What Might a MT Lib Card Mean for Users?

What Might This Mean for Montana Library Users?

If a majority of Montana libraries boast being a MLN library and honoring the (presumed now real) Montana statewide library card, what would this mean for Montana library users? Let's play 'let's pretend' and outline one possible scenerio--

• It becomes true to say, as did Jamie Grant, a Bitterroot Public Library Trustee, that “…I can use my library card anywhere in the State.” This is true for online users as well as using it in person…library users can get stuff from most any Montana library.
• It is easy to find and request books from libraries other then my own; essentially, from my perspective as a library user, Montana libraries are sharing so transparently that I get to select from one big library, which just happens to have storefronts spread from Thompson Falls to Plentywood or Ekalaka.
• Finding and requesting books (or magazine articles, reports, maps, movies, etc.) is pretty easy. One easy search lets me chose from a variety of formats—for instance, my search for information about the Dearborn River let me chose between:
• 15 books
• 11 maps
• 27 appellant briefs and court opinions
• 1 film
• 2 oral histories
• 5 magazine articles
• 473,000 items on the open Web, and
• 3 articles in various encyclopedias
• When I request a book (or whatever) on Monday, I usually get it by Wednesday, even though it was sitting on a library shelf 300 miles away.
• Through my library I have access to a broad array of electronic books and magazines. This goes a long ways toward leveling the playing field between libraries in ‘big’ cities like Missoula or Billings, and those in little towns like Circle, Plentywood, Browning, Plains, or Darby.
• There are collections of materials owned by all Montana libraries, supplementing local collections. This means, for instance, that we have movies and DVDs our library would never be able to afford on its own.
• I can find my story, and tell my story, at my library. A wealth of Montana-related material means that I can find:
• Pictures of Sluicebox State Park from the early-twentieth century
• Records about the Fort Peck Reservation, including photographs of tribal elders from the nineteenth century
• Lumber company records from small mills in the Yaak and see how many pounds of chalk and dozens of picaroons they went through in a year
• Maps and pictures of Philipsburg from the last 125 years and see how it grew, declined, then started growing again
• Perhaps best of all, I can contribute pictures, interviews, diaries, etc. of my own—which may help future family members and researchers learn about life in today’s Montana (which, tomorrow, will be yesterday’s Montana.)