Collaborative librarianship

http://www.collaborativelibrarianship.org/index.html

"Increasingly, libraries are moved to seek partnerships with other libraries, with other organizations in the information and technology fields, with other entities in our institutions, and with other groups and enterprises in our communities. While partnerships of all sorts have had a long history in the field of librarianship, today, as never before, there is greater urgency to develop and exploit library partnerships, and to think widely and creatively on new types of, and potentials for, partnerships.

Published materials appear from time to time on library cooperation and partnerships. Most recently, the America Library Association produced the volume, Burgett, James, John Hear and Linda L. Phillips. Collaborative Collection Development. A Practical Guide for Your Library (Chicago: ALA, 2004), 211 p. From time to time, articles appear in various library journals. These welcomed items provide insightful analyses of cases and opportunities of cooperative librarianship. At present, to my knowledge, there is no journal dedicated to the topic of cooperative librarianship, or dedicated to any aspect of resource sharing or coordinated library services.

As the issue rises in importance and urgency, perhaps now is the time to create an organum for treating consistently and comprehensively the matter of cooperative librarianship.

Features of Collaborative Librarianship include:

Open Access/Online Availability
Peer Reviewed Scholarly Articles
Better/Best practices
Engagement of a Wide Scope of Issues
library-to-library cooperation
sharing resources and expertise
library-to-business partnerships
local, regional, national and international collaboration
professional, consortium and association partnerships
history of library collaboration
The journal contains six sections: Editorials, Scholarly Articles, From the Field, Viewpoints, Reviews and News."