History of WebPALS

WebPals is based on code provided to MnSCU/PALS by Phil Williams at the Pals Across Georgia group. They were given the original code by St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. The following information is taken from the Pals Across Georgia site:

The original source code for this gateway was provided to Georgia State University from the WWW PALS Gateway for St. Olaf College (Minnesota) in June 1994. Scott Fritchie who worked for Academic Computing at St. Olaf developed the idea from the following situation:
"If students were reading a professor's home page, they ought to be able to find out if the book on a class's reading list had already been checked out from the library."
The result was the first WWW interface to the PALS Library System.

The Georgia group took this code and enhanced it tremendously, adding functionality and iMproving performance. MnSCU/PALS has used this code to develop WebPals. We are indebted to both Scott Fritchie and Phil Williams for their vision and creativity in developing a product for the Web well before the Web was a household word. Without their vision, WebPals would not be the product it is today.

If you have a question about accessing WebPALS or using WebPALS resources, contact your local PALS reference librarian.

Send comments about WebPALS to the WebPALS Support Team