11 people attended; all used Avery online through RLIN; Eureka was mostly
used although some were Z39.50 compliant; only 2 still got print edition.

General issues were:

• increased cost for online RLIN file
• concern about the minimum # of simultaneous users (both too little for large institutions and too large for small institutions)

Searching issues:

• ability to search for illustrations
• a browsable index for journals
• ability to get bibliographic info. on journals (perhaps through a hot-link to RLIN serials file?)

Display issues:

• ability to sort
• ability to mask call numbers
• a method to link to local holdings
• interest in a different display that was more than the current Euraka brief but not as much as the full (more like the Mul in classic RLIN)

Response to above concerns by Kristin Tague:

TO: Avery Users Group
FROM: Kristin Tague, Research Libraries Group (bl.krt@rlg.org)
 Thank you very much for allowing me meeting time to address some of the Avery Subscribers concerns about pricing and searching capabilities. I have gotten the information that was requested and have listed it below. If this brings up any further questions people can feel free to contact me directly if they wish.

Functionality:
The new version of Eureka on the Web is scheduled for release 9/1/99. It will restore some of the functionality lost from telnet and have some new features as well. A partial list of these follows:

•  Result sorting will be restored and Date sorting is one of the options that will be included (descending order assumed).
•  A revised and faster interface.
•  Enables file selection by subject interest.
•  Provides the ability to create perpetual personal notebooks retrievable from session to session.

We are now working on a link from Eureka on the Web to the pertinent journal title list. Once it is enabled you will find an easy way to search the list which will be described in the co-located HELP file.

It is planned to restore a "brief" display to Eureka on the Web, but it may not be available on 9/1. We will advise you as soon as it is scheduled for release. This "brief" record will have the same fields now included in the Eureka/telnet display. This does not include abstracts. Our development team is interested in reviewing the idea that there be a file specific brief display (enabling your needs for the abstract display to be met), or another intermediate display. Quite frankly they haven't had much call for this overall so it would be important for them to hear from users directly about the importance of this intermediate record or a short note on why the brief record in Avery should include the abstract. If you send your comments to me I will forward them to the development team.

Once I got home I was a little confused about the notes I had on the 300 field and access to plans. I'm answering this in two ways and if I've missed something please let me know.

* It is possible to Limit a result set to files with a certain defined 300 field. For example if you search keyword Mayan you obtain a large result. You can then use the limit button to click on "other" , input 300 and add the value-"plan". This brings a subset of under 100 records. You may wish to use this yourself rather than having it included in student training. We agree that it isn't very end user friendly and that we could do better if we had some user input on this. Please drop me a
note on your "wish list" for the 300 field and we'll see if we can make any future adjustments.

* It seemed to me that some of you were saying that it had once been possible to link to things like the plans themselves once located in the 300 field. I assume this capability was available on the CD ROM as it has never been available via CitaDel. Another possibility is that you were referring to the Aviador project???

At any rate we are now technically in a position that enables this kind of linkage if we have access to the plans in digitized form. I have asked the new CitaDel Manager, Mr. Wesley Taoka, to contact Avery to begin exploratory discussions on this. We will see if it is possible to work something out.

I am still researching the Maryland State Z39.50 access to Avery. With a preliminary look it seems that their system is accessing both the Z39.50 and the Eureka service so perhaps this has been cleared up. If not, Lennie Stovel (bl.mds@rlg.org) would be happy to chat about this specific issue or other Z39.50 challenges!

Thanks again to each of you for your time and thoughtful input. I will do my best to respond directly to any other questions that come up between annual ARLIS meetings.