Partnership working is a crucial aspect of the provision of library services for people with dementia and their carers. Partner organisations, including care homes, day centres, adult social care, arts organisations, community groups and dementia research organisations, can provide valuable guidance and expertise, as well as practical support and even the development of codelivered services. This can be achieved through both formal strategic partnerships and more ad hoc collaborations. Conversations with potential partners can help to develop library-based activities, but can also lead to the establishment of outreach services to allow libraries to reach people with dementia and their carers in a range of settings. The case studies in Chapters 4 and 5 included examples of partnerships to deliver both library-based and outreach initiatives, but this chapter looks more explicitly at the mechanisms behind the delivery of these types of services – how partnerships are established and maintained – rather than at the services themselves in detail.

Heather Rodenhurst from Shropshire Libraries in the UK describes the importance of both established and more informal, or developing, partnerships to spread the word about the memory bags service they offer (described in Chapter 4):