Huntsville, AL (December 2, 1996) - Sirsi Corporation announced today the license of UNICORN to three Alabama public libraries. The group consists of the Autauga-Prattville Public Library located outside of Montgomery, Alabama; The Houston-Love Memorial Library located in Dothan, Alabama; and the Dallas-Selma County Public Library located in Selma, Alabama. All three of these Alabama Public Libraries shared the automated system based at the Montogomery City-County Public Library and have decided to move out on their own to automate their libraries for the future.
SIRSI's Unicorn Collection Management System, using client/server technology, simplifies and improves the process of managing and accessing library holdings. Its UNIX base allows the flexibility of choosing different platforms, all of which operate with the same software. Its modular design enables users to build on the system's core Z39.50-compliant catalog, choosing and configuring additional modules according to local library needs. The libraries have purchased several modules including Authority Control, Circulation Control, Report Writer/Generator, Bibliographic, and Inventory Control.
All three libraries will install UNICORN on their own IBM RISC System/6000. SIRSI's InfoVIEW graphical client with Z39.50 for Windows has been selected by the three sites. In addition to offering a consistent graphical interface to all staff and patron modules licensed by the library, InfoVIEW provides URL hyperlinks from within the UNICORN catalog to multi-media resources.
The Prattville Public Library was formed by a group of interested citizens and the City of Prattville, having a population of 5,652, on October 12, 1956. In 1963 the Prattville Public Library became a member of the newly formed Cahaba Regional Library System serving Autauga, Bibb and Chilton Counties. In 1974 Autauga County separated from Cahaba Regional to become the Autauga-Prattville Public Library System. The main library, containing the Autauga County Reference Center, is located in Prattville and has branch libraries in Autaugaville, Billingsly and Marbury. The libraries combined hold about 75,000 titles and serve a rapidly growing county with a population of 38,000.
The Houston-Love Memorial Library was named for former Alabama governor, congressman, and U.S. Senator, George S. Houston and the former library director, Wayne Love. The library began as a subscription library sponsored by The Village Improvement Club, Dothan's first civic organization. The library was organized into a public library in 1949 and moved into their present building in 1965. The building was expanded in 1979 and now holds a collection of almost 200,000 volumes with an annual circulation of 328,000. The Houston-Love Memorial Library's Unicorn software will link their library patrons to information resources on the internet.
The Selma-Dallas County Public Library originally opened in 1903 as the Carnegie Library. In 1976, with library services expanding, a new facility was built to serve the nearly 48,000 people of Dallas County. In 1994 the facility again expanded to provide increasing service in the areas of Adult Education, Children's Services and Reference. The present facility contains a 40,000 title collection and has brought great pride to the people of Selma and Dallas County.
Company Background
SIRSI, founded in 1980, is a privately held company with headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. SIRSI develops, markets, and supports information software systems for libraries, businesses and archives. Its products include WebCat(tm) and VIZION(tm), Web information managers; Digital Media Archives; and InfoBASE for data warehousing. With offices in major U.S. cities and subsidiaries in Canada, the U.K., and Australia, the company has established its Unicorn products as the leading UNIX-based client/server library automation systems in the world. For more information, please contact SIRSI via phone at (205) 922-9820, fax at (205) 922-9818, or the World Wide Web at http://www.sirsi.com.