web news: Collaboration across library types

"It Takes Two: SLJ’s first public library spending survey uncovers an opportunity for tighter collaboration between school and public librarians"

By Rebecca T. Miller and Laura Girmscheid
May 1, 2012

count: 2 pages

 School Library Journal has published its first survey of public library spending habits for children’s and young adult services. The headline nugget from the report is that public and school libraries aren't collaborating to make purchasing more efficient and complementary.

The idea of working with a public library to coordinate book purchasing had never occurred to me. I obviously needed to be educated on this, particularly when the article explains the way such collaboration can support the curriculum and make students stronger. 

I can see why it would make great sense to give the Lackland Air Force Base Library a call every now and then, just to let them know what we have, what students are requesting, and to find out what they have and what they might want to buy. 

Unfortunately their purchasing is not done locally; it's done federally. But there are two local public branches that I could contact and try the same approach with. 

I also found it interesting that the SLJ report "Libraries that expect a drop in their kids’ and YA book circulation explain that it’s likely due to transient populations, as well as shrinking budgets and a market flooded with electronic devices." And they're not just speaking of Kindles or Nooks: they're also talking about gaming devices, TV, and mobile apps.

Recently I've been on the prowl for statistics on -books, and the article mentioned this topic as well:

Naturally, interest in ebooks is growing, but efforts are hampered by the limited offerings of big publishers. The main digital book suppliers are OverDrive and TumbleBooks. Two-thirds of libraries that don’t carry ebooks say they plan to do so or will consider doing so in the next year.

 In my earlier report for the course position paper, I did not even consider TumbleBooks. I'll need to check why: either we don't subscribe to downloadable books from TB, or else the report is speaking only of interactive rather than downloadable books.

If someone doesn't have time to read the entire news article, the infographic alone is worth the time to examine.