Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education: Reference Librarians at the Gateway / Edition 1

by Wendy Arent, Pixey Anne Mosley

Overview

Increase patronage with effective outreach strategies!

From the Introduction, by Wendi Arant and Pixie Anne Mosley: “Outreach is a concept that is gaining more and more significance for libraries, particularly with the recent developments in information technology. Dictionaries define it as 'the act of extending services, benefits, etc. to a wider section of the population.’This definition also implies a mission to communicate a particular message to an audience in order to gain their support. Its meaning for libraries is profound, having consequences for fund raising, public service, and public relations.”

Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education: Reference Librarians at the Gateway focuses on extending community outreach in libraries toward a broader public by expanding services that are based on recent advances in information technology.

This crucial volume with help you will explore many of the issues that are currently affecting libraries, including:

• the growth of technology and its effect on libraries and library users
• emerging literacy issues (computer literacy, non-English-speaking populations)
• providing effective services to at-risk populations
• diversity and multiculturalism and how they are changing the ways that libraries are used
• targeting and reaching specific user groups
• distance education—bringing the mountain to Mohammed
  
  If the public perception of libraries is ever to move beyond that of “musty old book warehouses,” librarians must take a more active role in the development of new services and in heightening awareness of their existing services and collections. Library Outreach, Partnerships, and Distance Education presents ideas and strategies that are now being implemented around the United States to do just that. This book should be a part of every library's plans for the future!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789008428
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/09/2000
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.38(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wendy Arent, Pixey Anne Mosley

Table of Contents

Introduction, I. Technology and Outreach, Wired But Not Connected: Accessibility of Academic Library Home Pages, Real-Time Reference Service for the Remote User: From the Telephone and Electronic Mail to Internet Chat, Instant Messaging, and Collaborative software, Marketing Electronic Resources and Services: Surveying Faculty Use as a First Step, Accessing the Old and the New: Outreach via Web Exhibits and Archive Collections at the University of Arizona Library, Expanding Outreach to a Unique User Community: The Slavic Reference Service and the Internet, II. Targeting Special Connections: Specific User Groups and Liaison Partners, Ready to Read: A Collaborative, Community-Wide Emergent Literacy Program, Pressing the F1 Key—And Retrieving Each Other, Orienting Neighborhood Youth to an Academic Library: Creating Campus-Community Connections, Providing Library Outreach to Student Athletes, Developing Proactive Partnerships: Minority Cultural Centers, Expanding the Learning Community: An Academic Library Outreach Program to High Schools, III. A Different Approach: New User Programs and Outreach Services, The “Open House,” An Effective Library Public Relations and Instruction Tool, Outside the Exhibit Case: An Undergraduate Library Welcomes the Community, Developing a Liaison Program in a New Organizational Structure—A Work in Progress, Collaborative Learning: University Archives and Freshman Composition, Academic Library Outreach Through Faculty Partnerships and Web-Based Research Aids, IV. Outreach in an Academic Library: Overview, Issues, and Background, Improving ADA Access: Critical Planning, Instruction and Outreach at Colorado State University Libraries, Outreach at a Public, Academic, Regional Library—Texas A&M University-Cor

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: David Bilyeu, MLS (Central Oregon Community College)
Description: This book presents 20 articles on ideas and strategies implemented in libraries around the country to reach out to traditional and new user communities.
Purpose: The editors intend to provide real-world ideas for increasing the public service and outreach activities in readers' own library settings.
Audience: Public service librarians, principally in academic libraries but also in public and school libraries, are the main intended audience.
Features: Published simultaneously as The Reference Librarian, Numbers 67/68 1999, this book is a welcome addition to the area of outreach, distance education, and librarianship. It contains a wealth of good ideas and examples of successful projects helpful for public service librarians. Twenty articles cover four broad areas: technology, targeting special groups, new user programs, and academic libraries. Placement of the articles within these areas is somewhat artificial and most are about academic settings. However, several articles do examine outreach in public and school libraries or review cooperative projects between school and academic libraries. The opening article examines ADA issues for the online library, an important topic for every librarian. A review of the use of email, Internet chat, and conferencing systems useful for serving remote patrons follows. The importance of marketing electronic resources to university faculty is followed by a description of a unique community outreach project using Web exhibits focused upon local historical developments. The section on special groups leads off with an article about implementing a Ready to Read program. Other articles look at outreach to local youth, minority outreach, and outreach to college-bound high school students. Concrete advice on staging an open house or planning an exhibition can be found within the third set of articles. The final section looks at ADA technologies such as JAWS, offers more on outreach within the university, and ends with an excellent article on the issue of library responsibility in support of distance education.
Assessment: Academic librarians will find more here for their situations, but this book is recommended for all librarians seeking marketing and outreach ideas. Academic librarians should also see the 1998 SPEC kit, The Role of ARL Libraries in Extension/Outreach, compiled by Tamera Lee and Claudine Jenda (Association of Research Libraries).

Doody's Review Service

3 Stars from Doody

This book presents 20 articles on ideas and strategies implemented in libraries around the country to reach out to traditional and new user communities. The editors intend to provide real-world ideas for increasing the public service and outreach activities in readers' own library settings. Public service librarians, principally in academic libraries but also in public and school libraries, are the main intended audience. Published simultaneously as The Reference Librarian, Numbers 67/68 1999, this book is a welcome addition to the area of outreach, distance education, and librarianship. It contains a wealth of good ideas and examples of successful projects helpful for public service librarians. Twenty articles cover four broad areas: technology, targeting special groups, new user programs, and academic libraries. Placement of the articles within these areas is somewhat artificial and most are about academic settings. However, several articles do examine outreach in public and school libraries or review cooperative projects between school and academic libraries. The opening article examines ADA issues for the online library, an important topic for every librarian. A review of the use of email, Internet chat, and conferencing systems useful for serving remote patrons follows. The importance of marketing electronic resources to university faculty is followed by a description of a unique community outreach project using Web exhibits focused upon local historical developments. The section on special groups leads off with an article about implementing a Ready to Read program. Other articles look at outreach to local youth, minority outreach, and outreach to college-bound high schoolstudents. Concrete advice on staging an open house or planning an exhibition can be found within the third set of articles. The final section looks at ADA technologies such as JAWS, offers more on outreach within the university, and ends with an excellent article on the issue of library responsibility in support of distance education. Academic librarians will find more here for their situations, but this book is recommended for all librarians seeking marketing and outreach ideas. Academic librarians should also see the 1998 SPEC kit, The Role of ARL Libraries in Extension/Outreach, compiled by Tamera Lee and Claudine Jenda (Association of Research Libraries).

David Bilyeu