LAWRENCE — More than 15,000 Lawrence Township students will have easier access to the physical and digital resources of The Indianapolis Public Library when MSD Lawrence Township joins the Library’s shared catalog system in the fall of 2016.
The MSD Lawrence Township Board has voted to become the first township district in the Shared System, a collection of 30 local public, charter and parochial schools whose 12,000 students are linked to IndyPL’s online catalog and its wide array of online databases and electronic resources. With their schools serving essentially as a branch of the Library, students use their IndyPL Library cards to request and check out books and other physical materials and access the Library’s digital resources.
In addition to the ability to do research in 80 free online databases, students can download eBooks, eAudiobooks, eMusic and eMagazines, stream video and take advantage of the Library’s expanding online services. The Shared System partnership allows students to use IndyPL’s catalog to request books, DVDs and CDs owned by IndyPL or other Shared System members to be delivered by IndyPL to their school libraries.
IndyPL’s partnership with MSD Lawrence Township supports the goals of the national ConnectED Challenge, a White House initiative that encourages collaborations between schools and public libraries to expand access to digital books and library resources to children. In January, Nytes and Dr. Smith attended the ConnectED Summit in Washington, D.C., where they joined other leaders from around the nation in exploring ways that communities can leverage resources to improve digital access for students.
The ConnectED initiative aligns with many specific goals in the Library’s new five-year plan to offer more digital content to young readers and to ensure that all local residents and their families have Library cards.
