Follett, Gale Display New Wares at AASL

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SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/30/2007 9:54:00 AM

The 13th national conference of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), held October 25–28 in Reno, NV, featured several vendor announcements.

Follett Software Company released the latest version of InfoCentre at AASL. InfoCentre 3.0, a new version of the library management system, generates patron lists based on grade and homeroom. Version 3.0 lets users keep track of previously lost books that have been returned or paid for, and lets them quickly see the estimated fine for an overdue copy. Additional improvements include Follett Remote Support, which enables updating of InfoCentre’s circulation records with circulation transactions logged with Follett Remote. Follett Remote lets users continue to perform many tasks offline if they lose their Internet connection or their InfoCentre server becomes unavailable.

Another presence at AASL, Gale made several announcements of its own. Literature Resources from Gale is a new platform that allows patrons to search across multiple databases with standardized content and interfaces. By the end of the year, nearly all of Gale’s literature products will be migrated to the new platform, except The Shakespeare Collection, What Do I Read Next? and Literature Criticism Online, which will eventually make the transition, as well. Gale, a division of Cengage Learning, formerly Thomson Learning, also announced Slavery and Anti-Slavery in America, a digital archive in four series. Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition contains about 1.5 million pages of primary-source documents related to the abolitionist movement and related conflicts, such as colonization. Consisting of pamphlets, periodicals, and other documents, this new digital archive provides access to rare collections, until now only available in microfilm.