Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Library Books Read-a-thon Day 3: The Online Library Catalog

It's day three of the Library books read-a-thon and Rachel used her blog post to talk about requesting books from her library. In my community, our little library is all there is—there are no branch libraries. But, our library has joined with 12 other nearby libraries to form the North Texas Library Consortium. As their web site says, the Consortium “consists of independent libraries in North Texas that have agreed to share an integrated library system in order to better serve their patrons.”

This integrated library system is most visible in the online catalog shared by all the Consortium member libraries. When I access the catalog, I can restrict my searches to only my local library, to any other individual library, to one of the three regional groups of libraries, or to the entire Consortium. Since I'm usually wanting to get a specific book, I tend to search the entire Consortium as my default scope. In addition, from the online catalog, I can place a hold on any book and if the book is not held by my local library, it will be shipped to my library for me to pick up.

This morning, I received an e-mail notification that there's a copy of Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow at my library, ready for me to pick it up. The book belongs to the Decatur Public Library, but was sent to my library because I requested it through the online catalog. Since I'm out of town, it's waiting for me to get back to Texas. (And, you may recall from my earlier post, there's another book ready to be picked up.) On Friday morning, I'll swoop into the library and pick up both books and settle in to a serious reading session over the weekend.

Not only do these libraries share a common catalog, items can be borrowed from any member library, making my library card valid at 13 libraries. I can walk into any member library and check out anything. And, I can return it to my local library rather than having to travel to the other library.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau Sub-Human by David Simpson

Library books I'm currently reading:

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer Post-Human by David Simpson

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

The Grand Tour by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer Burn by Nevada Barr Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow

2 comments:

  1. This is what I was trying to explain with mine. My library system is the same way.

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  2. My library works this way too. I love being able to return a book to any location and I love getting an email saying my hold has come in.

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