Searching for a book at the Sweet Home Public Library will be simple if Library Director Leona McCann gets everything she’s planning by the summer of 2010.

If those plans come to fruition, you’ll be able to search the library’s holdings from an Internet connection at home or type in a few words and conduct a search at a terminal installed in the library. The system McCann has planned will change the checkout procedure and the library staff’s ability to track books. It also would allow library users to connect to the Albany and Lebanon public libraries to look for books on inter-library loan.

Nearly $40,000 is budgeted for the 2009-10 fiscal year, beginning on July 1, to automate the library’s card catalog.
Library officials have been talking about automating the library for about a decade, but money has been among the biggest obstacles, McCann said.

“We’ve been struggling just to keep the library open.”

The city has received the necessary funds, donated by the estate of an anonymous retired school teacher who died recently, she said.

“The city manager gave me the word to go for it,” McCann said. “And I’m going for it.”

The money was donated with no strings, and McCann chose to spend it on the automation, she said. The library staff has been preparing for automation over the past decade by entering books into a database system called Machine Readable Catalog Records (MaRC Record).

During that time, the library has had to change out an obsolete computer and printer, McCann said, but staff members are still putting new books into the record, which is an essential part of the automation process.

“What I’m really trying to do is do it once, do it properly,” McCann said. She is updating the library’s master shelf list and weeding through the collection for outdated materials and not entering data for old books that will be eliminated in the near future.

When the new system is in, not only will searches be simpler, but library staff won’t have to put cards in pockets and the card filing system sitting on the front counter will be gone. The new computers will generate reports and statistics, making things much easier on staff.

“It will free up staff to help patrons find what they’re looking for,” McCann said. She thinks it will save money too, possibly allowing her to boost her book budget because the library will have to buy fewer supplies.

The automation will begin when McCann contacts the Library Corporation to install the machinery, she said. Then volunteers and staff will put barcodes on all of the books. She has had a lot of patrons and Friends of the Library already volunteer, but she could use more when that time comes.

Once installed, the library will retain the paper card catalog for awhile, McCann said. Initially, the library will have one terminal for staff use, with up to two for patrons later. Patrons may even be able to check out their own books.

In addition to automating its main operation, the city is planning to add wireless Internet access at the library, McCann said. Also, the four Internet terminals are being replaced with new computers through a Gates Foundation grant of $7,500, with a city match of $2,600. Next year, McCann plans to add three more public Internet terminals.

Use of the terminals is almost constant, McCann said. Currently, patrons can use the terminals for one hour, starting at the top of the hour. With the wireless service, patrons will be able to bring their laptops in and stay connected all day if they wish.
Elsewhere around the library, another donation from a deceased retired school teacher, Nina Ingram, paid for new furniture in the children’s area, including two love seats, an easy chair and an ottoman, with “Read to Succeed” carpet and a metal sculpture on the wall to be named “The Tree of Knowledge.”

The Ingram estate left $3,724.89 to the library.

McCann wants to get brass leaves for “The Tree of Knowledge,” inscribed with the names of people living and dead who have made a difference at the library, she said.

Among other changes this year, the Reading Room will be converted to a young adult area, McCann said.
For further information about the library or to volunteer, call 367-5007.