Over the past two years, great progress has been made on connectivity projects on the campuses of the Florida state university system (SUS). Fiber-optic backbones have been, or are being, put in place, and the SUS libraries have been installing category 5, 10-baseT wiring in order to support broad-bandwidth networking to accommodate the massive data flows expected with the implementation of full-text and compound-document support. In FY 1995/96, in order to begin exploiting this advanced level of connectivity, the libraries have acquired large quantities of modern workstations for public use.

Emphasis in the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) 5-year plan is clearly placed on the goal of providing PC's for students using the libraries. Each university will determine locally when those needs have been met, and at what point more attention must be paid to the particular needs of library staff for support of the advanced technology. On one hand, what the public uses, the staff must support and have expert knowledge of. On the other hand, a widespread upgrade in the access-hardware permanently available for staff use ought to be an integral part of any plan to meet the growing expectations of library users for the highest quality services possible.

This report illustrates how the development of PC-based workstations for staff will improve library services, and recommends certain equipment configurations for a mainstream workstation, as of mid-1996. (The examples below are not comprehensive, but are intended to illustrate diverse functions that can be combined into one "workplace" to facilitate typical library tasks. Likewise, these examples are not indicative of any formal plan intended to pre-empt locally defined workflows.)

I. DESIRED FUNCTIONALITIES FOR STAFF WORKSTATIONS.
Networking. In Reference, librarians will access the same networked databases which are available to the public, to fulfill telephone or e-mailed reference queries. In Interlibrary Loan, scanned or digitized documents will be transmitted electronically. In Acquisitions, staff can review resources available from publishers, dealers and jobbers posted on the Internet. In Cataloging, essential tools such as classification schedules in machine-readable versions will be equally accessible to all staff, more easily and quickly updated, and used by more than one person simultaneously.

Multi-tasking. In Reference, staff will be able to conduct research in online periodical indexes, in LUIS, in OCLC, and on the Internet all at once, and viewing all of the search results on a single screen. In Circulation, you can simultaneously search BIP for replacement cost of a lost book, collect the money from patron while clearing the patron's record for the overdue item, and send an e-mail message (using a macro, and cut-and-pasted data) to ACQ dept. stating that the book needs replacement or withdrawal. In Cataloging, while reviewing and editing a NOTIS bibliographic record, staff can search the LTLC file for authority records to match access points on that record and also search the LC Classification Plus for an appropriate class number. In Acquisitions, simultaneously check a foreign language dictionary and a currency conversion table, both available on the Internet, while interpreting a response to a claim sent to foreign publisher.

Cut/Copy/Paste functions. For Administrative Services, online data from one source (FCLA, OCLC, SAMAS, internal statistics) can be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet or similar program, to generate various reports. In Reference, text from various electronic resources might be marked for copying, and then mechanically pasted into a single summary research brief or e-mailed to a library patron. In Bibliographic Instruction, mark example screens from various systems, to paste into instructional handouts or HTML documents for the library's Web pages. In Circulation, staff will be able to mark NOTIS information and instantly paste it into an e-mail or a word processing document. In Interlibrary Loan, copy a verified citation from one source into the OCLC ILL request form, in one stroke. In Acquisitions, mark data from online Books-in-Print and paste into NOTIS order record. In Cataloging, copy several added entry fields from one catalog record and paste them into the NOTIS record for a later edition.

Macros. To reduce repetitive keystroking and typographical errors, staff in every library department will be able to store and retrieve memos and phrases used frequently in correspondence or record-editing.

Online Documentation and Links. PC workstations for staff will provide instant access to online procedures manuals, training modules and/or tutorials, which can be searched by keywords, complete with hyperlinks to related sections, documents or online forms. The configuration should also support departmental and personal annotations and "bookmark" devices (e.g., an ACQ dept. hot link to the Internet currency conversion table mentioned above).

Supplemental Tools/Programs. The staff workstations should provide an adequate platform for testing commercial programs designed to make routine tasks more efficient and effective. Examples are: programs for compiling bibliographies; programs for generating graphics for library displays and handouts; spell-checkers; automatic MARC validation programs.

The Task Force recommends accepting these characteristics as being essential, and minimal, to any staff workstation acquired in the near future. For suggestions on actual recommended equipment, see the attached appendix (at the end of this document).

II. EXPECTED BENEFITS TO LIBRARY SERVICES.
The institutional benefits which are anticipated as a result of the acquisition of mainstream, PC-based workstations for staff include:

• savings in telecommunication costs
• applications software can be shared
• more efficient workflow, leading to increased productivity
• faster and more uniform communication is possible
• less paper, machines and labor for photocopying are consumed
• provides an adequate platform for migration to the next generation library management system.

SUS Libraries which have already converted from dedicated OCLC terminals to the OCLC Passport via the Internet are now benefiting from a reduction in communication costs. Some increased productivity has been reported in the professional literature, particularly in cataloging departments where technical services workstations (TSW's) have been installed. If library staff are able to do "more, cheaper, faster, better" once they are accustomed to new workstation functionalities, this might free staff for other tasks which have a direct and desired impact on services to university students and faculty. Such tasks could include: provision of more table-of-contents data in LUIS records, improved access to electronic resources through enhanced descriptions in LUIS, create hot links in the user environment to Internet electronic journals, complete long-delayed projects such as reclassification, conversion of manual authority files, or cataloging of archival materials.

III. PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS.
Priorities. Each library will need to assess its own needs and establish priorities which determine what units or departments, and which employees, should receive the new workstations, as well as how certain hand-me-down PC's might be distributed. However, the Task Force strongly recommends that every fulltime staff member have an individual workstation. The power, memory and disk capacity may differ, depending on what the employee needs to accomplish his/her duties as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Libraries should also plan for additional workstations so that parttime staff have convenient access when needed. Departments or units which have their equipment upgraded all at once may experience an improved learning curve for staff, and allow for more peer-to-peer instructions.

Training. Because applications at one institution will not necessarily mirror those in use in the other SUS library systems, the responsibility for training staff in the use of workstations will fall chiefly upon the individual institutions. The Task Force suggests an excellent resource, the ARL SPEC Kit 213, entitled Technical Services Workstations (published Feb. 1996), which provides copies of several written training documents for library staff workstations that may be helpful models for the SUS libraries.

Ergonomics. Some attention should be paid to the ergonomics and efficiency of terminal/workstation design and operation, in order to prevent computer use-related illnesses and impairments. We should like to avoid lengthy repetitive motion or improper positioning or quality of equipment, particularly for staff who must spend more that 50% of a workday using the workstation. Care must be taken with choice of monitor, keyboard, desk, seating, area lighting, and personalization of programs. For more specific suggestions, see the appendix (at the end of this document).

Systems Support. The individual library systems must also consider the impact which enhanced staff workstations will have on computer-support or systems personnel. The library must have adequate trained staff to install, test, maintain and trouble-shoot all of the new workstations, with their added power and complexity. Additionally, it may be appropriate for some portion of budgets or special allocations to pay for maintenance contracts, parts and repair services, or even OPS salaries when these relate directly to systems support. Each institution will need to decide among possible options for providing for greater computer expertise, whether such responsibilities are centralized in the libraries' systems office or shared by experts within the various departments.

IV. CONCLUSION.
Networking, multi-tasking, access to online documentation, and enhanced editing capabilities have become crucial to success for any American business which uses computer technology. Libraries have often been at the forefront, on university campuses, when it comes to the use of computer technologies. Just as in business, we have clients to serve, and these clients have great expectations of the Information Age which we have entered. In order to maintain, and yes, even improve, the levels of efficiency and effectiveness of library services to the public, it is essential that staff equipment be upgraded to the mainstream workstation described in this document. If routine, traditional library tasks can thus be handled more efficiently, more staff time could be spent on improving access to and user skills with the electronic information resources which are increasingly available. The future is now, and our staff must re-establish its role as one of the leaders in advanced technology use, as soon as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

SUS Libraries Task Force on Staff Workstations

(Alva T. Stone, Chair; Beth Allerton, Mary Deane, Kathie Goldfarb, John Hein, Elaine Henjum, Bob Jones)

At the present date, a mainstream workstation is one which supports a multi-tasking windowed operating system. Because certain widely required software, such as OCLC's Passport and all the products coming from the Library of Congress, are available only in Windows-based versions, it is obvious that any potential hardware will most likely have to support some version of the Windows operating system. Given that true multi-tasking supports multi-threading operations and is more stable than the "task-swapping" functionality of the earlier Windows versions, the Task Force strongly recommends that hardware be acquired which is capable of running Windows95 --or better yet, Windows NT-- even if an earlier version must initially be used because of library or campus policy. By following this guideline, a comfortable migration to Windows95 or WindowsNT will be assured when it comes.

(It should be noted that, for a state-of-the-art workstation, the advances in PC technology are now producing about two new "generations" every year. For the purposes of SUS libraries' staff , however, the Task Force is projecting a 4-5 year life expectancy for these "mainstream" workstations. We therefore recommend that, as a general rule of thumb, libraries plan to upgrade their PC workstations within five years after the initial acquisition.)

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