Collaboration between school and public libraries?

[Molly Gibney]

I am curious to know what kind of collaboration exists between school and public libraries in the state of Colorado. Is most of the collaboration limited to the support of summer reading programs and how to obtain a public library card? Or, do we have "teams" that are sharing resources -- both material and financial? As someone who has worked on both sides, I haven't seen the depth of collaboration between school and public librarians that exists between a school librarian and a classroom teacher... especially when it comes to student achievement. Sure, we both want the same thing (increase reading abilities, etc.) but what programs do we have in place where school and public librarians are working collaboratively to ensure that this happens?

[Missy @ Legacy]

I have found that it can be difficult to continue that bond, even once you get one going. My teaching partner and I had a visit from one of our local libraries (we have 2, kind of 3 districts that serve our population) to get public library cards into the hands of our kids. And we advertise when we get flyers, handouts, etc. from our local libraries. But past the one time shots, with all the other collaborations you try to forge as a librarian, I find it difficult to maintain all the connections.

[cgpeterson]

I work in a Fort Collins high school and the Public Libraries are a "Library District". We've had multiple meetings with the library staff to see how we could mutually benefit each other. Much of their funding is based on user numbers so we help our students get library cards by making it an assignment in a required course their first year. We've been able to discontinue some of our purchased online databases because the Public Library offers the same ones and the students only need their library cards to access them. We spend time promoting our online databases along with the online databases that the library offers and we put a direct link on our page to their site. They are also offering us training on our check out system software because they use the same.