Students and faculty on HOLLIS II will be able to track and renew checked-out items online as well as enter holding requests over the web. They will also be permitted to view their own account information, seeing which books they have checked out and if they owe any fines.

Furthermore, users will be able to request items online and will be given the option of being notified when such items become available.

The downside is that such conveniences will also require greater security measures for the library system.

Currently, students and faculty use the HOLLIS catalog anonymously, but in order to take advantage of the new options, users will most likely be required to enter a password or pin-number, according to Tracy Robinson, head of the Office of Information Services.

The Long and Winding Road

In 1998, Harvard launched its Library Digital Initiative--a five-year plan to develop the University's capacity to manage digital information.

At this point, a long evaluation process was initiated to redevelop HOLLIS. The Steering Committee and University Library Council looked at a number of vendors and ultimately narrowed down the list to two: Data Research Associates (DRA) and Ex Libris.

But Ex Libris was rejected because administrators feared the European-based company would not be familiar enough with the slightly-different U.S. library system. DRA was chosen and, in 1999, Harvard signed a letter of intent to pass the HOLLIS contract over.