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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

County Libraries Begin $7.66 Million Upgrade

Valley residents will soon taste the fruits of a $7.66 million bond measure passed last year to update and expand county libraries.

For Valley branches, the biggest boost will be in technology.

All county libraries - including the Valley, Argonne and Otis Orchards branches - will be closed next Monday through Wednesday for installation of a new computer system and new equipment.

The improvements will double the number of available computers at the Valley branch, located at 12004 E. Main. The Otis Orchards and Argonne branches will receive a few new computer terminals each. Those branches are located at 22324 E. Wellesley and 4322 N. Argonne Road, respectively.

The new system will broaden patrons’ search power. Starting Thursday, library users will be able to search an additional 3,100 publications using computer data bases, said Priscilla Ice, manager of the library district’s East region.

About 1,000 newspapers, magazines and other periodicals will be in full-text form, allowing patrons to read full articles on the computer screen or print them out, even if the publication isn’t carried by the library.

Currently, county library databases include just 400 publications and provide only citations - not the full text - of articles.

Articles on the new system also will be more current than those on the old system, Ice said.

The Spokane County Library District will continue to update technology over the next two years, at a total cost of $2.14 million.

By this fall, residents who own computers and modems will be able to access library catalogs and data bases from home. Sometime next year, every middle school and high school in the district’s service area will receive a computer with a link to the library system’s catalog data base. Students will use the computers to search for books or magazines.

By next spring, all county library branches will offer Internet access.

County libraries also plan to expand various computer directories, including business and phone book directories.

, DataTimes