Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1992 11:04:25 LCL
From: John Saylor <John_Saylor@QMRELAY.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: Mathematica: Replies Summary, Part 2
<Part 3: Summary of Responses (continued from previous message)>
2. From: Dorothy Manderscheid, Mathematics Library, Michigan State
University
We do receive Mathematica Journal and the electronic supplement. It is now
paid for and received by the Mathematics Department, but it is cataloged
and paper copy is held in the Library. At present the electronic
supplements are removed before we receive the paper copy and given to the
computer person in the Mathematics Department. We refer patrons to him
when they inquire about the supplement. Eventually if our budget ever
allows, I would like to see this paid for and received by the library
system, and then some changes may be appropriate. I would be interested in
seeing a summary of your responses in PAMNET.
3. From: Susanne J. Redalje Head, Chemistry Library U. Washington Seattle
curie@u.washington.edu
Your question about dealing with electronic supplements was passed on to me
by our math librarian. I have had some experience with this topic as we
have been receiving Tetrahedron Computer Literature for some time and now
are receiving another title which has a supplement such as the one for
Mathematica.
So far we have had very good luck with copying the issues and supplements
and keeping the copies out on the shelves with the paper. This has
been satisfactory but does take time. We are a DOS library but get both
mac and dos copies of the Tetrahedron journal. We have to go elsewhere to
make these copies. I think I like the idea of a server. As this situation
becomes more common, it may be the only way to deal with the situation.
For what it's worth -- our users love these journals and ask for more. The
major problem we had in the beginning was that people were enamored with
the idea of how easy it was to copy -- they copied the entire journal issue
and intended to keep this up. I reminded them that even though the
publishers intended them to use this information, there was still a
question of copywrite. The situation is self-curing after a while -- they
begin to realize how `much' there is and don't have the space to store it
all.
4. From: Tad_Hogg.PARC@xerox.com
We use Mathematica in a Unix environment and found the best way to handle
the supplement is to put the programs on a local server -- users can then
load the programs into their Mathematica sessions as needed.
There are the usual difficulties of moving files from Mac or DOS format to
Unix. It would certainly be much easier to get them by e-mail or ftp.
5. From: "lewisjw" <lewisjw@macgw1.crd.ge.com>
Anonymous ftp would be easiest for me.
6. From: CAROL HUTCHINS <HUTCHINS@ucs.indiana.edu> Math/Physics Library
I posted a question to PAMnet before about the Mathemat.J -- it was six
months ago. Perhaps you did not see it. The PAM people responding that
they had the title were Janice Griggs (U. Minn) and Rebecca Lasher
(Stanford Math/CS Lib + Physics Library).
I was considering a subscription....but unsure about quality of thing.
However, I hear from faculty that the electronic is the really FUN part...
and most of your questions seem to pertain to that.
During the AMS meeting I talked with people at Wolfram booth and Addison
Wesley and none of them had a clue as to the quandries libraries might be
in on materials which actually are Mathematica notebooks. I'm wondering
what to do with the CDROM that comes with T. Gray and Glynn _Exploring
Mathematics with...._ I discussed with our computer center people the
option of developing a server for such material. We're worried about
license arrangement.
7. From: Richard Fateman <fateman@peoplesparc.Berkeley.EDU>
Talk to your computer center. Let them make copies for people who want
them on diskettes.
8. From: Silvio Levy <levy@math.berkeley.edu>
The duplication policy for the Journal is (or at least was, while it
was owned by Addison-Wesley and I edited it) pretty liberal, exactly
to avoid this sort of dilemma. It is certainly OK to make a copy so
the copy can circulate while the original remains in the library.
It's also probably OK to set up the stuff on a disk accessible to the
university community.
9. From: Bill Gentz, Serials Librarian Carnegie Mellon Univ.
I am opting for option #3, duplicating the disk and keeping a non-circ
master. I just hope the circ staff doesn't de-sensitize them at every
check-out, or I'll be constantly making dup's.
10. From: Kate Herzog, U. Of Buffalo
You might want to talk to someone at Vanderbilt. I have before me an
article by Malcolm Getz, Vanderbilt's Library Director, which talks a
bit about the involvement of the library in making Mathematica Notebooks
available university-wide (The Bottom Line, v.5, no.2, pp.39-42).
A-W themselves might be able to give you the names of other places
that are subscribing to the electronic supplement).
UB does not get the journal in question. The Math Dept. has Mathematica
loaded on its local LAN. I don't know if it's on one of the mainframes.
We've been trying to push courseware in the Computer Center. The
Vanderbilt article tells about how a number of depts. have devised
curricula using Mathematica. But to my knowledge there has been no
multidisciplinary approach to do something like this at UB.
11. From: Lee Murray, Syracuse University
At the Syracuse Sci/Tech Library we have used your option 3 for
several years, and it seems to work well, although we don't have many
books with accompanying discs. Our media department (in the main library)
keeps the master, and we get two copies -- the circulating copy and our
backup copy. It is circulated independently (by manual circulation) from
the volume, and when it is returned, we make a new disc from our backup
copy. We also have warnings about how the disc must not be "zapped" with
our security system desensitizer, etc. It works satisfactorily.
John Saylor
Engineering Librarian
Carpenter Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853 e:John_Saylor@qmrelay.mail.cornell.edu
v: (607) 255-4134
f: (607) 255-9606
