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The article reports on the addition of VIA Metropolitan Transit by BiblioTech, the digital library of Bexar county, Texas, to BiblioTech's local partners that help patrons discover and access library ebooks and other content outside of the system's two branches. Topics include a background on the creation of BiblioTech, how BiblioTech works to establish partnerships according to Administrator Laura Cole, and the number of patrons registered by BiblioTech throughout Bexar county in three years.

Describes the Business Information Center (BIC), which is located in the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The primary aim of the BIC, which is to access business information, to support the integration of information and technology into the curriculum, and to act as a center for research and development for state-of-the-art information technology applications in education and business; Design of the BIC, which serves as an electronic hub for the school, making it the only fully networked business school in the country; Strategy of Dean Roy Herberger in developing the BIC; Online database services which the BIC subscribes to, including DIALOG, DataTimes, ORBIT, and the DOW JONES NEWS/RETRIEVAL; Discussion of reference services which are available to library users.

This article looks at a citizen's group effort to remove books with gay content from the children and young adult sections of the Montgomery County Memorial Library System in Conroe, TX. It's another chapter in the ongoing controversy in this fast-growing county outside Houston, where in 2003 library director Jerilynn Williams won the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award for fighting attempts at censorship by establishing a new reconsideration committee, involving five staff members and five citizens with experience working with children or youth.The group Library Patrons of Texas debuted a web site in late July, listing and excerpting 119 children's and juvenile books it would like to see moved to the adult section or to a new adults-only section. Most requests, Williams said, have been to move books to an area with adults-only access. "We don't have that. So we go back to asking parents to be responsible and acknowledge that only the parent can make the choice for their child," she said. "Not every book is appropriate for every single person, but every person should have their book. We have an extremely diverse population, and there are some individuals who do not seem to recognize that diversity has to be addressed in the public library."

Reports news related to libraries as of January, 2003. Additional funding for sixty additional staff positions at the Jacksonville Public Library in Florida; Recommended raises for staffers at the Akron-Summit County Public Library; Use of a public library computer at the Warren Public Library in Michigan by a teenager who sent e-mail messages to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation threatening to kill U.S. President George W. Bush; Retirement of Harold Billings, director of general libraries at the University of Texas at Austin; Other news.

Reports that the Plano Public Library in Texas will benefit from citizen approval of a bond referendum, which includes a $6.6 million provision for the library system. Outlook for the funding to help in the construction and renovation of library buildings; Marketing efforts of the library to communicate the value of its services to library users and children.

Reports on iJury, a partnership of Texas's Travis County and the Austin Public Libraries which speeds the process of jury selection. Improvements over the traditional postal system method; How potential jurors can respond to a summons.

Reports that Houston, Texas is offering library users free access to so-called virtual desktop software. What the software provides; Comments of Houston Mayor Lee Brown regarding the project; Benefits for library users; Background on the virtual desktop, SimHouston.

Features the Awesome Adventures program offered to children in Houston, Texas to stimulate library use by children.