Blue Sky Express: Read all about in Library Journal

Library Journal.com has recognized the new Blue Sky Express interstate courier service in an article published February 14th: Colorado and Kansas Libraries Collaborate to Reduce Cost of Out-of-State Borrowing.

“The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) and the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS) have begun to collaborate on interstate courier services. Blue Sky Express, which began operating January 31, provides Colorado libraries shipping access five days a week to 34 multitype Kansas libraries, and Kansas libraries will have access to nearly65 Colorado libraries. It is the first broad, inexpensive, out-of-state delivery service for Kansas and the second for Colorado, which has collaborated with Missouri since May 2009 as part of COKAMO (which also includes a small number of Kansas libraries).
Almost from day one, the service has been delivering three full totes across state lines, according to Valerie Horton, the executive director of CLiC, which comprises 410 libraries in Colorado and the University of Wyoming.

“Kansas is a real natural partner for Colorado,” Horton told LJ. “So, when they opened their statewide courier service about a year ago, we wanted to link up as soon as possible so libraries would have as many inexpensive shipping options as possible. Libraries are also providing more ILL [interlibrary loan system] so everyone wins in this scenario,” she said.

“It’s the OCLC lending institutions participating in it, that are going to benefit tremendously because they do a lot of interstate lending,” Jim Minges, executive director of the Northeast Kansas Library System, which manages Kansas Library Express (the state’s courier system), told LJ.  ”In the future, we would like to connect the other statewide ILL systems, and in that case the number of libraries using the service would expand greatly”, he said.

Read the full article at:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889231-264/colorado_and_kansas_libraries_collaborate.html.csp