Public Information Network for Electronic Services

The Public Information Network for Electronic Services (or PINES) is the statewide library consortium and its online library catalog of the Georgia Public Library Service. By February 2010, the catalog consisted of books from 282 library facilities in over 140 counties across the U.S. state of Georgia with a total item count of around 10 million, all of which are searchable by anyone with a PINES library card which can be obtained free of charge from any PINES-participating library.

The PINES system effectively turns most of the state of Georgia into one huge library. PINES cardholders are able to request that a copy of a specific book which is only available at a library out of town be shipped to their local library for them to check out - free of charge - all through the online catalog. In addition, PINES users can check out a book from one PINES-participating library and turn it into any other PINES-participating library without penalty. Another feature of the PINES network is that it allows members to place holds on items that they would like to check out from the library.

PINES developed the open-source software, called Evergreen, which it and other library consortia use to manage their online catalogs.

See also

• Twin Lakes Library System - one of the member library systems of PINES

External links

• http://pines.public.lib.ga.us/ - PINES catalog