The Indiana State Library: Partnerships and Cooperation Across the Library Profession

Abstract

The Indiana State Library has been involved in partnerships and cooperative ventures with libraries and allied organizations and agencies for decades. Because of the Library’s unique role in providing services to both government and its citizens, these partnerships are integral to the Library’s functioning and support of information services throughout the state. Partnerships involve the commitment of Library resources, whether staff time, money, or the contribution of materials. The Library has made use of partnerships that result in better services to Indiana’s library community and to the people of Indiana. Projects and services resulting from these partnerships range from expanded genealogy holdings to public programming for library trustees to support of INSPIRE, Indiana’s Virtual Library. New partnerships are under development as well, and hold promise for continued improvement of library services across Indiana – an objective central to its primary responsibilities.