GRLC members have the opportunity to join a consortium for access to digital resources called the Grand River Digital Library.  Currently, we have one sharing agreement with member libraries, it is with OCLC called CloudLibrary for e-books and e-audio.

Cloudlibrary

https://www.yourcloudlibrary.com/en/home.html

Current Members

Library Name                                 Abbreviation                                        

• Adair County Public Library ACPL 

• Atchison County Library ATCL

• Caldwell County Library CALD

• Cameron Public Library CAMPL

• Canton Public Library CANTL

• Carrollton Public Library CARPL

• Centralia Public Library CENPL

• Daviess County Library DVCL

• Dulaney Memorial Library DML

• Grundy County Library GRCL

• Hamilton Public Library HPL

• Joplin Public Library JPL

• Livingston County Library LIVCL

• Marceline Carnegie Library MARCL

• Marshall Public Library MRPL 

• Mercer County Library MERCL

• Montgomery City Library MONT

• Putnam County Public Library PCPL

• Rolling Hills Cons. Library RHCL

• Scotland County Library SCOT

• St Joseph Public Library SJPL

• Trails Regional Library TRL

• Webster County Library WEBS

HISTORY

The Grand River Digital Library Consortium (GRDLC) was created in the summer of 2016, spearheaded by the St Joseph Public Library and the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library.  GRDLC is an entity for purchasing and sharing e-content between Missouri libraries, primarily in the GRLC organization.  In the initial talks with Baker & Taylor, St Joseph Public Library already had the Boundless service (formerly called Axis360) and Rolling Hills Library wanted to join in and these two libraries worked out the initial details for consortium membership and how the shared collection would work. After Baker & Taylor went out of business in late 2025, the consortium voted to move the content and service over to OCLC's CloudLibrary. 

MEMBERSHIP

All public libraries in Missouri are eligible to join.  The geographic region is NOT restricted to the Grand River Library Conference, an association of public libraries located in northern Missouri. 

For purposes of the consortium, each member library should designate one primary representative and each library gets one vote, if any issues come up for a vote.  Libraries can send as many staff as they wish to meetings or training sessions, but only one may vote.  If the primary representative is unable to attend a meeting where a vote is indicated, he or she may designate in writing another staff person from their library to vote on GRDLC business.  Most business will be conducted online or over email.

If a member organization decides to end their membership, they must do so in writing to both the lead organization and to each vendor.  It is not established at this time whether titles purchased by each library are still controlled by the purchasing library if a library decides to withdraw or if they remain with the consortium, or if it may be possible to move titles to another service.  The member must negotiate this with vendors independent of consortium administration.

FEES

OCLC sets a platform fee for the CloudLibrary service.  Each member library pays a platform fee annually and then has a minimum purchase of items for the shared collection.  Members may also purchase items for priority use by their own patrons or in a pay-per-use section of their site.  The renewal cycle is set for the calendar year, January to December..

Libraries will be required to spend a minimum amount of funds annually towards titles for the consortium.   The chart below shows the levels of participation in the consortium.

CloudLibrary Fees

Public Library Minimum Annual Purchase

POPULATION SERVED Required Annual Platform Fee

0-4999 $300 $100

5000-9999 $500 $200

10,000-19,999 $700 $300

20,000-39,999 $850 $500

40,000-59,999 $1500 $750

60,000-99,999 $3000 $1000

100,000 + $5000 $1500

These are MINIMUM amounts for collection purchases; we expect each participating library to contribute as much as they are able to spend, to grow the collection for all participants.  Member libraries’ purchasing activity will be monitored to make sure the minimum amounts are being contributed to the shared collection.  Members may always spend more than their minimum amounts, and GRDLC encourages donations from local Friends groups and other fundraising to grow and enhance the collection for everyone.  Members who do not spend their minimum required amount in two (2) consecutive years may be asked to leave the consortium. 

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

GRDLC member libraries are committed to helping each other with problems and issues with the system.  While there is no regular schedule of training opportunities, issues can be shared with member libraries over e-mail.  All member libraries are encouraged to use the online help provided to GRDLC patrons by vendors as an initial level of troubleshooting problems or issues.

Each vendor will communicate their preferred methods of providing technical assistance.  Each member library is responsible for either sharing access to administrative functions with their fellow staff or requesting additional logins and passwords for administrative functions to provide access to technical assistance for their staff.  We want to provide the best customer service to our library users, which means being able to troubleshoot their issues with the service.

Patrons needing help will be directed to the primary contact listed for each library.  Each member library is expected to help its own patrons to the greatest extent possible.  Libraries should not refer their own patrons to other GRDLC member libraries to answer questions or provide help.

SYSTEM SETTINGS

Initial settings for patron limits and circulation periods for CloudLibrary were set by the founding members.  Changes to these settings must be proposed to all of the member libraries and voted on before they are changed online by the vendor or the lead organization.

Current limits for CloudLibrary

5 titles checked out per patron at a time.

21 day check out as the default.

Renewal of items allowed if no holds are present.

Limit of 15 holds per patron, and 4 days to check out a hold before it moves on.

MEETINGS

GRDLC will meet at least once per year in person, which will likely happen at a scheduled Grand River Library Conference meeting.  Other meetings may be conducted electronically as needed. 

COMMUNICATION

Most communication regarding GRDLC will be done over e-mail and/or on a blog site set up for the members.  Each library should make sure that their primary contact information is accurate and up-to-date.  The lead organization maintains the membership and contact list in conjunction with vendors.

LEADERSHIP

Rolling Hills Library is currently the lead contact organization for the CloudLibrary service.  Rolling Hills Library will also act as the lead organization for the consortium and facilitate communications as needed.  In the event that they no longer want to be the lead organization or if members feel the responsibility should rotate, a process for rotation of lead organization may be proposed and ratified by GRDLC members.  It will be the responsibility of the current lead organization to facilitate transfer of information and contacts to the new lead organization should the leadership of GRDLC change hands.

ORDERING

All ordering for CloudLibrary is done online through OCLC's CAT system.  Each library determines what titles they will buy to contribute to the shared collection.  Member libraries are encouraged to use the tools provided to make purchasing decisions.  The system works similarly to many online ordering experiences, where carts are created and items are added to the cart for ordering.

Member libraries are instructed to create and order carts on a timely basis.  Creation of carts and adding titles to carts without completion of the ordering process puts unnecessary delays in getting those items into the collection for patrons.

In the ordering process, each library is required to enter a purchase order number.  We ask that each library use a system of naming their PO in the system so other users can see which library ordered which titles. Enter in the PO number as ABCD-YYYYMMDD where ABCD is your library’s initials from the Member List.

The system will not duplicate check our e-materials carts against each other, but you can see in the title detail screen if there is a copy in the consortium.  It is your responsibility to check this information to avoid unnecessary duplicates.  

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

There is no specific collection development plan for the collection.  The primary purpose of the CloudLibrary Collection is to contain popular materials covering a wide variety of topics and genres as well as classic and enduring works to be shared among all member libraries.  GRDLC is not meant to replace or reduce the physical collections managed by any or all of the member libraries.  It is to provide digital access to materials for those who prefer or enjoy this method of accessing reading, viewing, or listening materials.  Members may buy e-books and/or e-audio as they wish, there are no restrictions as to format.  As the membership grows larger, collection development plans may be created to include specializations by some members in their purchasing.  The consortium has elected to NOT set a number of holds that triggers automatic purchasing of additional copies, but we can get reports when a title has more than a selected number of holds.  Member libraries are encouraged to buy additional copies of titles with more than six (6) holds if they feel it will enhance the patron experience of using the resource.  No member library is required to purchase multiple copies.  Patron recommendations can be turned on by individual libraries. Users are limited to 10 recommendations per week.  Patrons can choose whether or not to be on hold for a title if or when it gets purchased.  Recommendations will placed in a separate cart for purchase consideration.

Member libraries can also set up cost-per-circ (CPC) plans for e-book and/or e-audio content.  These costs will be invoiced to each member library for their patrons' usage if this feature is turned on.

NOTIFICATIONS

Notifications and communication with OCLC is set up for the users and email addresses submitted to OCLC.  It is up to each individual library to keep this information up to date.

Last Updated: July 29, 2026