Serials Management System (SMS): a short description of a Dawson Group product

The Dawson Group, with its large and varied customer base and over 500,000 periodical subscriptions, entered the automation sector in 1972 with a Singer System, which allowed a large number of simultaneous operations to be carried out on one database through multiple visual display units (VDUs). The system brought greater efficiency to in‐house subscription control with accruing benefits for libraries. By the 1980s a replacement system was needed to increase efficiency and meet the expansion of business. In 1981 an IBM System 38 was installed. The system performs well and currently supports over sixty VDUs and eight printers in three different locations — London, FolkeStone and Godalming. The success of the in‐house system led to the offering of a customer online service, linked to the main computer centre in FolkeStone, and offered on a ‘pay‐as‐you‐go’ basis.