History of the developer - CEIT Ltd.

CEIT Ltd. was founded in 1992 in Bratislava, as a specialized firm for data conversion and treatment. Besides of their normal work, they developed some interesting software modules, which served later as a basis for various products, including the complex library system PROFLIB. The corporation has many customers today, in the Slovakia as well as abroad.

Basic Information on the System

History of PROFLIB

The system arose gradually, on the basis of many years of experiences gained by the firm in the are of librarianship, informatics, and data processing since the beginning of its existence. The first version of the system was developed in the first half of nineties. Nevertheless, it is still a modern system, which is under continuous development, so that it reflects the changes caused either by development of standards, cataloging rules and data exchange formats, or by rapid development of computer technology in the last years.

Properties

The system is dedicated for librarians, corporate managers, marketing officers, translators, documentation officers, for persons responsible for design of legislative and standards. It is localized to Czech and English as well.

• effective shared cataloging in LANs - see section "Cataloging" for details;
• presentation of databases on web - master library catalogs, standards, corporate catalogs, catalogs of artistic works, multilingual dictionaries, multimedia documents - see some Applications;
• electronic reservation of documents via Internet;
• presentation of databases with search engine in Windows environment - see samples of some catalogs: ZAMG library, UNCITRAL Library;
• registration of clients, readers of libraries, and documents (books, journals, standards, legislative) on the basis of bar code;
• loan system for libraries - see section "Loan System" for details;
• linking databases with images, audio, video, or full text of documents;
• presentation of data on CD-ROM
• treatment of data in unified format, with export to external environment, such as Microsoft Office (ex. Access, Excel, Word), with open possibility of operative re-using of the data in that environments;
• perfect processing, presentation, and printing of multilingual application on the level of original (dictionaries, terminological standards, thesauruses, library catalogs) in various fonts and charactersets.

• quick data search;
• flexibility when adjusting the system according to end user's specific requirements;
• flexibility when working with large volumes of text data;
• extremely quick data export comparing with other systems;
• appropriate for small and medium libraries up to million documents in their holdings;
• equally well usable for work with texts of catalog and documentation records, as well as for full texts in various fonts;
• maximal labor-saving when working with data, with option of operative re-using the data in other database environments.

Modules

The system is fully modular, i.e., one central database can be independently accessed by more modules, which are more or less mutually independent. High flexibility of the system can be preserved in this way, data can be maintained up-to-date, and efficient adaptation is possible, reflecting the changes brought by the rapid IT development.

• Cataloging. Cataloging of individual types of documents, i.e., recording bibliographical data on any document in the database. The data can be later used either when searching for the document (virtually any document's attribute can be used to do so, e.g., title, author, year of issue, editor, signature, etc.), or for various print outputs (e.g. bibliographical format according to ISBD recommendations, catalog bills printing, etc.) See section "Cataloging" for details.
• Loan System. Registration of any users of the library, as well as any loans or reservations of documents. Basic lending agenda can be printed (certificates, overdue notices, list of books borrowed by given borrower, etc.) See section "Loan System" for details.

• ADEM. Data management module. (entering new data, editing existing ones, import, export, etc.).
• IRIS. Extremely quick module for comfortable search (OPAC) in MS-DOS environment. Good for old slow machines (286, 386).
• WINIS. Module for comfortable search (OPAC) in Windows environment. Good for quick machines. Quality printed outputs can be generated.
• WEBIS-NT. Server module for comfortable search (OPAC) in Internet/Intranet environment. See some Applications of WEBIS-NT.

Description of Modules from Librarians' Point of View

Cataloging

This module enables adding new documents into the database, editing existing ones, or deleting unnecessary ones. Various forms are used for entering the documents (special forms are used for books, articles, etc.). The system internationally accepted standards (UNIMARC, ISBD, ...) when entering the documents. Various authorities databases can be used when creating the catalog (personal and corporate authorities, country and languages codes, document type codes, etc.) Utilization of thesaurus is supported. Multilingual thesauruses enable automatic indexing in the second language (e.g., when indexing according to Slovak descriptors, English descriptors will be added automatically, and vice versa). Catalogers need not to have deep knowledge of the standards, while the system is intuitive a user-friendly. Catalogers are navigated by the system. Sure, educated librarians are better catalogers, but the education is not inevitable. According to our practical experience, anybody is able to master cataloging within two days, even without any specialized education. The cataloging can be shared, i.e., it can run on more stations concurrently, even within one database.

Loan System

The system provides exact overview of lending services and long-term registration of any loans. It consists of the following databases, which are mutually linked:

• Users Registration;
• Loans Registration;
• Library Catalog

Users Registration: Basic data are registered (name and surname, identification number, date of entrance to the library, registration card number, birth number, address, e-mail, phone, mobile). The following items can be registered optionally: language skills, education, specialization, scope of interest, temporary residence, fee payment date, fee renewal date, register of overdue notices sent, and more).
Current user’s loans account can be displayed, as well as the list of any loans returned.– see example.

Loans Registration: Loans are realized by reading bar code of the respective publication and of the user’s registration card, or by typing signature and reader’s name (to be selected from lists generated from the library catalog and database of readers).
Any other data necessary to registration of the loan are selected by the system itself – date of the loan, data on the publication from the catalog, date due. If necessary, the data can be entered or edited by the librarian.
Data on any loan will be displayed in the respective reader’s record on the reader’s account, as well as in the library catalog – see example 1 and example 2.
The system checks returning of the loans, and offers print of overdue notices if overdue. Such notices can cover only the overdue loans, or any pending loans of the delinquent readers.
Data on the loans continue to be registered even after the publications are returned, in the returned loans registry.

• Definition of lending period for documents (as required by the library), as follows:
• according to kind of document;
• according to category of reader.
• Option of individual definition of date of assumed return for each loan (the periods according to the category of reader or to the kind of document will be overridden).
• Automatic daily check of returned loans. Lists of delinquent readers will be generated, and of pending loans, with optional print of overdue notices (Reminders).
  
• The following certificates can be printed in graphical form, according to corporate requirements (e.g. header with name of the library, department, address):
• application forms;
• registration cards;
• overdue notices covering either single loans, or any pending loans of a single reader (including address to window envelope);
• certificate on loans of a single document, or mass certificate covering any loans of a single reader in a given day, or within a definite period;
• certificate on loans returned, covering a single document, or any loans of a single reader within a definite period.
• Bar code is supported. It can be used for registration of readers as well as that of documents. Loans on the basis of signature or acquisition number of the publication is possible as well, for those libraries, which do not use bar codes or which have only part of their holdings bar-coded, e.g. in the transition period.
• Loans can be registered even for document, which are not entered in the catalog yet. Data entered when entering the loan, can be used later, when cataloging.
• Reservation of documents and register of waiting readers.
• Presentation of catalog of the library with information on accessibility or borrowing of documents, with the option of its lending or reservation.
• Overview of history of any loans of a single reader. Data on returned loans can be browsed, too.
• Generation of daily, monthly, and annual lending statistics.
• Printing records in the catalogs, loans, readers, current reader’s account, in graphical version, according to customer’s requirements.
• More features, as required by customer, e.g.:
• history of all loans of a single book;
• generating and printing daily, monthly, and annual lending statistics, according to corporate requirements.

ADEM

ADEM (Advanced Data Entry Manager) is the only module of the system, which can add, delete, or howsoever edit data. Therefore, it can be used only by such persons, who are entitled to modify data (e.g., catalogers, or lending administrators). The module enables shared cataloging by more catalogers within LAN, without any risk of conflicts when accessing the database.

The module provides very user-friendly access to the database. On the data level it is compatible with Micro CDS/ISIS, which was verified by many years of operation, but data entrance is enhanced as follows: separators of subfields and of repeated instances are entered automatically, various databases of authorities can be used (personal and corporate authorities, country and languages codes, document type codes, etc.) Utilization of thesaurus is supported. Multilingual thesauruses enable automatic indexing in the second language (e.g., when indexing according to Slovak descriptors, English descriptors will be added automatically, and vice versa).

Besides of editing, ADEM enables efficient data import & export. ISO2709 and UNIMARC formats are supported, as well as export in CSV format, to be used by such spreadsheet or database environments, as MS Excel, MS Access, etc. Modifications can be exported and imported as well, i.e., records can be exported, which have been modified after a definite day, and modified records from another environment can be re-imported in such a way, that duplicate records are prevented.

In the network multi-user environment, concurrent accessing the database by more users is treated by the module automatically. Some administrator’s functions in the network environment are provided as well, e.g., unlocking accidentally locked database after power failure or after incorrectly terminated sessions.

IRIS

Advanced user-friendly and very quick search is provided by this module, which is an add-in of Micro CDS/ISIS. User is intuitively guided through menu system. Search results can be extended or reduced even by those operators, who know neither Boolean algebra, nor complicated search languages.

One of the strengths of the module is the possibility of export of search results to .DOC (.RTF) files, to be subsequently treated by MS Word, for instance.

Data cannot be modified within IRIS. It is designed for end users, only. While its hardware requirements are very low and the module is extremely fast, can be used for instance in public libraries in the function of OPAC, where even old computers such as 386 or 486 can be used as terminals, with network interface. The module can work on more computers concurrently as well, within LAN.

WINIS

This is an OPAC module, which is more hardware-demanding (at least Pentium is required), but is very esthetic, while usind Windows GUI. Windows features are utilized. Relatively comfortable search is provided besides of standard search functions, via direct entrance of query, or using hypertext links in databases (e.g. authors, keywords), or hypertext links of more databases (e.g. library catalog linked with lending system).

High quality print is possible, in DTP format, directly to the printer.

See exhibits of the following catalogs: ZAMG library, UNCITRAL Library (image only).

WEBIS-NT

Exhibition of databases on Internet/Intranet is possible. Hardware requirements are low, but Window NT or Windows 2000 is required on server. It works as a client-server application. Any web browser can be used as corresponding client, provided that forms are supported (MS Internet Explorer, Netscape, ...).

From the point of view of user comfort and esthetic design, the module is a kind of shop-window, which represents the library in the surrounding world – see section “Applications”.

Hardware & software requirements

Technical Support

CEIT provides phone and e-mail consultations for legal owners of their products for free. In the case of special business trips for the needs of specific re-installation, related expenses and agreed works are billed. Software adjustments and data conversion according to customer’s specific requirements are paid according to CEIT’s price list.

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Copyright © 2001 CEIT.sk
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