Libraries fit bill to maintain loan service
By COLIN SELBO
One of the most popular features at Lake County libraries is on shaky ground after state funding for the program dried up this month.
Thousands of library patrons in the county utilize the interlibrary loan service each month to acquire materials from other libraries –materials that their local library does not carry.
The service operates through a van service run by the North Suburban Library System – one of nine library systems across Illinois.
However, a lack of state money has forced the North Suburban Library System to eliminate services to its member libraries and lay off all full-time workers.
“We were told we were getting a 16.5 percent budget cut, and we figured out a way to cope with that,” former executive director Sarah Long said. “What we haven’t been able to cope with is nonpayment.”
The system, a consortium of more than 650 libraries in Lake, Cook, Kane and McHenry Counties, is owed about $800,000 from the state. It tentatively can fund van delivery through Tuesday, June 15, Long said.
After that, it’s up to local libraries to pick up the tab to keep the vans that transport interlibrary loan materials moving.
“The only way to keep [van service] going is for each of these libraries to pool their money together and pay for it,” said Jim DiDonato executive director of the Round Lake Area Public Library. “The state is supposed to pay for this, but they aren’t.”
Of the 49 public libraries that were members of the North Suburban Library System, 47 have agreed to pay to keep van service for interlibrary loan going for the next three months, said Roberta Thomas, director of the Grayslake Area Public Library District.
What each library will pay to cover the three-month period is based on how many items the library received through interlibrary loan during the past year, Thomas said.
“We have managed to salvage it for three months,” she said. “We don’t know [what will happen] after 90 days.”
Even though local library patrons can rest assured interlibrary loan services will continue through the summer, they still may need to cope with some extra waiting. Under the old system, patrons who requested a book that their local library owned – but was checked out by another person – could use the interlibrary loan system to get the book within days from another library in the system, said Bob Watson, director of the Lake Villa District Library.
“Now, [patrons] have to wait until the book comes back in,” Watson said. “That will reduce the number of books that go in and out of the library on a daily basis.”
And there still is the question of what happens to the interlibrary loan service after three months.
To help answer that question, Thomas is heading a committee of representatives from local libraries examining potential options for a long-term solution that will keep the interlibrary loan service functioning. Among the options on the table is contracting with a private vendor to operate the service, she said.
In the meantime, libraries will have to learn to adopt to life without the North Suburban Library System. In addition to interlibrary loan, the system provided local libraries with educational opportunities about advancements in technology, assistance in purchasing access to databases and health insurance for full-time staff members, DiDonato said.
“It’s something that we took for granted that the North Suburban Library System would be here forever,” said Debbie Rosen, head of circulation at the Lake Villa District Library. “Now, that’s not the case.”
