Union County Library System

The Public Library for Union County in Lewisburg, the Herr Memorial Library in Mifflinburg, and the West End Library in Laurelton are the three independent members of the federated Union County Library System (UCLS) that was created in 1998 when the Union County (PA) Commissioners enacted a county-wide tax to support it. The Public Library for Union County was designated as the system’s headquarters, and the director of that library also serves as the system administrator.

In 2000, the Union County Library System asked for and received state monies to have each library’s shelf list – a record of every piece of cataloged material – converted into machine readable catalog, or MARC, format. Volunteers spent many hours matching the bar codes to the books and other items in the collections. After the conversion was completed, the libraries’ circulation systems were integrated and automated through an Internet-based service that allows more efficient management and easier access to the materials at all three facilities.

When the library system adopted the automated circulation system in 2002 the libraries discontinued their individual membership cards and began to use UCLS library cards that contain unique bar codes. Because of the Internet-based circulation system, materials may be checked out or returned at any of the three Union County public libraries.