Smartphone library app for local libraries works again

SANDUSKY — Sandusky Library patrons can once again easily use their smartphones to put books and movies on hold and check their library accounts, as a once-disabled phone app is now working again. The restoration of the CLEVNET library app is good news not only for Sandusky Library users but for patrons of the Norwalk, Huron, Bellevue, Fremont, Clyde, Vermilion and Milan-Berlin Heights libraries, which are all also part of the CLEVNET system. The app had stopped working in late November, around Thanksgiving, as a result of a business dispute between two companies: Solus, a software company in Glasgow, Scotland, that makes smartphone apps for libraries, and SirsiDynix, a Utah company that makes the library cataloging software used by CLEVNET and by other libraries around the world. Solus turned off access to the app, apparently in a move to apply more pressure on SirsiDynix during the business dispute. A spokeswoman for the Cleveland Public Library, Andrianna Sheriff, said the two companies had resolved their differences in mediation, allowing access to the app to be restored. "After working diligently to address the service disruption, we're thrilled to announce that the CLEVNET app is once again available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Patrons can download or update the CLEVNET app and access a wide range of library services, including browsing the catalog, reserving books, and more," Sheriff said. The dispute between Solus and SirsiDynis disabled apps for libraries across the U.S. CLEVNET includes 47 libraries stretching across much of northern Ohio.