Mergers and alliances [electronic resource] : the wider view / edited by Anne Woodsworth, W. David Penniman.

Includes index.

Characteristics of collaborative partnerships in library technology and web service initiatives : emergent patterns and lessons learned / David A. Jank -- Lessons from the corporate world / Maureen L. Mackenzie, W. David Penniman, Anne Woodsworth -- With other minds : collaboration in a new environment : a view from the council on library and information resources / Charles J. Henry, Kathlin Smith -- Regional library networks and OCLC : from collaboration and interdependence to conflict and divorce / Jordan M. Scepanski, H. Lea Wells -- Consortia initiatives in higher education libraries in India : a reconnaissance of the national landscape / Manorama Tripathi -- International collaboration for a master's degree program in library and information science / Elena Corradini -- Mergers, collaborations, alliances, and partnerships in LIS education / David A. Jank, Heting Chu, Michael E.D. Koenig -- Reinventing the academic library and its mission : service design in three merged Finnish libraries / Arja Juntunen ... [et al.] -- Responding to crises with alliances : evidence from an academic library survey in Greece / Petros A. Kostagiolas ... [et al.] -- IDS project : community and innovation / Mark Sullivan ... [et al.].

Volume 36 of Advances in Librarianship seeks to provide a comprehensive broad review of the factors that lead to mergers and other alliances, the methods used to ensure effective and successful collaborations. While corporate mergers make headlines, similar efforts in library and information science are less vociferously touted. They are occurring however amongst libraries, among LIS degree programs, and enterprises such as networks and consortia They are occurring as governments around the world mandate consolidation of operations amongst agencies under their purview in order to reduce or curtail expenditures. The chapters include original research, case studies, literature reviews and conceptual papers on the following topics: Structural and operational mergers in the US, and also in Finland where higher education has undergone significant change in the past 10 years resulting in merged and joint library operations; A review of successful and unsuccessful mergers in the corporate sector which provide lessons that benefit the nonprofit sector; Experiences in higher education in library and information science programs through analysis of collaboration both in the US and in Europe and the Middle east by multi-university effort that adhere to standards of the Bologna Process; The collapse and mergers of former OCLC regional networks in the US; ; The fiscal results and savings from network acquisition of electronic resources and databases; the impact of efforts such as the Council on Library and Information Resources to nurture collaboration amongst libraries and various types of agencies; The results of radical fiscal constraints in Greece which led to contraction and collaboration among university libraries there.