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Communications

How Long the Wait until We Can Call It Television

Jerry BORRELL: Congressional Research sharing service that provides more than Service, Library of Congress, Washington, 100 different (nonbibliographic) data bases D.C* to about 5,000 users. The Warner and American Express joint project, QUBE This brief article will review videotex (also Columbus-based), utilizes cable and teletext. There is little need to define broadcast with a limited interactive capa­ terminology because new hybrid systems bility. It does not allow for on-demand are being devised almost constantly (hats provision of information; rather, it uses a off to OCLC's latest buzzword-Viewtel). polling technique. Antiope, the French Ylost useful of all would be an examination teletext system, used at KSL in St. Louis of the types of technology being used for last year and undergoing further tests in information provision. The basic require­ Los Angeles at KNXT in the coming year, ment for all systems is a data base-i.e., is only part of a complex data transmission data stored so as to allow its retrieval and system known as DIDon. Antiope is also display on a television screen. The interac­ at an experimental stage in France, with tions between the computer and the tele­ 2,500 terminals scheduled for use in 1981. vision screens are means to distinguish CEEFAX and Oracle, broadcast teletext technologies. In teletext and videotex a by the BBC and IBC in Britain, have an device known as a decoder uses data en­ estimated 100,000 users currently. Two coded onto the lines of a broadcast signal thousand adapted television sets are being (whatever the medium of transmission) to sold every month. Prestel, BBC's videotex generate the display screen. In videotex, system, currently has approximately 5,000 voice grade telephone lines or interactive users, half of whom are businesses. cable are used to carry data communica­ All other countries in Europe are con­ tions between two points (usually 1200 ducting experiments with one of the tech­ baud from the computer and 300 baud or nologies. In Canada, Telidon, the most less from the decoder and the television technically advanced system, has 200 screen). In teletext the signal is broadcast users. Experiments involving Telidon are over airwaves (wideband) or via a being conducted nationwide due to gov­ time-sharing system (narrowband). The ernment interest in telecommunications numerous configurations possible make improvements. Telidon will also be used straightforward classification of systems in Washington in the spring of 1981 for questionable. consumer evaluation. A review of the systems currently avail­ These cursory notes should indicate the able is useful to illustrate these terms, breadth of interest in alternative means of videotex and teletext. CompuServe, the information provision. Video and electron­ Columbus, Ohio-based company, provides ic publishing newsletters (see references) on-line searching of newspapers to about keep track of the number of users and are 4,000 users. Reader's Digest recently ac­ the best way to keep informed of activities quired 51 percent of The Source, a time­ and developments. *The views expressed in this paper do not Several important trends are becoming necessarily represent those of the Library of evident. Perhaps the most evident is the Congress or of the Congressional Research Ser ~ realization that videography is being de­ vice. veloped in countries other than the U.S. Communications 51 as a result of strong support by the French and British systems. Prestel, National Posts and Telecommunications which was originally targeted for a home (PTT) authorities. Until recently there was market, is now promoted with the tacit a feeling that the U.S. was technically be­ policy of being a special business service hind Europe. What is now evident is that allowing financial and private data to be in the free market system of the U. S. provided to subscribers. Sofratev, the manufacturers or other potential system marketers of the French teletext system, providers have had insufficient impetus to are acknowledging the importance of provide videotex/teletext technology. The transactional markets in two ways, based technology of information display (see Bor­ on technology they have named "smart rell, journal of Library Automation, V.13 card," a credit card-size (in one configura­ (Dec. 1980), p.277-81) in the U.S. is an tion) plate with a built-in microprocessor order of magnitude more sophisticated or chip. The card will allow system users than in Europe. The point being that in to access material that will have controlled the absence of strong PTT pressure, readership. An example would be a maga­ videography in the U.S. developed for zine of financial data provided to those specialized markets in which telecom­ who need such information (or, more im­ munications were not a central need. In portantly, are willing to pay for it). In a the one area of great demand, teletext ser­ more complex effort, the largest retailer in vices for the hearing impaired, decoders Paris will advertise material via teletext were developed and have been employed and system users will be able to make ac­ for a number of years (about 25,000 are quisitions with their smart card, which can currently in use). As the high cost of tele­ be programmed with financial data. communications bandwidth is eased by Nor is this the end of the effort by the data compression, direct broadcasting by French to market information display satellite, enhanced cable services, and technology. The electronic phone directory, fiber optic networks, then videotex and being offered by Bell in Austin, is repli­ teletext will become available on a wide cated in a more modest way by the scale in the U.S. French, who plan to produce a six-by­ The Computer Inquiry II decision by eight-inch black-and,white display unit the FCC involving reinterpretation of the that will provide. phone directory informa­ Communications Act of 1934 has given tion (both white and yellow pages) to all of AT&T permission to enter the data pro­ France by the 1990s. Developed as part of cessing market. In fact, AT&T, in its third the "Telerriatique" program of the .French experiment with videotex, is taking such government, the terminals represent to an aggressive stance that it seems to be some (the parent company of The Source doing everything that its critics have has tendered an offer for up to 250,000 of feared: providing updatable classified ads the terminals) a low-cost alternative for (dynamic yellow pages), allowing users to providing videotex to a mass market. The place information into the system mem­ Tandy home computer in its videotex con­ ory, and providing voice mail services­ figuration seems to fill the same market thereby taking on the newspapers, home slot. computer manufacturers, and the U.S. Perhaps the most disturbing trend, at Postal Service. In addition, banking ser­ least from a librarian's point of view, is the vices will be offered. As the largest com­ fact that contemporary data systems are pany in the U.S., this stance cannot be being created which could benefit greatly ignored. AT&T supplies about 80 percent from the experience of librarians and li­ of the phone service in the U.S., and has braries. For instance, research into the the potential, if allowed, to become a methods of access-keyword, phonetic and broadcaster, data processor, publisher, geographical-by the French is intended and banker; cross-ownership was never to pro:vide a flexible and easily used sys­ allowed up to this time. tem for untrained persons searching for The trend toward specialized services directory information, and is being per­ provision is also exemplified by the formed by an advertising and yellow pages 52 Journal of Library Automation Vol. 14/1 March 1981

publishing firm. With a feeling of deja vu 5. Videodisc/Teletext News. Westport, Conn.: I listened to an explanation of how difficult Microform Review. Quarterly. it is to develop a system for the novice; 6. Videoprint. Norwalk, Conn.: Videoprint. one proposed solution is to allow only the Two times monthly. first four letters of a word to be entered 7. Viewdata/Videotex Report. New York: Link Resources Corp. Monthly. (one of the search methods used at the Li­ brary of Congress, which does suggest some cross-fertilization). Data Processing Library: Whatever the trends, the reality is that A Very Special Library librarians and information scientists are playing decreasing roles in the growth of Sherry COOK, Mercedes DUMLAO, and information display technology. Hardware Maria SZABO: Bechtel Data Processing Li­ systems analysts, advertisers, and com­ brary, San Francisco, California. munications specialists are the main pro­ fessions that have an active role to play in The 1980s are here and with them comes the information age. Perhaps the answer is the ever broadening application of the an immediate and radical change in the computer. This presents a new challenge training of library schools of today. Our to libraries. What do we do with all these small role may reflect our penchant to be computer codes? How do we index the collectors, archivists, and guardians of the material? And most importantly, how do information repositories. Have we become we make it accessible to our patrons or the keepers of the system? The demand computer users? today is for service, information, and en­ Bechtel's Data Processing Library has tertainment. If we librarians cannot fulfill met these demands. The genesis for the these needs our places are not assured. collection was Bechtel's conversion from a Should the American Library Associa­ Honeywell 6000 computer to a Univac tion (ALA) be ensuring that libraries are a llOO in 1974. All the programs in use at part of all ongoing tests of videotex-at that time were converted to run on the least in some way-either as organizers, Univac system. It seemed a good time to information providers, or in analysis? Con­ put all of the computer programs together sider the force of the argument given at from all of the various Bechtel divisions the ALA 1980 New York Annual Confer­ into a controlled collection. The librarians ence that cable television should be a were charged with the responsibility of medium that librarians become involved enforcing standards and control of Bech­ with for the future. Certainly involvement tel's computer programs. is an important role, but we, like the in­ The major benefits derived from placing dustrialists and marketers before us, must all computer programs into a controlled li­ make smart decisions and choose the brary were: proper niche and the most effective way to 1. Company-wide usage of the pro­ use our limited resources if we are to grams. serve any part of society in the future. 2. Minimize investment in program de­ velopment through common usage. BIBLIOGRAPHY 3. Computer file and documentation 1. Electronic Publishing Revietc. Oxford, En­ storage by the library to safeguard gland: Learned Information Ltd. Quarterly. the investment. 2. Home Video Report. White Plains, New 4. Central location for audits of program York: Knowledge Industry Publications. code and documentation. Weekly. 5. Centralized reporting on Bechtel 3. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electron­ programs. ics. New York: IEEE Broadcast, Cable, and Developing the collection involved basic Consumer Electronics Society. Five times yearly. cataloging techniques which were greatly 4. International Videotex/Teletext News. modified to encompass all the information Washington, D. C.: Arlen Communications that computer programs generate, includ­ Ltd. Monthly. ing actual code, documentation, and list-