SBN UNIX in client/server architecture

The project, funded on the basis of an agreement between the State and the Regions, arose from the need of updating SBN, aligning it to the changes occurred within informatics. The new software,  engineered for open hardware platforms, provides, beyond the Index and the Hub levels, also a third local level (one library or a Biblioserver, in case of more libraries linked to a single Unix server). The goals of the group coordinating the new application and of the working groups acting in the various fields (cataloguing, OPAC, loan, management procedures) were:
  • retrieving the more suitable functions from the former applications, as well as those of more general interest for the various typologies of cooperating libraries
  • enriching the software with new functions coming from useful and notable experiences within the SBN  project
  • making the application easier to be used, exploiting the possibilities offered both by the Windows graphical interface and by the use of parametrizations
  • producing modular procedures, thus allowing both their optional use and the implementation of different schemas and/or customizations.
The application was released and tested after thorough testing activities, carried out also with the cooperation of some hubs involved in its experimentation trial, e. g. CILEA (which carried out the testing activities in a multiserver environment and is still cooperating with the Institute) and the hubs in Perugia, Biella, Genoa, l’Aquila, Padua, la Sapienza in Rome, the hub gathering the State Public Libraries and that of the Cultural Institutions of Rome.

The application is given free of charge to all libraries that want to adopt it and its maintenance is in charge of ICCU, whereas local managing  expenditures are in charge of the hub.

At present, UNIX client server has been adopted by the following hubs: Hub of the Biblioteca civica di Biella (Civic Library of Biella), Hub of the Biblioteca comunale di Palermo (Civic Library of Palermo), Hub of the Provincia di Campobasso (Campobasso Province), Hub of the Comune di Roma (Municipality of Rome), Hub of the Istituti culturali di Roma (Cultural Institutions of Rome), Hub of Cosenza, Hub of Ligurian SBN, Hub Terra di Bari (Country of Bari), Hub of the Lombard universities, hub of the Sicily Region, Hub of the Umbria Region, Hub of the Università per stranieri di Perugia (University for foreigners Perugia).

Moreover, the Institute has also got in touch with many other library actualities which have shown interest in this application. In order to assure the required assistance   to the hubs who want to adopt it, ICCU has entered into a maintenance contract for the application. Upload procedures of the new database, as well as download procedures from the databases of SBN BULL, IBM SQL, UNISYS, ADABAS UNIXI have been implemented, in order to foster the data migrations from the hubs to the UNIX client server software.

Agreements has been carried out with the companies distributing the needed basic softwares for the installation of the application, in order to apply reduced fees to the SBN world. Therefore, within the supply request, the application of this particular kind of fee is to be specified.

For more information: Margherita Aste