| Abstract: | The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, R&D arm of the National Library of Medicine, has had under development a minicomputer based INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM (ILS). ILS Version 1.0 has recently become operational and supports modules for master bibliographic file (MBF) creation and processing, circulation control, and serials check-in. A major emphasis in the design of the ILS has been on collection management and control. The present implementation supports "intelligently" assigned bar-codes for both monographs and serials from the MBF. The barcodes contain sufficient information about each item to provide efficient processing and allow easy use of portable devices for inventory control. In addition, unique functions have been included to allow identification of temporary item locations as well as to allow the compilation of statistics on items removed from the shelf but not circulated. The potential impact of these features on collection management will be discussed. |
