Delaware County District Library, Granville Public Library and Pataskala Public Library are joining the Central Library Consortium (CLC) in 2018. This partnership results in 17 library systems serving 1.5 million residents across seven counties. The three new members will have direct access to more than 3.8 million items by joining the CLC. This transition includes: a responsive mobile-friendly catalog for use with smartphones and tablets, text message notifications, and electronic purchasing and receiving capabilities that provide faster access to new material.

The new members will also gain access to an expanded collection through CLC’s partnership with SearchOhio and OhioLINK. Through SearchOhio these new member libraries have access to resources from 42 other public libraries throughout the state. Access to OhioLINK will allow patrons to request from over 40 million items from Ohio’s College and University libraries.

“We are delighted to offer the people of our district the opportunity to use the rich resources available from so many excellent central Ohio public libraries, and to share our resources with other users as well. For years, we have promised to provide people the world’s information; this partnership helps us deliver on that promise,” said George Needham, Director of the Delaware County District Library.

Anita Carroll, Director of the Granville Public Library, said, “We are always looking for ways to better serve our community. Joining this more regional consortium was a natural fit for us to do that. Our users want many of the features that available with the Central Library Consortium. We will be excited to offer features such as auto-renewal, text notification and author hold subscription.”

Jeffrey A. Rothweiler, Director/Fiscal Officer for Pataskala Public Library, said, “Partnering with CLC will allow us to decrease waiting times for popular materials and increase the depth of our collection. We’ll also have a platform to try new emerging technologies and potentially lower the cost of adding new services due to the increase in our buying power with CLC.”

“We are excited to grow our membership again with three outstanding public libraries. The new members are already helping us explore new ways we can better serve all our members and their patrons,” said Wes Osborn, Executive Director of Information Technology for the CLC.

The new members will complete their system migrations in the first half of 2018. The consortium will be delivering materials to the new members five days a week. Patrons typically get available items from other CLC libraries 2-3 days after placing their request.

The CLC is a 29-year-old partnership among library systems that share materials, resources, servers, licenses, group purchases and even staff while remaining strong, independent library systems. Libraries in the consortium include: Alexandria, Bexley, Columbus, Fairfield County, Grandview Heights, London, Marysville, Pickaway County, Pickerington, Plain City, Southwest Public, Upper Arlington, Wagnalls Memorial and Worthington.