Inspiring library partnerships: Evaluation of a unique reciprocal borrowing scheme between Higher Education and local authorities in the West of England

TL;DRAbstract

The SWRLS Open Doors project was a partnership between LibrariesWest (led by South Gloucestershire Library Service) and UWE Bristol Library Services and funded by SWRLS (South Western Regional Library Service). The aim was to pilot a reciprocal borrowing scheme between public and academic libraries using existing cards, i.e. public library cards in the academic library and university ID cards in the public libraries. The pilot looked at the scheme in terms of the following:
\nthe ease with which it was to set up,
\nits limitations,
\nbarriers or obstacles and how these could be overcome,
\nhow popular it was both with staff and customers (i.e. members of the public or UWE staff and students).
\nThe report details the way in which the pilot was run, considers information from other higher and further education institutions and relevant literature, looks at other schemes in the UK and outlines the issues that were identified. The users of the scheme were surveyed – st

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