Creating a Town Library Team: Collaborative Projects Between Public, School, and Academic Librarians

Abstract

Library outreach, especially at the public and academic levels, is not a new concept. In the current climate of library budget cuts, instantaneous information, and readily available nonauthoritative sources, librarians, library staff, and library directors are making it a priority to educate their communities on the benefits of and accessibility to quality library resources. Collaboration between different types of libraries is also not uncommon. Partnerships between public and school libraries assist in coordinating information literacy curricula, promoting reading programs and providing access to materials and resources. This article encourages pushing those boundaries even further out to include academic libraries, thereby expanding the scope of inter-library relationships and embracing librarianship at all com-munity levels. Each library has its own, unique perspective and clientele. Pooling information and networking at all levels of community librarianship benefits each library, its patrons, and the community as a whole.