The NEOS Library Consortium dissolved as of March 31, 2026. resulting in changes in how the collections of NEOS libraries are made available.

The shared catalogue has ended, and students and staff of all NEOS libraries can no longer borrow items from other libraries by placing a hold and choosing a library to pick up the item.

Now that NEOS libraries have multiple catalogues, students and staff have to use other methods for borrowing items from libraries other than their own.

Libraries have all left the shared catalogue.

Now libraries no longer have a shared catalogue:

• A library’s students and staff can borrow items from their own library and place holds/pick up items from their own library.
• If they wish to borrow items from other former NEOS libraries, they have two options:
  • Interlibrary Loan: request an item through their own library’s Interlibrary Loan service. The item will be borrowed from the owning library and made available to the borrower at their own library.
  • Community or External borrower: visit the library that owns the item in person, set up an account at that library, and borrow directly from the owning library. The item has to be returned to the owning library.
• Students and staff from other NEOS libraries who want to borrow from a library that has left the shared catalogue also have two options:
  • Interlibrary Loan: request an item on ILL via their own library. The item will be borrowed from the owning library and made available to the borrower at their own library.
  • NEOS borrower: visit the library that owns the item in person, set up an account at that library, and borrow directly from the owning library. The item has to be returned to the owning library.
• Clients who are not primary borrowers (staff or students) at any of the NEOS libraries will have to set up NEOS cards/accounts at the individual libraries they want to borrow from. The Alberta Library Card can also still be used to borrow items from participating libraries.

You will discover books from other libraries by making a point of searching in their catalogues, searching in shared catalogues such as OCLC Worldcat or the National Library & Archives Union Catalogue (Voilà), or through the course of your library database and Google Scholar searches.

Please note that with individual catalogues, NEOS member libraries use new options for resource sharing, including traditional interlibrary loan and in-person reciprocal borrowing.

For more information, please contact individual former member libraries or Anne Carr-Wiggin.