The SEO (Serving Every Ohioan) Service Center, located in Caldwell, is a branch of the State Library of Ohio, which supports a consortium of 98 Library systems at 277 service points throughout 49 counties across Ohio using the OPLIN network.

SEO supports a centralized shared catalog database that includes over 8.1 million items with a patron database of nearly one million users, with an annual circulation of over 15 million.

The SEO team provides all technical and software support, library policy-related services, and management of 3rd party vendor integrations for all 98 consortium members, alleviating them of the burden of specialized technology and software functions. SEO also provides and maintains training through the On-Demand Training, SEO DigiHub, and the F. Ward Murrey Annex facility (located next to SEO Service Center) to state agencies and public libraries across Ohio.

History of the SEO Service Center

Benefits of Joining the SEO Library Consortium

For Your Patrons

  • Access to over 8 million physical items through the consortium catalog
  • Nationwide interlibrary loan service through OCLC WorldShare
  • Ohio Digital Library membership and support
  • Instructional videos on using library services
  • E-mail and text notices for holds, reminders, and overdue items
  • Full-featured mobile app

For Your Library

  • Maintenance-free catalog and database
  • Statistical reporting of circulation, users, and inventory
  • SIP authentication service for third-party software
  • Help desk and network support for consortium software and peripherals
  • Help desk support for circulation and cataloging questions
  • Email services using the @seolibraries.org domain
  • MARC record and authority control maintenance
  • Access to CatExpress to download OCLC MARC records
  • Original cataloging service provided by the Technical Services Committee
  • Consortium training at your library or the F. Ward Murrey Annex

How to Join the SEO Service Center Consortium of Libraries

Member Library Map

SEO Library Consortium Interactive map of our 98 member libraries

SEO Advisory Committee

SEO Service Center policies, agreements, collection guidelines, & more is advised by a committee of 9 member library directors selected by membership.

SEO is open to accepting new members from any public library who may be interested in joining. To request information, contact John Stewart, Director of Operations and Technology at 1-877-552-4262 or jstewart@library.ohio.gov.

Implementation Steps

  • The SEO Migration team will meet to discuss the details of migration services with the interested Library Director
  • Determine onetime costs for the data migration services, licensing and exit services
  • SEO will provide a fact sheet containing all services and associated annual costs
  • Libraries interested in joining the SEO Consortium will supply access to their bibliographic MARC records for review by the SEO Migration team.  MARC records containing an OCLC # will automatically migrate. Additional numeric fields (ISBN, LCCN, and UPC) will also be considered to achieve to best possible match for the data migration
  • Develop an implementation schedule
  • Data collection, data mapping, and system profiling
  • With the schedule in place, the SEO Trainer will begin coordinating training
  • After ‘Go Live,’ the library will begin circulation for 4-6 weeks before their items are available to the entire consortium