The computer program that will help bookworms

The software package for managing libraries, the Molj 2.0, made by the company i-Rose, won the competition organized by the Ministry of Culture and will become the standard for Slovenian libraries. In November 1992, the Ministry of Culture published a tender to which eight bidders applied and the Molj 1.0 program was chosen, which the employees of the company i-Rose from Laško wrote.

The development lasted for about a year and a half, and was constantly supervised by an expert group of the National and University Library appointed by the ministry. Last week, the Cankar Library in Vrhnika, one of the seven test libraries, hosted presentations of the improved Molj 2.0 library management package and user meetings for current and future users – representatives of general education libraries of the third, fourth and fifth types. As befits a software package, its development is only conditionally concluded: in version 1.0, selected at the tender by the ministry, the authors had to make the required corrections and improvements, but of course the company plans to further develop the program and also release new versions in the future. Molj is (or will be when all libraries are properly equipped – it is known that in their poverty they lag behind different standards) already used in virtually all Slovenian general education libraries of the 3rd, 4th and 5th type – there are around forty-five – and, together with the previous version, it is also used by about forty primary and secondary schools. As can be learned from this year’s “blue book” of the Ministry of Culture, about twenty-six million tolars are earmarked for the realization of the Molj project this year. On 20 May this year, the Ministry, with the help of an expert group that monitored the development and testing of Molj and its compliance with the provisions and requirements of the tender documentation, carried out a final review and evaluation of the program. The group assessed that Molj 2.0 should be accepted and put into use due to its refinement and compliance with the requirements.

Comprehensibility, simplicity, automation. The Molj software package is suitable for all tasks of professional, specialized, school and general education libraries: it is written in a way that is understandable and easy to use. It automates recurring tasks, borrowing, purchasing, compiling statistics, bookmarking, keeps inventory, keeps records of periodicals, takes care of regular return of borrowed material, calculates membership fees, arrears and damages, keeps books of suppliers, signatures, etc. It automatically creates an inventory and catalog book and determines inventory books and other arbitrarily formatted user printouts for library material (sorting is enabled: Molj is friendly and can, for example, send invitations for fairy tale hour to library members under the age of ten), but also takes into account status differences between library material and status differences between individual users and members of the library. Variable records and memory fields can be added to the databases. Data can consist of images, sound and text. The Molj software package recognizes the COBISS language and enables a direct connection to the OPAC/COBISS system, this means it can form an interlibrary communication system and data exchange. The user is also enabled to transfer data from other programs currently used by Slovenian libraries (SAOP, VIR, KIR). Libraries equipped with Molj will therefore be able to connect to one another with virtually no restrictions.

Barcodes instead of writing down numbers. The Molj package allows you to review library material in four different ways, from simple sequential browsing to an extremely efficient word and phrase search. The results can then be sorted by fourteen different keys. The authors of the package paid a lot of attention to protecting their consistency as well as cryptographic protection and protecting content from theft. According to their assurances, the protection is so effective that the use of stolen data is not possible. Among the most important models of the Molj software package are cataloging and borrowing, statistics, desiderates, the VT320 emulator, copying databases and the help system: partly in Windows 3.1, but together they complete an environment in which all library tasks can be performed from borrowing, ordering, cataloging, links to other libraries to statistics and printing out relevant catalog sheets, optional lists and bibliographies. Borrowing is facilitated by a system of bar codes (of course only in libraries where they have already been able to adapt to this – such is, for example, the Ljubljana library of Oton Župančič, elsewhere librarians still type a lot of numbers every day). Molj is written in such a way that it shows its full usability in a computer network, but of course in smaller libraries the software can be used on one computer.

This year, in accordance with the government’s decision, the funding of the three central libraries (Central Technical Library, University of Maribor and NUK) was changed so that their activities are fully funded by the ministries: the Ministry of Culture took over the funding of the NUK program. The purchase of library materials for general education libraries has increased by forty percent in nominal terms this year. According to the ministry, the purchase of books was a priority, but the data shows that the situation will not be better than last year due to the increase in the price of books. Slightly less than two hundred and fourteen million tolars are intended for the purchase of materials for sixty-five Slovenian general education libraries (and one traveling library or bibliobus).

Multimedia spaces in libraries When Molj 2.0 will be fully tested and completed, it will become the standard for equipping libraries that use personal computers. The company making the package will organize user meetings twice a year, will soon start publishing a user newsletter, and will also offer telephone support and modem assistance. The authors (represented by director Janez A. Korun, who also kindly provided us with a description of the program) will continue to develop the package in accordance with the standards of the library profession, the requirements of the NUK registry office and the expert group of the Ministry of Culture. Further development of the package will bring automatic and user-friendly connections between libraries that will use Molj 2.0 and those that use the COBISS software. They are also expected to increase the system’s databases and make them more open. They are now preparing to transfer novelties to local library databases via a modem or disks, but they will not overlook the CD-ROM technology. According to i-Rose, the introduction of CD-ROM drives in the computers of the general education libraries would make multimedia encyclopedias, various business directories, atlases and similar electronic book editions accessible to the widest circle of readers.