"Now more than ever, libraries are no longer the center of the information universe. The focus has shifted to the user as the driving force behind library services, not the Platonic ideals of information organization. User-centered design is the manifestation of this shift. ... Communication, learning curves and new work, quality control, planning for the unexpected, the value of supportive partners -- we must consider all these things in any work environment, including libraries. Communication is one of the most important of these factors. Get out of your office. Walk the halls. Chat with your neighbors. Avoid email. Employ the telephone. Nothing happens without communication." ~ Eric Lease Morgan
"Library services and activities must be viewed through the eyes of
the customers, letting customers determine quality by whether their
needs have been satisfied. Librarians must be sure that their work,
activities, and tasks add value to the customer." ~ Carla Stoffle
The key to survival and success is to create user-centered
services and not librarian-centered services. We need to help users to
accomplish certain tasks and we need to know what those tasks are.
Dervin and Zweizig have written extensively on the user-centered
approach to content provision. Instead of asking why a library
collection is used, the question should be what task was the content
needed for and the degree to which the collection helped to accomplish
that task. The focus is not on the library user, but rather on the
particular use. Thus, the individual "actor"
becomes central. Content seeking involves "sense-making"
or the process of making sense out of a particular situation, here
solving a problem [problems represent "discontinuity"]
in completing a task of some sort. Lack of content creates a "gap"
that the right content may fill. Thus, content seeking is "gap" filling
or overcoming a discontinuity. Gaps may be difficult to articulate
which is why the reference or readers advisory interview can be such a
challenge. Content has value as it fills gaps and allows a task to be
completed. While there is much more to user-centered services in
theory, the key here is that collections must be seen from the
perspective of user tasks [which certainly include entertainment as
well as information]. We must begin with the user and their tasks. Then
we examine the degree to which content provision resulted in success
[outcome]. There is some question about the degree to which members of
a group or segment share common tasks, problems, and content
needs/wants.
Community Information by Zip Code is especially useful for public and school libraries.
"When Santa Ana's public library invited best-selling mystery writer T. Jefferson Parker to speak several years ago, fewer than a dozen people showed up. An appearance by Mexican television anchor and author Jorge Ramos at a Latino bookstore downtown last October drew 3,000." "In a community where 74% of residents speak Spanish, the library's Spanish-language book collection comprises only 10% of the books in its three branches."
As communities change, shouldn't collections and services change? How do you know when a community is changing? Are we developing collections for the library of the past or the library of the future?
While "community" is the most frequently used term, service area or service population may be used instead. Community is probably a more inclusive term and one that suggests common values and interests. Stephen Abram provides several answers to the question "What's my community?":
Analysis is the traditional term but "assessment"
has become more popular in recent years. Assessment is associated with
the assumption that a problem needs to be solved by gathering focused
information. Assessment is a process that
creates a product.
Needs assessment focuses on what is good for the community. A "felt need" is one that is visible to the professionals involved. Needs assessment fits well with the professional model of diagnosis, prescription, treatment, and evaluation.
Wants assessment focuses on what the community asks for. Some would substitute what the community is willing to pay for in money, time, and effort. Want and needs assessments are not mutually exclusive. Collection developers may wish to do both.
There is some confusion in the literature about the relationship between mission, goals and objectives and the community analysis. One could make a persuasive argument that these planning elements should logically follow the community analysis. It can also be argued that community analysis comes first and provides broad guidelines which answer such questions as "who will the community be defined" and "who should be served"? Certainly, the collection developer will need to be familiar with the mission, goals, and objectives of the parent institution. Ideally, the collection should implement and promote the mission of the parent organization.
A well-managed information agency will also have a mission statement with supporting goals and objectives. Collection development and management should have a prominent role. The collection developer needs to be familiar with these statements, their rationale, and likely permanence. Progress toward goals and objectives will need to be measured. Information agencies may select from several missions, including:
The purpose of any collection is to be "used," to be "useful," and to be "usable." Use may flow naturally from the community or it may be stimulated. For example, student use of library collections is the result of coercion by the Faculty.
In an ideal world, the information agency would be an integral
part of the community. Perhaps even the "heart" of that community. It
follows then that the collections must be firmly linked to community
wants and needs. To do this, we need valid, reliable evidence about the
nature of the community and how it is changing. We need to make
decisions on evidence rather than anecdotes or impressions. Collection
development should always begin with people, not reviews. A quote
attributed to Kwame Nkrumah, the father of an independent Ghana: "Go
to the people, live among them, learn from them, love them, plan with
them, start with what they know, build on what they know."
One of the important benefits of the community analysis is that it should create "realistic expectations." The collection developer should have, after the process is complete, realistic expectations about community wants and needs. Community members should have realistic expectations about the collections. Often, community members do not have realistic expectations. From ignorance, they expect too little or too much. Often, they simply assume that the collection would never contain something of interest. In a few cases, especially in research environments users may have expectations that are clearly inappropriate. For example, a graduate student arriving in Knoxville from Urbana-Champaign might assume that the UTK collections should be similar. It is our responsibility to create the best and most appropriate collection possible given the community and available resources. Users and potential users should be told what collections can be made available and why.
Although often ignored by well-meaning information professionals, the fundamental truth of CDM is that it is "their (the community's) collection." We are the good stewards, but there should be no doubt that the collection is for the community and that, inevitably, the community is responsible for its welfare. If resources are inadequate, it is the responsibility of the community to secure what is needed. Collection developers and managers are responsible for acting in an objective, informed, professional manner, but success or failure rests with the community. Ideally, CDM professionals and community members would work together to insure that collections meet community needs and wants.
Use and user studies are done much more frequently than the community analysis. Obviously, they are limited to those presently using the collection in person, via a proxy, or remotely (perhaps using a server based collection). The great advantage of user studies is that users typically have an interest in participating in the study, their collection may improve, and it is relatively easy to identify respondents and gather information since users come to the collection. They major disadvantage is that this can lead to a preoccupation with the status quo and may ignore the need for new collections to meet new needs. Too, serving a limited audience may create problems with funders or critics who argue for collections to serve the larger community. Developing a collection to meet the needs of present users may lead to a comfortable, dated collection for a declining number of users.
Community analysis [sometimes called community assessment] begins with the identification of a service area or population. When that is completed, the analysis will attempt to identify and interact with a substantial representation of users and potential users. A key assumption here is that "everyone is a potential user." The trick is to discover socio-economic attributes, interests, content needs and wants as well as patterns of content use. Priorities from the analysis should guide collection development and management and be visible in an accessible collection. If transforming potential users into actual users is not important, there is little need for a community analysis. Since potential users do not visit the collections, identifying and contacting them is much more difficult.
Although the primary focus is on users and potential users, assessment also considers community stakeholders [those who make funding and other important decisions]. Libraries and other information agencies are created and maintained in order to help people be more successful. The purpose of the analysis or assessment is to strengthen and justify the relationship between the library and the community it serves. In a time of funding challenges and increasing competition, it is essential for the library to be well rooted in the community.
Each of us belongs to several different communities. For example, Stephen Abram says that there are only five types of communities:
Each of these communities may overlap another. Family history may involve a very specific community engaged in research and learning. Abram says
"We all shift fluidly among them: doing research, performing our jobs, finding enjoyment in leisure activities, learning a little along the way, living in our neighborhoods with our friends and families. The difference is that in certain contexts one community rises in strategic importance."
In many cases, it will be useful to begin with a subject (supervision of employees) or a subject cluster (establishing a successful small business), and then attempt to identify community segments likely to be interested in the subject. R. Christine Gibson Reading suggests that these are the basics of community analysis:
Community analysis may take different approaches, but the focus is similar:
The developer may contact individuals or groups (organizations, agencies, corporate bodies). It is usually easier to find and speak with individuals in a group setting (model railroaders at a club meeting). Normally, the developer would attempt to learn about specific information or entertainment wants or needs, information-seeking behavior, and life-style (broadly defined) likely to impact wants and behavior.
Selecting appropriate methods is a key ingredient in success. Analysis can be expensive and exhausting. Better to provide a framework first. Hiller, Schillie, and Self suggest these questions:
Leadership is essential. Without the visible, continuing enthusiasm of agency leaders, community analysis is not likely to be successful. Success also requires the enthusiasm and commitment of at least one or two information professionals who are willing to do what needs to be done. Too, these individuals must be willing to go out into the community and interact with potential users where they work, play, and live. When information agency staff are active in community affairs and visible to the community, community analysis is likely to succeed. It is also important to have community members who care about the collections. Grumbling participation, by agency staff or community representatives, is not likely to result in a good community analysis.
If well-done, assessment requires resources. There may be a need for consultants. Staff may need to spend less time on regular duties. Assessment "on the cheap," may be poorly done and of little value. Assessment is a research study and requires participants with some knowledge and experience in research design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and in marketing.
Since many information agencies serve relatively large communities, simply beginning the process can be problematic. The "continuous revision" model helps here by breaking the community into relatively small segments and then analyzing just a few segments at a time. Still, there is no doubt that the community analysis is expensive in time and effort.
Sampling is often a problem. It is easy to speak with a few familiar users, family members, or colleagues in a community organization. However, this "convenience sample" is not likely to represent the community. The sample used in the community analysis should be representative of the larger community.
Common benefits include:
Community analysis makes the community more visible to the
collection developers and makes the collection, and the information
agency, more visible to the community. When complete and with the
results shared with the community, it should help the community to
understand that it is "their" collection. Gathering current information
about the community, its wants and needs, should guarantee that scarce
resources are spent on material that will be used and useful. Community
analysis is tangible evidence of an accountable information agency.
Increasingly, information agencies need to be customer-centered and
that means that quality and effectiveness should be determined by the
customer or patron.
As information agency staff interact with the community, there
is ample opportunity to make friends and influence people. Continuing
relationships should be established. Community members now have a
contact at the agency and collection developers have a contact in the
community, often a subject specialist. The result of this activity
should be increased community support for the agency and its
collections. This should lead to better financial support in the future.
Continuous revision is based on the model used to update encyclopedias. Since it is not feasible to examine and revise each article each year, a time frame is adopted and all articles are examined at least once during that period. Where current information is essential, entries might be revised once each year. Thus, over a reasonable period all entries are examined and revised as needed.
We can do the same with either the community or, more likely, the subjects represented in the collections. Divide the community or the collection into segments of reasonable size (could be DDC 100s for a small public library). Select a time frame considering local resources. Examine segments and identify those where currency/obsolescence is likely to be a problem. Assign each segment to a particular year. Work with a small number of segments each year until all have been reviewed. For example, this year we might work with the 500s by analyzing the community likely to use these materials. The advantage of continuous revision is that it makes community analysis possible by allowing the information professional to work on small slices of the community while knowing that eventually the entire community will receive attention
SWOT is an abbreviation for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and is part of the strategic planning process. The information agency would first, as objectively as possible, identify and define the areas where it excels:
The second step would be to identify and define the areas where the agency is weak:
The third step is to identify opportunities:
Finally, threats are identified and defined:
With opportunities and threats identified, the organization needs to decide what to do to maximize the probability of success. Without successful planning and implementation, the SWOT process is of little value. Environmental scanning is the best way to insure that external threats and opportunities are identified.
Environmental scanning is the "acquisition and use of information about events, trends and relationships in an organization's external environment" which will be useful in planning the organizations future course of action. Competitor intelligence is the acquisition and use of information about the actions, behaviors, and likely future behavior of a competitor. Competitive intelligence is the analysis of a group of competitors. Business intelligence monitors the business environment for change likely to affect decision-making. Environmental scanning has the broadest range of any of these activities since it includes social and demographic trends. All of these activities are designed to insure that the agency can avoid unwelcome surprises. All are processes for "organizational learning."
Environmental scanning may be used to complement "continuous revision" or it may be used instead of it. Environmental scanning may be systematic or spot checking, but it can be a useful way of identifying community or collection segments likely to require analysis. Environmental scanning is based on the assumption that change is the most important variable that information providers deal with. Further, change can represent both an opportunity and a threat. Environmental scanners attempt to identify particular change or likely change that will precipitate a demand for information or entertainment. For example, the fact that a growing proportion of Americans is Hispanic may be a threat to traditional Anglo-based collections in some cities while it is also an opportunity to develop collections for a neglected audience in other cities. Scanning can be seen as viewing or looking at information or as searching or looking for particular information. Viewing may be directed or undirected (no particular information need in mind). The literature suggests that scanning is much more of an art than a science.
Change is not just change. It may be turbulent (fast and vast) and happen within a year or so. It may be unstable (fast and small) and happen within two to three years. It may be transitional(slow and vast) and take three to five years. It may also be stable (slow and small) and occur within five to twenty years. The thoughtful information professional needs to develop a current awareness program which will help to identify important change. She also needs to know the local community well enough to relate change to a particular audience.
Change categories are the same as those mentioned briefly in discussing the external environment. Examples might include:
After change has been identified, it needs to be analyzed and interpreted. Someone needs to make sense of it. What is this change likely to mean? How rapidly will the change take place? How soon will it affect us? After "sense making" comes the need to make decisions and begin planning.
There are a range of responses to change once it is identified, analyzed, and interpreted. Change could be ignored, perhaps to wait and see the impact. We can also respond to change with new policies, procedures, and initiatives. In some cases, we may attempt to alter or guide change. For example, facing a trend for ever more expensive print scholarly periodicals, VPI began a program to develop a prototype digital scholarly periodical to be issued by the University as a non-profit venture.
An example of scanning may interest. The selector discovers a substantial growth in the number of families with home-schooled children in the community. After appropriate interaction, a collection designed to meet particular needs is developed and promoted. The collection is made visible and promoted.
Community analysis begins by delimiting the community. This can be difficult because not everyone in the service area will be provided with information services or collections. The most obvious approach to delimiting is to use geographic boundaries, usually political ones. For example, the service area for Knox County Public Library is Knox County. However, this does not mean that everyone who lives in the County will have their information needs met.
The second method of defining a community is to include all those affiliated with a particular organization or agency. For example, the National Model Railroad Association has its headquarters, including a library and museum, in Chattanooga. Most library users never visit the library and use collections via fax and other delivery methods. SIS has a large number of DE students who live in Virginia and may never visit the Knoxville campus.
Finally, the newest method of defining a community is to include all those interested in a particular subject and with Internet access. This would be "virtual community." For example, Mac users throughout the world may visit and download software from a server collection in Germany. Obviously, this is the most difficult community to measure.
In nearly every situation, the collection developer soon discovers that the information agency cannot provide everyone with what they would like to have. Certain audiences will receive more and others less. Community analysis is designed to insure that scarce resources are allocated in an equitable manner and that the most important needs are met first.
A variety of social science research methods might be used:
The community analysis process will vary from situation to situation, but here are some examples. The community walk may be an effective introduction where the service area is limited to a neighborhood, a campus, or other smaller site. The focus of the "walk" is to become more familiar with the neighborhood, meet people, and gain some sense of change. A public library branch manager walking through the neighborhood would notice economic conditions (including signs of affluence and poverty), change in racial or ethnic populations as well as families and younger children, and the state of infrastructure, especially roads and public transportation.
A literature search, especially of local sources is an obvious
first step for an information professional. While Census material leaps
to mind, there is often a rich variety of Federal, state, and local
government information available that provides information and data
about particular areas, services, and businesses. Such data might focus
on demographic data, including social and economic, service data which
indicates which services are available in the area, geographic and
infrastructure data as well as resource data. Basic demographic data is
especially useful in planning. For example, knowing the number of third
graders now will help in planning for the number of high school
students later. Geographic dispersion is also of interest, i.e. how is
the population scattered throughout the area. Often, community
development and planning agencies, including the chamber of commerce,
have already collected and packaged useful information. Some needed
data is likely to be missing or dated.
Besides searching the literature, it may be helpful to identify and meet with those in community agencies likely to be familiar with the community and how it is changing. For example, institutional research units in a university gather, analyze, and interpret much data on the characteristics of students and faculty. Economic development agencies collect data on the characteristics of the labor force and the infrastructure. The head of a research and development unit can provide detailed information on the changing research agenda. A faculty member can provide detailed information about her research and teaching interests as well as likely student information-seeking behavior. In summary, we need to be able to answer these questions:
Answers to these questions will need to be related to information-seeking behavior and collection use. Eventually, we will need to deal with these questions:
As Baker indicates, the collection developer needs community analysis to provide helpful answers from users and potential users about:
Segmentation is dividing a market into groups of potential
customers who have similar characteristics and user--life style
behavior. For example, IS 560 students share common interests and have
similar information needs while being part of the larger SIS market. IS
580 students, although similar in many ways, will have different
information needs.
Demographic segmentation identifies
potential customers or users by socioeconomic classes such as location,
age, sex, income, occupation, and income. For example, 16.1 percent of
adults in West Virginia have a college degree versus 35.5 percent in
Massachusetts [Tennessee is 42nd at 21.0]. Demographic segmentation
became highly visible as part of the movement toward ZIP code
marketing. When the Census data was issued as inexpensive digital data
files that allowed demographic data to be matched against ZIP code,
marketing people could quickly identify areas with desired demographic
or economic attributes, for example, an area populated by affluent,
well-educated families. An example might be to create a sales and
marketing campaign for women between the ages of 35 and 50 in the
Nashville area whose household income in in the top ten percent and who
are more likely to purchase expensive clothing. For those in public
libraries, the Public
Library Geographic Database at Florida State University
provides much useful demographic information about the communities
around a particular public library such as age and language spoken.
The key assumption here is that "birds of a feather flock together" or that people with similar attributes will live in the same neighborhood. One of the best known uses of Census data was the Potential Rating Index by ZIP Market or PRIZM which began in the mid-1980s and eventually categorized ZIP codes into 62 categories. "Rural Industria" is an example of a category. It focuses on young families who live in rural areas but work in manufacturing plants. They often live in mobile homes. Men drive pick-up trucks and like hunting and fishing. Women like True Story periodicals and watch similar shows on TV. They like "shake the box" meals and simple cooking. With ZIP code plus four, areas could be categorized at the block level. In contrast, "Suburban elite business buffs" live in homes valued at more than $200,000, have incomes over $100,000 per year, are college graduates, work at upper level white collar jobs, often in finance, insurance and real estate, and often own more than three vehicles. Each category has different information needs and wants as well as quite different skill and experience in finding, evaluating, and using informational and recreational material. The Sourcebook of ZIP Code Demographics can be useful for information professionals interested in defining segments by ZIP Code. GIS [geographic information systems] software can be used to map demographic information so that you can see, for example, which public library branches have a substantial number of K-3 children in their service area.
Segments should be:
Segments are normally ranked according to the degree that they would use the collection being considered, i.e. from high opportunity to low opportunity or from likely heavy users to likely non-users. If 80% of collection use comes from 20% of the users, it is especially important to identify and contact that 20%.
Segments may be based on a variety of variables. Geography is often used as with the ZIP code example mentioned above. Many organizations already have identified particular service areas. Geographic segmentation might also examine the location of service points, transportation options for users, parking, and the like.
Behavioral segmentation examines the behavior and attitudes of users and potential users. For example, users might be classed as light, moderate or heavy. Users might also be classed on their behavior in using collections such as knowledgeable versus uninformed.
Recently, there has been some interest in life style analysis (sometimes called psychographics or psychological segmentation). Here the focus is on attitudes, values, norms, and behaviors. For example, the "Ms. Restless"segment might include single women with preschool children, a job with limited status, and inadequate financial resources. The "Mid-life Optimists" are married, 47 or older, do not work outside the home, have a comfortable financial situation, and a variety of interesting leisure activities. Obviously, attitudes, values, and norms play an important role in the nature and focus of information-seeking and recreation-seeking behavior.
We can segment on usage rate of particular topics. For example, a public library might be interested in community members who are heavy book buyers. We can also segment on the ability to use a particular product. Sometimes, this is called the "readiness stage" or "skill level." For example, some desktop publishing software may require familiarity with XHTML or Photoshop.
Finally, we can segment on the benefits sought from collection use. Benefit segmentation does not receive as much attention as it deserves. Some benefits are tangible while others may be difficult to measure. Some typical benefits include:
While "escape" has been seen as less worthy than the others, a strong argument can be made that it may be even more valuable than before in a society where so much is in flux and where work seems to expand to 24/7.
Since collections are arranged by subject, segmentation usually begins with a particular topic. For example, a collection on retirement planning. We then attempt to identify as many segments as possible who might be interested in such a collection and likely to use it. After brain-storming, and appropriate community contact, we create a list of as many segments as we can think of. We then attempt to rank the segments according to likely heavy usage. Normally, the top three segments will receive attention in the community analysis. These will be called the "primary," "secondary," and "tertiary" segments. As time and resources allow, you analyze each segment in turn.
Questions will vary from situation to situation, but there are standard questions that work well in many situations. Here is a short list:
Community analysis requires the identification and contact with two kinds of resource people:
Finding resource people may require some skill and determination. Subject experts may be difficult to find outside of educational settings. For example, who are the community experts on brewing beer at home? Subject experts should know the current state of the subject. They should know what is good and what is not. They should not what is useful and what is not. Certainly, they should be familiar with the information needs of typical users. While experts on Chinese calligraphy may be found in the art department of the university, subject experts on non-academic subjects may be found in organizations, agencies, clubs, and stores. For example, the owner of a cigar store may be familiar with the literature on the topic as well as typical information needs. She may have prepared a FAQ on the topic. Since subject experts usually know other subject experts, it is usually a good idea to ask for help in contacting other experts. There are two major problems in dealing with subject experts. One, the expert may not have current or extensive knowledge of the topic. Two, the expert may find it difficult to identify with the beginner and may not be able to recommend material appropriate for that audience.
Users of the existing collection can usually be identified without too much difficulty, but it is always difficult to know if they are "typical." Information professionals and subject experts tend to recommend users who are more sophisticated (better informed about collections) and more frequent users. The typical student recommended by the teacher is almost always the "A" student. The larger the sample, the more likely it is that typical users will be contacted. Be wary of "convenience' samples. They are likely to provide evidence of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out).
Funding agencies and individuals may be skeptical of requests for additional resources, especially if these resources seem to benefit a small community segment. A properly done community analysis should provide evidence that resources are needed and that additional collection development will benefit the community as a whole or an important segment. Findings should be seen as objective, valid and reliable. It is important to be able to demonstrate the community wants/needs the collection; it is not just something that the information professional desires.
Findings are objective and straight-forward. For example, 84 percent of those interviewed prefer Amazon rain forest information in a video format or 57 percent of those interviewed expect to retire within five years. Findings are usually ranked so that the most important findings come first and the less important ones come later. Findings may be stated via text, graphs or tables depending on audience preference.
Following the findings are the "conclusions" or "recommendations." These should answer the question "so what" or what difference will this make for collection development. For example, a finding that few faculty can or will read foreign language material would lead to a conclusion that the collection cancel subscriptions to foreign language scholarly periodicals.
Both major findings and conclusions must be shared with the community via persuasive and easily understood announcements, reports, and presentations. Customer, present and potential, are particularly telling. The intent is to inform and educate the community about current information wants and needs as well as community change. Secondly, such reporting should clearly demonstrate that collections are community-based and flow up from the community rather than down from professionals. "It is your collection." "We care about you and what you want or need." "We want the collection to be current, useful, usable, and used." Thirdly, community analysis usually reveals the need for more material and that creates the need for additional financial resources. Reporting on the community analysis results should be persuasive on the need for more financial support to do what is needed.
Findings and conclusions would soon be incorporated into a
revised collection development statement that captures these priorities
in an adopted, well-organized summary statement. Later, these policy
priorities will be matched against the existing collection to identify
"gaps" and "strengths."
After priorities are captured in the policy statement, they
should also be used as part of a marketing plan, essentially a
continuing communication exchange with users to inform and persuade
them to use the collections.
This example is taken from a collection development project done at the down town Knoxville public library, but with some aspects simplified for presentation here. The subject was the prevention of child abduction/abuse, especially by those outside the immediate family.
From a list of potential audiences, the student selected:
She then attempted to guesstimate the likely number of individuals in each category and then took a conservative percentage of that to produce her estimate. She found that daycare teachers and staff represented the largest group of potential users.
Next, she considered alternative information sources for each segment. Public and private school teachers typically had access to a professional collection that included information on this topic. They also received curricular units dealing with this (state required) topic. Daycare teachers and staff had access to no alternative sources. Most parents also lacked alternative sources. Nearly all of the adults who worked with youth had received basic information on this topic from their organization or agency. Thus, she felt that the needs of the daycare staff and parents should receive priority.
She interviewed representatives of each segment and found that all segments were likely to use this collection on a light to moderate basis, usually at the beginning of the school year. Teachers were found to be well-educated, comfortable with teaching this difficult topic, informed about the topic and how to best present it. Daycare teachers/staff (in general) were not well-educated, were not comfortable with teaching the topic, had little knowledge of it, and where uncertain how to best present it. Parents and adults working with youth varied substantially in their education, topic knowledge, and ability to present the material.
Teachers desired material to match a particular curriculum unit and supplementary material such as videos and juvenile fiction and nonfiction useful for class presentations with some emphasis on case studies. Daycare staff wanted videos primarily, but there was some interest in juvenile fiction for a "show and tell" presentation. Parents and adults working with youth were also interested in videos and juvenile material useful for "show and tell." There was some interest in VF material and periodical articles by some parents. A few expressed interest in how to present this controversial material in a non-threatening manner.
I & R stands for information and referral, specifically in providing access to community information [CI]. Durrance and Pettigrew defined CI as information that "helps people cope with the problems of daily living and facilitates community participation. It is based on the assumption that a community-based information agency will be able to provide local information (Is there a club for stamp collectors in Knoxville?) as well as refer users to authoritative contacts (Here is the name of the president of the local stamp collecting club with his phone number and email address). The heart of I & R service is a collection of resources on the local community, usually with a database of community agencies and organizations. While the community resources collection will contain a variety of items, included bookmarks for local agency websites, the community resources database is especially important for community analysis. Such a database usually contains:
The contact information is used to make referrals when needed information is not available at the information agency. Although often considered to be a public library activity, I & R service can be quite successful in other environments. Note that gathering the information for a community directory is a wonderful opportunity to develop positive relationships and eventually partnerships. Directories and community calendars are the two most popular CI products. Directory content may appear in the online catalog or as a separate database.
Having a current, information-laden database of community organizations and agencies saves considerable time for the collection developer doing a community analysis. Imagine having needed contact information on the home beer making club only a few key strokes away. Similarly, as community analysis proceeds, information about organizations, agencies, and subject experts could be added to the I & R database.
The I & R movement began in the 1920s, and today more than 5,000 organizations are involved. The professional association is the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems and there are standards and a suite of helpful resources. There is a strong advocacy thread to the I & R practice with the notion that the information agency should be an advocate for the user who needs to gain access to information or to government services. This has been more popular in the U.K. than here. Thus, a proper referral would make an appointment for the client.
While community directories and calendars are fairly common in
public libraries, I & R is as not widely practiced as some have
hoped. And there is competition to fill the gap. In 1997, United Way of
Metropolitan Atlanta launched the 2-1-1
program. This is popular nationally and about 37 percent of
the U.S. now has access to it. The 2-1-1 service is designed to answer
community information questions [not emergency ones]. While Memphis
Public Library is a 2-1-1 responder, few public libraries have been
involved. Instead of public libraries, United Way and other
not-for-profit agencies are the information providers.
Many government agencies and non-profit organizations have a publications program. While hard copy publications are less important as more agencies and organizations place documents and publications on their websites, much useful information is still available in newsletters, directories, and the like. One useful outcome of the community analysis is to establish a depository relationship with an agency/organization so they automatically distribute one (or more) copy of their new publications to the collection. This strengthens our ability to perform I and R work while allowing the agency to refer queries about publications to the information agency which is usually open in the evening and on weekends and has inexpensive photo duplication service available. For example, the Knox County Public Library is a depository for all Municipal Planning Commission publications.
1. Select an information agency of your choice. Discuss how
you would delimit the community and decide which members of that
community are to be served.
2. Select an information agency of your choice. Discuss how
you work to insure that community members have realistic expectations
about collections.
3. Select an information agency of your choice. Discuss the
importance of increasing the number of community members who use the
collection. To what degree are collections at fault when an information
agency and its collections are not heavily used? Is it important to
know what potential users are interested in? Why?
4. What is "market penetration" and why is it important for
the information agency?
5. Select an information agency of your choice. Discuss how
you would create a time-frame for continuous revision of the
collection. Provide examples of subjects that would need to be revised
frequently. Provide examples of subjects that would need to be revised
infrequently. Comment upon any problems that you might encounter in
this process.
6. What is a community?
