Effective August 1, BCR's DIALOG Options I, II, III and IV will no longer be available. DIALOG has significantly lowered its discount structure, and the new discounts have been reduced to 2 percent for academic/ nonprofit users and 1 percent for corporate/for-profit users. A new $75 minimum monthly fee, however, will not apply to BCR DIALOG users.

DIALOG has discontinued connect-time charges, but has substituted a new DialUnit charge and has instituted a password fee. This $72 password fee will be charged semi-annually for a total of $144 per password per year. To recover BCR's costs in maintaining library's DIALOG accounts, BCR will add an additional password fee of $100 per password annually.

Although this seems to be mostly bad news, libraries may find that avoiding the $75 monthly minimum, receiving a discount on usage and being able to receive consolidated billing are still useful. Please don't forget you can also use BCR's prepayment deposit accounts and earn an additional 2.5 percent interest.

We realize that many BCR member libraries may find DIALOG's new discount levels and fees make it prohibitively expensive. BCR's other database services from SilverPlatter, OCLC FirstSearch, OVID, Britannica, Grolier and Gale offer database products similar to DIALOG's and often cost considerably less. Contact BCR's Karen Graham or Jim Hensinger for information and advice on using any of these services.

	Corporate	Public/Academic
Discontinued BCR Fee	$50 per account + $35/password	$50 per account + $35/password
New Usage Discount	1%	2%
New Annual DIALOG Fee	$72 X 2 = $144/password	$72 X 2 = $144/password
New Annual BCR Fee	$100/password	$100/password
Total Annual Password Fees	$244	$244