Johnson County, KS Library Looking to Partner With Other Kansas City Area Libraries

From The Kansas City Star:

[Johnson] County Librarian Sean Casserley briefed the library board Thursday on a plan to work with the Kansas City Public Library and Mid-Continent Public library on a system that would allow users to search all three library’s catalogs at the same time. “We’re just beginning to discuss if this is possible,” Casserley said.
Crosby Kemper, executive director of the Kansas City Public Library, said in a phone interview that metro libraries had been partnering together for some time with events like areawide reading programs. He said this plan was another way to strengthen those partnerships.
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Kemper said metro libraries have been talking about a unified catalog search for many years, but the only boundary has been SirsiDynix, the library software system all metro libraries use.
“They told use three or four times they were ready to go and could combine systems, but so far they haven’t been able to do that,” he said.
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Another aspect of the plan is the possibility of having an areawide library card. Kemper said library cards would have a logo that would be recognized at any of the libraries in the program.

See Also: Here’s the Full Text of the Library Board Report from the February 14, 2012 Meeting (86 pages; PDF)
Page 8 shares a vision, objectives, and goals on regional cooperation.
Hat Tip: @mattreaver

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