North Otago residents will now be able to borrow books from 35 public libraries and three book buses in two provinces under a collaborative agreement reached by their eight councils.
The SouthLib Consortium - which includes the Dunedin and Invercargill City Councils, Southland, Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago, Waitaki, Clutha and Gore District Councils - has reached the agreement which allows library borrowers entry all the libraries south of the Waitaki River, giving access to more than 1.5 million items.
Waitaki district libraries manager Philip van Zijl said yesterday all a person had to do to borrow books or access reference material was take their library card into any of the libraries in Otago and Southland.
They have the same rights as the borrowers in other centres.
The libraries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2009 which has led to the collaborative agreement.
