Mainframe Update Will Support Growing Library Services


by Diana Pounds

Iowa State officials are planning to update the HDS mainframe 
computer to better support the ISU Library's growing 
automated system. The updated system will support SCHOLAR, 
the system that provides library users with access to the on-
line library catalog, databases and other information sources 
throughout the world. 

Such services currently are supported by an HDS/9180, a 10-
year-old mainframe that cannot meet projected library needs 
without the update.

Subject to State Board of Regents' approval, the HDS 
mainframe's central processing unit, main memory and disk 
memory will be updated this summer.

Nancy Eaton, dean of library services, said the updated 
mainframe will have expansion capability that will allow the 
library to continue to improve automated services over the 
next few years.

George Strawn, director of the Computation Center, added that 
the reliability and cost of ownership of the updated system 
will be much improved over the 10-year-old 9180.

About half of the funding for the update will come from the 
ISU Library and Computation Center. Provost John Kozak, 
working with the Council of Deans, has arranged to provide 
the remainder from FY95 year-end funds.

The updated system will support a number of advances in 
library services, Eaton said. For example, library officials 
hope to develop an electronic reserve system that would allow 
students to view materials on reserve from computers around 
campus, in their residence halls or in distant learning 
centers.

"We also will continue to add large databases that are used 
heavily on campus," she said.

In addition to serving the needs of the library, the updated 
mainframe will be available for several years for researchers 
who have yet to convert their research projects from 
mainframe to distributed computing systems, Strawn and Eaton 
said. Eventually, they added, the library may need full use 
of the mainframe.

Most ISU researchers now use distributed computing systems, 
such as Project Vincent, Strawn said. He described Project 
Vincent as a "coherent network of workstations providing a 
wide array of computation and communication services for 
faculty, staff and students."

There are a number of advantages to distributed computing for 
researchers, Strawn said. "You can have a computer on your 
desk that has as much power as a mainframe. This allows, 
among other novel things, a graphical human-computer 
interface and can support exciting new approaches, such as 
visualization of scientific data."

_____
contact:  Diana Pounds, Internal Communications, (515) 294-
          4845
updated:  03-24-95