Officials at OCLC, a non-profit computer library service and research organization that links more than 24,000 libraries in 63 countries, last summer reported a lot of activity on its database as libraries worldwide vied to add a milestone 37th million record to WorldCAT in what is essentially an electronic game of chance.

It was UB instructional support technician Marzenna Ostrowska who succeeded in marking that milestone, and it happened when she wasn't even trying.

Ostrowska earlier had competed unsuccessfully to make the 36th million entry and decided not to pursue the next benchmark. Having decided not to play that game, she prepared 10 records one day in June, transferred them to the UB Libraries' online catalog and left her desk.

When she returned, she learned that the old saw about reaching the goal by letting go of it was, at least in this case, right on the money. Without trying, she had made the WorldCAT record-setters' team.

Was it the librar-ian's description of a rare chapbook illuminated by Che Guevera's sister that made her day? One of Sophocles' lost playscripts?

Not exactly. The winning record described a juicy piece of pulp fiction, the 1974 London edition of "The Guilty Are Afraid" by James Hadley Chase.

"The Guilty Are Afraid" is part of the Lockwood Memorial Library's George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection, which contains more than 25,000 volumes of detective and mystery stories, adventure stories, fantasy and science fiction. Kelley, who holds several degrees from the university, made UB arguably the world's leading repository of science-fiction, adventure and pulp-fiction books and magazines when he donated the collection in 1994.

Chase is making a splash in other realms besides WorldCAT. Two of his novels recently have been adapted to film. "Rough Magic," a passable 1997 movie starring Bridget Fonda, began life as Chase's "Miss Shumway Waves a Wand." The film "The Set Up," starring Billy Zane, cold fish of "Titanic," is based on the Chase novel, "My Laugh Comes Last," which might have been a particularly apt title to mark Ostrowska's lucky day.