After opting out of Allegheny County's shared library system earlier this year, Upper St. Clair made an about face Monday night as the board of commissioners voted to unite the township library with the county's mass electronic network.

Upper St. Clair was one of two county libraries -- the other is Monroeville -- that was being penalized for maintaining its own automation system outside the county's Electronic Information Network, also known as the eiNetwork, or eiN.

The eiN is a nonprofit cooperative between the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Library Association, a federation of county libraries created to improve accessibility and service.

"The biggest attention-getter was the possibility of losing out on $60,000 annually," said Assistant Township Manager Mark Mansfield of the Regional Asset District library funding.

RAD pays $2.3 million annually in support of the county's 80 public libraries. Last year, Upper St. Clair got more than $191,000 in RAD funding and $71,000 from the state. The funds are channeled through ACLA.

Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of ACLA, said Upper St. Clair would be penalized by losing out on an additional $60,000 in RAD money if it chose not to integrate with eiN.

In February, Upper St. Clair Library Director Lois Hoop said the benefits of maintaining its own stand-alone system, Dynix, outweighed the loss of being penalized by ACLA.

Hoop said eiN did not offer the level of management capabilities Upper St. Clair needed.

Mansfield said this was before commissioners learned about the loss of RAD funding.

Commissioners voted to move forward with the integration process, which must be finished by January to receive the full financial benefit.

Otherwise, there's a $5,000 penalty for each month the library remains outside of the county network.