Technical Services Workstations. SPEC Kit 213.

Technical services workstations (TSWs) are personal computers that have been customized for use in technical services departments. To gather information on their use and prevalence in research libraries, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging Standing Committee on Automation surveyed the 119 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1995. Sixty libraries responded. Of these, 39 use TSWs, 15 planned to use them but had not acquired them yet, and 6 had no plans to install them. Each of those libraries using TSWs cataloged an average of 65,073 titles annually, while ones without TSWs averaged 31,478 titles. Dell was most frequently cited as the hardware manufacturer of choice among TSW libraries, with all but five relying on IBM-compatible machines. With regard to hardware configurations, 80486-based processors were used in 53% of TSWs and Pentium-based processors in 35%. Over half (59%) of TSWs had 16 megabytes of random access memory (RAM). Local area networks were in place in 84% of the responding libraries, with Novell the most common manufacturer. Most of the libraries reported that the software on their customized TSWs could display the full American Library Association (ALA) character set under certain circumstances (71%), could use cut/paste functionalities (95%), and could use macros with hot keys (76%). Microsoft Windows is the graphical user interface in 94% of TSWs. Since 98% of responding libraries support telnet, they have, at least theoretically speaking, integrated access to bibliographic utilities from the desktop. Repetitive strain injuries have been reported in 81% of responding libraries, and many of them have invested in ergonomic appliances. Besides survey results, the kit also includes a sample equipment upgrade proposal, sample training documents and supplementary materials, tools with which to assess the ergonomics of workstations, and suggested physical exercises for counteracting strains of extended terminal use. (Contains 11 references.) (BEW)