INFOLINK operates from an Annual Program of Services and Budget for each fiscal year from July 1st through June 30th. Regional services include a mesh of both mandated and membership-driven services.

For FY 2008, membership services supported by INFOLINK's budget include:

The four Regional Library Cooperatives (RLCs) operate a statewide delivery service for public, school, academic, special and institutional libraries that are members of the four Regional Library Cooperatives. Handling over 1.4 million items each year, it is the backbone of resource sharing among members of the New Jersey Library Network. Materials to be shipped include, but are not limited to books, audio-tapes, CDs, DVDs, videos, documents, envelopes, boxes of books, bulk loans that move on a library circuit and other library material.

The delivery service was begun 16 years ago to support resource sharing among libraries. The RLCs currently deliver to 630 libraries that receive between two and five days of delivery per week. When a library user needs materials and information from another New Jersey library, the user requests an interlibrary loan through his local library. The requested materials are sent from the owning library to the user's local library through delivery. Library users may also return materials borrowed from other member libraries to their own library, which then uses delivery to return the item to the owning library. The RLCs also send paper communications through this system. For information on the current service, go to: Delivery Service.

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The State Library and the four Regional Library Cooperatives are cost sharing for JerseyCat. JerseyCat is New Jersey's statewide virtual catalog and interlibrary loan system. It is provided to all libraries within the State of New Jersey by the New Jersey State Library and the Regional Library Coopertives. There is no charge to the local library for the service. It provides all New Jersey residents and library staff with real-time searching capabilities for New Jersey's Z39.50 compliant library catalogs. It also includes a union catalog of holdings from the small to medium libraries that are under 100,00 volumes. Periodical titles can be searched for in the NJ Union List of Serials. It also provides New Jersey residents and library staff with an interlibrary loan system that they can use from their home, school, or office via the World Wide Web. For information on the service, go to: JerseyCat.

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The New Jersey State Library and the New Jersey Regional Library Cooperatives support access to select databases with state funds and federal funds from the Library Services and Technology Act. These include Custom Newspapers (Gale), EBSCO resources, Facts on File, Novelist, and Informe. For more information, go to: Statewide Databases.

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Telephone Reference Center – 2008 Change in Service
http://www.njreference.org
Effective January 1, 2008

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• Education and Training.
  
• A Book Evaluation Service for libraries serving children and youth.
  
• Brokered group discounts for numerous electronic library resources.
  
• A newsletter in print and electronic format.
  
• A listserv, INFOLINK-L, where librarians in the service area can communicate to get a regional perspective on library issues.
  
• A calendar of regional events.
  
• Resources for Libraries.

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