For everyone who is tired of toting around a wallet packed with cards of every description, there is good news from your local public library.
Beginning this month, libraries belonging to InterLink, the federation of Lower Mainland public libraries, will implement a program which will allow borrowers who use multiple libraries to decrease the number of library cards they carry. Upon presentation of ID at a participating Interlink library, borrowers will be able to register their home library card and use that to check out library materials.
Iris Loewen, chief librarian of the Sechelt Public Library, emphasizes that the program is designed as a convenience to library customers.
"We expect the service to be popular, especially with borrowers who live in one community and work in another, or regularly use more than one Interlink library," Loewen said.
The Sechelt Public Library has 861 library users from other InterLink libraries - about 10 per cent of the library's total membership. It is safe to estimate that at least 10 per cent of Sechelt library members also use other InterLink libraries. The greatest number of InterLink users on the Sunshine Coast are those who use both the Gibsons and District Public Library and the Sechelt Public Library.
Loewen reminds borrowers, however, that the overdue fines and limits of the lending library will apply.
"Customers who borrow materials from any Interlink library can return them to any other Interlink library, but they will not be checked in until they reach the lending library," Loewen added.
The Interlink libraries stretch from Whistler and Sechelt in the west to Hope in the east. Library systems currently offering the service include Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver City and District, Port Moody, Richmond, Sechelt, West Vancouver and Whistler.
For more information about using the linked card service, contact the Sechelt Public Library at 604-885-3260.
