Allison, The Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY offers a Family Pass program to libraries. The program serves as a community outreach tool and helps expose new audiences to our collection. At present, all Rochester city library branches (11) participate in the program. Two other town/suburban libraries in the area also participate. Libraries pay the Memorial Art Gallery $25 per pass requested for circulation. Our museum produces passes and the libraries affix bar codes to passes and track them just as they'd track books. Library patrons are allowed to keep passes for up to 2 weeks. When they visit Memorial Art Gallery, they sign our Family Pass visitor's log and indicate the library that they are from and the number of people in their party. They pay just $5 for admission for a family of any size. Admission is normally $7 for adults, $2 for children 6-18 and free for children 5 and under, so it's a significant savings. The pass cannot be used during special events or for ticketed exhibitions. We also mail participating libraries copies of our bi-monthly publication and fliers for special programs and they place them on their circulation desk for patrons to browse through. The program's structure has changed over the years. At one time libraries paid $50 per pass. Rochester's city library program is funded by a grant from Friends of the Rochester Public Library and includes funding for other things like storytelling at Memorial Art Gallery during a few Family Day celebrations, as well as talks and art activities at libraries led by Gallery staff and volunteers. Feel free to contact me by phone or email for more details. The program is well received by the general public and embraced by staff at the libraries and the museum. -Debora Debora McDell Coordinator of Community Programs and Outreach Memorial Art Gallery 500 University Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 Phone: (585) 473-7720, x3034 Fax: (585) 473-6266 Email: [log in to unmask] http://mag.rochester.edu -----Original Message----- From: Allison Lakin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 1:10 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Creating Museum library passes Hello, Does anyone have experience establishing community access passes? I am interested in recommendations for building partnerships with local organizations and how to integrate a check out through the public library system. Also, to museums who have participated in such programs, what unanticipated challenges have you encountered? How did you track admissions? Were these grant funded? What were your audience expectations? What were your audience realities? Thank you for your thoughts. Allison Lakin Coordinator of Community Programs The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art 5401 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, Florida 34243 Voice: 941.358.4267 Fax: 941.359.5745 Email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.ringling.org ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).