From Westchester
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CONNECTION How one System got Wired--the DEVELOPMEN: Pitfalls and Web Lessons The promise From Westchester
By Maurice J. Freedman holes and barriers along the way. But few of us would trade where we are today for a less rocky road. Success came because headquarters and public library “ FOSCA, IT’S AN opera. Can you get me some in- staff stuck with every problem until it was solved or formation about it? my colleague asked. I was just leaving eliminated; we remained committed to free access as a for a lunch date. She'd asked for my help because she'd fundamental public library principle; and we committed seen how quickly and easily I found information using the collectively to use technology to improve service. World Wide Web (WWW). I put down my coat. I decided to make one quick try. Consensus required “You mean Tosca,” I said Complicating our mission was that Westchester is a “No. Fosca, By Antonio Carlos Gomes.” cooperative public library system consisting of a Using the PC on my desk, which is linked to the Internet headquarters and 38 independent member public libraries server of the Westchester Library System (WLS), serving diverse constituencies. Thus the WLS headquarters Elmsford, (NY), I brought up the Alta Vista search engine staff must respond to the priorities and demands of these on my Netscape browser. I typed in the name of the member public libraries (not -branches). Headquarters staff composer. From the first ten of “about 10,000” matches on must build consensus among its independent members for the name, I selected "A. Carlos Gomes-His Operas" to click virtually any decision of significance. on. The key to this cooperative's success has been the That yielded a web site that listed each of Gomes's active participation of the 38 directors in the planning, operatic works. (It was set up by a Brazilian opera singer implementation, and management of WLS's technology living in Westchester.) I next clicked on Fosca and was program. The online system WESTLYNX, began presented with a three-page synopsis of the five acts and operations in 1988. It offers online circulation and public two scenes of the opera, plus the cast, characters, and access catalog modules, as well as connectivity to other performers in the premiere performance at La Scala in online systems and databases. Our challenge was to add 1873, as well as the performers on a Brazilian recording of 150 graphics-based PCs and provide Internet and web the opera in 1966. 1 smiled, handed the printout to my access at each library, in addition to the 300 user terminals colleague, and hurried off to lunch. we already had. The World Wide Web's resources enabled me to answer a reference question for which I had virtually no Moving ahead background and, at best, only a vague idea of what print Because we already had an online system, it wasn't resource might provide the information. Because of this much of a leap to add another online service. Also, many kind of empowerment, my Westchester colleagues and I Westchester librarians understood the benefits of the have been committed to making the WWW freely WWW and had had thew own positive experiences with it. accessible in Westchester's public libraries. And we realized that direct access to the WWW at libraries At the heart of WLS's commitment to provide access was the wave of the future. to the web is the belief that it is an extraordinary Still, we faced challenges. We had to find the money information resource. Even though the reliability of the to pay for the equipment, software, a new information must be assessed, as with all reference sources telecommunications network, and an in-house webmaster. and the medium is subject to technical glitches, the web Thus, we had to identify new sources of funds or reallocate offers a universe of information that is usually more timely existing money. Some directors believed the dollars might than print resources. be better spent on other needed items, used to lower current Here I aim to share some of the problems, lessons, and expenses, or saved for future funding exigencies. And a few successes of that experience. Admittedly we hit some pot thought that the WWW was just another toy for the techies. At WLS, we developed position papers, a timetable, and an overall capital plan, which included financing a Dr. Maurice J. Freedman has been director of the Westchester mainframe upgrade, acquiring a new telecommunications Library System, Elmsford. New York, since 1982 and has network, a web consulted on library technology since 1970
LIBRARY JOURNAL/OCTOBER 1, 1996 server, and related software; contracting for online index, project. We learned that however much a vendor professes abstract, and full-text periodical information; and expertise, the customer must be wary. purchasing software for graphic public access catalogs NYNEX originally promised to begin installing the Many meetings, first with the User Group's finance frame-relay circuits in May 1995, but its blown schedule committee, its steering committee, and finally the full ensured otherwise. Not until December 1995, when group, ultimately led to consensus and approval of the NYNEX finally seemed to understand the circuitry and project. Although the library directors wanted everything hired a new supervisor of installations, did service proceed immediately, they understood there would be snags and smoothly. glitches. We told them we would move as fast as possible. As for Racal, it had only one service person in the Implementation entire New York metropolitan area qualified to install the Gaining network access to the WWW and creating a hardware. Not surprisingly the rate and success of web site involved the following: installations by Racal was dreadful. After complaining several times without results, we withheld payment. That got results. By January 1996, Racal had improved its contracting with an Internet-connectivity service to service significantly. install a dedicated T- I line over which all of the web information would be communicated: Growing Pains installing a means of -distributing web information We needed someone to manage the im-plementation of the web server, software, and service. So we defined the to the member library sites, i.e., a state-of-the-art position of websmaster. It evolved relatively quickly form frame-relay telecommunications network; half-time to more work than a full-time employee could selecting and installing a web browser (Netscape) handle. We found it impractical to have one person manage by which the web would be accessed; the web site and also work with the 38 public library directors on their respective web pages. Now another hiring a webmaster, a person skilled in the ways of staffer devotes part-time duties to maintain individual the web, to establish and maintain WLS’s web site. public library web pages, which includes up-dating individual public library event calendars. Thanks to the expertise of WLS staff, the (eventual) The websmaster’s job includes professionalism of outside vendors, and the support of library directors and staff, it took well under a year to implement frame-relay circuits and Netscape access to the collecting and analyzing web usage statistics and web at some 36 of the 42 library sites in the country. working on a redesign of the homepage; loading WLS’s important document and information onto the web, including bylaws, minutes of board Vendors strain meetings, lists of trustees, lists of WLS staff, the code It was a painful and slow process to install the circuits of service, and system statistic; and the hardware, without which we could not access the web. Unlike most public libraries, which contract with a turnkey working with key reference staff on a project, system vendor for the installation and maintenance of their ultimately to be linked to our web site, to establish a telecommunications network, WLS manages its own system of locally designed pathfinders organized by telecommunications network. But the problems we decimal classification, subject, and searchable by any experienced transcend the issue of who manages the network. word or phrase. NYNEX, the phone company that provided the frame- relay communication lines, an Racal, the firm form which We still discuss how much and what type of WLS purchased the telecommunications network hardware, information to put on the web. For example, will WLS or had to be ridden hard during the first six months of the new public library trustees want their home addresses, and business and home phone and FAX numbers listed on the WLS web site? LIBRARY JOURNAL/OCTOBER 1, 1996 Should all of the WLS budget, including every line item Scarsdale, the hackers went from PC to PC unable to break and note, be placed on the web? into the underlying software. Their consternation and distress cheered Scarsdale's and WLS's beleaguered staff. Policy dilemmas One other library experienced security problems. A It was fairly easy to adopt policies, rules, and dedicated hacker managed to break the security on one PC procedures for public and staff use of the online terminals and revised the WLS homepage (see p. 43 for the revised and services, including Internet and web access. The User page). His anonymity, poor spelling, and marginal literacy Group's Internet committee did not try to reinvent the only added to the charm. wheel. It went out on the net and adapted policies already A related difficulty, which contributed to this and other used by other libraries. hackers' successes, was that staff unintentionally gave away The debates have not concerned Internet policy but the passwords. Some typed in the passwords in front of basic intellectual freedom issues. Our cooperative status users; others told them to patrons or even yelled them has made things a little easier. Because the public libraries across a room. After some additional training and are independent and autonomous, few outside constraints instruction, staffers no longer make such error can be applied to the libraries' policies and services. This is why we peacefully have not resolved "right to Public input links view' policy differences. One library director believes that One public-spirited patron decided to provide a detailed the librarian shouldn't look at, supervise, or abridge what critique of the WLS web site. Some of the many comments someone calls up on a PC screen. Another he offered led to positive changes. He noted that the public library director-a strong defender of WLS logo on the homepage was too large and that the right of access by anyone to the material people could not see the list of services offered professionally selected for inclusion in the without having to page down. library's collections-disagrees. So, if Now a substantially revised homepage is being librarians in that library observe children created, which will simply and directly get the WLS accessing, web pages with pornography, they identity and the fist of services to appear on the tell them "the terminal is a research tool, and opening screen. we will be happy to help you with research, The writer also found that at a community but what you are doing is not permitted." information site, a commercial service was offering While libraries differ regarding the right to view, there its wares over the web from the WESTLYNX server. What is no question about fees for this service. They maintain a had been a link to a school district had a wholly different strong commitment to the principles upon which the public site related to it. We immediately deleted the site and link library movement was founded. Indeed, most libraries do from the community information section. not even charge for printing pages from the web or from Getting wired has allowed WLS to form a partnership online database services. with the Westchester Alliance for Telecommunications and Public Access. This volunteer group has established a site Netscape and backers on the WLS server and is constructing web pages at no Using the WWW with the Netscape browser is charge for (or creating links to) as many nonprofit and problem-fraught and professionally challenging, but it government local agencies as it can encourage to yields an information-rich resource. Netscape-related participate. Now the public libraries of Westchester County problems ate up horrendous quantities of the WESTLYNX have a growing community information database without support stairs time. data collection and maintenance responsibilities. We installed Netscape on every public access PC. The creators of Netscape, as with most successful software What's next? firms, release new versions of the program as updates and Our single greatest wish is to flood the libraries with new features we added. WLS began its web service with graphical user interface (GUI) PCs. We'd like 500 to 600 of Netscape 1.0 and currently uses Netscape 2.0. them in the 42 public library sites, instead of the current The earlier version provided much less security for the 150. That would go much further toward providing software running on the local PC. The public library in everyone who enters the library with access to the world's Scarsdale, with its affluent, bright high school students, information resources free of charge, and, we hope, without became a hackers' paradise. Initially, we could not figure having to wait too long for a seat. (Most libraries have out how to 'keep users from downloading software from the already imposed time limits.) The cost for this project web via Netscape. One hacker tactic to bring down the PCs would be an additional $1 million. was to use Netscape to download a file from the WWW by Also, we'd like to find a revenue stream that win specifying its destination location as
LIBRARY JOURNAL/OCTOBER 1, 1996