According to the announcement, the new enhancements significantly strengthen IMDS. Developed by CARL and first introduced in 1997, IMDS comprises a suite of integrated products that includes powerful, intuitive public access interfaces and graphical modules for library staff functions. These include Circulation, Acquisitions, Serials, Cataloging, and Reports.

One new CARLweb feature allows patrons to view tables of contents and images of book covers via the PAC. While a patron conducts a search, these images appear on the title list and full record, and can be viewed in a larger format with a single click. The initial delivery from CARL includes more than 220,000 tables of contents and 550,000 book-jacket images, with 16,000 additional images furnished each month. The service is easily activated and the database resides on a separate server. In this way, servers for participating libraries are not compromised in terms of speed or storage space.

The new version also reflects the growing collaboration between CARL and TLC. According to the announcement, CARLweb 3.6 links directly with TLC’s Library.Request, a Web-based program that frees librarians from the administrative burdens of interlibrary loans (ILL) and eliminates the time and costs associated with submitting ILL requests through nationwide channels.

Another development allows for proximity and adjacency searching to be used by an advanced searcher or librarian exploring the PAC. A further enhancement gives patrons a variety of additional self-renew options for the items on their account.

Source: The Library Corporation, Inwood, WV, 800/325-7759; http://www.tlcdelivers.com.