the reader cannot remember the exact name of the author? Could the reader browse through the records as quickly as they could flip through a book? At this point the possibilities of Hypertext come into play, which allow the format of the Reader's Guide to be greatly extended.
4.4 Extensions To The Guide In Hypercard Whilst the user may use the "previous" and "next" buttons to browse through records of authors in the vicinity of the one they are currently looking at, as though turning one page at a time, it is likely the user would very quickly tire of this form of navigation. An obvious way to increase the speed of browsing would be to provide an index of authors, a step which would be unnecessary in the original hard-copy because of the ease of scanning quickly all of the pages. Access to the index must be available on each card, and it was eventually decided that a thumb-index along the side of each card (see figure 3) would be the easiest and least distracting way of providing such a facili ty. Rather than acting as a thumb-index in a physical book, which just marks the first entry under each letter of the alphabet, the thumb index in Hypercard can take the user to a screen displaying a scrolling index of all the authors under the letter (see figure 4). This format was chosen due to the large number of authors in the guide, which meant that merely moving to the first author in an alphabetical sequence would still be likely to leave the user some way from the author desired, and a display of the index within the screen currently viewed would be completely impractical. This clearly necessi tates a second group, or stack, of cards to be created, each identified by a letter of the alphabet and containing all of the relevant authors. It should once again be possible to move through this stack backwards and forwards, as well as via the thumb-index, and also to search for authors in the main stack. The index should also be less distracting for
28 Figure 3: Primitive Screen Design With Search Button And Thumb Index
...... , ...... , ...... , . ;..: : ...... : : : : : : ...... A
S:: AUTHOR Clive BARKER : : : . : <:J L> ~ =...... DE r: : ...... : : : : : : Prey NexL:a::Xl: I-7F~ : : : : : : : : : ...... &: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :: G H Search :: VOU MIGHT LIKE: I J Richard BACH MAN .0 :::::: K Stephen KING l Dean R. KOONTZ M W o P Q A S T U U W -0 :::::: H Y £1 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Z
29 Figure 4: Primitive Screen Design For Author Index
A B AUTHOR INDEX C A o E Click on any author: F G Peter ACKROYD H Douglas ADAMS I Robert ADAMS J Joan AIKEN K Search L Brian W ALDISS ( ) M Ted ALLBEURY N Charlotte Vale ALLEN o Margery ALLlNGHAM p Eric AMBLER Q R Kingsley AMIS S Martin AMIS T Poul ANDERSON U Lucilla ANDREWS V W Virginia ANDREWS X Evelyn ANTHONY Y Piers ANTHONY Z
30 the reader to use, as the names of the authors would not be interrupted by long lists of alternatives: it would just consist of the authors who have main entries in an alphabetical sequence. Another important extension to the guide would be the possibility of providing a genre index for the authors listed. This is likely to be very useful to the reader, as noted in chapter 2, since many users prefer to choose books by the genre the author is working in. The possibility of providing a list of authors working in. a particular genre has many pitfalls, as previously noted, but such an extension would be extremely useful, as it would provide readers with an additional cue to the type of book the author deals with, and would be an extra way of navigating through the guide. Since genres are to be provided in the new edition of the guide, the same principles used in the author index could be applied to the genre index. Whereas a thumb-index is not applicable, a list of the genres used in the guide could be displayed, leading to another stack of cards, each representing a genre, with all the relevant authors listed again in a scrolling field (see figure 5). Again the same functions as performed in the rest of the guide should be available in this stack.
31 Figure 5: Primitive Screen Design For Genre Index
GENRE INDEX B C D Adventure I E F Click on an author: G H Ted ALLBEURY I Eric AMBLER J Evelyn ANTHONY K Jeffrey ARCHER ( Search ) L M Desmond BAGLEY '-----J N John BUCHAN o Victor CANNING p Leslie CHARTERIS Q James CLAVELL R S Jon CLEARY T Francis CLlFFORD U Richard CON DON V Bernard CORNWELL W X Clive CUSSLER Y Len DEIGHTON
32 4.5 Navigating Through The Lists As previously mentioned, the main problem with a computerized guide is the inability to skip very quickly through the screens, as one would in a card catalogue. Although the above mentioned extensions go some way to remedying the situation, it is still the case that movement through the system would be extremely tedious if the "Author Search" button had to be used every time the user wished to look up a particular author already displayed on the screen. This situation is likely to occur not only in the indexes, but also in the main body of the guide, if the user wished to investigate one of the particular alternative authors listed. To alleviate this problem, it was decided that all of the information areas contained in the guide, that is the author lists, genre lists, A-Z lists, genre designations et al. should be "active" areas, that is, if the user clicks on the piece of information s/he will be immediately taken to the relevant screen. For instance, whilst in the author index, the user could click directly on the name of the author they wanted to look at, and be taken immediately to main entry card for the author. This enhancement clearly improves the useability of the guide tremendously, and indeed is one of the friendliest features of the guide.
4.6 Hardcopy From Softcopy? Another problem of a computerized guide compared to a book version is the lack of portability of a computer. Whilst a reader may look up an author, and then keep her/his thumb in the book while searching the shelves so they don't forget the author's name, this is not possible on a computer! . This is a particular difficulty if a large number of alternative authors are suggested, since human short-term memory is generally agreed to hold a limit of seven, plus or minus two, items [11. A list of 41 authors obviously could not be searched for, and the process of selecting and discarding authors to look for is likely to reduce memory retention even further. Theoretically this problem could easily be turned to an advantage by simply
33 attaching a printer to the computer, and writing a short routine which would print the list of alternative authors for the reader to take to the shelves. This approach combines the power and conciseness of the computer with the handiness of a booklist on a bookmark. The borrower could simply cross out the authors of no interest (for instance those already investigated) without damaging the guide, and the problem of borrowers wandering off with the book version looking for authors, and depriving others, would be avoided. However, printers are not cheap, and can often be a noisy distraction in a library situation, and so the pros and cons of a printing facility must be weighed carefully. Part of the advantage of a computerized system is that facilities such as printing could be provided as standard on the package, but could easily be removed by the particular library if they did not suit their situation.
4.7 Natural Language Order Finally, one of the more basic ideas for changing the guide, but possibly one of the most obvious, would be to have the authors' names displayed in natural language order, that is, "Barbara Taylor Bradford" rather than "Bradford, Barbara Taylor". Clearly natural order makes the names of authors easier to read and remember, especially as the central purpose of the guide is to give readers ideas for new authors to borrow. It is evident that trying to remember several normal names will be easier than names that have been reversed. This does, however, bring the problem that readers may not know under which letter of the alphabet to look for authors with three or more parts to their names, as with Barbara Taylor Bradford, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With this in mind it was decided that surnames should be capitalized, and forenames left in lower case, thus: Barbara Taylor BRADFORD, Gabriel GARCIA MARQUEZ. Capitalization would also make the task of compiling the guide less awkward than it otherwise would be, both in Hypercard and in the printed version, as the authors would be less likely to get lost in the mass of information.
34 This chapter has considered in some detail how a computerized guide would have to look and perform so that normal library borrowers could use it. The next chapter will consider how such a facility could aid the compiler of new editions of the guide, with particular reference to the updated second edition of the Reader's Guide.
Reference [1] Schneiderman, B. Software psychology. 1980, p.224.
35 Chapter 5 The Compiler And The Hypercard Guide
5.1 Hypercard As An Information Handler The major difficulty with compiling a guide to fiction authors, as noted in chapter 2, is the fact of the vast amount of data to be handled and manipulated. Given that the final document is likely to run to over 200 pages, with all of the authors cross-linked many times, checking the document for consistency, let alone altering connections and designations, is very likely to be an overwhelming task. However, if the guide was held in the form of a Hypercard document, the compiler could navigate through the data in a similar way to that explained in the previous chapter, and make adjustments or corrections to the data quickly and easily.
5.2 Navigation And Correction For The Compiler Adjustments to the guide can be most easily described by way of an example. Suppose under the main heading for a particular author, there are five alternative authors. From his own knowledge of the authors, the compiler decides that the fifth alternative should be removed, and replaced by another, author. Simply by typing in the name of the main author, the compiler would be shown instantly the card holding the information, rather than having to search through sheaves of loose photocopies. The compiler may then delete and add the authors. It is then possible for the compiler, by clicking on the name of the new author, to move to the main entry card for that writer, to check that the link between the authors is consistent, and adjust the information if it is not. Similarly, the compiler can also look at the card for the author removed from the list, to ensure that the link is removed from both ends. This ease of navigation also makes it easy to correct any typographical errors that have arisen during compilation.
36 Such correctional facilities are likely to be particularly important when revising the guide from corrections made by other librarians (see chapter 2). Whereas a paper copy of the guide would quickly become covered with corrections and recorrections (since there will be alterations from ten different library authorities), there is theoretically no limit to the number of additions possible on each card, by using a scrolling field, and the compiler could keep a record of links thought to be dubious by retaining them in a temporary "In Progress" field. The virtually unlimited size of the document (only restricted by the amount of memory available on the computer) means that the compiler can also use the guide as a ready notebook for ideas, as well as purely holding data. A "Comments" field on each card would provide a facility for holding any notes or observations relevant to each author, for reasonings behind some of the connections, or could possibly hold a list of works, as an aide memoire to the kinds of novels written. The compiler may also print out selected cards from the guide (a particular nexus of related authors, for instance), for work away from the computer, or for perusal by an expert in a particular field. The author and genre indexes outlined in the previous chapter would also greatly aid the compiler when checking through the guide. Any multiple entries for authors because of variant spellings would be immediately obvious in the index, and the compiler would be able to check quickly and easily the genre designations, by scrolling through each genre card. Once again, these sections of the guide could be printed out to give a concise overview of the makeup of the guide, or for organizing and marking how revisions are proceeding. It is important to bear in mind that having such a familiar and tactile object as a print-out to hand would enhance the comfort and confidence the user would feel with the guide, and therefore is likely to make compilation of the guide a less arduous task. Before these facilities may be realized, however, the guide must be transformed into a Hypercard document.
37 5.3 Creation Of A Hypercard Document There are basically two stages involved in creating a Hypercard document, that is, deciding on and creating a format for the data to be held in, and inputting the data. If a guide was to be entirely created on Hypercard, the author could devise a basic card layout, and simply type in the information for the basic core authors of the guide. This data could then easily be manipulated, extended, printed out, or placed in a wordprocessing file for detailed formatting. With some experience of the Hypercard environment, routines could be scripted to create main entries for the subsidiary authors, and generate author and genre indexes. The actual process used to create a Hypercard environment for the guide is discussed in detail in the next chapter. One of the advantages of using Hypercard is that the basic design may be reused when compiling subsequent editions of the guide, and modified for any enhancements to be added. For instance, if a new edition was to be published from the comments received by the publisher, and with an extra synopsis of the type of book written by each author added, the corrections could be easily entered into the original guide, and an extra field to hold the synopsis data could be added.
5.4.1 Compiling The Guide - Theory Although it was decided that it would be most desirable to use Hypercard in the compilation of the new edition of the guide, the extent of use of the facility was severely limited by the circumstances in which the guide was being revised. The compiler, Roy Huse, unfortunately had no access to any Apple Macintosh computers, let alone the Hypercard software necessary to run the database structure postulated. However, the case for using some form of IT in production of the guide was so strong, it was decided to proceed in the creation of the guide in a slightly more fragmented way. It was therefore agreed that Huse should manually compile the data received from the first group of Library Authorities consulted, which would then be sent to
38 Loughborough for entry into the Hypercard structure by the author. The Hypercard software would be used to create main entries for all of the subsidiary authors, to check for the consistent spelling of authors' names, to check links between authors, and insert any missing cross-links. This enhanced document would then be checked manually for errors, and assessed for the usefulness of Hypercard in creating the guide. It is clear that in the event of the database being completely inadequate to the task of aiding in production of the guide, this should be discovered quickly, so that alternative possibilities may be considered and set in action. Any necessary minor alterations to the Hypercard environment, if satisfactory, would then be affected. When the document had been revised by the second set of Library Authorities, the new data would then be entered into the revised Hypercard structure, and have the above operations performed on it. This enhanced version of the guide would be transformed into a wordprocessed file, and once again be printed out, to be checked manually by Huse. This latter stage would be in order to both clear up any remaining inaccuracies, and to conform with the original intention of the guide to have no less than three and no more than twelve alternatives for each author. With the final corrections made to the wordprocessed document, the main body of the guide would be ready for publication.
5.4.2 Compiling The Guide - Reality This process was largely conformed to, despite the apparently long-winded nature of the revision, since manually creating main entries, and cross-linking authors, would take many more hours than the publishing deadline allowed for. Clearly had the compiler had access to Hypercard, the revision would have been much swifter, since the data comprising the guide would have been compiled as it arrived back from the Library Authori ties, rather than in one block, thus increasing the compiler's control over the data, and possibly eliminating the need for the final manual check. In actuality, when the
39 -'corrected listings were received from the first group of Library Authorities, the corrections were manually made to photocopies of the guide, as postulated in chapter 2, and the document was then retyped and sent to LISU. The text was then scanned in to a Word (a brand of wordprocessor) file, which was then imported into the Hypercard environment. The same process was followed for the alterations received from the second group of Library Authorities. 1 It was found that Hypercard did indeed prove to be a useful environment for controlling the data, as the process of creating main entries and cross-linking authors took the computer just under three hours to perform, rather than the several days or weeks the process would have taken manually. Indeed, Roy Huse noted that he had initially attempted to perform some of the cross-linking operation on the first draft of the revision, but had had to abandon the attempt, as it quickly became clear that the task was too huge, complex and time-consuming to be attempted \ purely manually [11. The method of holding data for each author on discrete cards also aided in the checking of the guide, as it simplified the ;, task of finding the links between the authors, and the fast search facility for looking up authors made it extremely quick l to check for authors that had been omitted. Perhaps some of the value of the Hypercard system can be seen by noting that in the first stage of revision 32 typographical errors were found, and in the second stage a further 61 errors were discovered. Given the fact that a conventional spell-check could not have distinguished the names, this facility alone is very important in compiling the guide, although it should be stressed that not every error will have been noted. The way in which these \I 1 typographical errors were isolated is described in chapter 7. \
I j
40 5.5 Conclusion And Brief Recommendations For Compilation A Hypercard guide, then, is an extremely powerful tool with which the compiler of a Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors can handle, manipulate and produce data many times more quickly and easily than otherwise would be possible. There are several procedural alterations to the creation of the guide which should be recommended, however. 1 ) It is clearly desirable for the compiler of the guide to have constant access to the Hypercard Guide. Ideally the revision of the Guide would be performed almost entirely on computer, since it would enable the compiler to change and manipulate the data much more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. However, this would depend on how comfortable the compiler was with the Hypercard system. Since a working Hypercard Guide already exists, the compiler would not have to become involved with the actual programming and creation of the Guide, but could rather work with the existing Guide and alter the data in it, rather than starting the Guide almost from scratch, as was the case for the second edition. It would perhaps be desirable to have a Hypercard expert working with the compiler, or on call at all times, to help the compiler to use and adapt the Guide. 2) It is also recommended that the automatic cross-linking facility of the Guide (descrioed in chapter 7) be used when each stage of the revision of the Guide has been completed. That is, when the compiler has completed the initial revision of the entries in the Guide, all of the authors should have their cross-links checked (and any omitted should be added) and all authors should be given main entries. This enhanced text should then be sent out for checking by the first group of librarians, rather than an unlinked version, as it is a more complete representation of the data. Any desirable alterations from this group of librarians should then be entered, and the cross-linking performed again, before being sent out to a second group of librarians for comments. The extended versions of the text, having a larger number of main entries, would be more
41 fertile documents for the librarians to assess, as each of the authors would be considered individually rather than as a part of a chain of alternatives. These recommendations aim to improve the speed and ease of compiling the Guide, through streamlining the method by which it is created. Two flow diagrams (figures 6 and 7), showing how the revision proceeded for the second edition, and how these recommendations would alter the process in the future, are given overleaf. It should be noted that operating from the Hypercard environment gives the compiler more control over the form of the data, as it may be organized and manipulated in many ways. For instance, the compiler could instruct the computer to sort the authors by the size of their entries, so that those authors with few alternatives could be considered together. As previously noted, the guide could also be designed so as to be useable by librarians and the general public, making Hypercard a suitable format in which the guide may actually be published, alongside a hardcopy version. This particular possibility was researched by field-testing the Hypercard guide, as described in chapter 8. However, before this can be considered, the actual design and workings of the Hypercard system must be described.
Reference [1] Huse, Roy. Verbal Report to Readers Guide Steering Group. 1993.
42 Figure 6: Process Of Compiling Second Edition Of Reader's Guide
List Of Core Authors Drawn Up On Paper I Initial Alternatives Listed And Manually Typed I Photocopied Text Sent Out To First Group Of Librarians I Alterations Assimilated On Paper Copy I Altered Document Typed Up Manually I Document Entered On To Word Processor, Printed Out I [ Data Entered Into Hypercard Guide, Cross-Links Added Text Sent Out To Second I Group Of Librarians Data Transferred Into Word Processor
New Alterations Assimilated On Photocopy Of Word Processed Document I Altered Document Typed Up On Word Processor I Data Entered Into Hypercard Guide, Cross-Links Added I Data Transferred Into Word Processor I Final Revisions Made By Hand On Paper Copy I Final Corrections Made To Word Processor File, Document Formatted For publication.
43 Figure 7: Proposed Process Of Compiling Future Editions Of Reader's Guide
Existing Hypercard Guide Assessed By Compiler I Initial Corrections And Alterations Made To Hypercard Guide, Cross-Links Added I Data Transferred Into Word Processor, Document Printed out I Document Sent Out To First Group Of Librarians I Alterations Assimilated On To Hypercard Guide, Cross-Links Added I Data Transferred Into Word Processor, Document Printed Out I Document Sent Out To Second Group Of Librarians I Alterations Assimilated On To Hypercard Guide, Cross-Links Added I Final Revision Made To Hypercard Guide I Data Transferred Into Word Processor, Document Formatted For Publication.
44 Chapter 6 Design And Scripts Of The Hypercard Guide
6.1 Format And Presentation Of Data The preceding chapters have described at some length the various features necessary for a Hypercard guide to function usefully and informatively. This chapter describes the way these principles were applied to the practical creation of a guide. First and foremost, the guide had to present the data in a clear legible manner, and every part of the guide had to be immediately accessible for consultation. These considerations meant that screens displaying the data should not appear to be cluttered, the fonts used should be large and relatively simple, and all of the data should be clearly labelled on screen. To this end the standard Macintosh font (Geneva) was used for most of the basic information displayed on screen (author, genre designation and alternatives), and was also used in an emboldened form to label the pieces of data. This font is relatively clear and plain, and was used in its standard (12 pixel) size. One other font, Palatino 12, was used for the genre list and the thumb index part of the display, in order to differentiate these functional sections from the labels on the screen. It was decided that the guide should occupy the whole of the available space on screen (512 x 384 pixels on the Macs used to develop the system), and that since all the necessary aids to navigation and control of the guide were to appear on each card, the menu bar across, the top of the screen could be dispensed with. It is worth noting that the menu bar can be summoned at any point by pressing Command ( ) and the space bar. In order to give a clear cue to the' user as to how the information should be read, the pieces of information and the labels were placed in boxes, rather than floating free on the screen. It was decided that the background of the cards should be left plain, rather than having a wallpaper-like pattern as with the figures in chapter 2, as these can be distracting, and
45 even irritating to the eye if the guide is used over a long period of time. This is partly due to the fact that Hypercard only operates in black and white, and whereas colourful displays may set off data, patterns of the same tone as the data can cause distractions. As previously noted, the active areas of the cards are known as buttons, and it was decided that these control sections of the display should be grouped together on the right hand side of the display. This is because in English information is read from left to right, so the user of the guide will normally perceive the data more readily if it is placed on the left, as this is from where the eye naturally begins to scan a page. Obviously the same idea applies to the top-bottom orientation of the data also: it is clearly more sensible to place important data (such as the name of the current author, and the local navigation buttons) near the top of the screen rather than at the bottom. On the most basic level, the guide was organized into four stacks of information. The first and most important was the "Authors A-Z" stack, which contained the main entries for all of the authors. The next two were the author index ("Index") and genre index ("Gindex") stacks, the purpose of which is obvious. Finally a fourth stack, "Cover" contained a title card for the Guide, a menu card, and a series of "Help" cards.
6.2 The Buttons - Theory In order to navigate quickly and easily through the guide, there are a number of buttons essential on every screen. The most basic way of navigating through the data is with the "Previous" and "Next" buttons. When clicked on, these simply display the card either immediately before or after the one currently viewed, in the alphabetical sequence. As noted in chapter 2, however, this type of navigation is extremely cumbersome when used on its own. An "Author Search" button allows the user to type in the name of an author of interest, and immediately takes the user to the relevant card. The two types of extra searching postulated in chapter 2, by an author index and a genre index, may be achieved by selecting the appropriate
46 section of the index from a constant display of all of the alternatives, held in two fields, to access the appropriate index. A "Back" button allows the user to look at the card previously visited, and to trace back the path of a search by being clicked on repeatedly. This is particularly useful when the user is hoping between indexes and the main body of the guide. In addition to these navigation aids, a "Help" button takes the user to a separate sections of the guide, detailing how to use the various facilities and buttons. A "print" button, obviously, prints out the data held on the particular card of the guide, and an "Edit" button allows the user to alter the data held on the card. A "Menu" button gives the user a quick menu of the possible ways to look for an author. Finally, although not strictly speaking a button, the user may click on any of the authors listed as alternatives, and be taken instantly to the main entry card for that author. The final layout for these buttons and the information held on the card, for the main body of the guide, is shown in figure 8. This layout is more suitable for use by librarians and the public than the compiler of the guide, as it does not have distracting comments fields or "in progress" fields. These could easily be added, however, simply by slightly rearranging the layout. There are ten fields used, five labelling sections of the display ("Author", "Genre", "You might like", "Click to see" and "The Genres are"), three holding the actual data from the guide (author name, genre designation and alternatives) and the other two holding the names of all the genres used, and the letters of the alphabet for access to the author index. Figures 9 and 10 show the layoqt for the basic cards of the genre and author indexes. The right hand side control area is the same as that for the main body of the guide, except the print button has been removed. The left hand side consists of four fields: the name of the index (Author or Genre), the name of the genre (field "gen") or letter of the alphabet (field "bet"), a labelling field ("Click on any author") and a scrolling field containing names of authors ("Gindex") or authors and genres ("Index 1").
47 Figure 8: Final Screen Layout Of Hypercard Guide, Main Section
I G e n re: I...... g!l.nr.!l ... f.i.~.!g...... 1 Author Search ....L ...h.. You might like: I (Click to see) ? .~ [l)i~~i ..! .. L.LJ ~ ~ ...... ~Hel Edit 'Print JL The Genres are: ....L ...!! .. ... ~l.. alternatives field ... ~ .. .. I.L . .. ..t...... g~nr.g .. ~.il?..f.j.gl.g ...... J ...... ~ .. . rq::::J ...... t ""=" ru ...... !01 ... o First Page ...... 48 Figure 9: Final Screen Layout 01 Hypercard Guide, Author Index AUTHOR INDEX «Slml2)l ...... "bet" ~~~ ...... J .. .. Click on any author: Author Search ...h ...... M .. n;'-' ..m .. ~'91 ... l;! .. Edit ... 1... The Genres are: ... !L .. ,f,t . ... ~ ...... 1L "lndex1" field .... L ...... g~!J.r.~ ..~.ip...f.!.~!.g ...... 1...... ~ ...... l ...... !,t. 49 Figure 10: Final Screen Layout Of Hypercard Guide, Genre Index GENRE INDEX r 0 50 6.3 The Background The actual process of creating a screen layout is very simple in Hypercard. Since the basic layout was reused on many cards (one for each author) the design was created on the "background" level. When a background has been created, every new card added to the stack will have the same background, unless another new background is created. Once in the background mode, buttons and fields can be added with the "New button" and "New field" menu options, and positioned on the screen with the standard "clicking and dragging" manipulation technique. They may also be altered in size via a similar process with the mouse, have their appearance and properties altered, and be given individual names. This is done by double-clicking on the object, upon which a series of check-boxes and options are presented, which allow the shape of the object to be changed, and such properties as whether the name of the button is displayed, or whether a field is scrolling to be altered. From this point, scripts, or software routines, may be added to the object. From figures 8, 9 and 10 it may be seen that the buttons are all of a "round rectangle" shape, and all of the fields are plain rectangles, except the alternatives fields which are scrolling. It should also be noted that scripts can be attached to the background associated with any number of cards, and also that cards can be individually named (although the name does not actually appear on the card itself). 6.4.1 The Scripts Any area of the screen display that performs a function, that is most buttons and some fields, must have scripts attached to them to carry out the function. In Hypercard the scripts may be written in the Hypertalk language. The following section explains in general terms how the scripts used in the guide work. The actual scripts themselves may be found in Appendix 1, due to the extreme length of some functions. However, first it must be explained how Hypercard handles the messages sent to it from the mouse. The mouse constantly sends messages to the computer 51 ~ reporting on its status, whether it is idle, if it's cursor is within the area of a button, whether its own button is held down, or released. Scripts work by being triggered when a certain condi tion is met: the condi tion "on mouseUp" means that the script is run when the mouse button is released while the cursor is within the area of the object to which the script is attached. The "on mousewithin" condition is met whenever the mouse cursor is within the object area, and the "on mouseLeave" when the cursor moves outside of the object area. These are the key conditions used by the guide. 6.4.2 Button Scripts All of the buttons, with the exception of the "Edit" button, have the following pair of scripts attached to them: on mouseWithin set hilite of me to true end mousewithin on mouseLeave set hilite of me to false end inouseLeave These scripts simply invert the button (that is, the usual black text on a white button becomes white text on a black button) when the cursor is over the button, and turns the button back to its normal condition when the mouse moves away from the button. This acts as a simple visual cue to the user that the mouse cursor is positioned correctly clicking. The "Previous" and "Next" buttons have very simple scripts to perform their functions. Since all of the cards in the Hypercard guide are arranged in alphabetical order, the script simply issues a command to "go prev" or "go next" which automatically displays the relevant card. The hilite of the button is reset to "false", and a visual effect is utilized which makes the screen go blank as though it has been wiped to the right or left (for previous or next respectively) and then displays the new card. This effect is important because all of the cards have the same background, so it must be emphasised that a new card is being presented. The script for the "Back" button 52 is very similar to that of the "Previous" and "Next" buttons, the only difference being that an "iris open" visual effect is used (which is fairly self-explanatory), and the command "go back" is issued, which is standard in Hypertalk for showing the previous card looked at by the user. The Menu button is called "First Page", to give the guide the metaphorical image of a book. The "dissolve" visual effect is used, the hilite of the button reset, and the system is instructed to display the card named "Explanation" in the stack "Cover", shown in figure 11. This gives a brief explanation of the guide and a menu of options. The script for the "Help" button is slightly more complex than those previously considered. The last three lines of the script are similar to those of the "First page" button, instructing the card "Primer" in the stack "Cover" to be shown (this card is the first of the help screens). However, before this is done, the system places the name of the card currently displayed and the stack it is from into two "Global" variables ("ping" and "pong"), and sets the value of another Global variable ("trip") to 1. Normal variables are reset when jumping between stacks, but Global variables retain their data. When the user is in the Help section of the guide, the system checks to see if the Global variable "trip" has a value of 1. If it has, the system knows that the Help section has been accessed from within the guide rather than from the Menu screen, and displays a button for the user to return to the card from which they entered. This button "Return to where you left", simply displays the card specified by the two Global variables "ping" and "pong" when it is activated. The script for the "Print" button simply puts all of the data to be printed into a variable and then prints the variable. It is not possible to just print the whole card holding the data as seen on screen, since many authors have more alternatives than will fit on the card (hence the use of a scrolling field), and some printers will not reproduce the boxes used on the cards. putting the data into the variable ("printa") is a three stage process: a label for the data is placed in the variable, the data 53 Figure 11: The Menu Screen The Reader's Guide To Fiction You can also print out a list of Authors is here to help you writers to help you look for find the kind of books that you them. want to read. Almost everyone has several favourite writers, For help on using the guide but what happens when you click here. have read all of their novels, or you can't find them on the library shelves? This guide To look for an author will give you the names of click here. authors who write in a similar area to that of your favourite To look at the indeH author. You can browse click here. through an index of all the authors listed, or of the To look at the genres different genres (such as click here. Crime, Romance, or Sci-Fi). 54 is copied from the relevant field, and then placed after the label for the data. This process is repeated three times for the three basic pieces of data (Author, Genre and Alternative Authors). The variable is then printed. The "Edit" button is the only button that does not hilite itself when the cursor is over it. This is because it allows text to be altered when it has been clicked on, and so in order to remind the user that s/he is in "edit" mode the button only hilites when it has been activated, and does not return to normal until it has been clicked on again, to indicate normal operations have been resumed. When the "Edit" button is clicked on, the system checks to see whether the "locktext" feature of one of the fields that holds the guide data is turned on or off. When the lock text is "true" the data in the field cannot be altered. If this is the case, the button is hilited and the locktext of the fields holding the guide data is turned off (declared "false") so that it may be changed. Otherwise ("else") the opposite process is performed - the button is returned to normal and the lock text of the fields is turned on - and the guide returns to normal operations. The final button to be considered is the "Author Search" button, the script for which is substantially longer than those previously considered. A standard Hypercard dialogue box is presented to the user when the button is clicked on, for the name of an author to be typed in. If the user types nothing or cancels, the routine is terminated immediately. Otherwise a button displaying the words "please wait a moment" is then displayed on the screen to let the user know the computer is working. The script removes any commas from the name typed in, since commas are not used in the guide, and if they are included in the search statement, the system would fail to identify the author. The screen is then frozen ("locked") while the computer searches through the "Author" fields in the stack, and marks any cards that match the search term. If an exact match is not found, the fact is reported and the routine ended. If there is more than one match a special routine is performed, otherwise the user is immediately shown the card whose "Author" field matches 55 the name given, the screen is unlocked and the routine ended. If there are two or more matching cards, the names of the authors and their genres (as an additional aid to recall) are taken from each card and put into a variable ("Holdall") which in turn is placed in a field ("Holder") on the card from which the search was initiated. This field is usually hidden (ie. not visible on the card) but is shown when this routine is run. Three hidden buttons are also shown, two ("Empty" and "Choose an author") having no function except to draw attention to the information, and another, "Cancel" for the user to cancel the operation if necessary. A copy of the image created is shown in figure 12. From this point the routine is terminated, and the user can either click on the name of one of the authors or cancel. The script for the field "Holder" is virtually the same as the script for the field "Index 1", described later, except that there are additional commands to hide the buttons and field that have been shown when the author has been selected. The script of the "Cancel" button simply hides the "Empty" and "Choose An Author" buttons, the "Holder" field and the "Cancel" button itself. 6.4.3 Field Scripts There are four fields with scripts attached to them in the basic card layout: the field holding the genre designation of the particular author ("Genre"), the field holding the alternative authors ("Alternatives"), the field holding a list of all the genres used in the guide ("Genre Zip") and the field with the letters of the alphabet, for access to the author index ("Thumbindex"). All of these field scripts display the "Please wait a moment" button whilst they are working. The scripts for the "Genre" field and the "Genre Zip" fields are exactly the same. The system hilites the line of the field that the user clicks on (in the "Genre" field only one line is available to be clicked on) and places the hilited text in a variable ("bibble"). The screen is then locked and the computer searches for the text in the field "Gen" of the "Genres" stack. The user is then shown the appropriate card and the screen is unlocked. 56 Figure 12: The "Au1hor Search" Display For Multiple Authors Author: Peter ACKROYD ~ <4 Q ~HNEXT E Gen rch F I Choose An Author I G You H I Johr Stephen COONTS (Adventure) ~Print J Julia Stephen DONALDSON (Fantasy) ~ K L Anth Stephen GALLAGHER (Supernatural) are: M A.S. Stephen GREGORY (General) e N Pete Stephen KING (Fantasy) o Bruc Stephen KING (Supernatural) ies p J.G. Ipi! Stephen LAWSON (Fantasy) .0 Q Johr R Gra ( Cancel ) 1 S Bar •. _.. - T - Romance U Science Fiction V Sea W Superna tural ..... ; ..... X lliD.. ···7····· War Y 0 First Page Western Z 57 The script for the field "Thumbindex" is quite similar, the only differences being the name of the variable, the field and the stack that is searched ("bet" and" index"), and an additional routine for the event of no cards being found. This is included since there are no authors in the guide whose surnames begin with an "X", and in the first draft of the guide there were no authors whose surnames began with a "Q". The field "Alternatives" has the longest script of the fields. Again the procedure for searching for the text is similar to those given above. A routine is included for authors listed as an alternative but without a main entry, as it is possible an author will be deleted from the guide but not have all of the related cross-links removed. A check is also performed on the genres of the authors being moved between, since some of the authors are listed under two genres. This is most easily explained by way of an example. If a user wishes to jump from the entry for Dean R. Koontz (a "supernatural" writer) to Stephen King, one of the alternatives, the first card the computer will find will be the entry for King as a fantasy wri ter, since King is listed under both genres. The genre designation for the first writer is put into a variable ("waif"), which is checked with the genre designation for the card that the computer finds. If it matches, the user is taken straight to the card. If it does not match, the computer checks whether there are two or more marked (found) cards. If there are, the first card, which does not match perfectly, is unmarked and the user is taken to the next card. If there is only one card, the genre difference is ignored and the user is presented with the nearly matching card. This situation can occur, for instance, with Douglas Adams, who writes humorous science fiction novels, but is listed as purely a science fiction writer. A cross-reference from a writer listed as humorous would produce a conflict of genres. The two remaining scripts are for fields in the author index and genre index stacks. The script for the "Gindex" field is very similar to the script for the field "Alternatives", except that the complex routine for genre conflicts is not necessary. 58 This is because the "nearly matching" situation will not arise since the authors are only indexed under the genres to which they are assigned. The script for "Index 1" is again very similar, but here since each of the lines of the field hold both author and genre, the text is split into these two component parts, and used for searching. It is possible on Hypercard to undertake Boolean searches, which is seemingly appropriate for the above routines. However, such searches are extremely slow, and it is much more efficient to use the scripts explained above. 6.5 Final Notes Each of the three backgrounds that form the Hypercard guide have scripts attached to them, that basically perform "cleaning up" operations on the screens. The scripts are activated "on openCard", which is every time a new card is shown on screen. The menu bar across the top of the screen is hidden, as are the field "Holder", and the buttons "Empty", "Choose an author", "Cancel" and "please wait a moment". The hilite of the "Edit" button is turned off, and the lock text of all the fields is reset. This is necessary since users can move between screens without completing the routines they began. It should be noted that most of the scripts described above are for the main section of the guide rather than the indexes. The only alterations needed to scripts in the indexes is that where particular authors are searched for, an additional line must be added to tell the computer to look in the "Authors A-Z" stack. 59 Chapter 7 Creation Of A Hypercard Guide 7.1 From Raw Data To The Guide The previous chapter explained the internal workings of the Hypercard guide and the scripts associated with it. This chapter will show how the raw data of the guide, in the form of a word processed file, was transformed in a Hypercard guide. In order to create the actual guide, the three backgrounds shown in figures 8, 9 and 10 were created on separate cards (named "Blanker", "Index" and "Gindex") with the scripts given in the previous chapter attached to them. These three cards formed a stack called "Basics". Another stack called "Creator" was formed, which consisted of a card that held eight buttons, which could be used to import the raw data and create the Hypercard guide from the backgrounds held in "Basics". Figure 13 shows the "Creator" card. The scripts for the buttons on· the "Creator" card can be found in Appendix 1. 7.2 Importing The Data When it is activated, the button "Importer 1" asks the user for a filename to import text from (whatever name the data has been saved under), and then creates a new stack called "Authors A-Z" using the card "Blanker" from the stack "Basics" as a background. The text data for the guide must be delimitated by returns, that is, each piece of information (author's name or genre) must have a return placed after it. Main entries for each author must be separated by three returns, ie. there must be two blank lines between each entry. The last entry in the document must have an "@" character placed after it, to tell the routine to stop reading from the file. Authors' surnames must be capitalized, and in addition any authors with two or more surnames (for instance Gabriel GARCIA MARQUEZ) must have their surnames hyphenated. These hyphens are removed later in the 60 Figure 13: The Creation Card This Is the creation stack ( Importer 1 1 ( Importer 2-4 ) I ( l New List ) I ( Merge 1 I ( Natural Order 1 ( For more information ..... ) ( IndeH Creation 1 I ( Genre IndeH r ( EHport 1 61 creation of the guide. Finally, any authors with two or more initials in their name must not have any gaps between the initials - for example, "P.D. James" must be entered rather than "P. D. James". The routine reads from the file specified until the first return (giving the main author's name) and then erases any commas and puts the name into the field "Author" surname first. The routine checks whether the surname is first by' looking at the last character of the name. If the character is upper case, the last word must be a surname, as if it were a forename it would be lower case (stephen) or a full stop (P.D~). If this is the case the routine looks for the last space wi thin the name, removes all of the characters after it, and places them at the front of the name. It then reads in the next line and puts it straight into the "Genre" field, and then each of the alternatives one by one, checking for commas and ensuring they are surname first before putting them into the "Alternatives" field. When all of the alternatives have been read in, they are sorted into alphabetical order, and a new card is created for the next main author entry. The process is repeated until the file has been completely read, at which point the user is returned to the "Creator" stack. If the data has been stored in several files, "Importer 2-4" may be used to import the rest of the data block by block. This button acts in exactly the same way as "Importer 1", except it does not create a new stack, merely carries on from the last entry in the "Authors A-Z" stack. As the organization of the buttons on the "Creator" card suggests, the choice of which button to activate next is optional. A basic guide will be created if the data is organized by the "Natural Order" button, and Author and Genre indexes may then be created. Alternatively, "New List" will cross-link all of the authors and create main entries where necessary, and "Merge" will combine the new entries with the original stack. It is important to bear in mind that once the "Natural Order" button has been activated, the cross-links cannot be made, as the "New List" button relies on the names of the authors being in a surname-first format. 62 7.3 Cross-Linking Authors "New List" creates a new stack called "Alternate" with the same background as the "Authors A-Z" stack. The routine then visits each card in the "Authors A-Z" stack, and checks whether each of the alternatives listed has a main entry. If there is a main entry for the author in the stack, the routine checks whether the link between the two authors is consistent (ie. the authors are linked at both ends), and if it is not adds a link. If there is not a main entry, a card for the author is created in the "Alternate" stack, and the author from which the link came is listed as an alternative. CI~arly as this process continues, it is likely that an author without a main entry may be referenced many times, so rather than creating a card for each occurrence, the routine adds the names of the authors from which the references came into the "Alternatives" field. The routine terminates when each card has been checked, and the "Alternate" stack has been sorted into alphabetical order. The "Merge" button may now be used to put the two stacks "Authors A-Z" and "Alternate" together. This routine very simply makes a copy of every card in the "Alternate" stack and places them in the "Authors A-Z" stack. There are several reasons why the stacks are created separately, rather than simply placing the new main entries immediately in the "Authors A-Z" stack. Adding new cards to the stack would increase the time taken to run the program, as each of the new cards would be checked by the routine. It is also easier for the compiler to check through the new entries initially if they are all held in the same stack, rather than wading through the entire guide. 7.4 Natural Language Order Once the stacks have been merged, the authors names can be placed in natural language order by way of the "Natural Order" button. The "Authors A-Z" stack is sorted into alphabetical order, and each card is named according to its position in the alphabet and in the stack (eg. "F 60" would be the 60th card in the stack, and would contain an author whose surname began with 63 the letter F). The name of the author is then placed the normal way round, and any hyphens are removed (with the exception of authors listed within the script who should have hyphens in their names). Each of the alternatives are also changed, and placed one by one in a hidden field ("boggle", behind the "Genre Zip" field) until all of the alternatives have been altered, at which point the contents of the hidden field are placed in the "Alternatives" field. 7.5 Creating The Indexes The next stage of creating the guide is to form the Author and Genre Indexes. The "Index Creation" button creates the author index. A stack for the index is created in a similar way to the stacks considered above, with the background card "Index". Each card of the "Authors A-Z" stack is then visited in alphabetical order, and the name of the card is checked. When the first letter of the name of the card is different from that of the previous card, the routine creates a new index card for this next letter of the alphabet. As each of the cards in the main stack is visited, the author's name and genre designation is copied, and placed in the "Index 1" field of the index card. Since the cards in the main stack are in alphabetical order, the authors will be placed in the index in alphabetical order automatically. As each card in the main stack is visited it also has its name changed to just the number of its position in the stack. ,The "Genre Index" button works in a similar way. The genre index stack is created from the card "Gindex" from the "Basics" stack, and the "Authors A-Z" stack is sorted into genre order (this means all of the "Adventure" authors are placed at the front of the stack, in alphabetical order, the "Crime" authors next and so on). Each of the main cards is visited, its genre checked, and as before a new genre leads to a new index card being created. The author's name is placed in the "Gindex" field of the index card, and the process is repeated until all of the cards have been indexed again. The "Authors A-Z" stack is then 64 sorted into numerical order by the name of each card, which relates to their original alphabetical position in the guide, as noted above. The guide is then complete and ready for use. The final "Export" button simply places all of the data from the main body of the guide into a text file for manipulation by a word processor. 7.6 The Help Section An independent "Help" section for the guide was created separately, the full cards of which are shown at the end of this chapter (figures 14 - 18). As can be seen, each card contains an explanation of a particular way of navigating through the guide, and a demonstration button which performs exactly the same function as it would in the main body of the guide, except at the end of the routine it returns the user to the help screen from which it was activated. As shown on the first card, a button "Return to where you left" appears on each of the help cards if the user has jumped into the help section from the main body of the guide, as described in the previous chapter. The "Help" section is accessible from any point in the guide, and was designed to give a very basic introduction to the various methods of investigating the data in the guide for the complete novice. The fact that the guide itself is a relatively simple concept meant that this section did not have to be immensely long or complex. 7.7 Advantages Of Hypercard Linkages Many of the advantages of using Hypercard to create and manipulate the Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors have been noted in earlier chapters, but it is worth specifically noting at this point that the guide is particularly useful for checking for spelling errors. Due to the way the "New List" function operates, a new card is created for every variant spelling of an author's name, and in the "Alternatives" field the name of the authors from which the mistake originated is placed. This means 65 that when checking through the main body of the guide or one of the indexes, the compiler will immediately become aware of any misspellings because of the multiple entries for the author, and correcting the mistake will be easy with the use of the "Edit" button. This facility is important since there is no other way of checking the spellings of personal names except by hand, and given the length of the guide it is inevitable that some mistakes will creep into the document. Once the guide has been checked through, the corrected version of the guide can be turned into a word processor document by use of the "Export" button. The ease of access to, and correction of, records for individual authors is one of the greatest strengths of the Hypercard guide. 66 Figure 14: The First Help Screen • "Previous" And "Next" Navigation ~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoennnnnc 18 1 I~ le 11: le 11: 18 The Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors has been designed to help I~ 18 you find what you want quickly and easily. I~ le 11: 18 The information about each author has been put onto separate I~ 18 cards, which are shown one at a time on the screen. I~ 18 The simplest way to move around is with the "Previous" and I~ 18 "Next" buttons. These take you to the card before or after the I~ le 11: 18 one you are looking at in the alphabetical sequence. I~ le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le ~<:J. ~c> 11: le 11: 18 REVIOUS NEXT I~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 18 . Click on the "next" button to see the next help screen. I~ ~ 11: ~ ~ ~ ffili-.- ~ 18 First Page I~ i~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn~ 67 Figure 15: The Second Help Screen .. The "Author Search" Button ~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnBnnnRnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnnnnnnnnc le 11: le 2 11: le 11: le 11: 18 Another way of moving around is to use the "Author I~ 18 Search" button. When you click on this button, a I~ 18 box will appear to ask you which author you would I~ 18 like to look for. Simply type in the name of the I~ 18 author, click "OK", and the guide will instantly take I~ 18 you to that author! Click on the button for a I~ le 11: le demonstration.. 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le 11: le Ruthor Search 11: ~ ~ ~ ~ le ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. ~ le~ ~ ~ 11:~ ~ ~~ [2J ~ le~ I .. :..... PREVKlUS NEXT 11:~ ~ m-;- ~ ~ -.- ~ le First Page 11: ~ ~ IRnnnnnnnnnOnnnnnBOMMnnBnnnnnnnnnnnnBnnnMBnnnnnnnBBMnnnnnBnnnnB~~ 68 Figure 16: The Third Help Screen - The Alternatives List ~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnc ~3 c 18 If you want to look at one of the authors listed as an I~ ID 11: 18 alternative, just click straight on the name, and the I~ 18 guide will take you to the card for that author. I~ 18 Click on one of these authors. for a demonstration. I~ ID 11: ID 11: 18 You might like: (Click to see) I~ ID 11: 18 Peter ACKROYD Sometimes there I~ ID Margery ALLlNGHAM 11: ID are more authors 11: ID Agatha CHRISTIE 11: ID than will fit on the 11: ID Usa CODY 11: ID T 11: ID Colin DEXTER screen. 0 see 11: 18ID Antonia FRASER the rest of the 11:I~ 18 Patricia HIGHSMITH authors, click on I~ ID Ngaio MARSH the white arrows 11: 18 Ellis PETERS to the side of the I~ 18 Josephine TEY list. I~ ID 11: ID 11: ID~ <:J ~~ 11:C ID~ 1.. ~..... NEXT c11: ID ..... ~..... 11: ID m.....•..... 11: ID First Page 11: ID 11: l~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnMnnnnnnnnnnMnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnRnnnnnnMnnnMnn~~ 69 Figure 17: The Fourth Help Screen - The Genre Lis1s ~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnOoRnc 11] 11: 11] ·4 11: 11] 11: 11] 11: There are two ways of 1811] Aut h 0 r: Agatha CHRISTIE II~11: 18 looking at the genres_ I~ 18 Clicking on the box that .. - 110.1 Genre: Crime II~ 18 shows the current --,. . .I~ 18 author's genre will take I~ 11] 11: 18 you to a list of other The Genres are: I~ 18 authors working in that Adventure I~ 18 genre_ You try. Crime I~ 11] 11: 11] Family Stories 11: 111]1] AI ternatlve. Iy eac h Fantasy II~.... ~ Grn~l ~ 18 screen has a list of Historical I~ 18 genres, which you may ~ Humorous I~ 18 click on to see in the Romance I~ 18 Science Fiction I~ 11] same way. Sea 11: 11] /"0 Q Supernatural 11: 11] ~"'"" ~ War 11: 11]~ I .. ~..... PREVIOUS NEXT Western 11:~ ~ m-~- ~ ~ -.- ~ 18 First Page I~ l~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnMnnnnnMnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn~~ 70 Figure 18: The Last Help Screen· The Thumb Index. "Back" and "Print" Buttons ~nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonc 18 5 A I~ CB III18 You can look at the index of authors by clicking to. 11:I~ III D 1[: III on the appropriate letter of the alphabet ,. 1[: 18 displayed down the side of the screen. You try. E I~ F III~ G ~1[: III H 1[: 18 The "Back" button will take you back to the last -{!) I I~ III card you looked at. This is very useful when J 1[: I!::! BACK Kill:: le you are hopping between the indexes and the L le III author cards. Click on it to see it work. 1[: ~ M ~ ~ NO ~ ~ ~ 18 Finally, the "Print" button will print out the --{l)J\1 p 1[: II~ name of the main author, the genre, and the ~~~t ~s III~ le alternatives writers displayed on the card you le III are looking at. T 1[: ~ ~ 18 ~ u I~ 18III /"-i"""' RU th or S earl: h WV 1[:I~ 18 Pt::::1 REYKlUS ~ lE ~ R~P. 1[: ~ Z ~ "IRnonnnOCOnnncOnnOonOORnnnnMOMnMMMonnonnnnnnnnnnnonncnnnnnnnnrrn~ 71 " Chapter 8 Field Testing The Hypercard Guide 8.1 Background It was decided that since the Hypercard Reader's Guide clearly formed a useful medium for holding the data comprising the guide, it would be desirable to discover how real library users would react to the guide. It was postulated that if a high proportion of users enjoyed using the guide and found it to be useful, it would be worthwhile investigating the possibility of actually publishing the guide in Hypercard form, as well as in a book form. In order to discover the reactions of library users, it was decided that a version of the Hypercard Guide should be taken into real library situations , where users could tryout the guide, and respond to a questionnaire about it. To this end it was decided to take the guide into three public libraries: Leicester Central Library, Loughborough Library and Melton Mowbray Library. These three libraries form a reasonable cross-section of the libraries available to the public in Leicestershire. Leicester Central Library is situated in the middle of the major city of the county, and serves a wide variety of users from all age groups, social classes and ethnic groups. Loughborough Library is near the centre of a very large market town, again with a broad range of clientele, and Melton Mowbray Library serves a smaller (but still substantial) market town. The major difficulty with field testing the guide arose from the necessity of having an Apple Macintosh computer on which to run it. The author was extremely fortunate to be granted the loan of such a computer from the Leicester Computer Centre. It was decided not to take a printer into the libraries to test the print option, due to the extra space that would be required, and the difficulty in actually obtaining a printer. Due to the busy working environment of public libraries, it was only possible to 72 test the guide for one day at each of the libraries noted, and only for an afternoon in Leicester Central Library. A total of 81 users were questioned over the period 28/6/93 to 30/6/93 as summarized in table 2 below: AgelLibrary Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % 28/6/93 29/6/93 30/6/93 0-20 I 2 5 8 9.9% 20 - 30 6 8 7 21 25.9% 30 - 45 5 6 I 12 14.8% . 45 - 60 14 9 5 28 34.6% 60 - 6 5 1 12 14.8% Total 32 30 19 81 100% Gender M:15 F:17 M:12 F:18 M:8 F:ll M:35 F:46 M:43 F:56 Refusals 20 17 5 42 Ta.t:>le ~: BreaKC10wn 01: Ll.brary Users Survey ed As can be seen, the survey elicited results from a reasonably wide age range of users, with slightly more females responding in each library than males. The high number of 0-30 year olds in Leicester Central library is partly due to the high number of students using the library at the time the field testing was carried out. 8.2 Methodology The computer running the guide was set up on a table in the main body of each of the libraries, next to two or three chairs. The author approached all users passing by the table in the library (when not occupied by other users) and asked whether they had time to answer some questions about borrowing fiction books. A total of 42 users refused, slightly more than a third (34.1%) 73 of all users asked (123). Those who agreed to be questioned were encouraged to sit down, and were verbally given the questionnaire shown in Appendix 2 by the author. This took the form of eight general questions about borrowing fiction from libraries, followed by an opportunity to use the Hypercard Guide, and fourteen questions about their views on the guide itself. If a user asked how long the questionnaire would take, they were told between five and ten minutes (most interviews lasted for around ten minutes). 8.3 Choosing Fiction Books The first question asked seeked to establish a basic knowledge of whether the users came into the library just for themselves or for others: Ql. "Are you looking for, or do you usually look for fiction books for yourself or for others?" . Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % Looking for 29 26 10 65 80.3% self Usually 2 3 8 13 16% self Looking for - I I 2 2.5% other Usually I - - 1 1.2% Other Total 32 30 19 81 100% abJ.e ,j: Use Of Publ1c Librar1es For Self Or Others Clearly since 96.3% of users in this study look for books for themselves, it is reasonable to assume that the Hypercard Guide would have a large potential for use, since these users are the ones most likely to make use of the system. However, of the 74 three users that looked for others, two stated they normally looked for particular authors and the other looked for particular genres, indicating that the guide would be of use even to users looking for other people. The high proportion of users indicating that they usually searched for themselves in Leicester Library is to some degree explained by the numbers of students working in the library, rather than looking for books. One of the most important general questions asked was how users looked for books in the library: Q2. "How do you normally look for books for yourself/others?" Look for... Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % Author 18 18 8 44 54.3% Title -- - - - Genre 10 11 9 30 37% Browse 4 I 2 7 8.7% Other -- - - - . Total 32 30 19 81 100% Table 4. Methods Of Look1ng For F1ct10n Books Perhaps surprisingly, no users looked for books solely by title, which is once again encouraging since the Hypercard Guide does not include titles by particular authors. Since the guide supports searching by the two main methods shown (Author and Genre) there are clear indications that the guide will be of considerable use, particularly in a computerized form, since searching by genre would not be particularly easy in the hardcopy version. Although the guide does support a form of browsing through the records, it should be borne in mind that the guide does not seek to replace the library environment, but to aid users in searching for books: browsing should not be seen as an activity to be supplanted by the use of such facilities as the Guide to Fiction Authors. 75 Question 3, "If you choose books by author, do you have a number of favourite writers? Could you name any of them?" elicited a large number of favourite authors from the library users, which are listed in full in Appendix 3. It is notable that all of the authors mentioned at this point were included in the guide, indicating once again that the guide would prove to be useful. Genre types revealed a different perspective, however. Q4. "If you choose books by type, or genre, which types do you look for?" Crime ( 11) . Murder ...... Detective . . . .Mystery ----,:-- · · · Adventure ( 4 ) . · · .Thrillers...... Spy Sci Fi ( 3) · · · · .Futuristic Classics . · · · · . Quality Romances . .Nurse romances ._------· · · Historical (3) -.----' .. _ .... , .. -.'.-----_ .. _----- Horror (3 ) -_._._----- '-'---'- .-. and Ambition ( 2) Fame -- Sagas (2) ------.- ~~-.-... --.... ,~"-,,.- ... --'. War (2 ) Westerns ( 2) Humour Aviation Table 5: Genres Looked For By Library Users The genres have been arranged to illustrate some of the overlap between categories and the difficulties faced when deciding on the terminology to use when defining genres. The first five rows show genres that are roughly equivalent (thus Adventure, Thriller and Spy novels tend to be regarded as roughly the same kinds of novel) whilst the rest of the genres are more individual. The numbers in brackets after some of genres indicate the number of users that mentioned them (thus "Crime" is clearly the most popularly noted genre). Genres with no numbers were only mentioned by one user. It should be noted that only two of the genre types are not used in the guide, due to minority interest (Aviation) and a conscious decision to exclude (Classics). The 76 "Quality" novels are somewhat encompassed by the prizewinner lists that appear in the hardcopy version of the guide, whilst the "Fame and Ambition" genre is, to some extent, subsumed in the "Smart Set" genre, introduced in the second stage of the revision of the guide, and consequently not used in the field testing (which used data from the first revision stage). In all 44 responses were made, as many users read novels form several genres. As other studies have found, library users tend to be split on the best way to arrange novels in libraries. Q5. "Do you prefer books to be arranged in one alphabetical sequence, or split up according to the type of book they are?" Preference Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % A-Z 7 10 7 24 29.6% sequence Genres 18 16 II 45 55.6% separated No Prefer. 7 4 I 12 14.8% Total 32 30 19 81 100% Table 6: Arran 9 ement Of Fiction Stock Users Preferences Although more than half of the users questioned preferred books to be arranged by genre, a substantial number preferred an A-Z sequence. These figures are similar to those reported by Spiller [1], as noted in chapter 1, where 59% of his sample preferred genres, 24% an A-Z sequence and 16% had no preference. Since the Reader's Guide allows for both kinds of searching with its dual indexes, most users should be able to relate to the organization of the information given in some way. Comparing this table to table 4, it is interesting to note that more people prefer books to be arranged by genre (55.6%) than actually state they look for books by genre (37.2%). This is likely to be because users searching for a particular author may feel the authors are easier to find in the smaller genre sections than in one long A-Z sequence. 77 Q.6: "How do you find new authors?" New authors Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total *TotaI % Recommended 9 8 9 26 32% by friends TV / Radio 3 4 5 12 14.8% Newspapers 7 10 8 25 30.9% Browsing 9 8 5 22 27.2% Other 2 - I 3 3.7% Don't look for 7 3 I 11 13.6% new authors Total of 32 30 19 81 - usel's Table 7: Methods Used to F1nd New Authors *The total% is based on the total number of users questioned, rather than the total number of responses, since it is more useful to know what percentage of users made use of each method, rather than what percentage of the responses each method represented. Table 7 clearly shows that from 70 users, 88 responses of ways that new authors were looked for were elicited (since 11 users said they did not look for new authors). Although users were not asked to rate the methods of looking for books, it is notable that 27% of users suggested browsing in the library as a way of finding new authors, and 32% took notice of personal recommendations from friends and family. Most newspaper reviews were from the "quality" press, or weekend supplements. "Other" methods of finding new authors were through such publications as the WH Smiths "New Books" magazine, or Collins Crime Club. However, the fact that more than 13% of users stated they did not look for new authors is somewhat disappointing, given the purpose of this survey. The lack of any coherent way of developing 78 interest in new authors in libraries is perhaps shown by the fact that such facilities as library displays and promotions were not mentioned at all by users. This fact points to the need for some kind of guiding system to authors to be available in libraries. Another notable re suI t from the general survey was the number of users that asked librarians for assistance when looking for novels. Q.7 "Do you ever ask library staff for help when looking for fiction?" Ask staff Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % Yes 12 9 6 27 33.3% No 20 21 13 54 66.7% Total 32 30 19 81 100% Table 8: Use Of L1brary Staff When Look1ng For F1ct10n Only one third of library users asked librarians or library assistants for help, and of these many stated they only asked when looking for a particular book, rather than in more general terms. This may be seen to indicate that either users are reluctant to bother library staff over such matters, or that they value their own critical faculties when selecting a book, both of which viewpoints were communicated to the author whilst undertaking the questionnaire. The former point may be somewhat overcome by a guide open to public use without going through a librarian as an intermediary. The latter point should be accepted as one of the limitations of any form of library guiding system, in that the ability of users to choose for themselves what they read should always be remembered and respected. 79 Familiarity with IT was the final general question posed before moving on to the guide itself. Q8. "Have you ever used a .... Typewriter / Computer / Mouse / Computerized library catalogue?" Ever used ... Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total *Total % Typewriter 8 (25%) 5 (17%) 8 (42%) 21 25.9% Computer 17 (53%) 10 (33%) 13 (68%) 40 49.4% Mouse 12 (38%) 7 (23%) 7 (37%) 26 32.1% OPAC 4 (12%) 1 (3%) 2 (11%) 7 8.6% Total of 32 30 19 81 - use.·s Table 9. Fam1l1ar1ty Of L1brary Users W1th IT *As with Table 7, the total percentages were calculated from the total of users questioned rather than the total of responses. Since almost half of those questioned had used a computer before, and 32% had used a mouse, the results gave some encouragement that users would not be too intimidated by a computerized guide to fiction authors. The lower response rates in Mel ton may reflect the more rural aspect of the town, and the fact that both Loughborough and Leicester have universities and therefore more computer-li terate students and staff. The surprisingly poor showing of typewriters is perhaps a reflection of the growth of word processors in the working environment, although over a quarter of users had used a typewriter. 80 8.4 Using The Hypercard Guide Of the 81 users questioned, 64 went on to use the Hypercard guide. Q9. "Would you like to tryout the Guide?" Use the guide? Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Yes 24 (75%) 23 (77%) 17 (89%) 64 (79%) No 8 (25%) 7 (23%) 2 (11%) 17 (21%) Total 32 30 19 81 Table 10: L1brary Users W1ll1ng To Use Hypercard GU1de It should not be supposed from these results that as many as 25% of users were afraid of using the Hypercard guide, as many users stated they simply could not afford the time to try it out. It should also be borne in mind that Table 7 shows that just over 13% of users were not interested in looking for new authors, which may also contribute to explaining this result. Although undoubtedly many users did find the guide intimidating , an overall usage rate of 79% is encouraging. The higher percentage of Leicester users who used the guide possibly relates to the greater familiari ty Leicester users had with computers (Table 9), almost 70% compared to an average of 49.4%. Of the users who tried out the Hypercard Guide, most took around four minutes to use it, with some users not progressing beyond one simple search, whilst others explored the guide in depth, and one user investigated the guide for a full 20 minutes (although this user was a lecturer in computer studies). The questions in this next section of the questionnaire were asked verbally, but each user was presented with a cue card indicating the possible responses for each question: very good, quite good, not good or very bad, in a form relating to the question (such as "very clear" or "not easy" etc.). None of the users questioned felt that any single aspect of the guide was very bad, and as a consequence only three of the degrees of satisfaction have been tabulated. In addition to this, no more than 4% of users thought that any single aspect of the guide was 81 .' " "Not good", and most elements gained a "Quite good" rating from 60-70% of users. Q18. "If this guide was available permanently in this library, would you use it again?" (Yes/No) Use again? Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % Yes 22 21 17 60 93.8% No 2 2 - 4 6.2% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Table 11: Potential For Use Of Hyp ercard Guide In Public Libraries It is apparent that the satisfaction with the guide was very strong: over 90% of users said they would use the guide again if it was left permanently in the library (Table 11), and the guide was universally felt to be a useful idea (Table 12). Although 6.2% of users said they would not use the computerized guide again, most stated this was because they would prefer to use the guide in a book form, rather than because they did not like the idea of the guide. Q17. "How useful did you find the guide?" How useful? Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % Very useful 13 14 10 37 57.8% Quite useful 11 9 7 27 42.2% Not useful --- - - Total 24 23 17 64 100% TaD.le l:.!: Usefulness Ot The GU10e Only one user felt that the information given in the guide was difficult to understand (table 13), which indicates that the underlying concept of the guide, that of linking authors, is quite readily comprehensible. 82 Q12. "How easy did you find it to understand the information?" Easy to Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % understand? . Very easy 9 8 6 23 35.9% Quite easy 15 14 l\ 40 62.5% Not easy - I - 1 1.6% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Tab~e ~j: Ease Of Understand1n q Informat1on One major difficulty was that of the size of the text used, particularly for partially sighted library users. The Macintosh on which the guide was field tested had a monitor of the same size as the one on which it was developed, but had a higher resolution. This meant that the same image took up less screen space on the new monitor, and so the text was smaller. This not only made the text less easy to read (although only two users actually stated that the screen was difficult to read, Table 14), but also meant that a border appeared around the edge of each card, as it did not fit the screen. If a user clicked on this border area, the Macintosh would display the computer's desktop rather than the guide, which caused a great deal of confusion. It is therefore recommended that the resolution of the monitor should be checked before the guide is run on a new machine. Ql1. "How easy was the information to see and read?" Easy to see Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % & read? Very easy II 5 7 23 35.9% Quite easy 12 17 10 39 60.9% Not easy 1 I - 2 3.2% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Table 14: Ease Of Reading Inrormat1on 83 One of the main problems of Hypertext noted in Chapter 3, that of "getting lost" within the system, did not appear to present difficulties in the Hypercard Reader's Guide. All but one of the users found it easy to tell the areas of the guide apart, and to move around the different areas (Tables 15 and 16). This is probably because the system is relatively simple, with the metaphor of a main central section and two indexes making it easy for users to form a mental image of the guide. Q15. "How easy was it to tell the different areas of the guide apart?" (Very Easy/Quite Easy/Not Easy/Very Difficult) Tell areas Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % apart? Very easy 9 3 4 16 25% Quite easy 15 19 13 47 73.4% Not easy - I - 1 1.6% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Tab~e l!>: D1f1:erent1at10n Of Sect10ns Or The Guide Q14. "How easy did you find it to move between the screens?" Easy Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % movement? Very easy 8 6 5 19 29.7% Quite easy 16 16 12 44 68.7% , Not easy - I - 1 1.6% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Table 16. Ease Of Movement Between Screens The consistent design and placing of the navigation buttons and fields may also be seen to have a role in the ease of use. This impression is reinforced by the number of users that found 84 the layout and labelling of the screens to be clear (table 17). Q10. "How clear do you think the layout and labelling of each screen is?" Clear Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % I layout? Very clear 11 4 6 21 35.8% Quite clear 13 18 11 42 65.6% Not clear - 1 - 1 1.6% Total 24 23 17 64 100% Table 17: Clarl.ty Of Screen Lay out Although the Menu screen is somewhat superfluous, as all methods of searching can be initiated from every card, some users felt that the lack of a "Menu" button in the indexes, and the unclear nature of the wording of the button ("First Page") in the main body of the guide made the system less easy to use than it could have been. Overall, however, most of the users felt that the instructions in the Guide were sufficiently clear (table 18). Q13. "How clear do you think the instructions on screen are?" Clear Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % instructions? . Very clear 4 4 5 13 20.3% Quite clear 19 18 12 49 76.5% . Not clear 1 1 - 2 3.2% Total 24 23 17 64 100% . Table 18: Clar1ty Of Instruct10ns Only 15% of users felt that the Help screens were very good (Table 19), perhaps indicating improvements could be made in this area, for instance making the help relevant to the area of the 85 guide the user was in when the help was asked for. Q16. "Was there enough on-screen help?" Enough Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % help? Plenty 4 3 3 10 15.6% Enough 20 19 14 53 82.8% Not Enough - 1 - 1 1.6% . Total 24 23 17 64 100% Tab~e 19: Eva~uatl.on Of On-Screen Hellp Given the broad consensus of views on the aspects of the guide investigated, it is difficult to tell which areas are most in need of improvement. It is likely that some degree of politeness may have influenced the users' favourable comments, but even so some assurance of the basic value of the guide may be gained from these results. As regards the book version of the guide, since the guide was in the process of revision it was not possible to give the users a finished copy to assess. However, a loosely bound version of the first revision was taken into the libraries, as well as a copy of Peter Mann's original guide. Q19. "Would you use a book version of the guide?" Use book Loughbor. Melton M. Leicester Total Total % version? Yes 27 28 18 73 90.1% No 5 2 1 8 9.9% . Total 32 30 19 81 100% Table 20: Potentl.al For Use Of Hardcopy Reader , s GUl.de As can be seen, this question was administered to all users, even those who declined to use the computerized guide. The approval 86 rating was slightly below that of the computerized guide, probably due to the fact that the users who refused to use the computerized guide were not included in the approval figures for it (Table 19). However, an approval rating of over 90% is still extremely high (especially given that 13% of users said they did not usually look for new authors), and indicates the value that many users would place on the guide. As mentioned previously, the print option was not field tested, although many users approved of such a facility when it was proposed to them. The edit option was also only demonstrated to librarians, to ensure that the Guide was not changed during testing, as this may have distorted the results. 8.5 Improvements And Extensions To The Guide - Users' Perspectives The last three questions about the guide, being general in nature, produced a broad range of information which is collected in Appendix 3. Many comments were made about specific linkages between authors, or genre designations, which reflects the largely personal nature of such categorizational decisions. Question 21, "Are there any other useful things you would like to see added to the guide?", produced many interesting ideas, the most popular of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the inclusion of titles written by each of the authors, or a synopsis of the types of the books the authors write. A link to the library catalogue was suggested by several users and librarians, so that the availability of novels by the authors could be checked. In effect, this would turn the guide into the front-end to an OPAC, which although very removed from the original concept of the guide is an interesting possibility for future development. Four users suggested the inclusion of non-fiction books in the guide, but it is difficult to see how this could be achieved without losing the unity and conciseness of the guide. Indeed it is felt that a non-fiction guide would be so complex as to require separate development from the fiction guide. The specific non fiction areas of Biography and poetry were also mentioned as 87 desirable by two users, poetry perhaps being the most amenable to assimilation into the guide, but again bringing with it additional complexity to the guide. "Feminist" and "Classic" novels were each said to be desirable genres for fiction books by two users. Finally, the ability to combine genres to perform Boolean searches was postulated by one librarian and one user. Such a facility, although beyond the current scope of the guide, since most authors are only listed under one genre, is a significant possibility for future development. Question 22, "Do you have any final comments on anything that 1 have asked you", again produced some interesting replies. Aside from general compliments about the system and the idea behind it, many comments were about specific areas that needed improvement - the small size of the screen, noted earlier, the need to separate out types of genres further, a clearer route to the menu screen, titles to go with the authors and so on. Comments were made both for and against the use of a computer as a medium: "I found the keyboard and mouse difficult to use", "I'd prefer to flip through a book than use a computer", "1 don' t like computers, I don't get on with them", "The computer is easier to search through and faster", "I would enjoy playing with the system", and from a library assistant from another library authority: "Computers are a bit of a luxury in libraries at the moment". Only one user was completely opposed to the idea behind the guide: "It's not useful at all - people should be free to choose for themselves, not have computers tell them what to read". Unsurprisingly, this user would not tryout the Hypercard guide. Whilst administering the questionnaire at the libraries, many librarians and library assistants took some interest in the system, and a collection of their comments is also given in Appendix 3. The librarians tended to be more guarded in their reaction to the system, particularly regarding the acceptability of the links between authors. However, once again the comments were generally positive and encouraging, particularly since the guide was only in its first stage of revision. Many of the librarians indicated that they would find a reliable guide 88 extremely useful, as the subjective question "Do you know any good authors?" is extremely difficult to answer, and is often asked of librarians by all kinds of users. The feeling that the Hypercard guide could be used to work through alternatives with users much more easily than would be possible with a book, since moving between linked authors was so easy, was seen as a great advantage. B.6 Brief Summary The field testing of the Hypercard Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors revealed a very high degree of satisfaction with the system among users. Over 90% of users who tried out the Hypercard Guide said they would use it again if available, and more than 90% of all those questioned said they would use a book version of the guide. This may, to some extent, be weighed against the number of users who did not wish to participate in the field study, due to time constraints, disinterest in fiction and so on, as such factors clearly show that it cannot be expected that 90% of all library users would make use of the guide if it were installed in a library. However, the high satisfaction encountered among most users, alongside many helpful ideas of how the guide could be improved, show that the Hypercard Guide has a potential for commercial exploitation, and that a market for the revised book version of the guide certainly exists. Reference [1] Spiller, David. The provision of fiction for public libraries. 1979, p.36 89 Chapter 9 Conclusion 9.1 Aims Of The Dissertation The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the need for a Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors, and the possibility of developing a computerized guide; to actually produce such a guide if viable and show how it could aid in the processing of data;and to field test the guide and comment on the results. The idea of a Reader's Guide had been shown to be viable by the successful publication of Peter Mann's original guide, and various studies had shown that the idea of a guide primarily for readers was popular amongst library users. It was decided that the theoretical compatibility between Hypertext and the Reader's Guide, in that the guide is not intended to be read as a linear document, but rather used piecemeal as a long index with references traced throughout, meant that it should be possible to develop a computerized version of the guide, particularly since the Apple Macintosh "Hypercard" system was readily available to the author. Such a system would have two purposes: to enable the creation and revision of the second edition of the guide to be undertaken more speedily and easily, and to act as a pilot for testing with library users, to gain some idea as to whether such a form would be viable for the guide for general use. 9.2 Process Of Creating The Guide The creation of a Hypercard Guide thus proceeded in parallel to the revision of the guide for a second edition, allowing the Hypercard Guide to be used in a limited way to aid the processing of the data that comprised the new edition. This facility alone was found to be of great importance, since the manual processing of the data to produce complete cross-links was found to be too time-consuming for the timescale of the pUblication. However, 90 since the compiler of the second edition of the guide (Roy Huse) did not have direct access to the Hypercard Guide for geographical reasons, it was found that the Hypercard Guide was used only sporadically for checking cross-links, rather than being used to its full potential at every stage of the revision. It is therefore recommended that if the Hypercard Guide is used for further revisions of the book (and it has proved itself to be an extremely useful tool for revision), the compiler should have complete day-to-day access to the facility. 9.3 Commercial Potential The ease of manipulating, viewing, changing and exporting the data from the Guide makes it ideal for use by the compiler of the Guide, but it also has potential for use by general library users. When field tested, over 90% of users who tried out the computerized guide found it useful, and stated they would use it again if it was left in the library. This suggests that some investigation of the potential for marketing the Hypercard Guide should be undertaken. This possibility is beyond the scope of this dissertation, but it should be noted that the main difficulty would appear to be that of the hardware on which to run the Guide. Although it is likely that a version of the Guide could be produced commercially very cheaply, the cost of the hardware on which it would have to be run would be substantial (this would consist of an Apple Macintosh computer with a version of the Hypercard software). Since only three library authorities in the country have Apple Macs for public use already [1], the market for the software alone would be very small. It is therefore likely that some arrangement with either Apple Macintosh Computers or Claris (the company that owns the Hypercard software) would have to be entered into to make the system attractive to potential buyers, at least in its present form. Another possibility would be to develop the Guide even further away from its original root as a very straight-forward book into a search facility for OPACs or CD-ROMs. This possibility is obvious not only to the producers of the guide, 91 but also to librarians who have tested it. The very simple and understandable visual method of searching was widely favoured, and could be developed into a system for searching for novelists in other computerized networks. This is, however, far beyond the scope of this dissertation, and clearly requires a great deal of commercial investigation and extensive development of the system. 9.4 Further Extensions And Developments Aside from these possible extensions and developments to the Guide, several other alterations could quite easily be made to improve the system. Most obvious would be to add a set of XCMDs, which are external computer routines, that would speed up some of the slower routines in the guide. These would have to be wri tten by an experienced computer programmer. Secondly, a facility to enable a compiler to make comments and keep a record of corrections for each author would be extremely useful, and could be added relatively easily by altering the layout and backgrounds of the Guide. This should be done with the input of the compiler of the guide, to ensure that the facilities made available would match her/his requirements. Further extensions to the Guide, such as those postulated by users during field testing, like titles of novels by authors, more detailed genres or advanced searching facilities (such as Boolean searches by genre, or searching by literary award), should be seriously considered before the next revision of the guide is undertaken. The compiler of the second edition, Roy Huse, stated that the potential for extended genres existed [2], but the task of simply introducing genres for the first time in the second edition was time consuming enough with regard to the publishing deadline. The fact that the Hypercard system could easily handle the extra data involved in such a facility makes it a significant possibility for future development. 92 9.5.1 Evaluation Of The Guide As A Data Processor Throughout the revision of the second edition of the Reader's Guide to Fiction Authors, the Hypercard Guide was developed and used to process the data. During the second stage of revision, it processed the entries for 441 authors, and created cross-links and main entries that resulted in entries for 1,208 authors. Such a huge expansion of the guide would obviously take many days or even weeks to be achieved manually, not to mention the quantity of paper that would be used. The Hypercard system performed the operation in a little under three hours. The guide also created an author index, and a genre index to be included in the published guide, in less than twenty minutes. Although the compiler of the second edition did not have access to the guide, and so could not comment on how easy it was to use, the time saved by this processing of data clearly shows the value of the Hypercard guide for handling information, and the major advantage that the system has over wordprocessors or spreadsheets, which can in no sense expand text in such a way. 9.5.2 Evaluation Of The Guide As A Guide The central purpose of the Reader's guide To Fiction Authors is obvious from its title. Both the book version and computerized version of the guide achieved very high approval ratings from the ordinary library users when responding to a questionnaire, but just as significant were the comments made by the users whilst using the guides. All users grasped the principle behind the guide very quickly, and the most common statements when using the guide were: "Oh yes, I like so-and-so and such-and-such a lot, they are qui te alike." "Oh no they don' t. write like each other at all." "I hadn' t thought of trying so-and-so, I'll have to see what they are like." 93 The success of the Guide should not only be measured by whether the borrowers would use it again, but also whether it stimulated and suggested authors to them successfully - in other words whether it guided. In this respect this study, although having a small sample size and having been conducted over a short period, strongly indicates that the Guide ~ successful as a guide to authors. 9.6 Conclusion This dissertation has shown that a Hypercard Guide To Fiction Authors is not only a theoretical possibility, but also an achievable reality. Many of the possibilities for the Guide have only been touched on briefly by this work, but it is clear that the guide has a great potential for development, and is already in a form that is useful both for the general fiction borrowing public and the producers of the Fiction Guide. It is to be hoped that at least some of its potential will be achieved. References [1] Batt, Chris. Information technology in public libraries. 1992, pp. 113-117 [2] Huse, Roy. Verbal report to Reader's Guide Steering Group. 1993. 94 Bibliography Batt, Chris. Information technology in public libraries, 4th ed. London: Library Association Publishing, 1992 Conklin, J. Hypertext: an introduction and slIn'ey, Computer. 1987, 20 (9) , pp.17 - 41 Goodall, Deborah. Browsing in public libraries. Loughborough: Library and Information Statistics Unit, Loughborough University of Technology, 1989. (Occasional Paper No.1) Goodman, D. The complete HyperCard 2.0 handbook, 3rd ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1990 Hasted, A. et al. PLR loans: a statistical investigation part 2. stockton-on-Tees: Registrar of PLR, 1991 Lambert, S. and S. Ropiequet, eds, CD-ROM: the new papyrus: the current and future state of the art. Redmond, Wa : Microsoft Press, 1986 Main points agreed at Reader's Guide Steering Group [unpublished report]. Loughborough: Library And Information Statistics Unit, Loughborough University of Technology, 1993 Mann, Peter H. A reader's guide to fiction authors. Loughborough: Centre for Library and Information Management, Loughborough University of Technology, 1985 Marriott, Richard. Choosing fiction: helping readers to help themselves [unpublished report]. Loughborough: Library and Information Statistics Unit, Loughborough University of Technology, 1993 95 Rada, R. Hypertext: from text to expertext. London: McGraw-Hill, 1991. Reader's guide to fiction authors - revised proposal and work plan [Unpublished ReportJ. Loughborough: Library and Information Statistics Unit, Loughborough University of Technology, 1993. Schneiderman, B. Designing the user interface. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1986. Schneiderman, B. Software psychology. Cambridge, Mass: Winthrop Publishers, 1980. Spiller, David. The provision of fiction for public libraries. MLS Dissertation, Department Of Library and Information Studies, Loughborough University of Technology, 1979. Turner, Susan E. A survey of borrowers' reaction to literary fiction in Beeston Library, Nottinghamshire. MA Dissertation, Department of Library and Information Studies, Loughborough University of Technology, 1987. 96 Appendix 1 Hypercard Scripts Al.l Button Scripts Script of Background Button id 64 "Previous" on mouseUp set hilite of me to false visual effect wipe right to white visual effect wipe right go prev end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 62 "Next" on mouseUp set hi lite of me to false visual effect wipe left to white visual effect wipe left go next end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 63 "Back" on mouseUp set hilite of me to false visual effect iris open to white visual effect iris open go back end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 74 "First Page" on mouseUp set hilite of me to false visual effect dissolve go card "Explanation" of stack "cover" end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 53 "Help" on mouseUp global ping,pong,trip put number of this card into ping put short name of this stack into pong put 1 into trip set hilite of me to false visual effect iris close go card "Primer" of stack "cover" end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 2 "Return to where you left" on mouseUp global ping,pong visual effect iris open go card ping of stack pong end mouseUp 97 Script of Background Button id 54 "Print" on mouseUp put "Author: "into printa get field "Author" put it & return after printa put "Genre: "after printa get field "Genre" put it & return & return after printa put "Alternative Authors:" & return & return after printa get field "Alternatives" put it after printa print printa end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 47 "Edit" on mouseUp if the locktext of field "Alternatives" is true then set the hilite of me to true set the lock text of field "Alternatives" to false set the lock text of field "Genre" to false set the lock text of field "Author" to false else set the lock text of field "Alternatives" to true set the lock text of field "Genre" to true set the lock text of field "Author" to true set the hilite of me to false end if end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 10 "Author Search" on mouseUp ask "Which author would you like to look up?" if «it is empty) or (the result is "Cancel"» then exit mouseUp set cursor to busy set hilite of me to false show bg button "please wait a moment" put offset (",", it) into gi if gi ~ 0 then put" " after char gi of it delete char gi of it end if lock screen unmark all cards set cursor to busy mark cards by finding it in field "Author" if the number of marked cards = 0 then unlock screen hide bg button "Please wait a moment" answer "Sorry, that author is not in the catalogue." with "OK" exit mouseUp else if the number of marked cards ~ 2 then put empty into holdall repeat with x = 1 to number of marked cards 98 set cursor to busy go marked card x get field "Author" delete last char of it put it && "(" after holdall get field "Genre" delete last char of it put it & ")" & return after holdall end repeat repeat with x = 1 to number of marked cards go back end repeat put holdall into bg field "holder" unlock screen hide bg button "Please wait a moment" show bg button "Empty" show bg button "Choose an author" show bg field "holder" show bg button "Cancel" exit mouseUp end if hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go first marked card unlock screen end if end mouseUp Script of Background Button id 10 "Cancel" on mouseUp put empty into holdall put empty into bg field "holder" hide bg field "holder" hide bg button "Choose an author" hide bg button "empty" hide bg button "cancel" end mouseUp Al.2 Field Scripts Script of Background Field id 52 "Holder" on mouseUp set cursor to busy select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble if bibble is empty then unlock screen exit mouseUp end if put offset ("(", bibble) into kee put offset (")", bibble) into eek put char (kee + 1) to (eek - 1) of bibble into qaz delete char (kee - 1) to (eek + 1) of bibble hide bg field "holder" 99 hide bg button "Choose an author" hide bg button "empty" hide bg button "cancel" unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Author" go first marked card if field "Genre" ~ qaz then go next marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 48 "Genre" on mouseUp set cursor to busy show bg button "Please wait a moment" select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go stack "Genres" unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Gen" go first marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 67 "Genre Zip" on mouseUp set cursor to busy show bg button "Please wait a moment" select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go stack "Genres" unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Gen" go first marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 48 "Thumbindex" on mouseUp set cursor to busy show bg button "Please wait a moment" select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into spindle hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go stack "Index" unmark all cards mark cards by finding spindle in field "Bet" if number of marked cards = 0 then go back unlock screen answer "Sorry, no authors under that letter" exit mouseUp 100 end if go first marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 4 "Alternatives" on mouseUp set cursor to busy show bg button "Please wait a moment" select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble if bibble is empty then hide bg button "Please wait a moment" exit mouseUp end if put bg field "Genre" into waif unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Author" if number of marked cards = 0 then go back unlock screen hide bg button "Please wait a moment" answer "Sorry, that author is not in the catalogue" exit mouseUp end if hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go first marked card if field genre * waif then if number of marked cards ~ 2 then unmark card go back unlock screen visual effect iris open to white visual effect ~r~s open go first marked card exit mouseUp end if go back unlock screen visual effect iris open to white visual effect iris open go first marked card end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 8 "Gindex" on mouseUp show bg button "Please wait a moment" set cursor to busy select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble if bibble is empty then unlock screen hide bg button "please wait a moment" exit mouseUp end if 101 put bg field "Gen" into zaq hide bg button "please wait a moment" go stack "Authors A-Z" unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Author" go first marked card if bg field "Genre" '" zaq then go next marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Script of Background Field id 4 "Index1" on mouseUp show bg button "please wait a moment" set cursor to busy select the clickLine lock screen put the selectedText into bibble if bibble is empty then unlock screen hide bg button "please wait a moment" exit mouseUp end if put offset ("(", bibble) into kee put offset (")", bibble) into eek put char (kee + 1) to (eek - 1) of bibble into qaz delete char (kee - 4) to (eek + 1) of bibble hide bg button "Please wait a moment" go stack "Authors A-Z" unmark all cards mark cards by finding bibble in field "Author" go first marked card if bg field "Genre" '" qaz then go next marked card unlock screen end mouseUp Al.3 Background Scripts Script of Background id 116536 "Basis" (Background of main authors stack) on openCard hide menubar hide bg button "Please wait a moment" hide bg field "Holder" hide bg button "Empty" hide bg button "Choose an author" hide bg button "Cancel" set hilite of bg button "Edit" to false set the lock text of bg field "Alternatives" to true set the lock text of bg field "Genre" to true set the locktext of bg field '~Author" to true end openCard . 102 Script of Background id 6501 "Ginback" (Background of Genre index stack) on openCard hide menubar hide bg button "please wait a moment" hide bg field "Holder" hide bg button "Empty" hide bg button "Choose an author" hide bg button "Cancel" set hilite of bg button "Edit" to false set the lock text of bg field "Gen" to true set the lock text of bg field "Gindex" to true end openCard Script of Background id 7442 "index" (Background of Author index stack) on openCard hide menubar hide bg button "please wait a moment" hide bg field "Holder" hide bg button "Empty" hide bg button "Choose an author" hide bg button "Cancel" set hilite of bg button "Edit" to false set the locktext of bg field "Index1" to true set the lock text of bg field "Bet" to true end openCard Al.4 Creation Scripts Script of Card Button id 21 "Importer 1" on mouseUp answer file "Import text from which file:" of type "TEXT" if it is empty then exit mouseUp put it into fileName set cursor to busy lock screen go card "Blanker" of stack "Basics" doMe nu "Copy Card" create stack "Authors A-Z" go stack "Authors A-Z" doMenu "Paste Card" set cursor to busy open file fileName repeat read from file filename until return set cursor to busy delete last char of it if it is "@" then close file fileName go first card doMenu "Delete Card" doMenu "Delete Card" go stack "Creator" 103 unlock screen answer "The import is complete." exit mouseUp end if doMe nu "New Card" put offset (",", it) into bite if bite ~ 0 then delete char bite of it put the charToNum of last char of it into fang if fang ~ 90 and fang ~ 65 then put it into nark put offset (" ", nark) into blood delete char blood of nark put 1 into brig put offset (" ", nark) into brood if brood ~ 0 then put 2 into brig delete char brood of nark put offset (" ", nark) into bwood if bwood ~ 0 then put 3 into brig end if end if if brig = 1 then put char 1 to blood of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it else if brig = 2 then put char 1 to (brood + 1) of it into temp delete char 1 to (brood + 1) of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it else if brig = 3 then put char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it into temp delete char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it end if else put return after it end if put offset (return, it) into ouch if charToNum of char (ouch - 1) of it = 32 then - delete char (ouch - 1) of it put it into bg field "Author" read from file fileName until return put it into bg field "Genre" repeat set cursor to busy read from file fileName until return if it is return then exit repeat delete last char of it put offset (",", it) into. bite if bite ~ 0 then delete char bite of it put the charToNum of last char of it into fang if fang ~ 90 and fang ~ 65 then 104 put it into nark put offset (" ", nark) into blood delete char blood of nark put 1 into brig put offset (" ", nark) into brood if brood * 0 then put 2 into brig delete char brood of nark put offset (" ", nark) into bwood if bwood F 0 then put 3 into brig end if end if if brig = 1 then put char 1 to blood of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it else if brig = 2 then put char 1 to (brood + 1) of it into- temp delete char 1 to (brood + 1) of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it else if brig = 3 then put char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it into- temp delete char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it end if else put return after it end if put offset (return, it) into ouch if charToNum of char (ouch - 1) of it = 32 then delete char (ouch - 1) of it put it after bg field "Alternatives" end repeat sort bg field "Alternatives" read from file fileName until return end repeat end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 22 "Importer 2-4" on mouseUp answer file "Import text from which file:" of type "TEXT" if it is empty then exit mouseUp put it into fileName set cursor to busy lock screen go last card of stack "Authors A-Z" set cursor to busy open file fileName repeat read from file filename until return 105 set cursor to busy delete last char of it if it is "@" then close file fileName go stack "Creator" unlock screen answer "The import is complete." exit mouseUp end if doMenu "New Card" put offset (",", it) into bite if bite ~ 0 then delete char bite of it put the charToNum of last char of it into fang if fang ~ 90 and fang ~ 65 then put it into nark put offset (" ", nark) into blood delete char blood of nark put 1 into brig put offset (" ", nark) into brood if brood ~ 0 then put 2 into brig delete char brood of nark put offset (" ", nark) into bwood if bwood ~ 0 then put 3 into brig end if end if if brig = 1 then put char 1 to blood of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it delete last char of temp put" " & temp & return after it else if brig = 2 then put char 1 to (brood + 1) of it into temp delete char 1 to (brood + 1) of it delete last char of temp put" " & temp & return after it else if brig = 3 then put char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it into temp delete char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it delete last char of temp put" " & temp & return after it end if else put return after it end if put offset (return, it) into ouch if charToNum of char (ouch - 1) of it = 32 then - delete char (ouch - 1) of it put it into bg field "Author" read from file fileName until return put it into bg field "Genre" repeat set cursor to busy read from file fileName until return if it is return then exit repeat 106 delete last char of it put offset (",", it) into bite if bite * 0 then delete char bite of it put the charToNum of last char of it into fang if fang ~ 90 and fang ~ 65 then put it into nark put offset (" ", nark) into blood delete char blood of nark put 1 into brig put offset (" ", nark) into brood if brood * 0 then put 2 into brig delete char brood of nark put offset (" ", nark) into bwood if bwood * 0 then put 3 into brig end if end if if brig = 1 then put char 1 to blood of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it else if brig = 2 then put char 1 to (brood + 1) of it into temp delete char 1 to (brood + 1) of it delete last char of temp put" " & temp & return after it else if brig = 3 then put char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it into- temp delete char 1 to (bwood + 2) of it delete last char of temp put " " & temp & return after it end if else put return after it end if put offset (return, it) into ouch if charToNum of char (ouch - 1) of it = 32 - then delete char (ouch - 1) of it put it after bg field "Alternatives" end repeat sort bg field "Alternatives" read from file fileName until return end repeat end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 10 "New List" on mouseUp lock screen set cursor to busy go card "Blanker" of stack "basics" doMe nu "Copy Card" create stack "Alternate" 1 07 go stack "Alternate" doMe nu "Paste Card" go first card doMenu "Delete Card" go first card of stack "Authors A-Z" put number of cards into wox repeat with x = 1 to wox go card x put number of lines of bg field "Alternatives" into - golden put bg field "Author" into blam put bg field "Genre" into whack repeat with y = 1 to golden set cursor to busy put line y of bg field "Alternatives" into zonk unmark all cards mark cards by finding zonk in bg field "Author" put number of marked cards into yip if yip = 0 then go stack "Alternate" unmark all cards mark cards by finding zonk in bg field "Author" if number of marked cards = 0 then doMe nu "Paste Card" put zonk & return into bg field "Author" put whack into bg field "Genre" put blam into bg field "Alternatives" else go first marked card put blam after bg field "Alternatives" end if else if yip = 1 then go first marked card find blam in bg field "Alternatives" in marked cards if the result is not empty then put blam after bg field "Alternatives" sort bg field "Alternatives" end if end if go card x of stack "Authors A-Z" end repeat end repeat go stack "Alternate" sort by bg field "Author" go stack "Creator" answer "All done!" with "OK" unlock screen end mouseUp 108 Script of Card Button id 18 "Merge" on mouseUp set cursor to busy lock screen go stack "Alternate" repeat with x = 1 to number of cards set cursor to busy go card x doMenu "Copy Card" go stack "Authors A-Z" set cursor to busy doMenu "Paste Card" go stack "Alternate" end repeat go stack "Creator" unlock screen answer "Stacks Merged!" end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 17 "Natural Order" on mouseUp lock screen go stack "Author A-Z" sort by bg field "Author" repeat with x = 1 to number of cards set cursor to busy go card x get bg field "Author" put char 1 of it & " " & x into scram set the name of this card to scram put offset (" ", it) into blood put char 1 to (blood - 1) of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it delete last char of it put " " & temp after it put offset ("-", it) into drag if drag * 0 then if it = "Cynthia HARROD-EAGLES" then else if it = "Lesley GRANT-ADAMSON" then else if it = "Audrie MANLEY-TUCKER" then else if it = "Carole WENSBY-SCOTT" then else repeat put " " after char drag of it delete char drag of it put offset ("-", it) into drag if drag = 0 then exit repeat end repeat end if end if put it & return into bg field "Author" put number of lines of bg field "Alternatives" into wasp repeat with x = 1 to wasp set cursor to busy get line x of bg field "Alternatives" 109 if it is return then exit repeat put offset (" ", it) into blood put char 1 to (blood - 1) of it into temp delete char 1 to blood of it put" " & temp after it put offset ("-", it) into drag if drag ~ 0 then if it = "Cynthia HARROD-EAGLES" then else if it = "Lesley GRANT-ADAMSON" then else if it = "Audrie MANLEY-TUCKER" then else if it = "Carole WENSBY-SCOTT" then else repeat put " " after char drag of it delete char drag of it put offset ("-", it) into drag if drag = 0 then exit repeat end repeat end if end if put it & return after bg field "boggle" end repeat get bg field "boggle" put it into bg field "Alternatives" end repeat unlock screen answer "All text now in natural order." end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 2 "Index Creation" on mouseUp set cursor to busy go card "index" of stack "basics" doMe nu "Copy Card" create stack "index" go stack "index" doMe nu "Paste Card" go last card of stack "Authors A-Z" doMenu "New Card" set the name of this card to "stop" set cursor to busy mark all cards go first card repeat set cursor to busy get the short name of this card if it is "stop" then doMenu "Delete Card'.' exit repeat end if put char 1 of it into alpha put empty into rubble repeat while short name of this card contains Alpha set cursor to busy get field "Author" put last char of it into temp 110 if charToNum of temp = 13 then delete last char- of it put it &" (" after rubble get field "Genre" delete last char of it put it & "I" & return after rubble unmark card go next card end repeat set cursor to busy go last card of stack "index" doMenu "New Card" put Alpha into bg field "bet" put rubble into bg field "index1" go first marked card of stack "Authors A-Z" end repeat go first. card of stack "index" doMe nu "Delete Card" doMe nu "Delete Card" go stack "Creator" answer "The index creation is complete." end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 8 "Genre Index" on mouseUp set cursor to busy go card "Gindex" of stack "basics" doMenu "Copy Card" create stack "Genres" go stack "Genres" doMenu "Paste Card" go stack "Authors A-Z" sort by bg field "Genre" go last card doMe nu "New Card" set the name of this card to stop set cursor to busy mark all cards go first card repeat set cursor to busy get the short name of this card if it is "stop" then doMenu "Delete Card" exit repeat end if put empty into rubble get field "Genre" put it into cut repeat while field "Genre" contains cut set cursor to busy get the short name of this card delete char 1 to 2 of it set the name of this card to it get field "Author" put last char of it into temp 111 if charToNum of temp = 13 then delete last char- of it put return after it put it after rubble unmark card go next card end repeat set cursor to busy go last card of stack "Genres" doMe nu "New Card" put cut into bg field "Gen" put rubble into bg field "Gindex" go first marked card of stack "Authors A-Z" end repeat go stack "Authors A-Z" sort numeric by short name of card go first card of stack "Genres" doMenu "Delete Card" doMenu "Delete Card" go stack "Creator" answer "The genre index is complete." end mouseUp Script of Card Button id 13 "Export" on mouseUp ask file "Save as:" with "New. text" lock screen put it into deltoid open file deltoid go first card of stack "Authors A-Z" repeat for the number of cards get field "Author" write it to file deltoid get field "Genre" write it to file deltoid get field "Alternatives" write it & return & return to file deltoid go next card end repeat write "@" & return to file deltoid close file deltoid go stack "Creator" unlock screen answer "The export is completed" end mouseUp 112 APPENDIX 2 QUESTIONNAIRE Library: Date: Time: 1) Are you looking for, or do you usually look for fiction books for yourself or for others? (If not, end the interview) [ I Looking Self [ I Looking Other [ I Usually Self [ I Usually Other 2) How do you normally look for books for yourself / others? (Do you look for authors, titles, types of book, browse or something else) [ I Author [ I Title [ I Genre [ I Browse [ I Other... 3) If you choose books by author, do you have a number of favourite writers? Could you name any of them? 4) If you choose books by type, or genre, which types do you look for? 5) Do you prefer books to be arranged in one alphabetical sequence, or split up acording to the type of book they are? [ I A-Z [ I Genres [ I No preference 6) How do you find new authors? [ I Recommendations by friends [ I TV / Radio [ I Newspaper reviews [ I Browsing [ I Don't look for new authors [ I Other. .. 113 7) Do you ever ask library staff for help when looking for fiction? (If not is there a particular reason why you don't?) 8) Have you ever used a... (It doesn't matter if you haven't) [ 1 Typewriter [ 1 Computer [ 1 Mouse [ 1 Computerized library catalogue At this point introduce the Hypercard Reader's Guide To Fiction Authors, and briefly outline how it works. 9) Would you like to try out the Guide? (I will help you if you get stuck) If no, end the interview. [ 1 Allow the user as much time as they require to use the guide. Note any problems or comments, and the time taken. [ 1 Time 10) How clear do you think the layout and labelling of each screen is? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Clear Quite Clear Not Clear Very Unclear 11 ) How easy was the information to see and read? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Easy Quite Easy Not Easy Very Difficult 12) How easy did you find it to understand the information? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Easy Quite Easy Not Easy Very Difficult 13) How clear do you think the instructions on-screen are? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Clear Quite Clear Not Clear Very Unclear 14) How easy did you find it to move between the screens? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Easy Quite Easy Not Easy Very Difficult 15) How easy was it to tell the different areas of the guide apart? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Very Easy Quite Easy Not Easy Very Difficult 16) Was there enough on-screen help? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 Plenty Enough Not enough Far too little 114 17) How useful did you find the guide? [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 [ 1 V. Useful Quite Useful Not Useful V. Unhelpful 18) If this guide was available permanently in this library, would you use it again? [ 1 Yes [ 1 No 19) Would you use a book version of the guide? [ 1 Yes [ 1 No 20) Is there anything in the guide that you disagree or strongly agree with (links between authors, or the type of book they write)? 21) Are there any other useful things you would like to see added to the guide? 22) Do you have any final comments on anything that I have asked you? Could you just tick the age range that you are in: Age: [ 1 - 20 [ 1 20 - 30 [ 1 30 - 4S [ 1 4S - 60 [ 1 60 - Sex: Thank you very much for your help. 115 APPENDIX 3 Data From Field Testing Of Hypercard Guide NB. Numbers in brackets represent numbers of users commenting. A3.1 Responses To Question 3: Could you name any of your favourite authors? Douglas Adams John Irving Kingsley Amis P.D. James Evelyn Anthony Stephen King Jeffrey Archer Beryl Kingston Margaret Atwood Dean R. Koontz Clive Barker (2) Milan Kundera Saul Bellow C.S. Lewis (2) Charlotte Bingham Bernard Malamud Terry Brooks Anne McCaffrey John Buchan Robert McCammon Agatha Christie (2) James A. Michener Arthur C. Clarke Ellis Peters Jackie Collins Marge Piercy Catherine Cookson (4) Anthony Price Clive Cussler Douglas Reeman Colin Dexter Susan Sallis (2) Gerald Durrell Robert Silverberg Claire Francis Mary Jane Staples Dick Francis (2) J.R.R. Tolkien Christine Marion Fraser Elleston Trevor Marilyn French Joanna Trollope Elizabeth Gage John Updike Elizabeth George Fay Weldon Graham Greene Mary Wesley Harry Harrison James Herbert Jack Higgins Elizabeth Jane Howard Susan Howatch 116 A3.2 Responses to question 20: Is there anything in the guide that you disagree or strongly agree with? "Nicholas Blake does not write like Agatha Christie" "Georgette Heyer writes historical novels" "Ursula Le Guin should be linked to Anne McCaffrey" "Andre Norton writes Sci-Fi not fantasy" "Terry Pratchett does not write like Tom Holt" "Tom Sharpe does not write like Terry Pratchett" "Joan Aiken writes crime too" "Gwendoline Butler does not write like Jonathan Gash" "Liza Cody should be linked to Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and Robert B. Parker" "Georgette Heyer does not write like Jane Austen" "Pamela Hansford Johnson does not write like Monica Dickens" "Robert B. Parker should be linked to Raymond Chandler" "Erica Quest writes police procedurals, like Claire Curzon" "Sue Townsend does not write like Jilly Cooper" "Danielle Steel writes romances" A3.3 Responses to Question 21: Are there any other useful things you would like to see added to the guide? Titles of novels by each author (6) Synopsis of the type of novels written by each author (4) Link to library catalogue (5) Inclusion of non-fiction books (4) More detailed genres (2) Help on where to find the books in the library (1) "Classics" (2) "Feminist" novels (2) Biographies (1) Poetry (1) Boolean searches by genre (2) 117 A3.4 Responses to Question 22: Do you have any final comments? A good idea (4) Computer easier and faster to search through (3) Screen is too small (2) Difficult to use keyboard and mouse Clearer route to menu screen needed Types of crime novels should be divided out Don't normally need help looking for authors Would definitely like some titles Computers are a bit of a luxury Not useful at all people should be free to choose for themselves Would enjoy playing with the system Would prefer to use a book guide 1 don't like computers, 1 don't get on with them Could be helpful, but opinions vary so much. A3.5 Collected comments of librarians who used the system "The guide would be useful as an aide-memoire for librarians when asked about fiction authors, but 1 would be dubious about leaving the system on its own for users, because 1 don't agree with some of the links." "1 would be interested in seeing the list of the top 100 authors, to draw my own conclusions about links." "1 don' t think it is a good idea to ask for links from bibliographic departments, librarians 'on the counter' are more likely to know about authors through dealing with the public one to-one." "The genres are a useful way of searching, but would be almost impossible to use in the book. The genres should be made more specific, and the authors listed in genre order like an index. But that may cause confusion, and would only really work on a computer." "Would it be possible to combine genres to perform a Boolean 'AND' search?" 118 "It would be very useful as a front-end to the OPAC, as ours is not very friendly." "The links are too subjective, and some of the authors don't have enough alternatives." "I would prefer more genres. I don't like the 'general' section, and Classics would be essential, and possibly also spy novels." "Individual authors should be described more - so and so writes more feminist-type thrillers and so on." "How much would this system cost?" 119