{"id":15506,"date":"2017-04-23T12:01:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T16:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=15506"},"modified":"2017-04-22T22:59:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T02:59:10","slug":"gimme-c-collaboration-expanding-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/gimme-c-collaboration-expanding-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme a C (for Collaboration!): Expanding Partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SPLCI\u2019ve been fortunate to be part of Limitless Libraries<\/a>, Nashville\u2019s groundbreaking collaboration between school and public libraries, from both the school and public library perspectives.\u00a0 Students and teachers in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) are automatically enrolled in Limitless Libraries, meaning their student and teacher ID numbers are also public library card numbers.\u00a0 They can access all of Nashville Public Library\u2019s (NPL\u2019s) digital resources, and request physical materials that arrive through school delivery.\u00a0 Additionally, Limitless Libraries supplements local schools\u2019 library budgets to ensure all MNPS libraries have recent and relevant collections.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Limitless Libraries began, a private donor, inspired by the collaborative spirit of the program, donated $1 million through the Nashville Public Library Foundation to renovate two MNPS libraries\u2014one high school and one middle school. \u00a0NPL\u2019s funding and renovation experience combined with MNPS\u2019s knowledge of their students and best school library practices to produce welcoming and functional school libraries. As the librarian at the selected middle school, I worked with MNPS and NPL to create a student-centered, flexible-use space to meet the needs of our school.\u00a0 We surveyed students and teachers to find out what they wanted in their library; their responses became part of the architect\u2019s design.\u00a0 Students selected the color scheme.\u00a0 They told us they wanted a place to hang out in comfy chairs.\u00a0 When the library opened the following school year, students saw how much their input mattered, and how integral they were to the design.\u00a0 Needless to say, they LOVED it.<\/p>\n

\"DuPont
Before and After: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 DuPont Tyler Middle Prep<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I moved to the Limitless Libraries Coordinator position shortly after my school\u2019s library was renovated and have been part of six additional school library renovations, all funded through Nashville\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Office.\u00a0 Each project turns out differently, but the goal is always the same: school libraries designed for students.\u00a0 Some of the new libraries have murals welcoming students in multiple languages, others have collaborative workspaces for meetings and small groups.\u00a0 All of them are beautiful and functional spaces resulting from collaborative planning between school and public libraries.<\/p>\n

Not every school and public library system will have the opportunity to build (literally) new library spaces together.\u00a0 However, all libraries benefit from visiting other community spaces, often learning new ways to structure areas to meet students\u2019 needs.\u00a0 Consider surveying students who use both public and school library spaces to find out what they love and what could be adjusted.\u00a0 Visit local school and public libraries, connecting with your librarian counterparts to discover new ways to serve students and library users.\u00a0 Remember that your library is part of a bigger community and collaborating can provide a much broader perspective.<\/p>\n

\n

Allison Barney is the coordinator of Nashville\u2019s Limitless Libraries program, a partnership between Nashville Public Library and Metro Nashville Public Schools.\u00a0 She is a member of the AASL\/ALSC\/YALSA Interdivisional Committee on School-Public Library Cooperation and currently serves on AASL\u2019s Innovative Reading Grant subcommittee.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Metro Photographic Services<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been fortunate to be part of Limitless Libraries, Nashville\u2019s groundbreaking collaboration between school and public libraries, from both the school and public library perspectives.\u00a0 Students and teachers in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) are automatically enrolled in Limitless Libraries, meaning their student and teacher ID numbers are also public library card numbers.\u00a0 They can access all of Nashville Public Library\u2019s (NPL\u2019s) digital resources, and request physical materials that arrive through school delivery.\u00a0 Additionally, Limitless Libraries supplements local schools\u2019 library budgets to ensure all MNPS libraries have recent and relevant collections. Shortly after Limitless Libraries began, a private donor, inspired by the collaborative spirit of the program, donated $1 million through the Nashville Public Library Foundation to renovate two MNPS libraries\u2014one high school and one middle school. \u00a0NPL\u2019s funding and renovation experience combined with MNPS\u2019s knowledge of their students and best school library practices to produce welcoming and functional school…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[785,765,42,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aaslalscyalsa-interdivisional-committee","category-collaboration","category-library-design-and-accessibility","category-partnerships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}