When thinking about partnerships, libraries often think of partnering with groups in their organizations. In Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work, Miller and Pellen provide the reader with many examples of library collaborations outside the libraries' organizations. Although the majority of the chapters are authored by librarians in academic settings, the shared ideas can be used as a basis for thinking about partnerships, whether in a hospital or academic library.
The book gathers the experiences of various library collaborations. The types of partnerships described differ by chapter. The first chapter outlines a partnership between a library and K–12 educators to promote information literacy. Another chapter illustrates successful collaborations wherein the library is a technology partner on the library's campus, as well as regionally and nationally. Providing digital information to ethnic nonprofits is another example of a library partnership. International resource sharing—such as document delivery, indexing, and catalog creation—between a health sciences library and overseas partners is described. Other chapters outline the benefits of library consortia and civic partnerships.
An interesting chapter examines collaborations from the staff perspective. The authors cite improved morale and increased continuing education opportunities for the staff. The last chapter in the book describes a partnership between a library and a commercial vendor to test a new product.
“An A to Z Overview,” near the end of the book, provides insight into what might be involved in establishing collaborations. The author of this chapter does an excellent job of outlining what a library needs to consider when entering into a partnership, such as how to identify, approach, and maintain a partner. The author gives examples of what resources are needed, what works, and what might not, as well as a long list of partnership examples. This chapter might have been better placed at the beginning of the book instead of inserted at the end.
Overall, this book describes many different partnerships. Anyone interested in looking outside their library setting for collaborations will find it useful.