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Contact: Paul Krause, LCSC Library Director -
208/792-2227
LCSC Library and VALNet
Join New Library Consortium
LEWISTON–There is
wonderful news for the LCSC Library as well as the other libraries in the
Lewis-Clark Valley.
VALNet (Valley Automated Library Network), the regional library consortium
which serves 51 libraries in North Central Idaho and Southeastern Washington
by maintaining an electronic library catalog and a resource-sharing system,
has joined two other large library consortiums, INLAN and the Consolidated
Information Network, to form the Washington Idaho Network (WIN).
WIN will be the biggest shared-library system between
Seattle and Minneapolis when it is up and running, which will probably be
this fall. It includes academic libraries (University of Idaho, Gonzaga,
North Idaho College, and Whitworth, along with Lewis-Clark State College),
public and school libraries. Two years of hard work, including high-dollar
grant writing, has recently culminated in a successful transfer of VALNet’s
database to Spokane, which will be home of WIN’s central server.
The beauty of this coordinated system is that by working and budgeting
together, the libraries of WIN will be able to offer so much more material
to their patrons. Whereas VALNet patrons previously could borrow from only
about 630,000 library items, they and all patrons of WIN will have access to
several million pooled items. Further, WIN can use its collective-buying
power to make other library system-enhancing purchases in the future.
How does this amazing system work? When any WIN patron requests an available
item online, that item will be delivered to the library in the patron’s town
by means of a complex and effective courier system. Turn-around time is
expected to be no more than 24-48 hours throughout the whole system.
Paul Krause, director of LCSC’s library, makes no effort to contain his
delight about WIN and what it will mean for library patrons at the college
and in the Lewis-Clark Valley. “To be able to offer so much more at a time
when finances are limited---what an excellent feeling.”
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