Public Library Partnerships: Using Collaborative Governance to Support Vulnerable Users

As public libraries are called upon to support increasing numbers of users experiencing homelessness and other outcomes of poverty and disadvantage, they are looking to external service providers with whom to partner to share in the provision of this support. Using a model of Collaborative Governance, the results of a survey of public library staff are used to explore these partnerships, along with service provisions provided to vulnerable library users. The survey found that public libraries are providing access to library services, spaces and resources, along with links to external service providers, and are acting as distribution points for donated items. As local government entities, public libraries are undertaking collaborative governance activities by forming partnerships with community-led non-profit organisations, large-scale non-profit and charitable organisations, and government service providers. The ‘Starting Conditions’ element of the Collaborative Governance Model (Ansell, C., & Gash, A. (2008). Collaborative governance in theory and practice. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), 543–571) provides a useful means of exploring asymmetries in the power-resource-knowledge relationship between public libraries and their partners, and the pre-existing levels of trust between potential partners as both incentives and constraints on establishing partnerships.