Ameritech Library Services has been developing a next-generation automated library system for a year. Several libraries have purchased it under its development name, "NextGen." The vendor has now announced that, the name under which it will be sold will be "Horizon with Sunrise."
The new product is built on ALS's Horizon client/server product, with the functionality extended to include the features of the vendor's hierarchical Dynix product that are not already part of Horizon. Many of these features are what has made Dynix a popular product for public and school libraries. The intent is to make Horizon with Sunrise an attractive choice for all types of libraries, rather than only the academic and special libraries for which it was initially developed.
Libraries have the option of purchasing Dynix, purchasing Dynix with an option to migrate to Horizon with Sunrise when it is completed in late 1999 or early 2000, or purchasing Horizon. A migration from Dynix to Horizon with Sunrise will involve changing the database management system from Universe to Sybase. The vendor is offering special migration terms to Dynix customers, but commits that it will continue to issue enhancement releases for Dynix for an indefinite period of time.
There were 2,933 Dynix systems installed worldwide at the end of 1998, and 481 Horizon systems. However, there were 72 "new name" Horizon sales to 55 Dynix sales in 1998.
The largest Dynix sale in 1998 was to the Toronto Public Library, a new entity created in January 1998 by the merger of seven former municipal libraries. The Toronto Public Library has 98 branches serving 2.3 million people. The system will support 3,000 remote peripherals, including 2,000 that offer patron access catalog and database access to the public.
The largest Horizon sale was to DALNET, a multi-type library consortium in the Detroit area which includes a university, a public library, and several hospital libraries. When fully deployed, it will be comparable in. size to the Toronto Public Library's system.
In a related development, Ameritech announced that it will continue to provide enhancement releases for NOTIS, its mainframe-based product, through at least 2000, and will support the product for at least five years after active development stops. There were 113 NOTIS sites at the end of 1998, down by 13 from the end of 1997.
[Contact: Ameritech Library Services, 400 Dynix Drive, Provo, UT 84604; telephone 800-223-5413; fax 801-223-5202; URL www.amlibs.com].
