Workshop report on Aleph GUI - GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
C. Pettenati - CERN Library
The workshop was attended by a large number of ICAU members.
This is a clear sign of interest and of the priority that Aleph
customers attach to the GUI.
The workshop discussed the GUI (see the GUI workshop preparatory
document) from the following points of view:
- S/W environment
- available functionality
- Z39.50 services
- gateway services
- multimedia services
S/W Environment
Workshop participants agree on the following priority:
- first GUI to be available should be in MS-Windows
- immediately after the GUI should be released in
A recommendation was made to keep both products as simple as
possible without too many buttons (three buttons as browse, find
and super find should be enough) in order to avoid confusion for
users and infrequent users.
Available functionality
There should be two levels of functionality:
- one complete in MS-Windows with:
- OPAC, User Services, CAT, ACQ, SER, ILL, etc.
- one just "user-oriented" in with:
- OPAC and User Services (ILL request, hold, personal loan
status,etc.).
Satisfaction has been expressed by workshop members about
the icons management available under .
Dissatisfaction about the poor current DISPLAY FORMATS
capability under .
Gateways
This functionality as announced in the Ex Libris presentation will
soon become very useful to a great number of our libraries. We
would like to underline the gates to be considered:
- to the Aleph OPAC,
- to Z39.50 servers,
- to CD-ROM LAN (in native mode and Z39.50 when available)
- to external resources over Internet
- to locally mounted databases
- to FTP services,
- to e-mail services available to readers
Z39.50
This paragraph was not really discussed because of lack of know-how
among the participants.
Final recommendations
- Gateway tools should have a better priority than announced,
- we would like to have at the next ICAU meeting a GUI dedicated
day (or half a day) to discuss in more details the real experience,
- ICAU members involved in a GUI implementation should establish
a better exchange of reports, advice, reciprocal support, etc.
Praha, September 18, 1995
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