On July 18, Bluffton Public Library will open as the 81st member of the SEO (Serving Every Ohioan) library consortium. The SEO (Serving Every Ohioan) Library Center, located in Caldwell, Ohio, supports a consortium of 80 library systems at 176 physical locations throughout 42 counties across Ohio, including the Ada, Findlay-Hancock County Public Library and Forest libraries.
Bluffton's migration to the SEO consortium was made possible by a federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant awarded by the State Library of Ohio. The LSTA grant covered 75 percent of the migration expense.
"We are happy to eliminate our manual interlibrary loan process and empower our patrons with the ability to search and request items themselves via one shared catalog containing over six million items," said library director Cindi Chasse. "Patrons will no longer need to wait to speak to a staff person to request an interlibrary loan item. We are also very excited to finally offer access to a digital collection of e-books, e-audiobooks, e-video and e-music."
Chasse also shared that joining SEO will result in lower operating costs and eliminate the need to purchase expensive hardware every four or five years to remain as a stand-alone system. With ongoing state funding cuts exceeding $75,000 per year, reducing expenses remains a high priority.
SEO Library Center houses, maintains and supports a centralized shared catalog database that includes over 6.9 million items with a patron database of 800,000+ borrowers. The SEO staff also provides technical support for all consortium members, alleviating the burden of specialized IT functions on small libraries.