A successful alliance can strengthen ties with communities because of their impact and response to real-life needs. This relevance establishes the library as a strategic partner in enhancing the quality of life in the community and develops a broad-based political constituency. Library Organizations Many public libraries are not ready or prepared to foster effective partnerships. While the intent and philosophical commitment may be strong, the institutional systems are often not in place to carry out the obligations of the understanding. To succeed, library organizations must examine their missions, values and service priorities in order to ascertain whether the organizational culture is in place to nurture and sustain any collaborative initiative.
Public libraries struggle with their mission.
The concepts of information, books, literacy and technology, while important, are too broad to capture the essence of what public libraries are about. They represent different things for the profession and certainly to the public. Our emphasis is too diluted to make an impact and fails to accept the reality that because of limited resources, we must prioritize and redirect our efforts. Community partnerships are an ideal vehicle to identify priorities and validate assumptions on services. An effective partnership model safeguards the community interests by focusing on results determined by multiple parties.