We recently received a query about the suitability of the IBM System/34 minicomputer for library automation. It was apparently prompted by a recent 10 percent price drop to a price range of $15,000 to $90,000. There are two reasons to be cautious: (1) no supported library applications software packages are available for the System/34, and (2) there is good reason to believe that the line will be dropped soon in favor of the more sophisticated and powerful System/38, which begins at $60,000. It is possible to migrate to the System/38 from either the System/ 3 or the System/34. However, there is no supported library applications software package available for the System/38 either. The ILS (Integrated Library System) software package developed by the Lister Hill Laboratories for Biomedical Communications runs on the IBM Series I and NOTIS software developed by the Northwestern University Library runs on the IBM 4300 series of equipment. The price of the latter hardware has also been recently reduced-for competitive reasons rather than the possible discontinuation of the line.
https://librarytechnology.org/document/3903/