University of Genoa - (C.S.I.T.A)

• C.S.I.T.A. Centro Servizi Informatici e Telematici Ateneo
• Universita' di Genova
• C.S.I.T.A.
• University of Genoa

• Antonio Scolari Chef Library
• Engineering Library
• via Montallegro 1 , 16145 Genova Italy
• tel. +39-10-3532545
• fax. +39-10-318709
• e-mail: ascolari@ unige.it

• Angiola Maria Rizzuto Manager
• C.S.I.T.A.
• via Brigata Salerno 16147 Genova Italy
• tel. +39-10-3532611
• fax. +39-10-3532102
• e-mail: rizzuto@unige.it

• Lucia Casanova system manager
• C.S.I.T.A.
• via Brigata Salerno 16147 Genova Italy
• tel. +39-10-3532622
• fax. +39-10-3532102
• e-mail: lucia@unige.it

• This year ALEPH was transfered from a VAX 4000-100 (VMS) to a SPARC Server 1000 (UNIX) with 256 Mb of Main Memory, about 10 gigabytes of disk space size and a SPARC Storage array with a total disk size of 38 gigabytes
• The ALEPH version 3.2.5 was installed at C.S.I.T.A. on July
• The operating system is Solaris 5.4
• About 20 Libraries are connected to C.S.I.T.A. by 15 router CISCO with protocol TCP-IP. The librarian work with terminal vt420, PC and MACINTOSH
• Function used actually: OPAC-CATALOGING-MAINTANACE-SERIAL-WWW
• Function implemented: CIRCULATION, ACQUISITION
• The Library System of Genoa University is based on a Central Service and 14 Faculty Libraries.
• At present time in database there are about 250,000 records.

In the 1996, University of Genoa is improving the following services:

• ALEPH WEB
  • We installed a test version of ALEPH Web in december 1995 and the last version in august 1996.
  • We verified that there is still a very big problem: we can't see records linked by fields LK and LKR, therefore it's impossible a correct view of "In" analytics.
  • Moreover we notice that full display in ALEPH Web isn't very flexible: it is impossible to define a format as in tab_display.
• CIRCULATION
  • We have defined common rules for all libraries and the file of borrowers was imported from the administrative database of the University. Each library is provided with badge readers and optical pens.
• Trial of services of information retrieval.
  • In 1995 and 1996 Genoa University planned an experimental service of access to some databases for students and researchers. From April to June 1996 we used the ALEPH WEB interface and now we are testing the Silver-Platter ERL System.
  • The databases available in ALEPH were: "Environmental science & pollution Management database" of the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts ( last five years, about 350,000 records) and "Periodical Contents Index" of the Chadwyc-Healey (2 segment, about 2,000,000 records).
  • The trial stood three month and all our users, students and professors, were able to use two database in a custom ALEPH installation.
  • Although the access was free, the providers requested us to use an account system with passwords, so we installed a standard Web-Server (ncsa) in order to manage the accounts and as gateway to the ALEPH WWW Server .
  • Records were in US-MARC format, so they were downloaded in ALEPH using UTIL 41.
  • We used the ALEPH version 3.2.4 and UTIL 41 had some problems: particularly the UTIL didn't recognize the standard MARC final character of the records and didn't manage fixed fields. So we implemented a special software in order to resolve these problems.
• The "Libri" database:
  an italian book in print database
  • In August we downloaded "I Libri" of the italian bookseller "Casalini Libri", an italian book in-print database, devoted to academic and resarch publications published in Italy, in Vatican Sate and in Italian Swiss. We have downloaded the books printed in 1995 and in 1996 for a total of 17.000 records; we update the database monthly via ftp.
  • Records were imported in ALEPH from the native USMARC format, in a special local library. Our users can search in this database and records will be used also for the cataloging, by using the DU command
• Rectrospective conversion
  • During 1996 and the first half of 1997 the University of Genoa is working on retrospective conversion of monographs by using the MICRON Service of OCLC.
  • We plane to download at least 40.000 records in our ALEPH database.