Warsaw Community Public Library has been trying to figure out if and how it can do some sort of digital card, Assistant Director Joni Brookins told the Library Board Monday.
Board member Barbara Beck brought up an idea along those lines last year, Brookins said.
It was decided the library doesn’t need to offer something to students because the library already offers students a free digital card, plus they can check out books, so students don’t really need it.
“Where we get most of the calls from, who want a card, are those people who can’t, we have trouble getting them a card,” she said.
Some of those people are the homeless population and people at the Beaman Home. She said that’s a population that needs access to the library. Sometimes, the people that run the organizations don’t always want to be responsible for getting the books back to the library.
What the library came up with is an agency digital services card.
The library would issue an agency card to the agency, but would treat it like a family card account in that everybody in the agency can use the account.
“It’s nice because it’s a digital card and you check something out and when something is due, it’s due and you no longer have it. And we don’t have to worry about overdue and lost charges and so forth. So everybody wins,” she said.
Brookins said the library is working things out in regards to the digital services card. She estimated they would have it worked out by the end of the month.
In other business, the Board learned:
• The library was closed for a couple days during the recent winter storm. Brookins said the parking lot was cleared and salted.
• There is a new statewide Overdrive consortium that is being slowly formed, Brookins said. Library staff will know more about it in a month or two.
