Date:6 April 2001

Subject:Community Relationships

To: Department Heads

From:William C. Robinson, Head of Libraries

The Board of Trustees has been discussing increasing collaboration and cooperation with the community. As you probably know, town and gown relations have not been as cordial as we would like. We would hope that increased community interaction would minimize some of the problems that we have had in the past, especially our undergraduate students' behavior on weekends, and the expansion of our campus into the old town down area.

As you might expect, there is considerable interest in making library services and collections available to those who live in the town and in Washington County. We have been asked to consider creating a new borrower category with a two week borrowing privilege. The Washington County Public Library has limited collections and services. We have also been asked to develop a program for working with the Washington County School District to promote the integration of the Internet and primary sources into the school curriculum.

At our next staff meeting, I look forward to your thoughtful discussion how we should respond to becoming more of a community library. How can we adopt this additional role without diluting our ability to provide access for our own students (who pay a hefty tuition), and faculty. There are some political problems here so we need to be considered in our response.

----------------------------------------------------------------------