Lackawanna Montrose Resource Sharing Report (pdf)

The Burden of Brave Pioneers

Many SPARK libraries think this way: we are all on SPARK. We share the same ILS, and we share cataloging. Why don’t we share our collections to the benefit of our patrons? Two libraries in SPARK, the Lackawanna County Library System in Scranton and the Susquehanna Library and Historical Society in Montrose decided to do just that and embarked on a pilot project to test resource sharing. Did it improve service to patrons? It did. Was SPARK up to the task of handling books and other materials that went from library to library? Absolutely. Did it go perfectly? No. There were challenges as there sometimes are with new endeavors. Did we learn a great deal? Absolutely. Will it serve as a foundation for future resource sharing endeavors in SPARK? Yes. For more see the report which can be downloaded via the link above.