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TREASURES OF OUR LIBRARY THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION Today, one of the most valued treasures of our library, and one of the most used, is the whole system of electronic and mechanical record-keeping and services to patrons. This includes not only simple instruments like micro-fiche readers, but also the vast world of computers, with their ever-expanding fields of memory banks, CD-ROMs, Internet Web, and so on. In parallel splendour, we have those parts of the system which tirelessly and accurately record the movements of the library's books, videos, and other lending materials, as well as their current locations. This treasure chest of modern marvels began to take shape in late 1979, when the Library Board allocated money for "automation research." That led to study visits in the States of Washington and Oregon, to examine "high-tech" procedures recently introduced in libraries there. An evaluation committee was set up in our library, and set to work studying three different systems. The final choice, "ULYSIS" (Universal Library System) was constrained, to a significant degree by cost-saving considerations. Mrs. Sally Carswell was the author of a fine book, "FULFILLING A DREAM" which chronicles the history of our library. She noted, "As an independent body, the Library Board sets its own budget but ... the budget must be approved by the municipality." On this occasion, the Board received splendid support from the West Vancouver Council. In 1980, a decision was reached that automation of the circulation and catalogue programmes would be introduced as early as possible. Gradually, the old card-index scheme for "finding" books and controlling circulation were supplanted by high-tech innovations. The results included massive gains in speed and efficiency of services. Best of all, in the eyes of administrators significant cost-savings soon developed, just as foreseen by the evaluation committee. For the library's patrons, the changes quickly brought great savings of time and effort. Mrs. Carswell commented in her book, that our library would be "one of the first in Canada to install a fully automated circulation and cataloguing system. Soon, the library had to create a new department to cope with these complicated developments. It was named Technical Services/Systems, and was placed under the skilled management of Roy Hunter. Today, the library, including the Technical Services group, has about 50 terminals, plus 35 personal computers, of which 20 personal computers are for the use of staff only. All are controlled from a main-frame unit dubbed "ALIX" (from Automated Library Information Exchange) located in an air-conditioned section of the library's basement. It is difficult, today, to comprehend how the library functioned so well as it did, before it reached the cornucopia of technotreasures at the end of the Computer Rainbow. We now look forward to the upcoming giant step forward to keep our library on the leading edge of computer technology to benefit both patrons and staff. FOOTNOTE: The writer offers special thanks to Mrs. Sally Carswell, B.A., for permission to use material from her book, "FULFILLING A DREAM."