Home | Co-operation and Partnerships (Summary)
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Netherlands
Biblioplaza: Practical and digital co-operation in Overijssel
Public libraries have joined forces in various forms of co-operation e.g. formation of front-offices and common back-office teams of information specialist and a number of cultural institutions present themselves on Biblioplaza, which also makes it possible to search in various local catalogues at one time. http://www.biblioplaza.nl/

Info-chat in Flevoland
Bibliofoon was the joint service of provincial library centres. The special national phone number was later replaced by a digital service: http://www.probiblio.nl/probiblio/bibliof.htm Other libraries (like Oss) have set up their own digital librarian. Public libraries in the province of Flevoland take turns in chatting with customers every afternoon.
http://www.digitalebibliotheekflevoland.nl/chatten.html

Library Pass in North Holland
In the province of North-Holland, libraries co-operate since 1992 in a common library passport, a provincial membership card, which is valid in all public libraries in the province. www.nblc.nl

Multi-co-operation in RotterdamNet 
The collaboration of libraries and information centres of several museums in Rotterdam Net offer 4 million books, 5 thousand periodicals and a thousand electronic data-files on Rotterdam. 
http://www.rotterdamnet.nl/

Tailor-made co-operation: Project Bureau Maatwerk The Hague
A special Project Bureau of the Public Library The Hague (Maatwerk = Tailor-made) creates contacts with multicultural groups, specialists, artists, teachers, philosophers, authors, poets and musicians. This co-operation results in lectures and presentations in all library branches. http://www.dobdenhaag.nl

Slovenia
Slovenian libraries co-operate in the co-operative online bibliographic database system COBISS. At present 240 libraries of all types are included. This is a public access catalogue http://www.izum.si/cobiss/

Spain
Ask a Librarian service
Launch of the service "Pregunte, Las bibliotecas responden" ("Ask, the libraries answer") aimed at establishing a public information service through the Internet via electronic mail and Web site administered jointly between the libraries of the different Autonomous Communities and coordinated by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.
http://pregunte.carm.es/pregunte/pub06.html
See also http://www.ifla.org/VII/s8/annual/country.htm#spain

Union catalogue from the State Public Libraries
An ensemble of different databases. It can be considered a valuable tool for cataloguing, interlibrary loan purposes and information retrieval.
http://www.mcu.es/bpe/bpe.html

Union catalogue Spanish bibliographical heritage
http://www.mcu.es/ccpb/index.html

Xarxa de Lectura Pública Valenciana (Public Reading Network of Valencia)
Regional public library Network, shared working via Internet. Among the advantages of this new system (ASP, Application Service Provider), we can note an improvement of access to library services (collective catalogue and a single membership card for the whole Net) reduction of costs, better control and quality of the libraries' technical work.
http://xlpv.cult.gva.es/

Jumilla Local Public Library
Agreement between the University of Murcia and the Town Council of Jumilla. Information about both the library and the local museum can be found at the university website. Co-operation project with the academic sector to develop the Information Society at local level.
http://www.um.es/pjumilla/proyecto.htm

Network of libraries and documentation centres of Sabadell
http://www.ajsabadell.es/cdsx

Sweden
SeniorSurf day
The first SeniorSurf day was organised in Sweden in 1999, in a co-operative venture between ca. 300 public libraries, the SeniorNet (an NGO) and several commercial sponsors. There were ca. 30,000 participants, and the successful event was organised again in 2000 and 2001. Nowadays similar campaign days are organised in all Nordic countries.
http://www.seniornet.se/browse.jsp?id=01_03&cikkid=401

United Kingdom
Ask a librarian, a co-operative email enquiry service.
http://www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/before.html

Co-East
A consortium of 10 public library authorities operating in the East of England region which aims to put in place ICT solutions to enable members of the public to easily obtain resources from libraries across the region, either via computers in libraries or over the Internet.
http://www.co-east.net/

The Libraries Partnership - West Midlands (TLP-WM)
TLP-WM provides strategic representation and advocacy, manages development projects and acts as a communications hub across libraries, museums and archives in the West Midlands region, with links to WM Arts and other key cultural agencies. It aims to improve access to learning, culture, business support and information resources for all.
http://www.tlp-wm.org.uk/

Libraries Together: Liverpool Learning Partnership.
The website of a consortium of five libraries in Liverpool.
http://www.liv.ac.uk/Library/llgroup/llg.html

London's Museums, Archives & Libraries (LMAL)
Partnership of London Archives Regional Council, London Libraries Development Agency and London Museums Agency. The LMAL partnership aims to promote effective co-operation between the capital’s museums, archives and libraries. http://www.lmal.org.uk/

Management practices and models for co-operation and partnership in service delivery. Work in this field has been sponsored by Resource which has carried out surveys and published reports on the management of museums and libraries in the UK, often identifying weaknesses in the structure and staffing of these organisations. See report Capacity to Change on the Resource website.
http://www.resource.gov.uk/information/policy/captochnge.asp

NEMLAC
NEMLAC is the regional strategic body and development agency for museum, library and archive organisations in the North East region of England.
http://www.nemlac.co.uk/

Peoples’ Network
Lottery-funded by the New Opportunities Fund and managed by Resource, more than 4000 library centres up and running by the end of 2002. 
http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/

USA
Political partnerships are rare in Europe but do exist in the USA where libraries sometimes enjoy much greater independence from local government see the “@your library” campaign, run originally by the American Library Association and launched world-wide in the IFLA Boston conference 2001, an international effort to help libraries to make themselves more visible in the society. http://www.ifla.org/@yourlibrary/index.htm

Institute of Museum and Library Services
The agency in the USA which provides funds for library activities and encourages partnerships. 
http://www.imls.gov/

Public Libraries as Partners in Community Information Provision: here is a list of partnerships involving libraries in the USA. 

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