Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
students use information and fulfill their professional roles. Repositories can en-
hance scholarship and opportunities for discovery.
Repositories are not restricted to colleges and universities. A repository is a
storehouse for knowledge that's created locally. Public libraries are now looking at
how they can support people developing their own content, whether print, video, or
multimedia.
The “maker movement” is all about the library supporting people as they create
information packages. Although libraries in the past only collected and dissemin-
ated information packages, now libraries of all types are supporting the creation of
information packages.
Outreach
A trend in all types of libraries and other information agencies is outreach. Pre-
viously outreach in a public library was to do a topic talk in a school, or an academ-
ic librarian would guest lecture in a class. Now in academia the specialist librari-
an has office hours in an academic department and develops ways for students to
engage in research as part of their course work. Academic librarians engage with
faculty in their research as well, as described in Chapter 9.
In public libraries outreach has expanded considerably. For example, librarians
in rural areas are doing such things as setting up a library booth at the farmer's
market in their communities.
The Douglas County (CO) Public Library pioneered the community reference
model that placed librarians in community organizations and government offices.
Librarians become part of community organizations dealing with important issues,
and the librarian does research and writes reports to help guide decision-making
on local issues in the community.
Public library programs are expanding beyond the traditional story time and of-
fering various kinds of literacy-enriched and learning-enhanced programs: cooking
classes, model gardens, gardening areas for people to plant their community gar-
dens, nutrition, yoga classes, and anything that supports community well-being.
These programs expand our notion of libraries supporting learning, especially in
public libraries, where the definition of “learning” includes learning to improve one's
quality of life.
From Transactions to Engagement
The activities of library and information professionals are changing as the emer-
gent paradigm influences the profession. As noted above, repositories change the
roles of information professionals, and outreach efforts have increased. Also, the
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