place, by the opening of school in the Fall.
Rivertown School District, like most public school districts in the 1990s, is committed to bringing the latest computer technology into both the classroom and library. The much-publicized "information superhighway" and "computer literacy" campaigns on the parts of federal and state bureaucracies have been echoes by local school districts across America, and to be a distinguished school is synonymous with being a new technology school. Riverview is no exception.
The district employs five data processing technicians to serve the needs of all sixteen schools. They must be data processing engineers, repair technicians, and network administrators; unfortunately, they are spread too thin throughout the district to adequately serve the needs of the district offices and all sixteen school sites. In addition, they are often at the disadvantage of having to perform their duties while being "out of the loop," so to speak, when it comes to forward-looking planning with regard to such matters as wiring, network load, and the specific needs of individual users. Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to a school library. The library must network its computers to those in the library, as well as to those in the classrooms, if available databases are to be put to maximum use. The information age is an age of access to information, and, ideally, the library should allow access to its databases outside of its conventional walls.
Currently, cataloging at the old high school (or, the "other high school" as administrators are quick to clarify) is done on a catalog software system called Data Trek, on PC's from 1987. The elementary schools use a software system called Follett's Circulation Plus, but many of them are now converting to Companion Corporation's Alexandria system, with excellent results, using Macintosh computers. Dale High School wanted to continue the success of the elem...