Community Access

In many of the libraries we have visited, community walk-in access to collections is an important consideration.

This has been an interesting feature of services offered not only by libraries in state universities but also those which are private. Guest user policies allow varying degrees of access and might include on-site access only; limited borrowing privileges from the main academic library; and sometimes even access to electronic resources. Hours and days of access might also be clearly specified.

With community access, compliance with vendor licensing restrictions on subscribed e-resources becomes an important issue. Libraries either provide users from the community with access codes which limit access to their subscribed e-resources depending on licensing constraints; or which exclude access to these resources altogether. Sometimes e-resource agreements with vendors are negotiated to include access by the community!

This encourages the development of public access and acknowledges the role of academic libraries in their social communities.