Athena is the new computerized cataloguing system at the Brookline Public Library. The Athena program was created by Nichols Technology, a Canadian computer company, and is named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Athena not only allows patrons to perform quick searches for books, but instantly lets them know whether is available.
Patrons can also create and print their own bibliographies with the program.
And it's a lot less time-consuming. Not yet finished Creating Athena's database has proven a challenge worthy of the gods themselves, however. Despite two years work inputting book information into the computer, Gill said the entire library has yet to be fully catalogued electronically. Only the videos, books on tape, and a portion of the non-fiction have yet to be catalogued. Just like Hollis Gill said the Hollis Social Library, which also uses the Athena program, spent three years to catalog all its books.