Managing a large library automation project: observations based on the Surrey County Library experience

All projects, and especially automation projects, fall into the three stages of planning, choosing and implementation. This article charts the progress through these three stages in Surrey County Library, concentrating on the management issues and lessons learned in the process. The requirements of the system are given as will as the reasons for the final choice of McDonnell Douglas URICA. A figure details the costs of the hardware, software and network components. An appendix outlines the time scale of the whole project.