People often misunderstand how items come to be available for borrowing at their library.

Books and other materials available for borrowing are called "collections" in library jargon. For example, your library will have a fiction collection, a children's collection, a DVD collection, etc.

Simply put, collection development is the selection of items that will be bought, added to the collections and/or retained for the use of library patrons.

One misconception is that libraries receive their materials from publishers for free. This is not the case.

Although libraries are usually offered discounted prices, the discount may be from 10 to 30 percent off retail. Libraries usually have to pay shipping and handling charges in addition.

To be eligible for state funding for public libraries, these institutions must spend at least 12 percent of their operating budgets on materials for their collections each year. Therefore, as utilities, health care, and salaries go up, so do the budgets for collections.

No library can afford the time, space, and cost to add every title in every format that becomes available. Librarians must evaluate purchases to add items that will be useful to their patrons.

Librarians base their decisions on their knowledge of their card holders' demographics and interests. That is why one library may buy more large print books than another library. Or a library may offer more books on the American Civil War than on farming.

Another example of such collection development is the format for movies. Some of our libraries in Butler County have stopped offering VHS tapes and only carry DVDs.

Other libraries still have VHS tapes because their patrons still want movies in that format.

Likewise, records have been replaced, first with audio cassette tapes and then with CDs.

Fortunately the Butler County Federated Library System provides a combined catalog, or listing, of items owned by the libraries throughout the county. The library system also provides a courier service between the libraries.

These two, the catalog and the courier, allow all county residents to have access to the collections of all of the libraries in the county. You can request that an item from any library in the county be delivered to your closest library for you to pick up.

For information about locating and borrowing a book or other item, please contact the library closest to you.

The phone numbers are: Butler library, 724-287-1715; Cranberry library, 724-776-9100; Evans City library, 724-538-8695; Mars library, 724-625-9048; North Trails library/bookmobile, 724-476-1006; Prospect library, 724-865-9718; Saxonburg library, 724-352-4810; Slippery Rock library, 724-738-9179; and Zelienople library, 724-452-9330.

Remember that your library card from any of these libraries can be used at all of the others.

You can visit the online catalog at www.bcfls.org to plan your next trip to the library.

We look forward to seeing you "in the stacks."

Sheila Brown is the administrator of the Library System of Butler County.