Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.—VTLS Inc. announces that it has signed a distributorship agreement with Altarama Systems Pty. Ltd., an Australian company that provides complete solutions to libraries, especially public and special libraries. Altarama succeeds Genasys II Pty. Ltd., which has served as VTLS' agent in Australia since 1983.

Since 1992, the company has been marketing its major product, Data*Library, and supplying associated software, hardware and services to small-to-medium-sized libraries. With VTLS, theyplan to expand their offering to large libraries and to academic libraries. Altarama s experience in installing UNIXR and MS-DOS operating systems as well as their interest in information retrieval and CD-ROM systems will complement VTLS' expertise.

Altarama will be responsible for marketing and supporting VTLS products for clients in Australia and New Zealand. Currently, one university in New Zealand and four universities and eight public libraries in Australia are using VTLS. For installations "down under" VTLS supports AUSMARC, the local standard for bibliographic and authority records.