How Regions Work
BECAUSE OF REGIONAL SYSTEMS, YOU CAN:
- Use your local library card at any public library in the state.
- Borrow materials from anywhere in the sate, or the world!
- Search the library catalogs which give you access to materials throughout the region.
- Ask questions of expert reference librarians.
- Obtain professional consulting services for grants and library building projects.
- Search Internet databases from home, school, and work computers.
- Attend summer reading programs for children.
LIBRARY TO LIBRARY
- Regional systems provide Internet connections for libraries to search the MnLINK Gateway, the connection of all library materials in the state.
- Seventeen million books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs in Minnesota's public libraries are shared via Interlibrary Loans (ILL).
- Twelve million items in academic, school, and special libraries are available through the MnLINK Gateway.
INTERNET CONNECTIONS
- The regions manage the statewide telecommunications network that brings Internet to libraries.
- All regions maintain web sites that guide users to information on the Internet.
DEFININTIONS
- A brief comparison
of the federated and consolidated systems that comprise the network of regional library structure.