Evaluating the benefits of joint-use libraries

Abstract

The project seeks ideas for evaluating joint-use libraries; here, libraries jointly administered by a public library and a school. ‘Collaborative advantage’ occurs when each partner brings something the other does not have. The evidence suggests that schools think the partnership helps them to provide a library at reduced cost while the public libraries consider it a way to extend their community reach. Do these different aims make it difficult to produce formative evaluation methods? The project discovered, however, that the most important benefit for both parties was better integration between the school and the community.