UCat

In 2015, former MPL Director Ginny Nilles and then Muncie Community Schools’ (MCS) Superintendent Dr. Steven Baule began discussing an idea for a collaboration, a shared catalog between the library and the schools. In May 2016, the school and library boards both signed an agreement to proceed with the project, and in August that same year, the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County provided a $20,000 grant for the shared catalog with Muncie Public Library covering the needed additional $20,000 to complete it. Two elementary schools, East Washington Academy and South View Elementary, were brought into the project on a pilot basis. 

Despite initial enthusiasm, the collaboration did have some rough patches. In April 2017, Muncie’s school system was named a distressed financial unit by Indiana’s Distressed Unit Appeals Board and underwent some restructuring as a result. However, the partnership continued under the direction of Muncie Public Library’s then Content Management Coordinator Katherine Mitchell – now MPL’s Assistant Director – and Rhonda Cowan and Melinda Sheffield, the two certified teacher librarians for Muncie Community Schools at the time. The result was UCAT, a shared online catalog (union catalog) between Muncie Public Library and all of its partners. By the end of the 2016-2017 school year, the collaboration included six elementary schools, two middle schools, Muncie Central High School, and Motivate Our Minds.