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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]

Many professionals who work in the library field agree that nowadays the Italian library system is experiencing a state of discomfort. There's a lack of resources essential to manage the everyday activities - and perhaps if there were plentiful resources libraries wouldn't really know how to use them, in order to improve their services. Assuming that cooperation is the right solution for enhancing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of library services, a path was conceived to overcome this situation. The project was structured in three steps: first there was a consultation with the researchers who - in 2001 - published the study Le professionalità operanti nel settore dei Servizi culturali: le Biblioteche lombarde (“Professionals operating in cultural services: the libraries of Lombardia"), then international benchmarking was carried out, and finally some library specialists were interviewed. The project pointed out the opportunity of creating a new system that may serve as well library networks as single libraries. This paper presents the first part of the research, i.e. a summary of the activities carried out by libraries and library networks, and the project to achieve their further integration in a “network of networks", exploring also unconventional resources as time banking. The five library areas that were identified as the more suitable for this integration are: digital services, funding, planning of cultural events/activities, monitoring, evaluation and development, editorial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]