Cornell can now offer MORE to library patrons

By Julia Wolf

The Cornell Public Library is able to join the MORE Library Consortium, thanks to an anonymous donation, and a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, which offers patrons a number of new and expanded resources.

Outgoing Cornell library director Lori Oemig says the donor offered to give funds toward either children or technology-related improvements. She says the donor was interested in making sure children in the community have access to technology and new things to keep them learning, especially over the summer, when they are not in school.

“I had mentioned the cost of joining MORE with them and how we would then have access to Libby,” said Oemig.

As an avid Libby user, the donor was excited to help Cornell offer the service.

Oemig says the donation and grant will cover all of the start-up costs of the program, plus fund the first few years, at no expense to the library.

Libby, an app, is available to library patrons now, even though the MORE system isn’t quite up and running at the Cornell library yet. The app has thousands of e-books and audiobooks available for free, with a MORE library card.

“There are 273,000 titles on Libby,” said incoming Cornell library director Denise Korenuk.

Besides that, there are also over 3,400 magazines available for free on the app and 18,000 juvenile fiction titles.

“So, it’s not just adult books,” said Korenuk. Korenuk says Libby is easy to use, and has a good tutorial and help page, to get people started with it. It is also searchable by genre.

“There is also a blog that people can access, which looks really fun,” said Korenuk.

Oemig says the Libby app also has perks, like allowing people to set their font size, making any e-book a large print title.

All patrons need to do to get a MORE library card, is show proof of identity and residency (such as a drivers license, Wisconsin ID or military card) and sign a short form. Then, Libby is available for download in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store on people’s devices. Korenuk also says there are apps to connect cars to Libby, so people can listen to audiobooks on the go.

There will also be a “Meet Libby” event, to help introduce everything the app has to offer Saturday, June 17, from 9 a.m. until noon, and sign people up for the new library card, if they are not already. The donor also gave funds for kindles, which will be given away in prize drawings, as part of the event.

Other services available with the MORE card are Flipster, for digital magazines; Library ELF, to help families keep track of materials checked out; NoveList; and genealogy resources.

“It opens up a whole new world to people,” said Korenuk. Oemig says volunteers and MORE project managers are working to get the Cornell collection into the MORE system, and are about 75 percent of the way done. The date for going live with the MORE library system is Wednesday, July 5. After that point, the MORE library cards will be used to check out physical materials from the Cornell Library.

Oemig says, as part of the MORE system, patrons will also have quicker access to more materials, since there are over 50 libraries in the consortium.

“Our patrons will have access to over 1.4 million items,” said Oemig.

She says they can use their MORE card from Cornell, to check out an item at any of the MORE libraries, if they are visiting for the day. They can even return that item at Cornell, to be sent back.

“And everything is free,” said Korenuk. Once Cornell goes live in the system, Oemig says patrons will also be able to manage their account on the MORE app, such as searching the collection, reserving items, setting where they would like to pick a material up, saving titles for later, renewing items, placing and managing holds, and getting recommendations.

Korenuk also says there is a MORE passport program going on now through Saturday, July 15, to encourage people to visit other libraries in the MORE consortium and the communities they are in. People who visit, and get stamps at, 10 libraries, are entered for children or adult prizes.