AP story reported in the Northwest Indiana Times:
A growing number of Indiana's smaller libraries are teaming up to share books and receive better deals as they face dwindling tax dollars. Some libraries are even merging to keep from closing their doors.
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Consolidations can have financial benefits, such as by reducing technology and administrative costs, said deputy state librarian Jim Corridan.
He said merged libraries can cost less because they often don't need two of everything, including administrators, subscriptions to the same databases or licenses for the same software.
More than 150 of the state's 237 library districts have agreements to share books with each other.
And nearly 100 districts have joined a consortium that allows the residents to check out more than 6 million items from libraries throughout the state, he said. Others have teamed up to get better deals from publishers on e-books and digital audio books.
"We've seen a growing trend toward collaboration," Corridan said.
All three of the libraries in Noble County in northeast Indiana already have book-sharing agreements, allowing residents to check out books, regardless of the district they live in. Those districts explored a merger in 2010 but decided against it after residents expressed concerns about losing representation on the library board and a potential tax increase for some property owners.
The two Indiana library district mergers in the past four years haven't resulted in overall budget reductions, but both mergers involved smaller libraries without administrative overhead, Corridan said.
In northeastern Indiana, the Decatur and Geneva libraries merged into Adams County Public Library in 2008 and have expanded services, said director Kelly Ehinger. She said they were able to put more money toward buying books because of savings in bulk purchasing, database subscription costs and cataloging.
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Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/indiana/small-ind-libraries-team-up-share-to-stay-open/article_93628a56-4481-5f17-b01a-3d0ddaaedb77.html#ixzz1ra0yDqFt
