State's finances may force library system mega-merger

With their futures in serious doubt because of financial problems, five of Illinois' library organizations are moving toward merging, officials said.

Combining regional library systems - organizations that each typically serve hundreds of individual library districts - could save inter-library loan delivery services and other practices, proponents said.

"We see a merger as our best chance of being able to continue to provide Illinois libraries with system services such as delivery," said Mary Witt, the acting co-director of the North Suburban Library System, which serves about 650 libraries in Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.

Nine library systems operate in Illinois. The state of Illinois is supposed to fund the systems but owes them millions of dollars, and payments aren't expected soon.

Nearly the entire staff of the Wheeling-based NSLS was laid off in late May and services were slashed because it's virtually out of money. The DuPage Library System, which serves libraries in that county, has laid off about half of its staff and cut programs and services, too, Executive Director Tom Sloan said.

A month after officials first publicly floated the idea of merging, the NSLS board voted in late June unanimously to begin merger proceedings with the DuPage system and three other systems:

•The Metropolitan Library System, which serves Chicago and some suburbs.

•The Alliance Library System, which is based in East Peoria.

•The Prairie Area Library System, which is based in Rockford.

The DuPage system's board cast a similar vote earlier in the month.

"With the fiscal challenge we are now facing ... we feel consolidating systems is a very practical way to reducing administrative costs and streamlining system operations," DuPage's Sloan said.

A merger design team consisting of representatives of each participating system has been formed to oversee the process, according to a memo posted on the DuPage system's website.

If the organizations merge, the new operation likely wouldn't be ready until July 2011, Witt estimated. As a result, the individual systems must find funding sources to last until then, she said.

"Our latest reports tell us not to expect any more state money until January 2011 at the earliest," Witt said.

For the NSLS, some of that funding will come from the participating libraries. According to Witt, all but two of the system's public libraries have agreed to donate money to keep the system's delivery-van service operating until October.

That service, which directly affects patrons, initially was expected to end in June because of the funding shortfall.

Only the libraries in Des Plaines and North Chicago aren't participating, Witt said. Patrons at those libraries still will be able to borrow books, CDs or DVDs from other facilities, but those materials will be delivered by mail.