Head of Libraries & Archives at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
“Outreach Inside and Out: Museum Libraries and Their Users”
- Earliest mention of the library as a formal department was in 1909.
- 100,000 volumes of works.
- Library supporting a Museum
- Work primarily is for archives and preservation
- The library does not have a specific facebook or twitter. Actually that is centralized within the museum. But they do appear in these web 2.0 outreach. They also appear in the museum's "Art Babble"
- The library does have a shared system partner of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library
- Communicate with educators from local schools and universities. These educators also help spread the word about special databases and collections.
- Promotes the unique holdings of the library.
- Reference interactions are often more lengthy than other references because of the specialized collection. The connections between staff and the patron are another form of outreach.
- Recommended book title:
- Benedetti, Joan M. (ed). Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press ; [Ottawa] : Art Libraries Society of North America, 2007. Chapter 13: Marketing, Public Relations, and advocacy in the Art Museum Library
- Attend annual conferences, because of the networking. It is much easier to find materials quickly which is important when museum curators need the important information to do their jobs to the best of their ability.
- Constant communications with staff researchers is very important. Keeping in touch about research topics is helpful to help PR and outreach to the museum.
- Docent workshops created by library
Emily Okada,
Associate Librarian and Head of Reference Services at IUB “Reference Services in Academic Libraries: Outreach & Engagement”
- Context: When you think about outreach you have to think about the context of outreach. Are you thinking about public library, school library, "special" library, academic library?
- The IU libraries reorganized the public services. Both reference services were combined so that graduate and undergrads reference librarians are together.
- Suggestion to change reference to outreach and engagement. (Change was shot down, but the name really did creates a good picture of what reference is)
- Constituencies: Characteristics and information needs & interests. Outreach in collections to find what is needed. Outreach to people like athletes so they can find what they need from their mobile library. Users and potential users, how do you reach out to those online vs on site? Public Relations - Publicity - Networking. You are trying to get the message of the library out there. WIIFM: What's in it for me?
- Communication! Networking, annual reports are outreach, blogs, newsletters, tweeting, awards for research using the library, partnerships with GPSO and CAPS.
- "Gear yourself up" you make yourself be "social" be a "networker" focus on the other people and not on yourself.
- Read professional information, it often tells about outreach tried. Both failures and success.
- Readers Advisory as outreach.
- Ultimately, it's personal. It's a personal commitment by an individual to make a library viewable.
