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Show I Library system would be boonTohigh school studeng; lit' information, this would be a godsend." bv A networked system would transform the often ' ' 1 resources of current school libraries into a districtS potentially a county-wide, library of significant subst! ; The problem, of course, is cost. tarCf 1 The already-strapped resources of the Alpine SrK i ' cannot handle the additional $38,000 annual costs t'S telephone lines and maintenance costs for such a syst P' 1 One alternative is to have the students pay f0r Coo through a library fee, which would range from $1 10 $4 frJ year. School fees, however, already strain the bucWw ft Utah Valley families. Other methods of paying for the system are being W . P Despite the cost, however, this is one opportunity th f School District should not pass up. e. We live in the Age of Information, yet often expect stud ' do research with inadequate resources. A district-wide n system would go a long ways towards bringing the A Information to our schools, and our students. -: The Alpine School District has the opportunity to increase the amount of information available to students in each of its 11 secondary school many times with one investment. Using computer technology, the district can tie the schools' libraries together -- combining these valuable resources into a single system, and making the resources of all the libraries available to all the students. Purchasing the system would help every serious student in each school. The upgraded library system would be based on computer software created by Dynix, a Utah Valley corporation which markets it's library software throughout the world. Several Utah County libraries already use the Dynix system, including the American Fork Public Library, the Orem Public Library, the Provo Public Library, the Provo School District and Utah Valley Community College. The software is flexible and not only keeps track of book check out and check in, but allows users to look up information through a variety of searches, including author, title, subject and key word. The system is much more effective than the old card Tugh a networked system, the Alpim School jtc make the resources of the library at Orem High School available to students in Lehi - through a computer terminal at the Lehi High library. , In essence, the single computer system would be the same as purchasing all the books available in all the school libraries for each school. In an age of cost cutting, that is as effective an operation as you can find. , . But the potential for the system goes beyond the school district. , , Once the Dynix system is in place, a network can then De created to tie into the other Dynix systems in the county - giving local high school students access to the wealth of information available at the Utah Valley Community College library, for example. Donald Walton, the Alpine School District media coordinator, puts the potential succinctly: "For the student who is looking for |