LIBRARIES

[photo, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland]
  • Local Public Libraries In Maryland are twenty-four public library systems, one in each county and Baltimore City, with a combined collection of 13.5 million items. Some 178 public libraries were operating in 1999. School library media centers in 1,290 public elementary, middle and secondary schools hold more than 12.8 million items. Automated circulation systems exist in 79 percent of these schools and 56 percent provide on-line public access to their catalogs.

    Enoch Pratt Free Library, Cathedral St., Baltimore, Maryland, January 2001. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

    [photo, North County Public Library, Glen Burnie, Maryland] The Maryland State Library Network serves more than 400 libraries throughout the State, primarily through interlibrary loan of materials and information. The Network consists of the State Library Resource Center (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore); 3 regional library resource centers (Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, Western Maryland); 4 academic libraries lending specialized materials; and more than 125 libraries that fill interlibrary loan requests from their collections.

    North County Public Library, Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie, Maryland, January 2001. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

    Patrons may identify and locate library materials by searching catalogs linked to Sailor, an online public information network. Sailor connects Marylanders and their libraries to resources within the State and worldwide, providing access to the Internet and to e-mail. Sailor is available free through every public library, and via modem-equipped computers from homes, schools, and offices.

    Maryland residents may register with and borrow materials from any public library in the State. Information and materials found through the Maryland State Library Network may be mailed, trucked, or transferred electronically to a local library. The public checked out over 45.5 million items in 1999.

    [photo, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, Baltimore, Maryland] Libraries of Note: Enoch Pratt Free Library, The Johns Hopkins University Libraries, Space Telescope Science Institute Library (NASA), Health Sciences & Human Services Library, University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore; State Law Library, and Nimitz Library of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis; National Library of Medicine, Bethesda; University System of Maryland Libraries; National Agricultural Library, Beltsville; National Institute of Standards and Technology Research Information Center, Gaithersburg; National Criminal Justice Reference Service of the National Institute of Justice, Rockville; Library of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring; and U.S. Bureau of the Census Library, Suitland.

    Health Sciences & Human Services Library, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 601 South Lombard St., Baltimore, Maryland, December 2000. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

    [photo, Thurgood Marshall Law Library, Baltimore, Maryland]
    As the regional depository for Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland, College Park, receives all publications of the U.S. government designated for deposit.

    Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law, 111 South Greene St., Baltimore, Maryland, December 2000. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

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