Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. — The RERO network in Switzerland has begun working with VTLS Inc. to migrate their current VTLS-98 systems to Virtua. The process will occur in several stages. The first of these will be the migration of the RERO Union Database from VTLS-98 to Virtua. This will involve the migration of 2.4 million bibliographic records and 85,000 Authority records as well as implementation of Virtua OPAC and Cataloging with Union Catalog workflows to allow interaction with VTLS-98 local systems in the RERO network.

The second stage, projected for completion by August 1999, will be the delivery of Virtua Acquisitions in an innovative Union Catalog implementation. Once Virtua is fully implemented at the Union Catalog level in the autumn of 1999, migration of the RERO regional systems will begin according to a timetable to be worked out in the coming months.

Réseau des bibliothèques romandes et tessinoines (RERO) is a consortium consisting of 183 libraries. Each of the libraries in RERO belongs to one of seven regional union catalogs that in turn contribute to the RERO Union Database.

Virtua is a third generation library automation solution based on three-tier client-server technology. Virtua runs under UNIX using the Oracle RDBMS with Windows™ and WWW-based clients.