NEWS RELEASE

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) recently awarded $765,913 to the nine Automated Resource Sharing Networks across the Commonwealth. Networks will use the funding to improve patron accessibility in a variety of ways including major system upgrades to new discovery platforms that will not only give patrons a more consistent experience throughout the state but be compliant with American with Disabilities Act (ADA).

"In Massachusetts, we're fortunate to have a system that gives patrons access to materials from libraries across the state. Last year people borrowed close to 7 million items from a library outside their own town. The upgrades that each of the Network is undertaking improve our ability to share materials, increase access to materials in languages other than English, better safeguard patron privacy, make our system more user friendly and most importantly ADA compliant," said Kate Butler, Library Information Systems Specialist at the MBLC.

Grant awards are as follows:

FY2026 Resource Sharing Enhancement Open Grants

Network	Municipality	Award
CLAMS	Hyannis	$86,500
CW MARS	Worcester	$107,301.22
FLO	Boston	$97,350
MBLN	Boston	$43,370
MLN	Natick	$99,991.87
MVLC	Lawrence	$100,000
NOBLE	Danvers	$88,819.09
OCLN	Braintree	$44,200
SAILS	Lakeville	$98,381
Total		$765,913.18

 

The NOBLE Network and the CWMARS Network will use funding to address a cataloging backlog that exceeds 3,000 items in languages other than English. Because of the collaborative nature of the Massachusetts system, any improvements to one network benefits patrons everywhere. Once the backlogged items are cataloged, patrons outside of NOBLE and CWMARS will be able to check them out via the Commonwealth Catalog.

For Massachusetts libraries, networks provide the library catalog, the ability to borrow from neighboring libraries, circulation, patron registration, public Internet access and other critical services. More than 470 public, school, academic, and special libraries are members of one of the nine Automated Resource Sharing Networks. Libraries pay a network fee for their membership which is kept affordable by MBLC support for Networks through funding to state budget line 7000-9506.