The Santa Clarita City Council unanimously agreed to join the Inland Library Network, a collaboration of eight independent library systems totaling 76 branches, allowing for over one million unique titles to be available to Santa Clarita library visitors.

The member library systems of the Inland Library Network share a library catalog of library materials including books, audio books, music CDs and DVDs.

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By joining the Inland Library Network, Santa Clarita Public Library patrons will be able to search for and borrow library materials from all of the catalogs of the Inland Library Network member libraries. Items selected will be available for pickup at Santa Clarita’s three city libraries.

“With this new partnership, the Santa Clarita Public Library will be able to provide its patrons with an easy access to a robust collection of library materials while maintaining full local independence over the management of our City libraries,” commented Mayor Marsha McLean.

The catalog of the Inland Library Network has 1,068,000 million unique titles comprised of 858,000 book titles and 210,000 audio-visual titles. By comparison, the Los Angeles County Public Library has 978,000 unique titles comprised of 779,000 book titles and 199,000 audio-visual titles.

Each library system participating in the Inland Library Network retains full independence over the operations, hours, facilities, priorities and policies of their individual libraries. As an independent municipal library, the Santa Clarita Public Library system will increase the hours of the Canyon Country and Newhall libraries by 20% and both open on Sundays, increase the annual budget for library materials by 22%, and build and maintain beautiful library facilities.

Santa Clarita Public Library patrons will not be charged for borrowing items through the Inland Library Network and patrons can borrow materials through the catalog free of charge. Upon arrival of requested materials in Santa Clarita, patrons will receive automatic notification via email of the availability of items for checkout. This process is similar to how patrons of the County of Los Angeles Public Library search for and select items held at County libraries located outside of Santa Clarita. Items selected will generally be available for pickup within three to four days.

Additionally, the City will apply for membership in the Southern California Library Cooperative, an association of 46 independent city and special district public libraries located in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties. This collaboration assists in providing library service to the residents of all participating jurisdictions. Participation in this cooperative would allow patrons of the Santa Clarita Public Library system to access through interlibrary loan collections totaling 29 million items of library materials.

The City of Santa Clarita will be taking over the three local libraries effective July 1. These include the Valencia, Newhall and Canyon Country libraries. For more information, visit santa-clarita.com.