HUNTSVILLE, Ala. ( Sept. 1, 2000) The Bureau of National Affairs Inc. (BNA), a leading publisher of print and electronic news and information, has chosen Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn Library Management System for the automation of its corporate library. According to Library Manager Marilyn Bromley, "We have chosen Unicorn because we were impressed not only with SIRSI's 20-plus years in the library automation marketplace, but also with the continual upgrades released through the years for the Unicorn product. Secondly, customer service from everyone at SIRSI during our decision-making process was far superior to any other company we talked to. Also, our serials management needs required a sophisticated serials module like that provided by Unicorn, because we are both a law library and a legal publisher with our own publications to track."

Bromley noted that with their old system, employees had to come to the Library to search the library catalog. But now, with Unicorn's WebCat Online Public Access Catalog, trips to the Library will no longer be required. "We are very excited to be migrating our current library system to Unicorn," Bromley said. "We will be able to make our library catalog available on employees' desktops for the first time, with live links to Web resources as part of the catalog record." Another Unicorn improvement, Z39.50 search capability, will give access to such notable remote catalogs as the Georgetown University Law School Library and the Library of Congress, Bromley commented. Such features will be a boon for BNA writers and editors, who rely on the BNA Library for the latest in print and online information in many areas of information-business; labor relations; law; health care; economics; taxation; environmental protection; health and safety; and other public policy, governmental, and judicial issues.

Founded in 1929, BNA was incorporated as a wholly employee-owned company in 1947. Today BNA has a work force of 1,609, which includes 500 reporters and editors based in Washington, D.C., plus correspondents nationwide and in more than 40 countries. BNA produces more than 200 news and information services and numerous dailies, including the highly respected Daily Report for Executives and Daily Labor Report. For three years in a row, Fortune magazine has named BNA one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For in America."

SIRSI, the leader in library technology, is a privately held company founded in 1979, with headquarters in Huntsville, Ala. SIRSI uses the most advanced technology available to provide easy-to-use information systems for libraries, businesses, and archives. With offices in major U.S. cities and subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom, the company has established its Unicorn products as the leading client/server library information system in the world.