Joint-Use Libraries (PDF)

In today's economic climate, many libraries are work cooperatively and sharing facilities, staffs, and resources. This book gives you practical examples of how to make joint use a POSITIVE reality!

The first book of its kind, Joint-Use Libraries presents nine examples of situations in which libraries of different types share a building. In some cases one library takes the lead and staffs the operation. In other cases, two or more staffs inhabit the same building and divide the work. This essential book illustrates the variety of ways that public libraries, community college libraries, and college/university libraries have found to stretch their resources and better serve their users.

This book explores team-based strategies for joint-use libraries and shows how various libraries have addressed questions such as, “Which library's online catalog will be used?” “How will costs for maintenance and utilities be shared?” and “Will there be one integrated staff, or separate staffs inhabiting the same building?” The libraries described range from a very small library shared by Front Range Community College and the City of Fort Collins, Colorado, to a mammoth new joint library now being built in San Jose, California.

In Joint-Use Libraries, you'll encounter fascinating case studies of successful joint use that examine:

• school libraries that double as public library facilities
• a county-wide public library system in South Florida that has created partnerships with university, community college, public, and private school libraries
• a joint library located on a Florida community college campus but also serving a major university
• another joint library on a Washington state campus that is shared by both a university and a community college—with the university acting as primary provider of library services by contract with the community college
• a three-way library in which a community college, a university, and a public library provide their own staffing, collections, and other resources to offer services in a small community where none of them alone could afford a first-rate facility
• a complex situation in which St. Petersburg College and the City of Seminole, Florida are building a joint-use facility which will serve not only the city and the college, but will also serve the students of 14 other institutions of higher education
• a joint-use library where one institution is clearly the senior partner, but a largely new, integrated staff has been hired to minimize resistance to the new joint mission and to serve all users equally
• and more!