Journey of a library book

Journey of a library book

On a layover between far-flung shelves and your fingertips, borrowed library materials are sorted in the West Wend

Story & photos by Andrea Iglar

Library patrons have 4 million books at their fingertips.

The South Fayette Township Library holds only 20,000 items, but cardholders can request books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and other physical materials from 74 libraries across Allegheny County.

The journey these items take between libraries includes a pit stop at a nondescript, little known hub in the West End of Pittsburgh.

Sorting center employee Hunter Wolas, foreground, tidies books that are being automatically sorted into bins for 74 regional libraries.

The Library Support Center sorts and distributes materials for the publicly funded libraries of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Library Association, including the South Fayette Township Library.

Established in 2004, the sorting and shipping center moves 2.4 million items a year—that’s about 200,000 a month.

“It’s just a ton of stuff,” shipping manager Perry Munyon said.

Thanks to the sorting center, library cardholders can request any item from the entire library network at no charge and have it delivered to the branch of their choice.

Library cards are free.

Gary S. Cohen delivers bins of books to clerk Lynne Cochran at the South Fayette Township Library in December. The materials are shipped from other libraries at the request of South Fayette library cardholders.

South Fayette library director Ben Hornfeck said the system allows each library, including those with less storage, to offer more resources to local patrons. South Fayette’s collection size hovers around 19,600 due to space limitations.

“Even if we don’t have the book, we can get it from somewhere else,” he said, adding: “Everyone knows how expensive things are right now, and the fact that we’re able to keep this service free and keep delivering materials is pretty incredible.”

One afternoon in December, Connie Peltz stopped at the South Fayette circulation desk to pick up a DVD of the “Outlander” television series that she had requested from the library in Upper St. Clair.

Bottom: South Fayette library clerk Lynne Cochran chats with township resident Connie Peltz, who is checking out a DVD that was shipped in from the library in Upper St. Clair.

She uses the online shared catalog, eiNetwork, about twice a month to request items of interest, such as travel books and movie discs.

“It’s convenient,” Peltz said.

In 2021, South Fayette received 26,391 incoming items borrowed from other libraries, and they shipped out 19,521 items to other libraries.

In both directions, the materials stopped at the sorting center to be organized for shipment.

Five days a week, eight van drivers on 13 routes pick up materials from libraries and deliver them to the sorting center.

In the five-bay garage of the sorting center, drivers load bins of books into vans for delivery to libraries across Allegheny County.

One by one, sorting staff remove books from the bins, scan their barcodes into a computer and place them onto a conveyor belt.

The computer software retrieves information from the library catalog about the destination of each book and communicates with a room-size, five-arm conveyor belt system.

The sorting machine automatically direct books to bins marked for specific libraries, even stopping at conveyor belt intersections to wait for other books to pass.

Material services associate Jason Assaf scans incoming books and places them on a conveyor belt of the automatic sorting machine.

The machine drops the books into the bins labeled for each of 74 libraries, including South Fayette.

Next, employees move the filled bins to stacks that drivers will deliver to the receiving libraries, where patrons can pick up and check out their requested items.

At first, sorting was a manual process. Nowadays, the automated system makes the process quick and efficient so that a patron often receives a requested, available item within one or two business days.

Delivery driver Gary S. Cohen delivers daily to the library on Millers Run Road in South Fayette.

“I get a lot of patrons who approach me and thank me for bringing them the books,” Cohen said. “To see their joy from getting the books is sort of gratifying.”

Laura Perrier, the library services manager in charge of materials movement in the West End, said the shared service improves equity throughout the county by ensuring greater access to materials for all cardholders.

Library services manager Laura Perrier and shipping manager Perry Munyon oversee the book sorting for 74 regional libraries.

“They don’t have to go to Main Library in Oakland, or they don’t have to go hunt for parking Downtown,” she said. “They can get things at their convenience, at their location, and I think that is really important.”

The sorting center receives state money, plus funding from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which includes 20 libraries, and the Allegheny County Regional Asset District, which supports 54 libraries in the Allegheny County Library Association.

The library consortium lets cardholders check out books directly from any library in the Allegheny County system and return books to any of those libraries.

Hornfeck said being able to share materials is a big boost to the local community.

“By working together, we are able to give more resources to the people who live in South Fayette," he said.

South Fayette Township Library: 515 Millers Run Road: 412-257-8660; southfayettelibrary.org