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Instant Web Publishing
According to the company, TLC is Web-ready with IWP when it’s shipped.
The only other things needed to put a library catalog on the Web are a
connection to the Internet and a copy of FileMaker Pro database software.
The company has also added a second Web option for TLC—Web pages designed
for use with FileMaker, Inc.’s Custom Web Publishing (CWP) feature. The
result is that it will be easier to modify the appearance of a library’s
Web pages. The other advantage is that users can click on live links when
they appear in the TLC catalog records that are retrieved on the Web. With
IWP, Internet addresses or URLs were merely informational text that users
could select and copy to open a Web page. Now that TLC offers CWP, any
active URL can be clicked to go directly to the page referenced.
MARC Interface
TLC’s MARC interface has a new look and also is easier to customize
for downloaded MARC bibliographic records. The conversion program has itself
been converted to a 32-bit Windows application. TLC has been a Windows/Macintosh
solution since 1996, but the MARC interface remained a DOS program until
now. Librarians will find initial set-up procedures facilitated by clickable
buttons offering easy-to-understand selections.
According to the announcement, the company has added a second benefit
to this program. TLC’s ORDERS module has a new program that imports fields
extracted from the same downloaded MARC records. It functions similarly
to the import program in CATALOG, but is concerned only with those fields
that are needed for your acquisition records in TLC’s ORDERS module. This
means that, by running the MARC interface one time, you can extract information
that will ease the creation of records in both CATALOG and ORDERS.
End-User Benefits
A button that sends a message to the librarian has been available to
patrons on TLC’s mini-menus for quite a while. This feature has been enhanced
to permit an end-user who locates the record of an item to click a button,
automatically generating an e-mail message to the librarian and requesting
the specific item on the screen.
TLC has a new program that per-mits librarians to e-mail current-awareness and other subject bibliographies to users having special interests. To do this as programmed, users need a copy of Adobe Acrobat to produce a PDF file. Two steps are required: First, in CATALOG, a subject bibliography is prepared. When you print the bibliography, however, it creates an electronic file (via Acrobat PDF-Writer) instead of hard copy. The second part of the procedure automatically attaches the file containing the bibliography to e-mail directed to all users who have indicated an interest in that subject. Librarians can write an e-mail message to accompany the file, or leave it blank if preferred. Users can read the bibliography in their browser or with Adobe Reader (available free at Adobe’s Web site).
Source: On Point, Inc., Washington, DC, 202/338-8914; http://www.onpointinc.com.
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