Grayslake Library Cardholders To Have Access To More Materials

GRAYSLAKE, IL — Grayslake Area Public Library cardholders will have access to more items starting Wednesday. The local library has joined the Cooperative Computer Services (CCS), a cooperative of 28 area member libraries for circulation, acquisition, cataloging, and interlibrary loaning of materials, and a shared online public access catalog, according to a news release from the library.

Now Grayslake library cardholders will have access to a new online catalog and over 5 million new materials, and the ability to check out items from all 28 CCS member libraries while still being able to pick up at drop those items off at the Grayslake library. Additionally, Grayslake library cardholders will have their library cards automatically registered at all 28 CCS member libraries including Lake Villa, Round Lake, and Fremont libraries, according to the press release.

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Benefits also include automatic renewals of materials, unless on hold for another person, and notifications when items requested are available for check out or overdue by email, phone, and text, according to the news release.

In addition, a new online public access catalog, Polaris Integrated Library System (ILS) from Innovative Interfaces, Inc., is meant to offer a much more dynamic and user-friendly online environment.

"Our current ILS software is outdated and expected to be discontinued and after researching alternatives, we determined using Polaris and joining a resource-sharing cooperative like CCS to be the most cost-effective," according to library officials.

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) awarded Grayslake Library a $37,865 grant to help offset the one-time costs associated with joining CCS. RAILS supports the expansion of resource sharing among Illinois libraries that expands the materials available to their own members.

In order to transfer the library's old catalog system to Polaris, the public catalog was offline from Thursday, September 3, through Tuesday, September 8, and some services were not available

More information is available on the Grayslake Area Public Library website. You can also find the Grayslake Area Public Library on Facebook @GrayslakeLibrary, Twitter @GraysLibrary, and Instagram @grayslakelibrary.

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