Spring has arrived in Missouri, so if you are looking for books on gardening, flower beds, lawn care or landscaping, MOBIUS, is a good place to search. Seriously, this past year, there were 287,660, eMO, electronic book user sessions via MOBIUS. The top 5, eMO subjects were: 1) Social Sciences 2) Medicine 3) Language & Literature 4) Philosophy, Psychology, Religion & 5) Education. Return on Investment (ROI) for e-Resources = 3.2 Million.
But are you still asking yourself, “What is MOBIUS?” Learn more by visiting www.mobius.org!
Since its founding in July 1998, MOBIUS has transformed library services for the citizens of Missouri. Formerly a part of the University of Missouri System, on July 1, 2010 MOBIUS became a Missouri not-for-profit corporation with 501 (C)(3) tax-exempt status. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of its members, the organization has grown from 50 founding charter members to 72 members including 62 academic libraries, 5 public libraries, 4 special libraries, and the Missouri State Library, serving a total of 179 physical branches. MOBIUS manages InnReach, a union catalog and resource sharing tool from Innovative Interfaces, as well as their Sierra platform, a local integrated library system for our member libraries.
The consortium’s purpose is to share library materials, information, and services using accessible, cost effective methods. Today, the MOBIUS Union Catalog has expanded to include more than 27 million items, serving over 1.5 million people from the “higher education” community and the state of Missouri. A courier service delivers library materials to member libraries once per day, 5 days per week.
In March I attended the MOBIUS membership meeting in Columbia Missouri and learned some important MOBIUS FACTS for this past year 2014 from the Annual Report:
MOBIUS member libraries saved: $3,247,155 by subscribing to e-resources.
Total records loaded to the MOBIUS online catalog, FY ’14: 90,009,476.
MOBIUS circulation: 176,012 borrowed items.
Quotes from MOBIUS patrons:
“My children used MOBIUS in college and now they are a published author and engineer.”
“MOBIUS can track down obscure titles-they’re the reason I was able to read Talbot Mundy in school.”
Coming in the spring of 2015 MOBIUS will have a new cluster called Explore! This will be our 11th cluster and the first one created since our original inception. The new cluster will include the member libraries of the St. Louis Research Library Consortium. This consortium will be migrating to Sierra and becoming a full MOBIUS partner. The new cluster libraries include the Missouri History Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Art Museum, and Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing. Goldfarb and the Art Museum currently share their materials via the MOBIUS Union Catalog but will now become full members.
Prospector (prospectorhome.coalliance.org): Reaching across state lines brought us some unexpected benefits. Our libraries now have courier access to more than 255 member libraries of the Trans-Amigos Express which includes Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. The new partnership with Prospector allowed us to connect our courier system to almost 300 libraries in Colorado via the Colorado courier, CLiC. Not only did we increase access to more collections, but we saved our libraries money by expanding our courier service. Trans Amigos Express service began on June 10, 2014 and CLiC service began on August 5, 2014.
Missouri Evergreen Consortium of 23 Public Libraries: MOBIUS entered a third year contract with the Missouri State Library to host and manage the Missouri Evergreen Consortium on September 1, 2013. It was a productive and busy year. Nine member libraries of the consortium migrated onto the Evergreen ILS and began resource sharing in FY 2014—including Ozark Regional Library, which was an un-automated, eight-branch system. Five libraries joined the consortium this year: Webb City Public, Sullivan Public, Sikeston Public, Marion County Sub-district #1, and Schuyler County.
MO Evergreen serves 210,685 patrons. The collection has 1,315,368 items.
Missouri Evergreen Patron quote: “I love that we can put items on hold from other libraries!”