Bridging the Ravine ; or, the Joint Library Automation Project of Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist University

Automating a library is challenging, frustrating and rewarding. It requires detailed, often tedious planning, and enormous amounts of patience. Software glitches, hardware failures, and miscommunication between automation vendors and library staff are common complaints found in the library literature. These problems loom large when any library automates. When two libraries undertake such a project together, problems proliferate. The automation project of Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) and Henderson State University (HSU) Libraries illustrates problems inherent in any automation, some unique to joint endeavors, and others representative of cooperation between a public and a private institution. Above all, it illustrates how a positive approach to these problems can result in a system which increases the benefits to library users far beyond the walls of their own library