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About CMRLS:

membership toolkit

About CMRLS

Governance

Join CMRLS

Additional Services

Success Stories

"Your Library's library
brings my patrons
what they want
when they want it.
It makes us look good.
We shine even more."

Why become a member?

CMRLS, Your Library’s Library, is the quiet champion behind the scenes, multiplying the power of your library to improve life, work, and study for people in central Massachusetts.

What we do for our members ...

The Central Massachusetts Regional Library System (CMRLS) serves school, public, special, and academic libraries in 72 communities and is supported by state taxes as administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Our contractual center is the Worcester Public Library.

Services to our members include:

Advisory and consulting services
Regional delivery service
Audiovisual and electronic equipment for loan
Professional collection
Online reference
Databases
Summer and year-round reading programs
Interlibrary loan
Cooperative purchasing

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION
AS A MEMBER OF A REGIONAL LIBRARY SYSTEM

Any public, academic, school and special library within a Region will be eligible to participate as a member of a Regional Library System upon meeting certain requirements. These requirements are that the participating library shall:

be a part of an organization or institution that has a legal basis for operation;
have an organized collection of information and material accessible for use by its designated clientele;
have a fixed location;
have established and posted hours of service;
have an on-site, paid librarian-in-charge who meets Massachusetts education and certification requirements in effect for that type of library. (For public schools, each secondary school library member must be staffed by a full time certified library teacher, and each non-secondary school library member must be staffed by either a full or part time certified library teacher. For each non public school and each charter school, a Masters in Library Science degree shall be considered equivalent to a library teacher certification for purposes of meeting this requirement.);
have a written mission statement and service objectives, which the library reviews and evaluates annually;
have an established funding base and an annual budget;
be authorized to participate by its appropriate administrative authority;
agree to the terms and conditions of the Regional Library System membership agreement as established by the Board of Library Commissioners. This agreement shall include certification by each member library that it meets the minimum eligibility requirements for participation, agrees to participate in interlibrary loan activities within the Commonwealth in accordance with the National Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States and agrees to provide data on the use of regional and statewide library materials and services.
Every public library shall automatically be a member of a regional library system.

Eligible and ready to be a member? Great! Just print and complete the following documents, and return them to us at CMRLS Headquarters:

Membership Agreement (to be signed by the librarian and an individual authorized to enter into contracts on behalf of the organization)

Word (1 page) or PDF (1 page)

Certification of Membership Eligibility (to be signed by the librarian and an individual authorized to enter into contracts on behalf of the organization)

PDF (1 page)

School Library Media Center Membership Agreement

PDF (1 page)

Directory Information Form

Word (2 pages) or PDF (2 pages)