General
A survey reported in 1982 of the directors of 20 (19 or 95% responding) OCLC distributing networks (e.g., ILLINET, SOLINET, FEDLINK, etc.) showed thatthe 5 most commonly reported current or planned uses of members’ records supplied through OCLC reported by 14 respondents were (multiple responses allowed):
union list 11 respondents
circulation control 11 respondents
subject access 10 respondents
management information 8 respondents
interlibrary loan 6 respondents (Source)
Academic
A 1967 survey by the Institute of Higher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, of innovative programs in libraries in academic institutions with liberal arts programs (sample size: 1,193; responding: 781 or 65%) showed that100 (13%) of responding libraries reported having automated circulation systems, of which 11% had been installed since 1961. An additional 134 (16%) planned to install such systems at the time of the study. (Source)
A 1979 survey of library automation in post-secondary educational institutions in Canada (survey size: 423 libraries; responding: 283 or 67%) showed that, of an average of 256 respondents for each of the following items, the distribution of automated activities was as follows (multiple responses allowed):
cataloging 47.2% respondents
online bibliographic searching 34.2% respondents
COM catalog 24.2% respondents
circulation 19.8% respondents
ordering 16.5% respondents
photo-sense ID 7.7% respondents
online catalog 3.2% respondents (Source)
A 1980 survey of all Association of Research Libraries circulation managers (population: 98; 76 or 78% responding) showed that30 or 39% of the circulation systems were manual (19% of the total respondents used McBee systems), 26 or 34% were batch, and 20 or 26% were online (15% of the total respondents used LIBS 100 online systems). Manual systems were reported in use an average of 26 years, batch systems were reported in use an average of 8 years, and online systems were reported in use an average of 3 years. (Source)
Ibid…. showed that74% of batch system respondents reported satisfaction with both their hardware and software, compared to 60% of the online system managers reporting satisfaction with hardware and 65% reporting satisfaction with software. Furthermore, 63% of the batch system managers reported downtime was no problem, compared to 75% of the online managers so reporting. (Source)
A 1980 survey of North American medical school libraries concerning automation of internal library operations (population: 139; responding: 93 or 69%) showed that8 (8.6%) respondents reported online catalogs, 15 (16.1%) reported either batch or online automated circulation systems, and 20 (21.5%) reported using machine records to produce book or computer output microform (COM) catalogs. Further, 9 (9.7%) respondents reported plans to have online catalogs within a year or 2 of the survey, while 11 (11.8%) reported plans for automated circulation within a year or 2 of the survey. (Source)
A 1981 survey of faculty, students, staff, and community users of the University of Cincinnati Libraries (sample size: 4,074; responding: 912 or 22.4%, including 436 or 39% faculty response and 218 or 11% student response) showed that, when asked which should be automated first of 3 possibilities, faculty, university administrators, and community users picked the public card catalog as first priority with circulation second and periodicals third, while students and library staff picked circulation as first priority with the public card catalog second and periodicals third. (Source)
Special
A 1980 survey of North American medical school libraries concerning automation of internal library operations (population: 139; responding: 93 or 69%) showed that8 (8.6%) respondents reported online catalogs, 15 (16.1%) reported either batch or online automated circulation systems, and 20 (21.5%) reported using machine records to produce book or computer output microform (COM) catalogs. Further, 9 (9.7%) respondents reported plans to have online catalogs within a year or 2 of the survey, while 11 (11.8%) reported plans for automated circulation within a year or 2 of the survey. (Source)
