Inspiring library partnerships: Evaluation of a unique reciprocal borrowing scheme between Higher Education and local authorities in the West of England

摘要

The SWRLS Open Doors project was a partnership between LibrariesWest (led by South Gloucestershire Library Service) and UWE Bristol Library Services and funded by SWRLS (South Western Regional Library Service). The aim was to pilot a reciprocal borrowing scheme between public and academic libraries using existing cards, i.e. public library cards in the academic library and university ID cards in the public libraries. The pilot looked at the scheme in terms of the following:udthe ease with which it was to set up,udits limitations,udbarriers or obstacles and how these could be overcome,udhow popular it was both with staff and customers (i.e. members of the public or UWE staff and students).udThe report details the way in which the pilot was run, considers information from other higher and further education institutions and relevant literature, looks at other schemes in the UK and outlines the issues that were identified. The users of the scheme were surveyed – staff and customers – and their responses analysed.udThe report concludes that the reciprocal use of existing library cards between institutions and public libraries in a geographical area:udwas relatively simple once set up,udwas appreciated by all those who participated,udhad few teething problems,udhas had no appreciable impact on the availability of academic stock to UWE students,udincreased public library as well as academic library usage by target groups, e.g. school students 16 years and over,udenabled the public library service to provide a significantly better offer of resources to its community,udespecially those who needed access to specialised stock not normally available in a general public library service.udThe Project Board recommends that this reciprocal borrowing arrangement continues between UWE and LibrariesWest and that other similar partnerships would benefit where they are geographically linked.udThe partners in this project plan to continue the project and to monitor it using the statistics and data monitoring used to assess its success and to give it prominence in University and public library / schools promotional material at the start of each academic year.udFurther information concerning this SWRLS Open Doors reciprocal borrowing project can be obtained by looking at the project website or by emailing customer.services@uwe.ac.uk.