ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


332 /  C&RL News

M acintosh–assisted library 
o rien ta tio n  tou r

By Jeff Chaffin

Director of Readers’ Services 
Washington College

Customized computer program utilizes text, graphics, and 
digitized pictures in slide-show form at.

S tu d e n ts  at Washington College were surprised 

this semester to find an interesting way to learn 
about the library and its services. The new Miller 
Library Orientation Tour is a computer-assisted 
instruction program. Developed with the aid of a 
grant from the Consortium for the Advancement of 
Private Higher Education, this non-traditional 
method utilizes the simplicity and striking graphics 
capability of the Macintosh computer to convey li­
brary information.

Purpose
The purpose of the project was threefold:
1) to provide a novel way for students to be intro­

duced to the library and its services;
2) to provide an additional opportunity for stu­

dents, particularly freshmen, to interact with the 
Macintosh computer which is proliferating on our 
campus; and

3) to demonstrate to interested students and fac­
ulty what could be accomplished on a small budget 
with a simple presentation package (Slide Show 
Magician), several basic graphics packages (Mac- 
D raw  and FullPaint), an inexpensive digitizer 
(Macvision), and the Macintosh computer.

Description
The software program begins with a cinematic

zoom-in of the college seal, slowly revealing: 
“Washington College presents…” The black screen 
rises to reveal a graphic representation of the front 
of Miller Library which, in turn, opens to a wel­
come from digitized pictures of the library staff 
members. The first section ends with a screen offer­
ing one of three choices: a guided tour of the li­
brary, an introduction to library services, or an in­
quiry into “the point of it all.” If no choice is made 
within 20 seconds, the initial section repeats itself.

Clicking on the guided tour button presents an 
elevator-like panel offering the choice of one of the 
library’s three floors. Upon selection, the doors 
close and then open on several digitized views of 
the respective floor. These views then fade into a 
general floor plan complete with selection buttons 
for further library information and digitized pic­
tures. All screens are presented through a variety of 
screen fades and swipes.

Clicking on the introduction to library services 
button provides a panel of buttons offering infor­
mation and graphics on: reference assistance, bib­
liographic instruction, circulation, interlibrary 
loan, computer and database, and reserve services. 
Again, all screens are presented through fades and 
swipes, each calculated to catch the eye.

And finally, clicking on “the point of it all” but­
ton presents a visual rationale for the development 
of the computer–assisted program.



June 1987 /  333

Operating information
The tour uses two 800K disks, and is designed to 

run continuously on a 512KE Macintosh or Mac 
Plus with an external drive. The keyboard is not re­
quired: only the mouse is needed to interact with 
the program.

As stated above, the first section of the program 
repeats itself until someone chooses to take the 
guided tour, survey the services, or inquire as to 
“the point of it all.” Should any choice be aban­
doned midway, the program works its way back to 
the repeating first section. There isn’t an obvious 
way to exit the program short of turning the m a­
chine off and forceably ejecting the disks. One may 
gracefully exit the program , however, by clicking 
on an invisible “quit” button located in the far up­
per left-hand corner of the screen offering the three 
choices.

Use
D uring freshmen orientation and the first month 

of classes, three Macintosh computers were placed 
in a heavily traveled area on the main floor of the 
library. Orientation leaders, as part of their overall 
training, were given a briefing on the Macs and left 
to take the tour by themselves. They responded 
positively. D uring freshman orientation, the lead­
ers made a point of bringing their groups through 
the library to see the computer tour. Upperclass­
men found the Mac-assisted tour when they re­
turned to resume their studies. We estimate th at by 
the end of the first month of classes more than 50 % 
of the total student body (800 students) had seen 
the program.

One unexpected finding was the use of the pro­
gram during tours given to campus visitors during 
the semester. Student tour guides from the Admis­
sions D epartm ent began using the computer pro­
gram to describe the library and its services to pro­
spective students and th eir parents. The same 
result occurred during tours given to visiting aca­
demics. In fact, we were asked by several visitors 
for copies of the tour to take back to their respective 
campuses. The tour became a public relations tool 
as well as an instructional one.

We left the three tour computers running for the 
first five weeks of the Fall term , gradually elimi­
nating them as dem and increased for their conver­
sion to word processing and other needs.

Cost
The actual cost of developing the library orienta­

tion program was minimal since there were only 
software expenses. Washington College has chosen 
the Macintosh computer as the campus standard 
and subsequently provided twelve Macs for student 
use in the library—three of which were used for the 
first five weeks of the Fall semester for the orienta­
tion project. Software costs were approximately 
$500 for the graphics, digitizing, and slide-show

programs. Labor costs were covered by allowing 
the librarian-developer to devote six weeks of regu­
lar summer employment for creating the orienta­
tion program. Video equipment used for the digi­
tizing was borrowed from other departments on 
campus.

Results
We found the Mac-assisted library orientation 

tour to be a valuable addition to our traditional 
methods for informing students of the library and 
its services. S tu d en ts liked it b ecause of its 
availability—they could interact with the com­
puter at any hour the library was opened. They 
liked the feeling of individual control th at the com­
p uter gave them —they decided w hen and how 
long they would stay. They also felt that their at­
tention was more actively focused on the computer 
than it would be during a standard group tour. The 
integrated use of text, graphics, and digitized pic­
tures was a new learning experience for them . 
They also liked it simply because it was fun to use.

Librarians liked it, frankly, because the students 
liked it. It turned out to be an excellent public rela­
tions tool for the library, both on campus and off. 
On campus, the tour allowed the library to be seen 
pioneering on the college’s computer frontier, in­
creasing its stature among students, faculty, and 
administration. Off campus, word of mouth led 
several public and academic libraries to request 
copies in order to benefit from our experience.

Future
We definitely intend to use the Macintosh tour

Fee-based medical and 
health information

The Ohio State University Health Sciences
Library, Columbus, has begun a fee-based ser­
vice program, Medical and Health Inform ation 
(MHI), to offer research services to businesses 
and professional offices th ro u g h o u t central 
Ohio. The service is being marketed to individ­
uals outside of the university community who 
have a need for medical and health inform a­
tion.

MHI offers a variety of services not limited 
to, but including database services, document 
delivery, and reference. Clients may make re­
quests by telephone (using a toll-free 800 num ­
ber), in person, by electronic bulletin board, or 
telefacsimile transmission. Replies are speeded 
by telefacsimile or courier.

The service was begun in January and con­
tinues to grow. The MHI clientele largely con­
sists of attorneys and unserved physicians in 
central Ohio. OSU’s Health Sciences Library is 
under the directorship of Elizabeth J. Sawyers.



334 /  C&RL News

again next year. The current version will be ex­
panded in order to keep more accurate track of stu­
dent use. At present, we are designing a complete 
bibliographic instruction program for use on the 
Macintosh. W ith recent technological advances, 
particularly in the area of multi-user file servers, 
we foresee in the near future the ability of anyone

on campus to access our library instruction and in­
form ation programs from any term inal at any 
hour.

For further information about the Mac-assisted 
library orientation program, please contact: Jeff 
C haffin, M iller L ib rary , W ashington College, 
Chestertown, MD 21620; (301) 778-2800. ■  ■

G ive–a w a y  softw are: A p rim er

By Jim  Fow ler

Head of Reference Services 
Lindsey Wilson College

How to m ake use o f freeware/shareware in your library.

W i t h  the rapid expansion of personal computer 

use the last few years, libraries have begun to hold 
and loan information in a magnetic floppy-disk 
format. Many have also m ade public-access per­
sonal computers available to their patrons. These 
public-use PCs in the library are a logical addition 
to a PC software collection, rather like providing 
good lighting and seating for students and faculty 
who want to read in the library rather than going 
elsewhere. Thus, libraries have tended to do for the 
electronic medium w hat is done for the paper me­
dium.

However, magnetic disk-encoded information 
for a PC has many characteristics th at render it dif­
ferent from paper and make it easy to do things th at 
are awkward, expensive, or impossible to do with 
paper-based information. Two differences of p ar­
ticular pertinence are: 1) it is cheap, easy, and 
quick to copy information on a floppy disk; and 2) 
there is a large (relative to the extant total) body of 
good public-domain material available for PCs, 
and other uncopyrighted material is proliferating 
rapidly due to the “freeware/shareware” move­
ment. These characteristics allow the library to 
maintain absolute file integrity by holding an ar­

chival master, and also allow the library to give 
away duplicate copies, w ritten to the patron’s disk, 
much cheaper and easier than it can loan the m ate­
rial.

W hen one further considers th at college and uni­
versity libraries have a higher percentage of p a­
trons who own, work, and play w ith personal com­
puters than other types of libraries do, it follows 
that a natural adjunct to loaning commercial soft­
w are and m aintaining public-access microcom­
puters is the acquisition of an appropriate self- 
service co llectio n  of p u b lic -d o m a in  an d  
user-supported software which patrons can copy 
and keep. The benefits of such a collection, which 
is easy and inexpensive to acquire, include:

1) The distribution of useful software to students 
(and faculty) who can’t afford to spend hundreds, 
or thousands, of dollars on commercial software, 
but can afford the price of a disk to copy the generic 
version.

2) The provision of access to special-interest pro­
grams th at are not available in the commercial sec­
tor, but are often of great interest to the academic 
community.

3) The development of an awareness of, and ap-