Attention Scarborough Public Library users: Your library has just gotten at bigger.

About 70 times bigger.

On March 10, all Scarborough library members became members of a statewide consortium of about 80 libraries with some 6 million items to loan, known as the Minerva Consortium. Membership in the group costs Scarborough just $3,000 a year and gives its patrons unlimited access to materials in every member library in the state.

No, this isn’t inter-library loan, the tedious process by which a librarian calls around to neighboring libraries looking for a book that a patron has requested.

Instead, folks can now go online – at the library or at home – enter a title or an author, search all the Minerva libraries automatically and place an order in a matter of minutes. Delivery trucks stop in Scarborough five days a week, so the item is usually delivered within a few days.

“I went online from home a week ago Saturday and requested seven new titles,” said Susan Winch, library assistant director. “I had all of them by Thursday morning.”

The books came from seven different libraries, but they all arrived in Scarborough neatly packaged in blue packaged zipper bags, ready for their new reader.

“I love it as a user and I think many, many of our users have experienced the same thing,” Winch said. “It’s very easy software to use and very user-friendly … The Amazon effect comes into play. You get that same really good feeling when you’ve placed an order with Amazon.”

“When you think about the access – it’s endless,” said Celeste Shinay, the library’s manager of programming and development.

Minerva’s roots go back to 1992, when the Maine State Library, the University of Maine System libraries and other smaller libraries began looking at ways to use the Internet as a linking tool. In 1996, Maine voters approved a $4.9 million bond to create several Web-based networking systems, including the Minerva Consortium.

Today, according to Deborah Hensler, Maine State Library systems specialist, members of Minerva libraries have access to the collections of about 100 libraries besides their own.

“By being a member of Minerva, you can sit at home and search the Minerva catalog and the MaineCat catalog and place a request online,” she said. “In the – I like to think of them as the ‘old days’ – if you wanted to read a best-seller, you had to put your name on a list … and wait. Now, you have access to that title throughout the state.”

Sixty-three library systems, or more than 80 individual libraries, are currently Minerva members, Hensler said. They include Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, Walker Memorial Library in Westbrook and the South Portland Public Library.

Scarborough decided to join when the company that produces the library’s current software said it would no longer maintain the software. Although it’s been time-consuming and occasionally troublesome to get in place, Minerva was the obvious choice.

“It’s worthwhile and really popular with our patrons,” Winch said.

Unlike the old system, the Minerva system is fully automated, generating e-mailed reminders that books are due, that ordered books have arrived, and even automated bills for late books. Scarborough librarians said patrons love the e-mail notices and the ability to “visit the library” while sitting at their home computers.

“If they see (from an e-mail notice) they have a book that they haven’t quite finished, they can renew it right then,” Winch said. “They can request any type of material that they need or want. When you have so many multiple copies around the state you don’t have to wait for our material to be available.”

A small, one-time inconvenience to patrons is that they need to obtain new library cards, because old cards no longer work. The process takes only about 20 minutes, but library staff said it can get hectic during busy times.

“We’ve had staff pretty much focused on patrons filling out the application and then at least entering some preliminary information into the computer so they could take new material out that day,” Shinay said. She advised patrons who haven’t obtained new cards to allow a little extra time for their next library visit.

Since “going live” about three weeks ago, the Scarborough library had issued 2,303 new cards, Winch said. The library has 7,761 registered users.

“I would say that’s an incredible testament to our usership,” Shinay said. “Certainly word of mouth has a lot to do with the activity.”

Although Minerva may be the buzz of the library, patrons who aren’t comfortable with the Internet and like to come in and just browse are as welcome as ever, Shinay said.

“For some of them, going online and accessing the catalog seems very overwhelming. We’re here to help them,” she said. “We’re still absolutely here for people. The whole customer service part of a community library still will be very much a part of the experience when they come here.”

And don’t worry about the library slimming down its offerings, either. Minerva libraries have to make a commitment that they will not modify their acquisition habits or reduce their collections, Winch said.

“The library is still absolutely committed to building a vibrant collection,” Shinay said. “Minerva does not replace building our own collection.”

New library network offers ‘endless’ accessNew library network offers ‘endless’ access