The library is a member of the Illinois Heartland Library System, which provides delivery, automation (online catalog software) to the libraries of southern and parts of central Illinois, and talking book services, as well as certain grant program services, to libraries statewide. IHLS covers 28,141 square miles and serves a population of 2,248,634. There are 585 member libraries: 41 Academic, 229 Public, 259 School and 56 Special.

We are also members of SHARE (Sharing Heartland’s Available Resources Equally), the automation consortium within IHLS.

SHARE is a collection of libraries in central and southern Illinois that have joined together to form the largest automation consortium in the country. There were many reasons to develop this consortium, including the ability to share the cost of purchasing an integrated library system, staff, technical support, and training.

What this means is that member libraries share the cost of maintaining an expensive, but highly necessary, technology that makes the end-users experience more enjoyable. All of those services that patrons have come to expect wait lists, speedy checkouts, and online catalogs happen because of this technology.

The size of the consortium means that our patrons have access to almost 10,000,000 items, which they can order from their home library, their home computer, or their mobile device, and have delivered within days to the Columbia Public Library via the IHLS courier service.