Veritas, Vol. 32, No. 01, September 1991

              For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
September 1991 Volume 32 Number 1
Library enters new era with high-tech computerized system
As the fall semester progresses, the usually crowded suggestion board at the Otto G. Richter Library should remain virtually blank. No more will it be filled with comments about the library’s archaic check-out system. The library has entered a new era.
This fall users of the Richter Library, the Albert H. Pick Music Library, and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Library will be introduced to the new IBIS computer system that will tie together many of the functions and services of the three libraries.
Probably one of the most appreciated of the new services will be the streamlined checkout system, replacing the library’s infamous system, which meant manually filling out a card for each book. More than 600,000 books
have been barcoded by the library staff so the checkout system, using a scanner and the borrower’s ‘Cane Card, will take only seconds.
The new system revolves around a central database that consists of bibliographic records of the books, music scores, recordings, and other items in the libraries’ collections. The initial database will consist of approximately 600,000 records and is not limited only to recent years but includes many older items as well.
The OP AC (Online Public Access Catalog) will be the library user’s access to the system. There will be a total of about 23 terminals for public use in the three libraries—about twice as many as before—with terminals located on eight floors (previously on three floors). Searches may be done by
author, title, subject, keywords, or call numbers, and they may be further defined by such facts as date or publisher. The new system will eventually phase out the card catalogs.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” says Frank Rodgers, director of libraries, who spent two years investigating various systems before getting final approval on expenditures from the Board of Trustees in June 1990. “We are the third largest academic library in the state, and now we will have an integrated system the equal of any in the nation.”
Beyond the circulation desk, more high-tech improvements are at work:
• The cataloging subsystem will allow immediate updating and editing of the records. This means
a database that will contain new materials as soon as they are added to the collection.
•	The reserve subsystem allows the library to keep track of the items that are placed on reserve for use by classes.
•	The serials subsystem (to be included at a later date) will keep track of journals and other serial publications. The OPAC record will show a summary of the library’s holdings and the latest issues received.
•	The acquisitions subsystem (to be included at a later date) handles many bookkeeping functions for the library and allows books on order to be included in the database as partial records.
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New journalism program aims to make students marketable
Journalism lecturer Suzanne Levinson (center) works with students Thomasina Burgess (left) and Laura Ramirez on the design of a mock newspaper.
It could be any typical newsroom: newspapers scattered about, desks decorated with half-empty coffee cups, up-to-the-minute Associated Press (AP) news churning out of a printer, and reporters with phones cradled between ear and shoulder typing furiously into their terminals.
But this newsroom is in the Whitten Learning Center; the news staff is made up of students; and the managing editor is Tsitsi Wakhisi, lecturer in the School of Communication.
And it’s all part of the new Master of Arts in professional journalism, a 12-month intensive, hands-on program started in May to prepare students for a career in print journalism.
“We’re trying to attract students into the communication field who have never majored in journalism before,” says Wakhisi, a former Miami Herald editor. “This summer was a very intensive time when students learned the reporting and writing skills needed to familiarize themselves with the industry.”
The nine students in the charter
class—all coincidentally women— have spent the summer accompanying professional reporters on their beats, covering news in local communities, holding one-week internships in local news organizations, and producing their own daily mock newspapers (like UM News and World Report) with the latest news from AP wires and day-old photographs from the
Herald. They also have listened to advice from more than 20 professional reporters, editors, managers, graphic designers, and photographers who have visited the class.
Beginning this fall, the School of Communication will offer the UM News Service for which these students will write news stories for local and out-of-state newspapers.
“We won’t just be sending
students out with a degree, we want them to be marketable,” says Wakhisi. “The focal point is the news bureau. We want them to keep writing and have samples to show to prospective employers.”
Besides practicing the craft of newsgathering and writing, the students will be taught the theories and concepts of communication, journalism history, ethics, research, and media law.
Paul Steinle, who holds the Communication Studies Chair and is former president and chief operating officer of United Press International, helped coordinate the graduate-level program.
“You have to be able to represent the skills you have, and the best way to do that is to have some clips to demonstrate the quality of work,” he says. “Our goal is to develop these students within 12 months to a level where they can produce material and have it published.”
Adds Edward J. Pfister, dean of the School of Communication: “We’re looking at this as an experimental year for the program. We’re going to learn a lot.”