Dunedin City Council library services manager Bernie Hawke said the Dunedin and Invercargill city councils, and the Southland, Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago, Waitaki, Gore and Clutha district councils had signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on delivery of library systems.
Mr Hawke, who is also chairman of the SouthLib consortium, said the first project the councils were undertaking was the shared purchase and use of the Symphony library computer system, which would "go live" at the Dunedin library later this month.
The system's servers would be housed in Invercargill, and all but the Waitaki, Gore and Clutha councils had agreed to use it.
Those three would be able to sign up to the system if they decided to in the future.
Until now, each library had its own system and database, and that would change to one database for all of the libraries' books and other resources.
"It opens up the possibility for resource sharing and better use of resources," Mr Hawke said.
No decisions had been made as yet, but books could be shared in future, as could, for instance, downloadable audio books.
"The Otago and Southland communities will find it easier to locate and share books and other library materials."
Another benefit of the collaboration would be lower operating costs for participating councils.
There would be cost savings from the libraries no longer having to pay individually for infrastructure and software for their computer systems.
