On 17/03/13 16:27, Jason McBrien wrote: In the early 90s, Leeds City Council did something similar - the libraries were equipped with terminals (mostly Data General beige boxes) which ran a fairly sluggish menu-driven library catalogue. All the usual stuff - search by author, keyword, Dewey Decimal, ISBN... I do recall the software crashing out once - it dropped out to a shell prompt. As I recall, the prompt character was an asterisk... Later on they introduced a web based system using Talis PRISM, but that may or may not have been the same as the old terminal based system. The two were running in tandem for a few months. -- Phil. philpem at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

I have a book somewhere of that period (awol at the moment) http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Application_of_Mini_and_Micro_com… but circa 1983 computers in libraries must have been recent as they were having conferences on the subject at that time Dave Caroline

On Mar 17, 2013, at 9:27 AM, Jason McBrien wrote: My local library system (Kitsap Regional, in Washington State) was computerized as far back as I can remember -- so, it was already in place by the very early '80s. The catalog system was DYNIX (totally separate and unrelated to Sequent Dynix/ptx), with GEAC terminals. I never saw the actual host hardware and it was too foreign compared to the family TRS-80 for me to have developed much curiosity about it. A perfunctory google search suggests the host was perhaps also made by GEAC. By the late '80s or early '90s you could dial into the system from home to search the catalog, make requests, place holds, and extend your due date. Around '94 the GEAC terminals all vanished at once and were replaced by PCs, though my memory of how the rest of the system evolved at that time is fuzzy as I was starting to spend more time at the University of Washington libraries (X terminals for catalog search; I never found out what the backend systems were). I think it was around '95 the Kitsap library dial-up system also started offering internet email to cardholders, as well as access to the larger internet via gopher, lynx, and telnet. It may be that the GEAC system didn't use the DYNIX software, but that DYNIX entered the picture when the GEAC terminals were replaced by PCs. It's been too long for me to be certain anymore. I definitely remember the GEAC terminals. ok bear. -- until further notice