RAILS Board Portal - About RAILS

Background/History

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System was formed in 2011, through a merger of the Alliance, DuPage, Metropolitan, North Suburban, and Prairie Area library systems.

Library systems are established by state law (75 ILCS 10/, the Illinois Library System Act). Funding for Illinois Library Systems is provided through the Illinois State Library and the Secretary of State, with funds appropriated by the Illinois General Assembly.

RAILS Staff

RAILS Member Libraries

RAILS serves approximately 1300 private, public, school, and academic library members, which include more than 4200 library facilities in a 27,000 square mile area in north/north-central Illinois.

RAILS members include:

  • 117 Academic libraries (9%)
  • 412 Public libraries (33%)
  • 559 School libraries (44%)
  • 175 Special libraries (14%)

May not add to 100% due to rounding

Resource Sharing Map

The State of Resource Sharing in RAILS map shows membership in system-supported shared catalogs, as well as areas without public library service.

Thumbnail of map.

RAILS Programs/Services

RAILS provides a number of services and programs to our member libraries, including:

For additional information, see the Services and Members areas of our website, or view the RAILS Services brochure (PDF).