by clcdpc

Westerville Public Library to Join the Central Library Consortium

Westerville Public Library is set to join the Central Library Consortium (CLC) in 2024. The consortium will now include 18 independent library systems in seven counties serving more than 1.8 million residents. Westerville’s community will gain easy access to more than 3.9 million items, all available in the same online catalog interface as local items.

“Expanding access is a priority for the Westerville Public Library. When we surveyed our community in 2022, one of the top requests was to be able to borrow from and return items to neighboring libraries. With this change, patrons will gain access to a collection 21 times larger than our current collection. This will also mean shorter wait times for new and popular items, and convenient access to a family of libraries within driving distance of Westerville.” says Erin Francoeur, Executive Director for the Westerville Public Library.

“This new partnership will enhance collaboration, help members maximize resources, and continue our commitment to being excellent stewards of public funds,” said Ryan McDonnell, Director of Grandview Heights Public Library, which is the Administering Library for the CLC.

“The CLC is looking forward to building on our existing collaboration with Westerville to deliver proven solutions that will meet the needs of their staff and patrons,” said Wes Osborn, Executive Director of the CLC.

The integration into the CLC will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024. The consortium will then begin facilitating material delivery to Westerville five days a week. This ensures that patrons can receive available items from other CLC libraries within 2-3 days of making a request. Westerville and existing CLC libraries will continue to participate in both SearchOhio and OhioLINK.

The CLC, with its 35-year history, represents a strategic partnership among library systems that share resources, technology, and expertise while maintaining their independence.

by clcdpc

CLC Welcoming Three New Member Libraries in 2018

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.

by clcdpc

Publicly Accessible Polaris Report Definitions Site Now Available

In 2015, CLC undertook a project to define and create examples/screenshots for the most popular canned (in the box) and custom Polaris reports that our members used. Up till now, this information has only be available to CLC members. As mentioned at the OHPUG 2015 conference, we hoped that we would be able to share that with other Polaris customers in the future.

I’m happy to announce that we’ve created a new publicly accessible version of the Report Definition information available here: https://reportdefs.clcohio.org/ if you notice issues with any of the report definitions, please use the information on our contact page to get in touch with us.

Thanks to Anne Richards, Debbie Wittkop and Mike Fields for making this project possible.