The University announced on Monday that it has signed a letter of intent with Data Research Associates, Inc. (DRA) for the installation of a new automated library system to replace Hollis.

The new system--Hollis II--will cost the University more than $1 million and will be in place by the summer of 2000, officials said.

DRA, which has installed similar systems at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California at Santa Barbara, will negotiate a final contact with the University in the fall.

"This is the next generation system," said Susan A. Lee, associate librarian of Harvard College for planning and administration and a member of the Hollis II steering committee which recommended DRA. "We wanted to buy state-of-the-art."

The original Hollis system was installed in 1985 and completed in 1989.

DRA's Taos system, which will form the backbone of Hollis II, uses an object-oriented client interface that will allow users to search the database using a Web browser, according to Joe Bonwich, a spokesperson for DRA.

The new system will be "user-empowered," Lee said--much more flexible and powerful than Hollis.

The agreement with DRA marks the culmination of a selection process which began two years ago, said Tracey Robinson, assistant director for systems management at the Office for Information Systems and also a member of the steering committee.

"We began in the summer of 1996 with an original pool of nine" she said. The committee later narrowed the field to four vendors and made its final recommendation this spring.

Robinson said the committee had to balance the need to buy a system at the cutting edge of information technology with the desire to find a reliable system.

"The process was more difficult than anticipated," Robinson said. "Most systems we looked at were not quite complete or were in fact not implemented or were partially implemented."

"[Harvard] took a very long time, was verymeticulous and we're excited they choose us,"Bonwich said.

DRA will sign a final contract with Harvard inthe fall if it meets several preconditionsstipulated in the letter of intent.

DRA is the final stages of a phasedimplementation of its Taos system--the same systemHarvard is purchasing--at UCLA. The Universitywill monitor the UCLA. system before signing afinal contract, Robinson said.

If the UCLA implementation is successful, andDRA meets the list of milestones it has agreed to,the final contract will be signed