Communications. I could barely spell the word, much less comprehend its meaning. Yet when Mrs. Rubin made the announcement about the new club she was starting at the junior high school, it triggered something in my mind.

Whether you know it or not you depend on computers for almost every thing you do in modern day life. From the second you get up in the morning to the second you go to sleep computer are tied into what you do and use in some way. It is tied in to you life in the most obvious and obscure ways. Take for example you wake up in the morning usually to a digital alarm clock. You start you car it uses computers the second you turn the key (General Motors is the largest buyers of computer components in the world). You pick up the phone it uses computers. No mater how hard you try you can get away from them you can't. It is inevitable.

A hacker is a person obsessed with computers. At the heart of the obsession is a drive master the computer. The classic hacker was simply a compulsive programmer. It is only recently that the term hacker became associated with the computerized vandalism.

An automated library is one where a computer system is used to manage one or several of the library's key functions such as acquisitions, serials control, cataloging, circulation and the public access catalog. When exploring the history of library automation, it is possible to return to past centuries when visionaries well before the computer age created devices to assist with their book lending systems.

In the 1960's, the use of main frame computers became widespread in many companies. To access vast amounts of stored information, these companies started to use computer programs like COBOL and FORTRAN. Data accessibility and data sharing soon became an important feature because of the large amount of information recquired by different departments within certain companies. With this system, each application owns its own data files. The problems thus associated with this type of file processing was uncontrolled redundancy, inconsistent data, inflexibility, poor enforcement of standards, and low programmer maintenance.

Can you imagine a world without computers? You most probably interact with some form of a computer every day of your life. Computers are the most important advancement our society has ever seen. They have an interesting history, many interesting inner components, they are used nearly everywhere, and continue to advance incredibly fast. Because the field of computers is so broad, this paper will focus mainly on personal computers.

Two years ago, the Chrysler corporation completely gutted its Windsor, Ontario, car assembly plant and within six weeks had installed an entirely new factory inside the building. It was a marvel of engineering. When it came time to go to work, a whole new work force marched onto the assembly line. There on opening day was a crew of 150 industrial robots. Industrial robots don't look anything like the androids from sci-fi books and movies. They don't act like the evil Daleks or a fusspot C-3P0.

The year 2000 is practically around the corner, promising a new era of greatness and wonder . . . as long as you don't own a computer or work with one. The year 2000 is bringing a Pandora's Box of gifts to the computer world, and the latch is slowly coming undone. The year 2000 bug is not really a "bug" or "virus," but is more a computer industry mistake. Many of the PC's, mainframes, and software out there are not designed or programmed to compute a future year ending in double zeros. This is going to be a costly "fix" for the industry to absorb. In fact, Mike Elgan who is the editor of Windows Magazine, says " . .