The Tin Man walks. Introduction to a library management software

Abstract

The author introduces the database management system of the TINLIB library control software, called TINMAN (like the name Tin Man, the character in the Wizzard Oz). A humorous, sometimes ironic account is presented of the Hungarian version of TINLIB, and of its application experiences in the Library of the Research Institute of Computers and Automation, SZTAKI, Hungary. Operation principles, resource requirements due to multifile management, the imple-mentation difficulties of TINLIB's TINMAN in the Hungarian version are discussed. Coding of diacritic symbols in DOS environment, conversion of bibliographic data of the SZTAKI Library collection are presented in detail, and some networking features of TINLIB as tested by the author are reported.