Mandarin Oasis™ Tested Successfully with OCLC’s Upcoming Unicode™ Export Feature

Boca Raton, FL – September 2005 – Mandarin Library Automation, Inc. has announced the compatibility of Oasis, its Web-based, centralized library management system, with OCLC’s upcoming Unicode MARC record export feature. Oasis successfully imported OCLC Unicode records that contained Hebrew, Arabic, CJK, Greek, Cyrillic and extended Latin Characters.

"Mandarin is happy and excited that OCLC will soon become a great source of Unicode based bibliographic MARC records for our Oasis users," said Mandarin Vice President of Software Development Harry Kaplanian. "Many of our users have relied on OCLC’s commitment as a resource for quality cataloging for many years. The ability to provide Unicode based MARC bibliographic records brings this service to a whole new level."

This record export feature has a planned release date of fourth quarter 2005 with Connexion client version 1.50, OCLC's flagship cataloging service.

Oasis offers complete automation functions from a single screen, including cataloging, circulation, searching, reports, and inventory. The simple and intuitive interface is easy to learn, and the appearance and features can be tailored for each library.
Oasis also supports Unicode, a universal encoding standard that greatly simplifies the sharing of multilingual text. This allows libraries to catalog their collections in virtually any language.

With one-point installation, maintenance and updates, Oasis helps single sites and districts lower their costs and save time. It is a seamless upgrade from Mandarin M3®, Mandarin Library Automation’s award-winning, Windows-based automation system that is now offered as a free download.

For more information on Mandarin Oasis or to schedule an online demonstration, call Mandarin Customer Service at (800) 426-7477 or visit http://mlasolutions.com/products/oasis.php.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 53,548 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog.

About Mandarin Library Automation, Inc.
Recognized as a leading software developer and hardware provider, Mandarin Library Automation (MLA) has been delivering turnkey library automation solutions to thousands of school, public, academic and corporate libraries in over 50 countries since 1995. Founded upon a solid foundation of experience, technological expertise and service-oriented relationships, MLA is committed to serving its worldwide customers and providing reliable and affordable products over the long term.

# # #