Why are you making this change?

With the July, 2011 merger of four library systems into one larger system, it became necessary for all libraries involved to use one common catalog system to make sharing resources easier.

Even if it were not necessary to share a new catalog with our full library system, our current catalog system is old and the vendor would soon be dropping support for it, forcing us to upgrade in the near future.

There are many benefits to this new system:

• Our patrons may search the catalog and request items from 427 libraries in downstate Illinois.
• Our patrons may walk in and use any of the 427 libraries that share this system. (Click here for a complete list of participating libraries)A Mahomet resident attending school in Carbondale, for example, will be able to use their Mahomet library card at the Carbondale Public Library.
• The interface is simpler to use and more efficient to search than our old system.

Does this change how I use the Champaign and Urbana libraries?

No. The catalog shared by the Champaign Public Library and the Urbana Free Library uses the same software that our new catalog uses, but they will continue to maintain their database of patrons and materials separately from the rest of our library system. This means that Mahomet patrons still must have their library card information entered into the C-U system (and updated annually) in order to use the Champaign or Urbana libraries.