Remember the good old days of using a card catalog? You’d search along the cabinet drawers for the right heading, then you pulled it open to reveal a long stack of index cards. Flipping through them to find what you were looking for and then where it was located, you took off through the library’s stacks in search of the book you wanted. Actually it was both very time consuming and took up a lot of space. Any time books were added to the collection or weeded from it, the cards would need to be updated. Depending on the style of the cabinet, you might even have to go through the cards to be sure none were out of place. Someone accidently dropped a drawer of cards all over the floor? Don’t forget about stamping dates in books for checking them out and returning them.

In case you couldn’t tell, it was a painfully flawed system that worked with the tools available at the time. Then along came the twenty-first century, and the integrated library system (ILS for short). Barcodes and databases saved time, space, and money over time. It sounds great, except technology has continued to improve since the early 2000s. Our library first moved to an ILS database around 2004 and moved to our current database about 10 years ago. As you might have guessed, it’s time for an upgrade!

Our library cooperative has been working on planning, selecting, and preparing for the new system for the last year and a half. A lot of thought, discussion, and research has gone into the process, and we are excited to move to a new ILS that has better functionality for our staff, more features and easier navigation for our patrons, and even costs less to maintain than our current system. The new system will be going live at the beginning of March, so there are a few things for you to know before we get there.

First, during the month of February, we will be unable to process interlibrary loan requests for materials outside of our library cooperative. Migrating the data of every library, every item in each library’s collection, and all the patrons we serve takes time and needs to be done right. Second, during the final phase of the data migration (about 3 days before the new ILS goes live), we will not be able to place holds and checking out items will take a little bit more time. We appreciate your patience during that period.

Maybe at this point, you have some questions. Do I need to do anything? Will I need a new library card? The answer is no! All of your data will transfer over to the new system with one exception. If you have set up a password or pin to use with your library card when you access our digital collections, including Libby/Overdrive, it is going to be reset to your last name in lowercase letters to fit the new encryptions on our upgraded system. If you like, next time you stop by the library this month, you can reset your pin to your last name, so your transition will be seamless. You can always change it back to whatever you like once the new system is live.

We are so excited for you to be able to use our new catalog that is better organized and visibly easier to navigate. Looking for a particular title? The informational display for each item will now include easy connections to every version of the title including large print, different editions, e-book, or audio book versions. You can also easily see which libraries in our system have a copy and which ones are currently checked out.

We are always looking for ways that we can serve you better, and this upgrade will help us do just that. The library will be closed on Monday, February 20 for Presidents Day. The library is located at 17 N. Broadway and is open to the public Monday to Thursday 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.