Imagine for whatever reason you can’t get the original movie of “Gone with the Wind” out of your mind, or that you’re working on a term paper and going to the Internet isn’t the same as leafing through Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of the Species.”

Where would you go, the local library? You might get lucky and they would hand you a DVD or Darwin’s book. But if they didn’t have either, they would turn to the computer, locate it, and tell you when you could expect to pick it up.

Behind the scenes is a service that shuttles books, CDs, magazines, maps, newspapers and just about anything you can find at municipal and university libraries, hospitals and courts. That system came to a stop this month when the vendor, which had already extended service by a month after expiration of a contract, ceased operations.

A new vendor, Optima Shipping System, is set to commence operations May 24, Karen Mellor of the Office of Library & Information Services said last week.

But if you haven’t noticed a delay in seeing Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, it’s because local libraries have come together with the assistance of the Ocean State Libraries to run their own service. The Ocean State Libraries conference room at the Summit Office Park near Route 95 in Warwick is serving as the hub to the system.

It works pretty simply. Libraries sending out materials bound for other libraries place them in plastic bins that are then driven to Ocean State. There, they are sorted and placed in designated library bins that are collected when the latest items are dropped off.

Indeed, it sounds simple – until the volume is considered. Daily, Warwick and Cranston, two of the state’s largest libraries, package 1,200 items each to be sent to other libraries, while an equal, if sometimes not greater, flow comes their way. Statewide, the number of items handled weekly exceeds 40,000. Both Warwick and Cranston have library vans to make the trips. In the case of smaller libraries, staff members are using their own cars to keep the lifeline of information flowing.

The stopgap service came together following an emergency meeting about two weeks ago, said Warwick librarian Christopher LaRoux. The prospect that libraries would be forced to tell customers that they could be waiting a month or longer for an item was “pretty scary,” he said.

He said library personnel could inform customers but then, predictably, customers would be faced with driving to whatever library had what they were looking for. In addition, there would be issues with people making online reservations and informing them of the situation.

It was then that Ocean State Libraries, which is funded by its member libraries and the Champlin Foundations, offered its services. According to Executive Director Joan Gillespie, more than 40 libraries across the state are transporting items to and from the converted conference room.

Friday found Bob Mullen of the Cranston library wheeling stacks of full bins into the conference room and emptying one out. Meanwhile, Beth Johnson, coordinator of adult and information services at the Cranston library, pulled items from the arriving bins, sorting them for their eventual destination. There’s an element of wonder between Johnson, LaRoux and Gillespie. The system is working, and it seems to be getting faster.

Gillespie said the system isn’t a long-term solution but, for the moment, is bridging a gap. It’s one of several gaps, however.

Prior to stopping the first of this month, the shuttle was providing service to 218 libraries, schools, hospitals and other entities, Mellor said. At this point, only public libraries are running their own service.

Mellor didn’t provide answers on why the former vendor chose not to renew a contract or the cost of the Optima contract.