There is good news for all e-book and e-audiobook users! Not only does the Warren Public Library provide free digital books to its patrons through our Seneca District Libraries OverDrive collection, but that collection has now been significantly expanded to include a total of five different district and system collections.
New Castle, Oil Creek, Seneca Library Districts and Erie County Public Library/Crawford County Federated Library Systems have entered into an expanded Reciprocal Lending Agreement (RLA) through OverDrive. The RLA allows patrons to use all 5 OverDrive collections with just their home library card to access over 38,000 e-books and audiobooks.
The OverDrive resource provides free access to digital content such as e-books and audiobooks through a web browser or mobile app, and content is available to any public library card holder within the Northwest PA region. “Access is a core value of our districts, and entering into the RLA allows us the expanded benefit of improved patron service and a greater return on investment for the materials we purchase for our digital collections,” says Jessica Church of Erie/Crawford Library District.
“The expanded RLA began on April 12, 2021, and our patrons are very happy with the project. Our collections are relatively small, but they each have a different selection of materials, so our patrons are really getting a whole different library to explore” says Erin Joyce of Oil Creek District.
The SNOE (Seneca, New Castle, Oil Creek, Erie/Crawford) region is excited to add another layer of cooperation between the districts and systems in the Northwest. There is a long history of cooperation between the four Districts, but this project is the most patron centric so far. “We are always looking for ways to maximize the impact of our limited resources,” says Amy Geisinger of New Castle Library District. Leslie LaBarte of Seneca Library District adds, “With so many of our member libraries being very small and very rural, this agreement allows them to provide resources that they would not be able to afford on their own – and that makes all of us better.”
Click here to visit OverDrive and start exploring the new collections!
Happy Reading!
To explore the partner libraries’ collections:
1. Visit our OverDrive page and log in.
2. Up in the upper right hand corner, click on the Partner Libraries tab and select one of the libraries.
