Linda Gardner and Amy Vraidenburg are busy preparing for the possible addition of the Alberton school library to the Montana Shared Catalog network. This automated Internet service will enable students to access nearly every major library in the state and participate in interlibrary loan, thereby greatly increasing the availability of fiction, literary, resource, and referential works.

The Missoula Public Library is currently in this system. If a library user has signed on for a Bistro account, with a card number and password, the user can research books all over the state. This means, in other words, that an interested citizen in Alberton who has an Internet connection can look for a book in the school library, or in libraries all over the state.

A few hurdles stand in the way however. The first, as always, is funding. Although the state has a grant available, AHS still must come up with $3500± as a first year licensing fee, and each year must pay $1350±. Part of the reason for this is to demonstrate that the school is fully committed to achieving and maintaining the standards necessary for such a system, such as maintaining computers at a certain standard of operation, and training librarians three times yearly.

The second hurdle is compliance with the Collection Development Policy (CDP). The CDP is much like the library’s SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure. This requires a Mission Statement. As Linda says, “This is not an archival library. This is a working library.” It also requires policies on purchase, keeping the library up-to-date, weeding, sharing, and insuring that library materials match the curriculum, to mention some.

Linda and Amy did a “weeding” on the junior high nonfiction shelves, which mostly involved properly removing outdated or heavily damaged material. When the kids came in they immediately exclaimed, “Oh, you have some new books!”

Once those conditions are met, the proposal must pass the School Board.

And then it goes on to state.

Although there are a lot of conditions to be met, Linda and Amy are very enthusiastic about doing every preparation.

“Although they are putting a lot of expectations on us,” Linda said, “everything is what we want to see in our library anyway.”