The Ramapo Catskill Library System serves the Public Libraries of Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Southern Ulster Counties in New York State
The Ramapo Catskill Library System (RCLS) is a non-profit, cooperative public library system chartered in 1959 by the New York State Board of Regents. RCLS working cooperatively with its member libraries, provides coordinated services, guidance, training, support and leadership to member library trustees and staff to sustain their effort to be responsive, proactive, vital community institutions that meet the changing needs of their users in Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and southern Ulster counties. Working in cooperation with member libraries, RCLS helps to raise awareness about library services and works to eliminate barriers to library access and use.
The Ramapo Catskill Library System serves 47 chartered public libraries in urban, suburban and rural settings encompassing a total of 2,459 square miles with a population of 803,351 (2010 US Census). Each library has its own Board of Trustees and Director. The RCLS headquarters is located in Middletown and is not open to the public.
The System is governed by an eleven-member Board of Trustees who are unsalaried and whom the member libraries’ trustees elect for five (5) year terms at the System’s Annual Meeting. The Board also includes a non-voting member who represents the Directors Association.
The primary source of income for the System is state aid earned according to the formula established in New York State Education Law. RCLS also competes for grants to fund special projects for new and existing library services. The total budget in 2020 is $4,961,664. The System has 25 (FTE) employees, including four professional librarians and a business manager.
RCLS is a member of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC), which is a state funded, multi-type library cooperative that offers multi-county interloan; Library Trustees Association of New York State (LTA); New York Library Association (NYLA); and the American Library Association (ALA).
The System provides Automated Network SERvices (ANSER) a program that manages circulation, borrower registration, an online catalog, reserves and interloan. ANSER also provides access to a fiber optic wide-area network linking all member libraries, statistical reporting of collection use and other relevant data and cataloging services. Member libraries pay for most of the operating costs of ANSER.
In partnership with the RCLS Central Library (Newburgh Free Library) members are provided access to electronic database access and digital downloads of ebooks, audiobooks, videos and music. At the end of 2019 the total holdings of all member libraries, which can be searched through an easy-to-use Web interface, was in excess of 13.8 million items.
RCLS operates a delivery service five days a week which transports library materials between and among member libraries. This service facilitates interlibrary loan between RCLS libraries as well as the libraries within the Mid-Hudson Library System. The delivery service also makes it possible for library users to return materials to any library within the System and have it delivered to the appropriate library. In 2019 RCLS delivered just over 3.2 million items.
Supporting member libraries is the primary responsibility of the System and one important means of achieving this goal is through a broad range of consulting services offered by the RCLS management team. Another important service provided by RCLS is quarterly access to a preview collection of new and forth coming books for children and teens.
Maintaining a professional collection (5,929 volumes) covering all aspects of librarianship is one way the System helps to keep member library trustees and staff up to date on library issues and trends. In addition, the System regularly publishes and distributes a quarterly trustee newsletter (Trustee FYI) and the RCLS Weekly Memo. The System’s website (www.rcls.org) provides access to all RCLS publications, including a library directory, a statistical compilation with key information about its members, and a System annual report (RCLS Highlights). A wide range of information about RCLS and resources for member library trustees and staff, as well as, links to the web sites and on-line catalogs of all member libraries can be found on the RCLS web site.
Patrons of RCLS member libraries who wish to check their library account, renew items, search, and place holds may use this generic RCLS catalog or the customized catalog available at their home library.
To navigate to each home library catalogs, click on the "Our Libraries" button on the menu above; then select the town of your local library. The towns are organized alphabetically within each county that RCLS serves. Although the list of physical materials is the same in each catalog, your local library's catalog also provides their hours of operation, and may also indicate unique program news and online services available to their registered patrons.
To access digital materials at Ramapo Catskill Library System, you will need:
1) A valid library card
2) Access to the Internet
3) Free software for the computer and/or device. For more information go to http://efiles.rcls.org
Explore the "Deep Web" through online databases at your RCLS member library
RCLS Member libraries provide access to content that cannot be found through standard web search services (Google, Bing). Much of this content would normally require a fee to access, but your local RCLS member libraries have licensed these services, requiring only a valid library card number. The license funding comes from New York State; or the RCLS Central Library (Newburgh); from a system-wide pool fund; or from each member library. To see the complete A-Z list of databases, go to: https://guides.rcls.org/az.php
List of Databases https://guides.rcls.org/az.php