Whitefish library now part of network

Users of the Whitefish Community Library now have access to nearly one million books, audiovisual items and other library materials.

The new community library was accepted into the Montana Shared Catalog Partners Resource Sharing Group, an interlibrary loan program.

Whitefish now is one of 24 libraries in that group, library Director Joey Kositzky said. More than one such group exists in Montana, but the Partners group is the largest.

Materials checked out of any Partners member library may be returned to any other library in that same group.

Last year, the 23 members of the consortium circulated 2 million items, Kositzky said.

In 2004, libraries throughout Montana agreed to join forces and open their collections to people who had library cards from any Partner library. People can request materials not in their home library either on-site or online. A library employee arranges for the material to be shipped and tracks the item.

Essentially, when people look up a book in the online catalog, “you won’t just see our specific library’s inventory, you’ll see the Partners libraries’ inventories,” Whitefish library board Vice Chairwoman Anne Shaw Moran said.

Joining the group gives Whitefish library users greater access to “more materials and  more diverse collections,” Kositzky said. “It’s incredible.”

Other Partners libraries include the four Flathead County Library branches in Marion, Columbia Falls, Bigfork and Kalispell; public and county libraries in Troy, Eureka, Libby, Hamilton, Superior, Forsyth, Colstrip, Drummond, Glendive, Anaconda, Miles City, Stevensville and Polson; Missoula County branches in Seeley Lake, Swan Valley, Frenchtown and at Big Sky High School; and the Miles Community College library.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.