JUNGTINĖ BIBLIOTEKA – DAR VIENAS BIBLIOTEKŲ BENDRADARBIAVIMO MODELIS,NAUJAS BIBLIOTEKŲ TIPAS AR BŪSIMA BIBLIOTEKŲ VEIKLOS FORMA
JOINT LIBRARY – A NEW MODEL OF LIBRARY CO-OPERATION, A NEW TYPE OF LIBRARY OR A NEW FORM OF FUTURE LIBRARIES?

Summary/Abstract: Today, no one individual library can provide access to all information resources needed to their users. The problem of access is growing, and libraries have to accommodate information provision and demand. A possible solution of this problem is a close co-operation of libraries in order to satisfy users’ needs. Various networks, unions, consortiums of libraries are the most common forms of such co-operation. The most radical form of today‘s library co-operation is establishment of jointuse libraries. Library cooperation and particular jointuse libraries are shown as very useful for individual libraries in the article. Authors of the article give attention to various sides of jointuse library practice. They present the latest publications (Hansson, 2010) where the library identity problem while joining different types of libraries have been described. The article presents joint use libraries as a new phenomenon in library science, together with the analysis of the possibilities of such libraries in Lithuania. Considering the existence some joint-use libraries (in all cases public and school libraries are merged) in Lithuania and not very enthusiastic com¬ments on them by some Lithuanian library profes¬sionals, authors of the article intend to present this form of joint library activities more widely to stimu¬late Lithuanian library managers’ interest to this in¬novative form. Authors believe that the current situation in Lithuania is favourable for adopting good experience of world libraries and organising jointuse libraries in the country. As a kind of a pilot research, library staff and us¬ers of two university and county libraries of Lithua¬nian cities – Klaipėda and Šiauliai – have been ques¬tioned in order to discover their opinion on this form of library. According to the results, library users are more enthusiastic about jointuse libraries in their cities than library staff. Both groups of respondents represented quite a similar understanding of the main benefits of joint libraries. As the most positive benefits, comfort¬able access to all kinds of needed information has been highlighted by 38% of questioned users and by 33% of library staff. Facilities and complexity of transformed library activities have been stressed as the main problematic areas of joint libraries for both librarians and users. A half (54%) of librarians stressed the need of additional skills in case of organ¬ising a joint library. The ability to adapt the different needs of users and provision of service for them has been mentioned as the main requirement for these new skills. The study has revealed a lack of information on joint libraries among the library staff and users of the analysed Lithuanian cities. Despite this lack, re¬sults of the research concerning the general opinion on jointuse libraries is close to the analysed publi¬cations in the world‘s media.

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