(November 1999) - The Tavistock Centre has implemented the Unicorn Collection Management System to provide an Integrated Library Management System to replace their existing internal library system.

The Unicorn system will be installed under the NT operating system on a Pentium server and will provide access via a Graphical User Interface (WorkFlows with Z39.50) to OPAC services, Cataloguing, Authority Control, Circulation, Acquisitions, Serials Control, Inter-Library Loans, Academic Reserves and Materials Booking together with an Information Gateway to external services over the Internet. Access to the OPAC will also be available through the World Wide Web via WebCat.

The library at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust is recognised both nationally and internationally as a centre of excellence, specialising in material relating to psychotherapy, counselling and psychoanalysis. Most of the students are mature students, spending one or two days a week at the Tavistock, so they need to be able to access the library catalogue and other bibliographic databases from their workplace or home.

Angela Douglas, the Librarian at the Tavistock Centre, said: "It was obviously very important that the computer system chosen by the library reflected those needs and after careful analysis of various systems the Tavistock and Portman Library decided that Unicorn would be best able to meet these needs. We were impressed by the flexibility of the system and the fact that it was used in lots of other higher education institutes with a similar user base."

Unicorn is distributed and supported by SIRSI, specialists in library and information systems. The software technology has been designed and developed over a 20 year period by SIRSI Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, USA. With Unicorn installed in more than 900 sites worldwide, the company has established itself as a leading client/server library information system supplier.