August 2000. Keystone Systems is proud to announce that the Palm Beach County Library System has selected KLAS, the Keystone Library Automation System, for their Talking Books Library. They now join the growing network of Florida libraries using KLAS to serve their patrons.

The Talking Books Library of the Palm Beach County Library System is located in a neighborhood shopping center allowing easy access for walk-in patrons. The Palm Beach staff take pride in the quick and personal customer service they provide to their patrons.

This quick customer service is also reflected in the library's circulation numbers. They usually checkout between 500 and 600 books a day, having over 60 percent of their collection in circulation. "We started our fiscal year in October with a 22 percent increase in circulation," stated Ms. Pat Mistretta, Librarian. "We directly attribute this to KLAS, since it gives us more control over our collection."

KLAS has allowed the Palm Beach County Talking Book Library to become an interactive partner in the Florida KLAS network. This network, linking the regional talking book library in Daytona with the 11 subregional libraries across the state, has helped speed services to patrons while decreasing paperwork. "The KLAS network and shared database helps us expedite the cataloguing of new materials, and makes it faster for us to add copies to the collection," explained Ms. Mistretta.

The Palm Beach County Talking Book Library serves over 3200 patrons from a local collection of nearly 28,000 copies of over 7000 titles. This collection is augmented by the regional library's collection of over two million copies of 56,000 titles.

Keystone Systems, Inc. is an eighteen year old company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Through extensive research and consultation, Keystone 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 take pride in assisting customers to obtain and fully utilize the best computer systems available. For more information about Keystone Systems or our KLAS products, visit our web site at www.klas.com.