The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

V. Identification and Location 75
of its operation. The investment in purchase or rental of
the equipment is enormous...Morever, sophisticated equipment
requires the use of highly skilled personnel for maintenance,
operation, programming, and so on, and such
personnel are never cheap... However, the long-run trends--
if they continue to behave as in the recent past--are
likely to change the cost relationship dramatically and
may conceivably do so more quickly than is generally expected.
20
They go on to suggest that within a relatively short period of time
"electronic substitutes" will become more and more economical as compared
to manual means, and the trends since their book was published
have substantiated their conclusions.
The most important reason for implementing such a system are
the benefits to users, however, as enumerated earlier. Chapter
IV pointed out that the University library system must be responsive
to user needs at multiple levels, and it is therefore appropriate at
this point to consider how each level of use would be affected, and
what other means of identification and location of material will be
necessary, in addition to the on-line system.
Branch. Until the on-line system is fully developed, it is
assumed that branch libraries will continue to maintain their card
catalogs, although one committee has pointed out these are
"exceedingly costly to maintain." 21 However, the plan anticipates that
some of the larger branches will have terminals connected to the online
system by 1984/85, and all of them by 1985/86.
At present, branch libraries' card catalogs typically contain
cards only for the holdings of that branch, and provision of information
on the total holdings of the campus system should prove an
enormous advantage; no longer will it be necessary for users to go
physically to the main library in order to check the campus's holdings.
It should be pointed out that it is possible for even the smallest
branches to install typewriter terminals for a very modest cost,
and thus to have access to the system. It will also be possible for
20 William J. Baumol and Matityahu Marcus, Economics of Academic
Libraries, American Council on Education, 1973, p. 58.
21 Pratt, p. 32.