“I believe in the value of libraries”: Factors impacting collaborations between Australian public and school libraries

While both school and public libraries cater for young people and share common goals in supporting their communities, there is limited research about how they interact with each other. Using a replication study methodology, this article discusses the findings from two surveys of staff in Australian public and school libraries to gain insight into how they operationalise their relationship with each other, identify their levels of interactions and understand the factors impacting those interactions. Quantitative and qualitative findings from 119 public and 120 school library participants working throughout Australia suggest variance in the interactions between sectors but mostly reported low levels across the last 5 years. Identified factors impacting these collaborations positively and negatively included staffing, time and budget. Staffing was a big issue and many public libraries noted that local school libraries were not being staffed or even included in newly built schools as noted by one participant. Another interesting finding was participants’ perspective of the need for the interaction which was greatly shared by school library staff who felt their school collection and programs were adequate for their students or public library staff who’s outreach attempts have gone unanswered. This could be problematic in ensuring that students understand the value of the public library after they leave school. There were also clear misunderstandings identified between responses from both sectors with regards to factors like the budget and communication about collaboration opportunities. Despite these challenges, participants from both sectors shared a recognition of the potential benefits of collaboration in supporting lifelong learning in their communities and “the value of libraries” in general.