In 1979, a small group of Bergen County library directors came together to come up with ways to seamlessly share resources in order to maximize individual library dollars spent on materials. Initial funding assistance came from the New Jersey State Library and the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the latter of which has provided funding annually since 1979. By 1987, library automation had begun within the Bergen County Computer Consortium, technically a separate organization until its merger with BCCLS in 1989. By 1990, almost all existing Bergen County public libraries had joined BCCLS, and BCCLS welcomed its first non-Bergen library (Louis Bay 2nd Library in Hawthorne) in 1992. Now comprised of 77 member libraries, BCCLS has taken on many different responsibilities through the years, including training for library staff, maintenance of library networking infrastructure, and the eBCCLS digital collection, to name just a select few.