Stronger Together: Increasing Connections Between Academic and Public Libraries
Much has been written about collaborations between public and academic libraries. These collaborations generally take the form of joint libraries, special programs or consortia. They are motivated by the desire to do public outreach or community building or to provide better facilities, services or library resources to users from both library systems or, in the case of consortia, by economics.
Since the library website is now the most common entry point to an academic library, this paper explores the opportunities for building connections between an academic and public library’s resources by hyperlinking to public library resources. Deepening these connections supports the mission of both types of organizations, namely to foster lifelong learning. It also suggests how such virtual collaborations, namely hyperlinking, can be used to set the stage for future collaborations. Read More
