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Approved-By:  Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 1992 11:19:00 CDT
From:         Francis Peter Sainsbury <frank@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au>
Subject:      xLibrary Hypercard communictaions tool

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

xLibrary 1.0.1
Product Description.

xLibrary is a fast,simple to use, library orientered communications package for
 the  Macintosh.

The package has been designed specifically with librarians in mind to provide a
 simple and secure way of connecting to a variety of remote 'services'. A
 'service' is defined as any process  running on a local or remote computer,
 e.g. an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).  The product utilises Apple's
 Communications Toolbox technology, consequently connectivity is only limited by
 the range of Connection and Terminal Emulation tools that are available for
 your machine.    xLibrary can be used for other purposes, production control,
 developement and administration.


xLibrary allows for multiple, simultaneous services to be active at any one
 time.   A typical session might therefore include a serial connection to your
 local OPAC in one window, whilst another window displays information from a
 Campus-Wide Information System (CWIS), and a third displays a remote tcp/ip
 network connection to a second OPAC. In addition, a fully editable text window
 may be activated that enables the easy accumulation of selections from any of
 the other windows. For instance, using the above example, the text window could
 be used to accumulate the results from a comparative search of the two (local
 and remote) OPACs. The resulting text may then be printed, saved to a file for
 later use or copied and pasted to your favourite word processor.

The package consists of two HyperCardTM stacks, xLibrary and xLibrary Installer.

The installer stack allows the definition, testing, storage, installation and
 removal of service definitions. A service definition is a set of parameters
 that together define the external parameters of a 'service'. Each service is
 defined by 14 parameters all of which are held on a single hyperCardTM card.
 Typical parameters are :
a.	the connection method (communication settings) required to attach to the
 computer upon which the service is available.
b.	the terminal emulation (configuration settings) to use to display the service
 output.
c.	the login and logout scripts required to activate/close the service once
 connection has been achieved with the host computer.
 	etc, etc.....

Once the service definition has been created and tested in xLibrary Installer it
 may then be installed into the xLibrary stack. Once installed the name of the
 service becomes another menu option in the 'Go' menu. The service may then be
 invoked simply by selecting its name from the menu.  In this fashion an
 individualised xLibrary stack can be created for each environment.

Requirements.

xLibrary requires a Macintosh with the Communications toolbox installed and
 HyperCard 2.0 or later.

Availablity.

xLibrary is a shareware product and may be downloaded from the following
 anonymous ftp sites :

	ftp.ucsc.edu			Mac/comm
	mac.archive.umich.edu
	sumex-aim.stanford.edu		Info-mac/comms
         archie.au 				Micros/mac/info-mac/comm
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU