This month I am thinking about the trend of public libraries offering museum passes for check out. The idea is to partner with local museums and other fun, family-friendly, educational and/or cultural places and create an agreement that allows the library to circulate day passes to the partnering institutions. From the small amount of research I’ve done, I see there are many ways to go about doing this. Some libraries are high-tech and have web portals that allow patrons to print off museum passes from any computer. Some libraries have actual tickets that circulate like any other physical materials in the collection. Does your library have circulating museum passes? Do the tickets allow an entire family in to a facility for free? Do the tickets cover any kind of additional fees (like parking)?
Here are some examples of this kind of service – this is just a few, there are many more out there:
- Seattle Public Library
- Museum Adventure Pass
- Boston Public Library
- Public Library of Brookline
- Discover & Go (developed by Contra Costa County Library)
Please share your knowledge about how this program works. If you offer at your library, is it a popular service? How is this service funded – through donations or grants? Any words of wisdom to share? How many days is the ticket valid or how long can each patron keep it? Have you used this unique kind of circulating material as a patron? Tell me all about it in the comments.
Jenni
We have the Discover and Go system at our library. The museums offer to make the passes available, and usually the patron has to select a particular day for the particular pass. For example, if I wanted to go to the local zoo, I could pull up the Discover and Go site, input my library card, and see what days are available.
The passes also vary – some are half price admission, some are free admission for four, some only free admission for one. Some you can get as many times as you’d like, while others limit to one admission per library card per year.
Our patrons don’t use it much because they don’t know about it, but when I talk it up with then and mention how many places my wife and I have gone for free, they start to become very interested.