April 6, 1998 (Raleigh, NC) - Keystone Systems, a leading producer of library automation systems, is proud to announce that KLAS, the Keystone Library Automation System, has been installed at the State Library of Ohio, Talking Book Program as the automation system for the Machine Lending Agency.

The Machine Lending Agency loans playback equipment to approximately 26,000 eligible blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped, and reading disabled Ohio residents. To provide services to the eligible residents of Ohio, the Machine Lending Agency has agreements with 62 machine sublending agencies and must track movement between each agency, patron, and repair group. To efficiently and cost-effectively provide these services, the library needed a new automation system which provided more advanced operation and tracking features than its previous system.

"Any new automation system we selected had to allow us to meet the National Library Service's (NLS) tracking requirements," stated Judy Bow, Head of the Talking Book Program. "Our old automation system did not have the capability to keep machine and patron histories, KLAS enables us to meet these NLS history requirements with ease."

KLAS is used to efficiently distribute, track, and keep histories of machine movement to sublending agencies and the over 26,000 patrons throughout Ohio. The agency is now barcoding its collection, a feature which its previous system did not offer. The use of provides for quick and easy check out/in of machines and assures accuracy during this process, a very important issue to the agency. Overall, the system helps provide faster, more efficient service to patrons.

Keystone Systems, Inc. is a sixteen year old company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Through extensive research and consultation, our developers have created a powerful, yet elegant library automation system, KLAS, which has the flexibility to meet the specific needs of special, academic, and public libraries. Keystone's staff takes pride in assisting customers to obtain and hilly utilize the best computer systems available.