ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Call it a high-tech ribbon-cutting.
With a flick of two computer switches Tuesday, the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library unveiled its new automated circulation system and World Wide Web access.
It marked the beginning of the electronic age for the three-library system. By next week, patrons will check out books with bar-coded library cards and will receive a printed receipt instead of stamped due-date cards on the materials they check out.
Starting immediately, patrons can check whether books are on hand by using a computer instead of a card catalog, and they can use the Internet to find additional research information or chat with other computer users.
Henry Jablonski, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, and Margaret Shuler, executive secretary of the Friends of the University Libraries, pressed the screen buttons on two of eight computers at the Sheltman Street headquarters to mark "Log on the Library Day," a national event in which the local libraries participated.
"I come to the library here quite frequently," Jablonski told about 40 people at the ceremony. "I pay a lot of fines down here. Maybe some of those fines have gone toward these computers. I hope so."
Actually, the computer system was the result of funds from the Board of Supervisors, a bond referendum 21/2 years ago, money raised by the Friends of the Library and private donations, said Jim Johnson, chairman of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library Board.
Jablonski recalled reading a book on computers at a Delaware library in the late 1950s, called "Giant Brains." Back then, computers took up spaces as large as half the library space and were used primarily for mathematical calculations, he said.
"Nowadays ... we have capabilities that weren't even thought of then. We're probably seeing one of the most significant additions to libraries in years," Jablonski said. The new library computer system provides "the means of stepping into our children's future."
Tuesday, it was the children who guided the adults through their first efforts at searching for a book title or getting on the Internet. Christiansburg Middle School pupils David Mattox, Gwen Miller, Amy Garlick and Isaac Carey, along with Christiansburg High School student Jonathan Goff, started off by demonstrating an on-line chat session among themselves. They then toured local home pages, including those for county schools, before turning the controls over to visitors.
Karen Dillon, library director, said eight terminals are available for the public at the Christiansburg headquarters, and two computers are at the circulation desk. Similar setups are in place at the branches in Blacksburg and Floyd.
Librarians will see a major benefit with the automated circulation system - a reduction of manual labor at the checkout desk, meaning they'll have more time to help patrons with computer searches and other requests, she said.
"We're trying to take our librarians and make them 'cyberians,''' said Steve Helm, the library's computer specialist.
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