1982 Infoserve manual 52/25/1 #fp13 #technology, a photo by Hecuba's Story on Flickr.
Who remembers Libramatics? I took this photo to post when I was gently taken to task by @petahopkins for throwing out old IT manuals and old copies of LASIE without taking notes or photos. Libramatics were cutting edge library technology in Melbourne in the 1970s and 1980s. They worked with us at Carringbush to produce the world's first computerized catalogue in Greek script (and had a good go at Turkish as well).
This is a page of a 1982 manual for coding community organizations in Infoserve, an automated community directory developed using Ausmarc fields. It was very cool - on fiche of course. Libramatics were great at stepping outside the box when ideas came up. Peter Stansfield had the brilliant but simple idea that if we had Ausmarc tags set up for cataloguing why could we not use them for other sorts of databases, such as a community directory. 245 could as well be the title for a community organization as for a book. And so the concept of Infoserve was born and Libramatics developed the coding for us.
So Peta, thanks for making me think about the importance of this manual in the development of library systems in Australia. I haven't thrown this one out.
3 comments:
Great memories! I worked with Peter at St Kilda.
Peter is probably the most innovative and forward thinking person I have ever worked with. You would have had Libraramatics too - over the back in Inkerman Street.
Dear Anne,
I was reading about the emergence of these systems as part of my PhD research. I've been looking at the newsletters of the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (Victorian), a group in which you obviously played a key role.
As part of my research, I am exploring how libraries & librarians have understood multiculturalism and adopted practices to better service diverse populations over the past four decades. I'm focusing on the history of the Working Group at the moment.
Seeing as though you played a central role in the formation of the group, I'd be really interested to discuss further with you. Let me know if you are interested - your insights would be incredibly valuable I'm sure.
Let me know if you are interested, my email is s3829364@student.rmit.edu.au. If not, no problem at all.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Many thanks,
Kieran Hegarty
s3829364@student.rmit.edu.au
PhD candidate, Representing Multicultural Australia in National and State Libraries (https://cur.org.au/project/representing-multicultural-australia-national-state-libraries/)
School of Global, Urban & Social Studies, RMIT University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-hegarty/
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