Council Staff and You Kathryn Joss Corporate Librarian City of Sydney Library

NSW Local Government Librarians Group

In five minutes….. Why you should consider council staff as a reference client group. How you can do this (…if you don’t already) A little about Lglib.

Bookends Scenarios 2009 At the Futures Forum workshops 6 out of 8 groups identified funding as one of the top key influences changing the environment in which libraries operate. The majority of public library funding comes from local government.

QLD Government Agencies Library Review Key issues, challenges and trends emerge in the literature that should be considered within the context of the current review, including the need to clearly articulate the value of the library service to the parent body. Dr Gillian Hallam, QUT, March 2010

Improve the profile of the library within the organisation. Enhance perceptions of professional skills of librarians. Extend professional skills. Increase use of library resources. By providing quality reference services to council staff you can…..

Providing a reference service can also… Improve quality of information resources used by council officers “Knowledge workers primary work activities define their role: creating, processing, analyzing, and communicating information. If these highly skilled employees lack authoritative information to inform their decisions, their work is compromised” Owens, L. (2008). Best practices: Reinventing the corporate library. “Libraries and information services must come to the forefront and provide a service to their client that adds value “beyond the search engine”. Brindley, L. (2009). Challenges for the great libraries in the age of the digital native.

Many businesses seem to have a blind spot when it comes to access to high quality business information. Much of this information is stored in databases of reports, journals, books, news, which need sophisticated information management skills. Dr Gillian Hallam (QUT, March 2010)

Real world responses… “Thank you for all your help with researching my literature review”. “Thank you so very, very much, this information is just fantastic!” “You are a wonder…I will have to find out how you do these things with records. I honestly wouldn’t know where to start.” “Wow, what a service!” “This is incredibly useful.”

Can I do this? Yes you can………..

Range of requests Monographs and reports Journal articles Newspaper articles Project assistance: benchmarking, literature reviews. Anything from sourcing bird call CDs to locating the full-text of reports mentioned in the morning news…

Models of Service Comprehensive corporate library services Physical collections Databases Current Awareness Reference service ILL Web 2.0 services

Models of service Virtual Libraries Intranet presence Membership Database access Deep links to journal articles Web 2.0 (Delicious, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds) News & new books Library catalogue ILL Updated regularly

Web 2.0 tools

Where to start Library cards Staff induction Staff newsletters Intranet presence Highlight individual resources Web 2.0 Find out what major projects staff are working on and send relevant articles, links and books. Offer LIAC local government training package.

Next meeting 7 th July 2010 Target Room, SLNSW 10am-1pm

“Libraries can add tremendous value in organizations, but in this do-it-yourself information age, many knowledge workers and executives do not know what they are missing when they bypass the library” Outsell Inc. (2009). Strategic marketing for information management.