Dearborn Library to Expand Borrowing Services Through Online Program

Although the Dearborn Public Library system is on their this summer, a partnership approved last Friday by the Library Commission aims to make sure that fewer branches won’t mean fewer books for patrons.

By the beginning of next year, Dearborn will be part of the Michigan eLibrary Catalog, or MeLCat. According to the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, the system is “the statewide union catalog and resource sharing project to share materials among all types of libraries in Michigan, regardless of the local circulation system they use.”

In simpler terms, it allows cardholders for all participating libraries to have access to materials from every linked-in library system across the state. Users can find materials online, request them and have them delivered to their home library.

Dearborn Library Director Maryanne Bartles said at Friday’s meeting that there are nearly 500 participating libraries, and the program is doing extremely well elsewhere in the state.

“It’s fairly labor intensive because it’s popular,” Bartles said. “When I talked to one of the librarians at Plymouth, she said each month they have about 1,000 items coming in and 1,000 going out.

“It’s like a kid in a candy store–you have so many options, you can get almost anything.”

Bartles said Dearborn is actually behind the trend in joining MeLCat.

Participating libraries already include Ann Arbor, Farmington, Wyandotte, Ypsilanti, Royal Oak and neighboring Dearborn Heights and Allen Park. Educational institutions also participate, including Henry Ford Community College, Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Dearborn.

The service is free to users, but would require that Dearborn Public Libraries commit one full-time staff person to keeping track of materials.

With a $200,000 funding cut to the libraries in the current budget, and no funding expected to be restored–barring a library millage, the library is looking at options like MeLCat to offer more materials with less money.

“This is a way to provide more access to our patrons,” Library Commission Chair Marcel Pultorak said Friday.

MeLCat would cost $8,000 per year in delivery fees, plus the cost of a full-time person, who would manage the materials. But the benefit would be that the Dearborn Public Library system could prosper, even with less physical space and less staff.

“I foresee the other two branches being close behind (Snow),” Bartles said. “Offering MeLCat is a way to expand our services and provide what we want at one location.”