Pinnacle is Coming

The Board and staff of Plainfield Public Library District are continually working to improve our libraries. We feel that part of this mission is insuring that it is easy and convenient for our customers to find the information they need. We are pleased to announce that we will move to a new online catalog early this summer that will make it easier to find library items. The new catalog has a much better search engine with other special features that we know you will enjoy. Whether you heard it first in our spring newsletter or on the front page of today’s Herald News, word is spreading about the new catalog coming to the Plainfield Public Library in June.

Your library is collaborating with the Fountaindale Public Library District (Bolingbrook), Joliet Public Library, Lemont Public Library District, Shorewood-Troy Public Library District and White Oak Library District (Crest Hill, Lockport and Romeoville) to make this possible. The new catalog group is called the Pinnacle Library Cooperative.

The Pinnacle Library Cooperative will replace the PrairieCat consortium in which Plainfield and the other Pinnacle members have participated for many years. Though this new group is smaller, these six library organizations collectively hold 1,339,969 items, which is nearly 1/3 of all the materials in the entire PrairieCat catalog. These libraries are geographically connected and have a long history of working together to provide the very best service we can to our patrons. 

The first major change will occur on April 10, when patrons of the Pinnacle member libraries will be restricted in the PrairieCat catalog to placing holds only on the materials of other Pinnacle libraries. Other materials are still available through interlibrary loan, so contact a staff member for assistance requesting items not owned by Pinnacle member libraries. Your library will still be able to access collections from other libraries across the country whenever a request comes in that cannot be met by Pinnacle-owned materials.

The new catalog will “go live” in June 2012. In the months leading up to that date, you will see more changes in how you borrow materials and place holds, including a period of extended check outs to encourage you to keep library items longer during the final stage of the process. These are all necessary parts of the migration process. Rest assured we are working our hardest to insure this new catalog system will serve you well and justify these growing pains. 

Watch for further details here on my blog, in our library newsletter and on our library website at www.plainfield.lib.il.us. Thank you for your patience and understanding as the library makes these changes to better meet your needs.