Amigos Library Services, Inc. is a membership-based
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
not-for-profit chartered to serve
libraries
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
. The organization was formed in 1974 in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, as the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council. It included 22 libraries, united to bring
OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
access to the southwestern United States. Amigos is one of the largest library resource-sharing networks and a provider of
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
to libraries.
In July 2012, Amigos merged with
Missouri Library Network Corporation (MLNC), an organization similar to Amigos headquartered in St. Louis. The action followed votes to approve the merger in April 2012 by MLNC members and May 2012 by Amigos members.
The combined organization retained the Amigos name with Dallas as its headquarters and an office in the St. Louis area. The new organization became the largest library network west of the Mississippi River, comprising libraries and cultural heritage institutions in 22 states.
Amigos Library Services is similar in scope to other library-oriented consortia such as th
Midwest Collaborative for Library ServicesOhioNet
and LYRASIS
Lyrasis is a non-profit member organization serving and supporting libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations around the world. Lyrasis is based in the United States. It was created in April 2009 from the merger of SOLINET an ...
.
References
External links
Amigos Library Services
Midwest Collaborative for Library Services
OhioNet
LYRASIS
{{Authority control
Cooperatives in the United States
Organizations based in Dallas
OCLC
Library consortia in Texas