A QUESTER IN SEARCH OF ACCLAIM

Whether it is right, in the era of GEAC, OCLC, DOBIS/LIBIS and other available turnkey systems, that any library authority should still try to develop an in‐house system, can be argued elsewhere. The fact is that Derbyshire is committed to just such a course of action. Such action can be seen, on one level, to be a natural continuation of the County Council's commitment to the user of services, in this case, primarily, the library user. The system is designed to speed up the basic transactions; to deal quickly and efficiently with requests; to provide the user readily with information about current or potential transactions (availability of desired items, range of stock, details of books on loan); to account for special conditions (student, child, pensioner, disabled); to keep accurate and secure information about the user; to extend the range of information directly available to the user. (Shades of Ranganathan's Laws of Library Science.)