HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (April 7, 2000) The Anchorage School District (ASD) has chosen Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn Library Management System to automate its 75 school libraries. According to Ruth Jean Shaw, manager of the ASD Library Resources Department, "When this project is complete, the entire community will be able to access the district's library online public access catalog (OPAC) via the Internet on SIRSI's WebCat." SIRSI's Unicorn was one of six systems the ASD considered to replace its previous Follett system, Shaw commented. SIRSI came out on top because it scored highest technically and offered the best value.
The new common Unicorn system contains information on 1.3 million unique items from the combined Anchorage School District libraries. With Unicorn installed, Shaw affirmed, "We have empowered capability to make the information retrieval capability of the school program first class. Equal opportunity now exists in our schools for all seeking knowledge. I don't think it is overly optimistic to believe that the 21st century will see the ASD library program as an undisputed leader among school library systems in America