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In today's economy, higher education institutions are struggling to maintain quality while functioning with fewer resources. For libraries, the economic situation is compounded by the impact of an information marketplace that is characterized by prices for resources that increase at 7 to 10% per year, and by near and actual monopolies controlling content. Added to the complexities of the marketplace are the demands of a faculty and student body that prefer individual actions to group efforts. These economic and social issues can become real barriers to innovation, quality improvement, and successful services for today's libraries. One way to combat the economic and social environment is by creating new and improved partnerships to leverage resources and share expertise in order to provide better services and access to wider collections. But forming partnerships is not easy. This paper will review the characteristics of successful partnership as developed by the Gallup Corporation and will show how these values can be used in the academic library environment to create opportunities for success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

AgMaps is a system that allows Mann Library to distribute customized numeric data sets and thematic maps over the Web. To further the efforts of the AgMaps project, Mann Library is actively engaging in intellectual and financial collaboration with three New York County Extension offices, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Cornell faculty, and the National Agricultural Statistical Service of the USDA. After a brief discussion of the need for GIS and AgMaps in particular, this paper focuses on the roles each agency played in the process of creating AgMaps, describes the partnerships, highlights a user study employed for the interface design and presents AgMaps and some of its features. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various articles published within the issue on topics which include the future of libraries in the U.S., new ways to staff teen services at the Free Library of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and the partnership between YOUmedia in Chicago, Illinois and the National Veterans Art Museum.