As part of a districtwide project, the Division Avenue High School Library was the first in Levittown and the 100th school in Nassau County to have completed the implementation of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) system, through BOCES.

Implementing this system has been a long process for Division, a process that many other schools in the district are in the midst of. According to Veronica Price, the Library Media Specialist at Division, the first step in this process was weeding through the library's collection and preparing the collection to have all the up to date records. Following the weeding process, the library staff had to modify the records so the shelf list was correct. Next, the library staff had to do an inventory of the collection, after weeding it, and make sure that everything was in the proper order and that the records were modified properly. At that point BOCES went in and took the library's records and converted them into their database.

Not only did BOCES and the library staff have to prepare the books for entry into the database, they had to physically prepare the library for the new system and train the staff on the workings of the new system. BOCES goes into the schools, does the wiring, sets up the phone lines, and orders the hardware for the district. The District is then responsible for ordering the proper furniture to house the OPAC stations.

Once everything is set up the library staff had to put bar-coding on all the books, which is the record of the book. Once the bar-coding was completed, BOCES brought in trainers to do on-site training for all the librarians and clerks in the district. The staff went through four days of training on the new systems, where they learned how to use the circulation system and how to use the new OPACs.

"It was a long process," said Price. "All the librarians in the district have worked very hard converting their individual libraries. Through the support of the community, the school board, and the PTA this was able to be done."

According to Price, this system, now that it is implemented, is making student searches much easier and they are more successful for the students. She added that for the staff managing the collection, it is much easier printing out statistical information, managing the records, and circulation statistics under the new system. "It's just more efficient. It improves it for everyone. It improves it at my end for cataloging and it improves it for the students because they have better access, quicker access to books," said Price.

Carol Kroll, from BOCES who has worked on the implementation of the automated system in Levittown and many districts across the county, noted that not only does this system, which is the Nassau School Library System, help students find books in their own library, it also provides them access to books that are available in other districts. "It puts the collection of the Levittown Schools into what we call a Union Catalog, which is an online catalog of the holdings in other school districts in Nassau County so a child in any of the Levittown schools can't find a book in any of the Levittown schools they can go out and search the catalogs of other Nassau County public school districts and we have the inter-library loan, where they can borrow that book from the other school so it really eliminates a child coming into the library and not being able to find something. So every child's information need can now be met so that's very nice," said Kroll.

There are now 32 districts in Nassau County that have been automated through BOCES, which began this process in 1990. Although the system has now been in effect for about a decade, Kroll feels that this year has been the most significant year in terms of library automation. She noted that in Nassau County many districts have been expanding or renovating their libraries this year and have made the automation of the libraries part of this process.

The automation of the entire district, which Levittown has done, is very beneficial, according to Kroll, because now students can start learning the system as early as kindergarten and by the time they are ready to do research will be fully aware of how the system works. Kroll stated, "They will learn about certain strategies and they'll be able to translate those when they are using the Internet or when they are using any kind of electronic database, so they'll learn keyword searching or bullion searching as youngsters and then they'll be able to use Internet access or when they go to the public library or as they graduate from high school when they go to college, they'll be very familiar with an online catalog." She also noted that it is good for the students to have this access in the library since every child goes through the library at some point. Kroll said that the implementation of the automation system will be completed in the Levittown district by the end of the school year.

Through this automation system, said Kroll, they have found that many books that had been overlooked with the card catalog are now being found easier and used as well. Because the online catalog is so easy to use, kids don't have to understand the Dewey system in order to find the books they want.

Price has found that the circulation of books at the Division Avenue High School Library has already increased since the automation has been completed. "The students love it, they are forming lines to use the OPACs," she added.

In honor of Division being the 100th school to be automated through the Nassau School Library System, BOCES presented special plaques to both the school itself and the central office administration this past Monday. At that time Price did a demonstration for the administration, school board and PTA members to show them how the system runs.

"It's a huge commitment on the part of the Levittown School Board and the Levittown educators, and what they are really looking for is really a fine education for their kids and it is definitely an advantage for their students," concluded Kroll.