Cornell University Library Staff Web Page

Back to LMS Committee Page | StaffWeb Index

Library Management System Evaluation Committee

10. Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications - Bill Turner, Tim Lynch

Staff from LTD, ITS

10.1 Current Environment

Record Counts (as of 2/27/97)

• Bibliographic file records 6,453,600 (3,400 Mb)
• Bibliographic records 2,961,300
• Copy holdings records 2,961,300
• MARC holdings records 531,000
• Item records 4,600,000 (840 Mb)
• Authority records 1,405,882 (740 Mb)
• Order records 768,946 (540 Mb)
• Patron records 50,800 (65 Mb)

This includes only actual data - no indexes. The database grows at an estimated 150,000 records per year.

10.2 Factors adding to the complexity of our database include

• Nearly 50% of the material in the Cornell library is in a language other than English
• Multiple formats of materials are represented
• Records are often extremely long.

10.3 Transaction statistics

• Circulation Charge Counts: total 1995/96 = 2,039,906
• Online Public Catalog Search Counts: total 1995/96 = 3,510,810

10.4 Patron Support

The clients & utilities used by patrons of the library

Requirements:

• Client must run under both Windows 95 now, and Windows NT within one (2?) years
• Ability to search and display Unicode including CJK character sets
• Z39.50 support
• WWW interface (for universal client)

Desirables:

• WWW interface with full functionality
• Support for "push" technology (e.g., "queued" searching)
• Support for all character sets specified under "Protocols"
• Z39.50 searching of multiple databases

10.5 Staff Support

The clients & utilities used by library staff in day-to-day operation of the LMS ("staff mode")

Requirements

• Client must run under both Windows 95 now, and Windows NT within one (2?) years.
• Support for all character sets specified under "Protocols".
• Z39.50 support.
• Performance for all routine and highly repetitive staff activities must equal or exceed telnet-style interface. (response time, macro support)

10.6 Table Driven System

Requirements

• The system should be table driven, with tables that can be easily updated by non-technical staff. At the minimum such tables should exist for:
  • Selector codes
  • Fund codes
  • Vendor codes
  • Operator ID codes. Further, these must be linked to individual transactions
  • Transaction types
  • Exchange rates for 60 currencies for at least 6 months. This table should be self-purging.
  • Security
  • Locations codes
  • MARC tags
• Information in certain fields containing coded historical information will not be deleted by superseding information. In practical terms this means that most fields containing internal notes should be repeatable.

10.7 Technical Staff Support

Requirements

The administrative and maintenance support facilities provided for technical staff who support the LMS

• Ability to construct custom reports and save for ongoing use
• Need ability to make mass database updates (i.e. location changes, marking of records for special purposes)

10.8 Data import/export

Requirements

• Ability to import and export US MARC records
• Full access to all APIs around the application-logic tier
• Ability to overlay existing records with more complete records for the same item
• Ability to interactively transfer records from another online system (RLIN, OCLC) to the LMS in real time

Desirables

• Ability to import and export RLIN MARC records
• Support of SQL

10.9 Data Warehouse -- Level 1 of three-tier architecture

Requirements

• Full access to underlying DBMS
• Support of Z39.50 and SQL.

Desirables

• Support for AIX
• Support for Informix
• Support for industry-standard 4GL development tools

10.10 Application Logic -- Level 2 of three-tier architecture (see benchmarks)

Requirements

• Support for SQL to interface with data warehouse tier
• Support for SQL and Z39.50 to interface with client tier

Desirables

• Support for AIX
• Availability of source code

10.11 Networking

Requirements

How the system connects to patrons, to staff, to other information systems

• Full support of IP

10.12 Protocols

Requirements

Here we lump together in a convenient place all the protocol buzzwords. They may appear in other sections as appropriate.

• Character-set support:
• CJK
• UNICODE (planned support, at least)
• MARC - for record import and export (US MARC, RLIN MARC, OCLC MARC, etc.)
• SQL - for database queries and ad hoc reports
• FTP - for exchanging records with vendors
• HTTP - as at least an option for clients
• Z39.50 - for both application-logic layer and clients

Desirables

• Ability to provide access to records stored in vernacular languages from among the JACKPHY group - Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Hebrew, Yiddish.

10.13 Benchmark

Requirements

The benchmarks we must see in order to compare systems (We must establish some sort of hardware and test-db configuration for obtaining these benchmarks.

• Batch input of [some number] of Marc records
• Batch output of [some number] of Marc records
• Simple lookups (simulating novice user searches)
• Complex lookups (simulating power user searches)
• Lookups should simulate light, medium, and heavy user loads typical for our environment

Desirables:

• TPC-C

Back to LMS Committee Page | StaffWeb Index

3/31/97 sac & hbr

rev. 7/24/97 dih