Building Community Partnerships and Collaboration for Effective Library and Information Services Delivery

Abstract

This paper takes a broad view of the steps to be taken by libraries in building community partnership and collaboration for effective  library and information service delivery. The concepts of partnerships and collaboration are explained and the background of rural  information landscape in Nigeria is revealed. The paper also x-rays the roles and challenges of community libraries in Nigeria. The paper  further notes that the terms libraries, public libraries and rural/community libraries were used interchangeably to capture the  complimentary roles each can play in building community partnership and collaborations. So the focus of the paper is on rural/ community libraries. The paper identifies and discusses the various groups, actions and institutions that theses libraries can build  community partnership and collaboration with to effectively deliver library and information service. They include market place association, churches, philanthropists and Friends of the library, Age grade association, Town unions, the Diasporas, readership  campaign, schools and local governments. The paper concludes that library is not an island entire upon itself, and with the economic  crunch which has affected the library budgets, rural/community libraries have no other option but to build community partnerships and  collaboration if they are to deliver their services effectively and efficiently.