Competency 4-RSS feeds.

I chose this RSS feed from the Tompkins  County Public Library in Ithaca,NY. because this library features programs worth publicizing through outreach. I was especially fascinated by the idea of their mother/daughter book club featured on their website:http://www.tcpl.org/

The website of the RSS feed is:http://www.libworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=%22public+libraries%22+%22public+library%22&t=Public+Libraries&r=Any&f=c&o=d

Competency 5 Library Thing-tagging/indexing/cataloging

I responded to a discussion of Heting Chu's book Information Representation  and Retrieval in the Digital Age posted on Library Thing. As one reader suggested that Chu's spellbinder will be the next Twilight, I  proposed that it should be made into a motion picture. Who do you think should star in the movie version?
 Seriously,though;I used the tags textbook, hardcover, and search strategies to describe Chu's book. I also wrote a review praising Chu's clear  writing style.

Here are some other tags that people added to this book: vocabulary,database,digital age, TWU,ISAR.

Here is the URL to this library thing page:http://www.librarything.com/home/cynthiadeleon

This book is a very useful tool for novice library students with its easy to read explanations and its legible font.

Competency 9-Internet Competency -POP goes the library! Use pop culture to get the word out.

This blog has some very interesting posts about how to use popular culture to reach new users and get them through the library doors. I chose this blog because it is full of fresh ideas and the blog authors have even written a book by the same title. I googled "library outreach " to find it.

POP! goes the library

Competency 8- Multimedia Competency-Library Outreach at is finest!

Attribution:

Digital ID: 434283. Work with schools, Bronx Traveling Library : people using bookmobile, 1938.. 1938

Source: New York Public Library Visual Materials / Lantern Slides / Branch Libraries / Extension Division / Public schools and Work with schools .Repository: The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Archives


People will always need libraries and library outreach! I chose this historic picture of A Bronx Traveling Library in 1938  to illustrate this point.

Competency 6-Database Competency

 Specific Facet search:For my topic I chose to do a search on public library outreach programs in Project Muse.

I used the specific facet search by starting with the broadest terms I know.
I put in Public library  as a search in all fields and got 27089 results.

I then added a more specific facet to the search.
I searched for the terms public library  outreach in all fields. I got 830 results.Even though the result list was long , the first ten records  looked very promising.  The second record on the list was a review that I couldn't really use. The  sixth result was an interesting history of public library outreach and a fascinating biography of a very determined and involved librarian named Vivian Harsh.

 Volume 44, Number 2, 2009


E-ISSN: 1932-9555 Print ISSN: 1932-4855



DOI: 10.1353/lac.0.0071

Vivian Harsh, Adult Education, and the Library’s Role as Community Center

Laura Burt

Libraries & the Cultural Record, Volume 44, Number 2, 2009, pp. 234-255 (Article)

DOI: 10.1353/lac.0.0071

This article was very useful.

Specific Facet Search : final result

While the article I did find was useful. this seems like a somewhat clumsy and random way to search for this topic. I might try a different approach.

 Successive fractions search:
I also did a successive fractions search in the Worldcat database to limit my search.

I started with public AND libraries, but this gave me 672.395 hits.
I limited my search by adding the word outreach as a "descriptor" and I got  170 hits.
I further limited my search by  materials:books and I got a very relevant and useful 58 hits. The first record is for Kathleen de La Pena McCook's book A place at the table: participating in community building. Ms.de La  Pena-McCook wrote the text book for my public library class. I am also familiar with her work as a past contibutor to the Reference Users Quarterly periodical. I know the subject matter usually covered in her articles and am certain that the contents of the book has the sort of information about outreach that  I am looking for.

Successive fractions search:

This search was rather straightforward because I am already familiar with the author. It would be a difficult search method if I were completely new to the library field.

Pearl growing search.  Next I turn to LibraryLit to find information about my topic.
By doing a google search on the terms "public library outreach" and "article", I learn that Judith Boyce is a leading authority on public library outreach. I go to LibraryLit and put her name in as the AU: Boyce, Judith.

I get 15 articles. Of these articles, record 3,4,5, and 6 look very useful as they involve public library outreach.

Pearl Growing Search:

This was the easiest and most direct search method. I only spent about 5 minutes pulling up this information. When you match a good Google search with a comprehensive database and controlled vocabulary, you get an unbeatable combination.

Building Block Search

I go to  First Search: ERIC  and use the words Public  Library OR  libraries  AND outreach OR community services and events . I get 378 hits. I must narrow my search. I decide to pick a particular aspect of outreach,which is outreach to senior citizens. When I narrow down my search I get 8 very useful documents.
This is not a very efficient way to search. This way seems rather clumsy and unproductive.

Competency 3-Podcast- Library Outreach dos and don'ts

 New York City  public librarians  Jenny and Frank talk about  the benefits of guerilla marketing your library to the general public and offer some helpful tips about the best way to get the attention of wary and busy pedestrians. I chose this podcast because it is a realistic look at the difficulties and rewards of doing a simple outreach activity.

Jenny and Frank reflect on library street outreach

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjOJgvkL4y4


I found this link by searching you tube under the keywords "Public Library Outreach Podcast."

Competency 2-Are outreach services dead?- another blog about my topic

This blogger, the author of  In the Library with the Lead Pipe,finds a new way to think of library outreach service. I accessed this blog through Technorati.  I included this blog because it contains a fresh perspective on library outreach.

http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/outreach-is-undead/s.


We need to lay rest to outreach’s physical body–that separate entity that comprises library departments and ancillary programs. As well we need to lay to rest the word “outreach,” whose separate existence inhibits and deters us from doing what we as libraries, librarians, and information professionals should be doing. Instead of integrating library promotion, advocacy, and community-specific targeted services, we have left “outreach” outside of the inclusive library whole to be an afterthought, a department more likely to get cut, or work function of only a few, such as your subject librarians. If we kill this notion, if we consider the word and the separate entity of outreach as dead, we are more likely to be able to embrace and participate in activities formerly known as outreach and incorporate this essential part of our jobs into our daily work routine.