Monday, December 14, 2009

Nerdy Excitement!

I received some exciting nerdy news recently. Hamilton County (HamCo) currently has several separate library systems. We're in the Hamilton East Public Library district so we have access to library branches in Fishers and in Noblesville. There's also a Carmel Clay system with one large branch. We were briefly in this district during or various moves a couple years ago. There's also a system in Westfield where we lived for several years. Additionally, there are a couple more systems that aren't quite as close to our home.

The New Year brings a countywide borrowing program that will allow us to check out materials from any of the HamCo libraries. The systems will still be separate but we'll have access to them all. I'm seriously pumped about this. The Carmel Clay library is very close to my office so I imagine I'll be stopping there semi-regularly.

I am curious about the details. I know there will be some additional registration when I first want to check out from a different library. And materials will need to be returned to the same library from which they were checked out. But how will holds be handled? Or will they? And what happens if someone does return something to the wrong library? Should be interesting.

Anyway, good news. I know Carmel has some books that our home library does not. So far, here's the list:

2 comments:

Joanna said...

This is VERY exciting. I hadn't heard the news.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't gotten a library card since our move to Noblesville because we're nowhere near either of the libraries we'd have available. We're much closer toe the Westfield library, which didn't really impress me the one time I was in it. My former employer the Carmel library, I love, but can't use anymore since we moved. I may be motivated to get a card if I can use the Carmel library again- coincidentally, it's close to my work, too.

As a library volunteer at church, we periodically get returns from public libraries (or our materials get returned to public libraries) Usually this involves me having to do legwork to return the materials to the correct location.

Unknown said...

For Hamilton County reciprocal borrowing: present your card at the library when you want to check out materials and they will be yours! No extra steps. Holds will work the same way. If you return materials to the wrong place more than once your reciprocal borrowing privileges will be reconsidered. The libraries will be checking to see that you are a registered and not restricted due to fines. The county libraries are very excited to increase the effective collection size and convenience for our patrons.