Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Public Library is joining a countywide integrated online catalog in 2014, allowing patrons better access to items at other libraries.
Lebanon, Albany and Linn-Benton Community College already share an integrated system, said Sweet Home Library Director Rose Peda. A $67,500 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Oregon State Library will pay for software migration, training and additional hardware for Linn County libraries joining the system.
Sweet Home is ready to start migrating to the new service, and Scio officials are interested in joining, Peda said. The opportunity also is available to other Linn County libraries.
Such expansion is expected to ultimately allow all the participating libraries to reap the benefits and cost savings of shared expertise and economies of scale.
“It’s a way for some of Linn County’s libraries that wish to participate to have a shared library catalog,” Peda said. In the first year of the program, patrons will be able to search for books online and see what’s available at the other participating libraries.
For now, the patrons must visit the other library to borrow the books using a passport card. The passport card is a statewide program in which libraries issue guest cards to members of other communities. Each library sets its own policy for passport cards.
Generally, patrons in good standing in one community may receive a passport card in another and check out books.
Following the integration process, Linn County libraries will seek another $25,000 in grant funds to develop a courier service among the libraries, allowing patrons in Sweet Home, for example, to borrow books from Albany Public Library without traveling to Albany.
The funds also will help create a website to provide Linn County residents living in unincorporated areas a website to access research and educational tools paid for by the State Library.
The current grant will pay for all of the costs of migrating Sweet Home Public Library to the new software, an open source program called “Evergreen,” Peda said. She hopes to have the new online software go live before June.
“There’s a lot of preparation I have to do for the migration,” Peda said. “I know there will be a lot of work to be done. They’ll come in and take a look at our records. We’ll have some decisions to make. Mostly right now, the way people see things (on the website) will change.”
The software will be cheaper to maintain than the existing local software, and it may help Sweet Home Public Library to begin stocking e-books.
Although resources will be shared throughout the county, the libraries retain their autonomy, and book purchases will remain local, Peda said.
“I’m excited,” Peda said. “And I’m looking forward to seeing how our patrons will use it. It just opens up so much for them.”
It may not be used as widely in the first year, Peda said. “But if we get the second year with the courier, that’ll just be marvelous.”