Technology is helping the Cheltenham Township Library System enter the 21st century.

ACCESS PA, a statewide CD-ROM database, enables Cheltenham librarians to search over 1100 public, school and college library collections for materials requested by Cheltenham patrons. Library staff can then obtain an interlibrary loan.

More recently, all four libraries have joined the MCLINC system to share libary materials throughout Montgomery County.

A growing list of reference resources are also available on CD-ROM databases. The Philadelphia Inquirer, several encyclopedia and a poetry index are all part of this computer-accessible landscape. Efforts are even underway to provide Internet access to patrons next year. Each library has at least one computer to allow patrons to access this expanding resource.

Elkins Park and Glenside Libraries also have INFO-TRAC, a special computer tool that acts as an automated guide to periodicals. Users can search periodicals based on key words and then print a list of pertinent articles, many of which are annotated, to speed research.

The computers allow users to scan up-to-date information with less effort, since all of the data is at their fingertips instead of dispersed throughout several book volumes. A printer with each computer enables users to record their research.

Finally, even relatively old technology like fax machines helps Cheltenham's four libraries share information quickly and easily. Faxes are especially handy during evenings or weekends, when van delivery is off duty.

Although libraries may never surrender their books and periodicals, new technology -- offering instant information at a keystroke -- is making computers another library feature.