# Presentation: 505046

## Effective Government Document Outreach

- February 15, 2003
- Suzanne Sears

## Documents Excitement

**Notes:**
Most documents departments are low on the administration’s priority list because they aren’t EXCITING enough.  They don’t have any “bells and whistles” to draw customers into the library.  They are too difficult to understand and access.

## Four P’s to Effective Outreach

- Passion
- Promotion
- Pro-active Reference
- Presentation

**Notes:**
To overcome this misconception of the documents collection, the documents librarian has to let everyone in on the treasure trove of information found in the collection.  Documents Outreach begins with the documents librarian.  If you do not think you have the most important collection in the library then no one else is going to think so either. 

## Passion

## HOORAY! I am a Documents Librarian

- Know how important your job is in the foundation and existence of our democracy
- Love what you do and excellent customer service will be a result
- Be excited about what you do and others will want in on what you’ve got

**Notes:**
You are one of the elite few who are in charge of protecting our nation’s historical information and the very basis of our democracy. Be proud and excited.  You will find it is contagious.  

## PromotionIncreasing Public Awareness

## Adding Bells and Whistles

- Requirement
*Federal Depository Library Manual  *Chapter 7
- Displays
- Free Materials
- Newsletters
- Newspaper Articles

**Notes:**
Add bells and whistles to the collection by promoting it.  Use displays, hand out free materials, compose newsletters on specific subjects, & get articles published in the local newspaper.

## Formal Promotion

- Newspaper articles
- Freedom of Information Day March 16
- Census 2000 and Facts for Features
- Add documents to other library promotional tools
- Library wide displays
- Library tours and staff orientation packets
- Borrow ideas from other departments or libraries
- GODORT Handout Exchange
- Government Documents Display Clearinghouse

**Notes:**
Don’t reinvent the wheel.  Use the resources made available to you through GPO, GODORT, Government Documents Display Clearinghouse, Federal agencies, and library promotional tools. 

## Daily Promotional Ideas	

- Be excited about your job
- Enthusiasm is contagious
- Quality internal & external customer service
- Word of mouth is a great way to promote the collection
- Collection maintenance
- Keep the collection clean and relevant

**Notes:**
Be available and excited whenever someone comes to you with a question.  Don’t get a reputation of the grouch who bites your head off or makes you feel stupid when you ask her a question.  

## Collection Maintenance

- Provide subject access through library’s main catalog
- Keep shelves in order and documents in good condition
- Provide directional aids for documents not shelved with the regular collection
- Develop a documents web page to provide access to internet sources

**Notes:**
The easier the collection is to access on one’s own, the more use it will get.  Try to think in terms of a 6th grade literacy level when composing bibliographies, pathfinders, web pages.  By shelf reading, weeding, & monitoring shipping lists, you can increase your knowledge of the collection.  

## Pro-active Reference

## Internal Pro-active Customer Service

- Route shipping lists
- Examine titles when processing
- Scan sources of new titles
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
- New Products
- Consumer Information Catalog
- Subject Bibliographies
- U.S. Government Subscriptions
- Email current news items and hot topics

**Notes:**
Keep your name in front of administration and staff.  Remember to keep people informed without overloading them with information.  It is a fine line between informative emails and junk emails.  Don’t send irrelevant emails every day or week.  Pick the best/hottest topics to inform people about so that your email is looked at and not trashed.  Stay informed on what GPO has to offer and what is going on in your community.  Keep a list of unique questions and frequently asked questions.  These are great for tours to staff and customers.  They are also good for staff meetings.  Pick out interesting incoming titles to show at staff meetings.

## External Pro-active Customer Service

- Monitor the news media
- Current legislation, featured reports, hot topics
- Feature related documents on a display and/or on the library web page
- New book display
- Bulletin Board
- Bibliographies
- Newsletters
- Handouts

**Notes:**
Try to anticipate the community’s information needs and fulfill them ahead of time.  

## Presentation

## Document Programs

- Provide Training for Internal & External Customers
- Introduce the Variety of Information in Documents
- Create Excitement Over the Collection and Services

**Notes:**
Take your show on the road. Librarianship has changed. Don’t sit in your office and expect people to come to you.  Create presentations that can be used again and again, even by other presenters.  You do not have to present the programs.  Use local resources such as PTDL’s, Academic Depository Librarians, Local Federal Agencies (Census, IRS, SBA).

## Training Ideas

- Staff tutorials
- Quick tutorials on how you found the answer when a question is referred to you
- Tip sheets/pathfinders
- Staff and customer workshops
- Cross training staff

**Notes:**
Take every opportunity to train staff members.  The more informed the staff around you is of your collection, the more customers will be referred to it.  I have staff who now come to me to share their happiness over finding an answer in documents on their own.  They are looking for a pat on the back.  This is a great use for the roll of depository stickers.  I give the staff member a sticker for effective use of the collection.  They are proud to wear it and it promotes the depository to customers when they see it and ask what it is for.

## Final Tips and Tricks

- Take control of what you can and don’t sweat the rest.
- Your level of knowledge
- Your level of enthusiasm
- Your positive focus
- Be proud
- Become an integral part of your library and your community

**Notes:**
You can control your level of knowledge, your level of enthusiasm, and your positive focus.  Take a political science course, read over Federal agency web site FAQ’s, read Our American Government and How are Laws are Made to increase your knowledge.  Dwell on successes and welcome challenging questions as opportunities to learn more.  Congratulate yourself, you are in a job that few people can do effectively.  It is a very important job and a mainstay of our form of government, so be proud of what you do. Keep a file of thank you notes and supportive emails to recharge your battery when you are feeling unappreciated or burned out.  Make yourself invaluable to your administration and your community by providing quality pro-active service.  Let your administration know that you can provide them with statistics for their reports.  The more you promote your collection, the more viable it will become in the eyes of the administration, and the less time you will spend defending the collection to the administration.  Provide workshops for the public on small business administration, IRS, Patents, etc.  Remember you are not alone, work with your regional and other depository librarians. Share the burden of programming with other subject specialists.

## Suzanne Sears

**ssears@tulsalibrary.org**
**(918) 596-7946**