TINlib — Two Applications Available to Purchase

The task of choosing a software package for a medium‐sized library is often difficult. The system usually needs to be sufficiently powerful to cope with tens of thousands of books and at the same time fit within a medium‐sized budget for software and hardware. This article looks at the experiences of two such libraries which have made the decision to computerise during the last 12 months. Both chose TINlib as their library software, however their approaches differ in some respects reflecting the type of institution, the service they provide and local constraints. In particular, their hardware environment, approach to retrospective conversion and implementation progress provide an interesting comparison.