Morton Mandan Public Library Outreach Services Director Sheila Berreth holds one of the last boxes from the Morton County Library that was added to the Mandan library. The two-year process of cataloguing the county's 23,000-plus books was recently completed. Brian L. Gray photo

By Brian L. Gray

The words that the staff at the Morton Mandan Public Library has been waiting two years to say can now be said – “The merge is complete.”

After the former Morton County Library and the Mandan Public Library merged into one in May 2007, all of the necessary cataloguing that was required to get both book collections into one database was recently completed.

When the city absorbed the county’s collection, it had the daunting task of cataloguing over 23,000 books and other volumes into one system.

“It was a bigger task than I thought,” said Sheila Berreth, the library’s Outreach Services director, who spearheaded the cataloguing job.

Berreth confessed that she didn’t think this job would take as long as it did, but handling her own duties as the outreach director in addition to the cataloguing is the reason for the two-year process.

In addition to Berreth, the library received help from three main volunteers who helped to remove the county labels from all the volumes and mark them under the city library’s name. Now the public library has over 50,000 volumes in its collection.

Library Director Kelly Steckler said there was more work to this merge than meets the eye. “I think there’s a public perception that after people voted on this merge, that was it. But there was a lot of internal things our staff had to work on, and we’re really pleased with how well they came together,” she said.

With the merge now complete, Berreth said there will be no more stacks of boxes lining the outer walls of the library anymore. With nowhere to place the sudden influx of books two years ago, the library had no choice but to put the books in any free place it was able to, which meant stockpiles of boxes scattered around the reading room of the library.

An additional challenge for Berreth was the fact that no other library in the area has performed a merger like this, so there was no template to follow. “We went into this not knowing how exactly we should do it, but we managed,” she said.

“This was a lot more seamless than we expected,” Steckler said.

And now they’re the template to follow. With a few other communities considering merging their county and city libraries, including Jamestown and Minot, Steckler said she has received calls from staff members at those libraries asking for tips if a merge was to take place.

Steckler said at this time the library is okay in regards to space with the addition of the 23,000-plus books, “but we’ll need to prepare for the future, because down the road we may need more shelving.”

Now that one challenge has been conquered, the staff is preparing for its next challenge – the purchase of a new bookmobile.

The bus being used now for the bookmobile program is a 1989 model, with over 150,000 miles on it. At this time the library staff is working on the details of what kind of vehicle they would require, as bookmobiles are built based on specifications.

Costs of a new bookmobile can run anywhere from $175,000 to $200,000. Steckler said when the county purchased the vehicle being used at this time, the county library placed money into a CD, which has been receiving interest. Each month the library sets aside money as well. She said about $175,000 is currently set aside for a new bookmobile.

It could be anywhere from one to two years before a new bookmobile is purchased, but Steckler said that it’s important to keep the outreach programs going to communities that do not have libraries where they live. Many rural children, she said, heavily rely on the bookmobile to provide them books.

“During our summer teen program, for instance, half of the members were from Mandan, while the other half came from other towns in the county,” Steckler said. “It really showed that we’re more than just a library for Mandan residents these days.”