Washington library serves the whole county

How many library cards do you have in your wallet? If you’re a Washington County resident and an avid reader (or have kids who are!) then it’s possible that you have more than one. Maybe some of them are from other Washington County libraries like Kalona or Wellman, but depending on how far you travel, you may have a library card from Iowa City or Cedar Rapids or Mount Pleasant or Fairfield too! The many library cards in my wallet remind me of all the wonderful libraries I’ve been lucky to work in and visit regularly.

Residents of our state are fortunate to have a great State Library that encourages public libraries to work together to provide the best library services possible. No matter where you live, if you are in a city or county that participates in Iowa’s Open Access program, you can get a free library card just about anywhere in our state. The Open Access program enables eligible Iowans to check out physical materials at over 600 participating Iowa public and academic libraries. As a result, Iowans have greater access to more library resources, more choices in library service and the convenience of using a library where they work, shop or visit.

The only limitation to the program is that you must use your library card from your “home” library (i.e. your physical place of residence) to sign in to the Bridges digital library. So even if the Washington Public Library is more convenient for you to use, you’ll need to visit the public library where you live to obtain a library card to use Bridges — but of course you only have to make the visit once and then you can enjoy ebooks, e-audiobooks and e-magazines from the comfort of your home, any time of day or night!

For Kalona Public Library cardholders you may have noticed that KPL recently upgraded their catalog system to the same library system software that the Washington Public Library uses. One of the “perks” from that upgrade is that now when you search either Kalona’s or Washington’s catalog for books and other library materials, you can choose the “Search Other Libraries” link at the top left of your search results page and if you’re searching Kalona’s catalog you’ll get to see your search in Washington’s catalog and vice versa! Soon the Wellman-Scofield Public Library will be upgrading to the same system so you’ll be able to see search results from all three of your Washington County libraries on one computer (or phone) screen.

In the future, our three libraries will be exploring possibilities of adding additional enhancements that make sharing our collections more convenient for library users in Washington County. The cost of these upgrades for Kalona and Wellman is covered by the funding the Washington County Library Association receives from Washington County and is a great example of our cities and county working together to provide a great quality of life for Washington County residents!