Youth Services Professional Collection: Outreach

This authoritative resource outlines all the steps for assessing current community needs and setting goals to establish measurable outcomes. Marketing and promotional samples in every chapter will inspire creativity and help you to advance your library as a community cultural hub.

This manual considers every aspect of the process, from idea-development and inter-agency collaboration to fundraising and evaluation. Also included are examples of successful programs from across the country and winning NEH proposals.

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!

Increasingly, libraries are struggling to deal with a growing diversity in the cultural background of their patrons. Problems arising from this cultural diversity afflict all library types school, public and academic. Library Services for Multicultural Patrons is by and for all libraries that are striving to provide multicultural services to match the growing diversity in the cultural background of patrons. The book is designed to offer helpful tips and practical advice to academic, public, and school librarians who want to better serve the multicultural groups in their communities. The contributors to the book are themselves practicing librarians and they share creative ideas for welcoming multicultural patrons into libraries and strategies for serving them more effectively. Librarians will find in these chapters tried and true tips and techniques for marketing and promotion, improving reference services for speakers of English as a second language, and enhancing programming that they can easily implement in their own libraries and communities. The chapters are divided into the following categories for ease of access: 1) Getting Organized and Finding Partners, 2) Reaching Students, 3) Community Connections, 4) Applying Technology, 6) Outreach Initiatives, 6) Programming and Events, and 7) Reference Services. Librarians of all types will be pleased to discover easy-to-implement suggestions for collaborative efforts, many rich and diverse programming ideas, strategies for improving reference services and library instruction to speakers of English as a second language, marketing and promotional tips designed to welcome multicultural patrons into the library, and much more."

Including 64 focused snapshots of outreach in action, this resource reflects the creative solutions of librarians searching for new and innovative ways to build programs that meet customer needs while expanding the librarys scope into the community.

Coauthor of the popular titles Booktalking Bonanza and The Early Literacy Kit, Betsy Diamant-Cohen brings together 18 examples of successful outreach partnerships that children's librarians and library administrators can adapt to their own situations. Readers will find

How and why people become accidental marketers -- Starting with the basics of communication -- Assessing your current situation -- Using demographic, geographic, and census data -- What marketing experts think is most important -- Getting administrators, managers, and staff to buy in -- Making evidence-based decisions with administrators -- Don't shy away from statistics -- Understanding the cycle of true marketing -- Writing your formal plans -- Basic rules for producing good promotional materials -- Getting the message out -- Using your website for public relations and outreach -- Finally, the fun stuff.