UTAH TECH WATCH - - by David Politis - - 5/11-13/96 Edition

Helping make electronic versions of 5,000,000 unique items freely available
over the Internet by the year 2000 is the goal of a multimillion dollar
gift made by a Utah technology firm.

Provo-based Ameritech Library Services and its Baby Bell parent company,
Ameritech, recently announced that they will donate $2 million to the
Library of Congress to establish the Library of Congress/Ameritech
National Digital Library competition.

As a result of the donation, the Library of Congress will create a grant
program allowing selected libraries throughout the U.S. to digitize their
unique Americana collections for incorporation into the Library's National
Digital Library.

The $2 million gift from the Ameritech Foundation is the largest corporate
donation to the NDL to date.

In total, the Library has raised more than $21 million in private funds,
while the U.S. Congress has pledged an additional $15 million in funding
for fiscal years 1996-2000.

"This grant program will vastly multiply the educational impact of bringing
together important historical documents on specific subjects formerly
dispersed among institutions across the country," said Librarian of
Congress James H. Billington.

According to a news release marking the announcement, the NDL program
places rare collections of Americana on-line and available to individuals
around the world, where previously they were only available to visitors to
the Library of Congress.

According to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the effort makes "American
History come alive and literally places it at the fingertips of children,
students and adults everywhere."

The first of these digitized Americana selections are now available from
the Library of Congress' home page on the Internet, which can be viewed at
http://www.loc.gov/.

High-tech company results

Two Utah technology firms few readers have heard of, ElectroStar and iMALL,
recently reported very positive financial results for their first
quarters.

Logan-based ElectroStar (NASDAQ/NM:ESTR) recently announced that it had
generated record earnings in its first quarter.

For the quarter ended March 31, the manufacturer of printed circuit boards
had net income of $1.87 million on sales of $17 million. First quarter
results in 1995 were $819,000 and $14.45 million, respectively.

According to Kent Alder, company president and chief executive officer, the
firm is "benefitting from unit volume growth in multilayer PCBs and
increased sales prices of PCB panels."

Alder attributes the increased prices to the greater complexity of the PCB
panels ElectroStar is manufacturing for its customers.

ElectroStar has two manufacturing facilities. Its Utah plant focuses on
volume contracts for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and contract
manufacturers, while its California plant emphasizes quick turnaround of
complex multilayer PCBs.

Although its sales were not as high as ElectroStar's, Provo-based iMALL
(NASDAQ:IMAL) also turned in stellar results for its first quarter ended
March 31.

For the quarter, iMALL had sales of $4.13 million with net income of
$739,000, which in my opinion is pretty dang good for a firm that didn't
exist a year ago.

iMALL's electronic mall format, http://www.imall.com, is considered by most
web surfers as the largest such entity on the Internet.

Additionally, the firm creates web sites and provides Internet consulting
services to a wide variety of clients.

At the same time, iMALL's results help lay to rest the question of whether
or not anyone can make any money selling products over the Internet. Seems
like one company's figured out at least one method to do so.

Daw lands two contracts

Salt Lake City-based Daw Technologies recently announced it has been
awarded two new contracts worth $10 million.

Although the clients were not named, both are existing North American
customers of the developer of ultraclean manufacturing environments.

For one customer, Daw will furnish and install the complete re-circulating
and make-up air handling systems. For the second client, the firm will
create a cleanroom systems solution for a 70,000 square foot fabrication
facility.

Daw primarily designs, manufactures and installs cleanrooms to meet the
stringent manufacturing requirements of semiconductor companies.

Through its efforts, Daw customers are able to eliminate airborne particles
less than 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

A marketing communications consultant that specializes in high-tech and
life sciences clients, David Politis welcomes column ideas at 801-569-2592
or via the Internet at dpolitis@politis.com.
 
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