St. Louis, Missouri, USA -- October 19, 1994: Data Research Associates, Inc. (DRA) today announced that the Great Falls Public Library has become the first library in Montana to purchase the Data Research System, to which it will convert from its current CLSI system. Great Falls joins current DRA customers Missoula County High Schools and Montana State University, which have installed DRA’s INLEX/3000 system.

"We were impressed with the hardware and the software of the Data Research System, and its ability to let us expand in the future," says Jim Heckel, Director of the library. "With the system’s flexibility and reasonable pricing, it will accommodate our needs for quite some time."

Great Falls was particularly interested in having a platform on which to grow, because the library has been expanding - significantly increasing its circulation and other statistics during the past year. Heckel attributes much of the expansion to the library’s newly designed, environmentally focused Kid’s Place (formerly the children’s room). Patrons enter the room on a bridge over water, and murals on the walls depict the evolution from dinosaurs into current animal species. Reading nooks are equipped with wooden benches to evoke a park-like setting. The new facility was designed and implemented entirely through volunteer work and funds of the city’s Junior League. Heckel notes that many children come to visit the new room, and their parents frequently come with them to use other library facilities, resulting in an overall increase in library use.

DRA, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a leading provider of client/server automation systems, networking services and other related services for libraries. The Data Research System is adaptable for use in academic, public, school and special libraries ranging from single libraries to large, multi-branch systems and consortia. DRA currently has a customer base of more than 400 systems representing 1,300 individual libraries worldwide.