Washington’s City Council has authorized Bobby Roberson, interim city manager, and Gloria Moore, director of the city-owned Brown Library, to sign a one-year agreement with NC Cardinal regarding ongoing technical support and maintenance of some library equipment.

During its first two years (the first year just ended) as a partner with NC Cardinal, there is no maintenance and support cost to the library under the terms of the partnership. That arrangement is saving the city money.

“Our estimated maintenance cost with Cardinal for this year would have been approximately $1,873, a savings of $11,343 compared to our prior cataloging system with Library Corporation. The library has another year of free maintenance and support (2016). The two free years will save the City over $22,000. The library is scheduled to begin paying for maintenance and support in 2017,” reads a memorandum from Moore to the mayor and council.

Beginning in 2017, the library will pay an estimated $1,800 a year as a member of the NC Cardinal consortium.

NC Cardinal helps library patrons receive materials from libraries in the State Library system. Library patrons would be able to place holds (or make requests) for materials from any of the associated libraries.

“The system will provide the patron’s home library materials first. If there are no available copies in the home library, it will look farther afield. Brown Library patrons would be able to request materials from any of the Cardinal libraries. Those libraries would receive the request as if the patron were their patron and ship the item to us for pickup. The patron can then return it to the owning library. The State Library covers the shipping cost,” reads a previous memorandum about NC Cardinal.

Brown Library patrons could also walk into any of the Cardinal libraries and check out materials using their home library cards. The circulating library will accept any Cardinal library cards.

Recently, the library received a $23,345 grant (library services and technology funds) from the State Library, made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The money will be used to oversee data migration and provide staff training, along with providing equipment and supplies needed for Brown Library to be part of NC Cardinal’s public-access catalog integrated system.