SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — A beloved system that connects Maine libraries through the exchange of books, movies, and other media is now shut down as the state oversees an appeal from a company that was denied a contract to serve as the transportation partner for the program.
Maine InfoNet, which runs the state’s interlibrary loan system, told libraries Monday evening that requests for loans between libraries would halt starting on Tuesday. The decision followed a meeting between Maine Infonet and a liaison from the attorney general’s office.
“It’s going to be a huge hit on the efficiency of getting materials in people’s hands,” Kevin Davis, director of the South Portland Public Library, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Davis said more than 24,000 items have come through the doors of his library through interlibrary loans in the past year, with a roughly equal amount being shipped to other locations.
Now, Davis and his colleagues in the area are planning to set up an informal loan system, where books are delivered by library staff.
“We are talking amongst ourselves of trying to find a way to piece together, basically on our own backs, a web of deliveries,” Davis explained.
While this plan moves forward, other library directors fear the impact an end to interlibrary loans could have on schoolchildren beginning summer reading.
Michelle Conners, director of the Kennebunk Free Library, noted that interlibrary loans are essential for providing young readers with a complete series of books.
“Libraries will often have those first few books in a series, to try and see if they can get a reader interested … There will be just a couple [of libraries] out there that have the whole part of the series,” Conners said Wednesday.
Maine InfoNet said in a message to libraries that it doesn’t “currently have firm dates for the length of this interruption.”
The organization does expect there will not be interlibrary loan delivery for at least six weeks this summer, beginning on July 1.