Butler County libraries out of multi-district lending system
The pool of content available at Butler County’s nine public libraries has shrunk somewhat. Its regional library district is no longer in a reciprocal lending agreement with three other Pennsylvania library districts.
As a result, library cardholders in Butler County can no longer borrow digital materials from libraries in the Seneca, Oil Creek and Erie library districts. According to Barbara McGary, deputy director of district services for the New Castle Library District, the decision was taken by the three other districts.
“They decided that they were going to split off from New Castle and start their own consortium,” McGary said. “They made that decision shortly after April 14 and they let us know, so we are communicating that out to our patrons as soon as possible.”
The decision affects materials borrowed through the Libby and OverDrive services. The New Castle Library District still maintains a collection of material which will be available to lend through those services — including e-books, audiobooks and magazines — but cardholders at New Castle district libraries will not be able to borrow materials which are only available through the other three districts.
“We understand this may be disappointing news for many of you who enjoyed and took advantage of the expanded collection,” wrote the Cranberry Public Library in a post on its Facebook page. “Despite this change, we are committed to ensuring that our patrons continue to have access to a wide variety of e-materials.”
The Oil Creek Library District, one of the other library districts involved, commented on the situation on a post to their blog: “This was a difficult and disappointing decision to make, but it was necessary to maintain services for our local users at the quality which they expect and deserve.”
Pennsylvania’s public libraries are divided into 29 geographic districts. Butler County’s Federated Library System, which consists of nine libraries, is part of the New Castle Library District, which also includes six libraries in Mercer County, six in Armstrong County, and three in Lawrence County.
“There’s 400,000 people in Armstrong, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties,” McGary said. “We’re building up our e-book collection so that we can provide those materials for all of our patrons.”
