LIBRARY TO REPLACE CARD FILES

DAILY PRESS

Finding just the right book at the Smithfield library is going to get a lot easier in a few weeks.

The 20,000-volume library is about to become computerized. Its massive card catalog will be replaced by a database and user-friendly terminals.

And not only will readers be able to find out what's available at the Smithfield branch of the Isle of Wight Library. Under the new system, they also will be connected with all nine libraries that are a part of the Walter Cecil Rawls Library system. That means access to some 165,200 books.

''Even though we have a book collection that will never be as large as that of a major city, by sharing information electronically we can offer our patrons a far wider range of materials than they would be able to access simply by walking into the Smithfield library and looking at the shelves,'' said Bill Brown, director of the Rawls Library in Courtland.

''It's going to be wonderful,'' said Smithfield librarian Emma Jean Brady. ''We've waited a long time for this.''

All of the information that is now maintained in the library's card catalog will be shifted to a database that's accessible from four computer terminals to be put in the library's reading room.

''You can look up by - author, subject, title, and certain other combinations - any book that we own in the system,'' said Brown. Once you find the right book, you also can see where the book is located, whether it is checked out and, if it is out, when it is due back at the library.

If the volume you want is checked out, a library clerk can use the computer to instantly put a reserve on the book. A delivery service that operates among the library branches will transfer the book as soon as it becomes available.

''It's going to make the whole process a whole lot easier and faster,'' Brown said.

Eventually, patrons of the Rawls system will have access to an almost unlimited supply of books. Brown said the system is proposing to install ''dial-up modems',' which will allow access to libraries with similar equipment all over the world.

The new system, which officials hope will be operational in Smithfield by spring, will also automatically generate overdue notices with the touch of a button. The notices are currently done manually once a month by a library employee.

Brady, the Smithfield librarian, estimates that feature alone will free up 15 to 20 hours that can be better spent helping library patrons. She hopes it will also help cut down on the $15,000 to $20,000 annual cost of replacing lost books.

Preparing for the switch to computerization won't be easy, however. Brady and her staff must put a bar code on each of the 20,000 volumes at the Smithfield library. And library patrons must have a new, bar-coded membership card before they can check out books under the new system.

The system has already been established in the Walter Cecil Rawls Library in Courtland and in the Ruth Camp Campbell Library in Franklin. Brown said he could not quote the total price of the system but said that most of it was paid for by grants from the Camp Foundation.

The Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors authorized about $27,000 for the county's contribution to the system, said Anne Faison Seward, director of budget and finance.

Eventually, Brown said, the system will be expanded to the other libraries in the system. Those include libraries in Carrollton and Windsor in Isle of Wight; in Waverly and Wakefield in Sussex County; and in Surry.

''I think you're going to find a much more efficient library,'' Brown said. ''As friendly as it is now, it will be even friendlier.''

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