Wednesday, May 21, 2008

SPRING FORUM, PART ONE

The 21st Annual Minnesota-South Dakota Government Publications Information Forum
From Local to International: Government Information Everywhere
University of Minnesota, Andersen Library and Legislative Reference Library
May 15-16, 2008


This forum is a chance for representatives of depository libraries in Minnesota and South Dakota to meet and discuss issues. Depository libraries are libraries designated by Congress or by law to receive government information products without charge provided the libraries meet certain conditions. Saint Paul Public Library is a partial depository, receiving 39% of the documents produced by the Government Printing Office (GPO) and Melissa Gray and I, under Phyllis Kendig’s guidance and with the help of Sue Betz and Pat Johnson, manage this collection. We recently attended this two day forum to keep up to date with what’s happening with gov docs.

On the first day we listened to several interesting presentations. The first “Promoting Government Information: Library 2.0 Style” was presented by Sarah Gewirtz, a Reference/Government Documents Librarian at the College of St. Benedict’s/St. John’s University. Ms. Gewirtz first talked about the need to develop a plan for promoting one’s collection. This involves defining the primary objective/s, determining what to promote, and choosing an audience. Promoting collections can be done in a traditional style: bookmarks, displays, bibliographies, posters or in Library 2.0 styles. Ms. Gewirtz showed us some examples of traditional displays and promotional pieces and then demonstrated how they can be promoted using 2.0 tools. Ms. Gewirtz does a Gov Doc of the Month display which she then photographs and posts in a Flickr account along with examples of other Gov Docs displays she has done. In her Flickr entries, she notes the SuDoc number of the item, what formats it’s available in, and has it linked to the University’s catalog so that when you put your cursor on the photo it brings up a message that tells you to click here to see if it’s available in the library. Ms. Gewirtz has also created slide shows of government documents using either PowerPoint or Windows Movie Maker and then loads them on to YouTube. Other 2.0 tools mentioned were blogs, del.icio.us, and RSS Feeds and Feed Readers as a way to alert customers of updates.

Steve Dornfield and Jan Price presented on the Metropolitan Council and Regional Progress, talking about the Metropolitan Council’s work and ways to access information on its website. The website has pull-down menus based on the areas it focuses on: transit and transportation, water, parks, planning and development, and housing. Reports and data contains publications and statistics for each area of focus. The website also has meeting minutes and live video of Council meetings. The right hand side of the homepage has links for frequently requested information like maps and this section has an interactive map tool that will bring up city names and a city profile including data and reports. Other useful features of the map section are the map gallery where you can select maps by topic and community and the make-a-map section where you can create a customized map.

Jan Price, the Metropolitan Council’s librarian, reported that they try to keep copies of every Metropolitan Council document in their library as well as collecting additional materials on urban planning, design, and related topics. She also works on the website, which focuses on current information. Older reports can be found at the library which is open to the public from 8:30-4:30, M-F (651-602-1412). The library’s catalog should be available online sometime in the future.

We next went to the Legislative Reference Library where we heard a talk on International Government Documents given by Mary Ann Archer of William Mitchell College of Law. Ms. Archer defines government documents as “primary resources published by national or supra-national entities” like treaties, diplomatic correspondence, administrative regulations, reports from executive organizations, statutes, and judicial documents. Ms. Archer mentioned several portals for finding international government documents listing “Foreign Government Resources on the Web” from the University of Michigan as a premier source. We also looked at different portals for finding international law and government sites for other countries.

David Schmidtke of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library spoke to us about state documents and the library’s work to make them available online. The library now archives all mandated reports by scanning or downloading them and most of the non-mandated reports. They have also scanned documents from before 2003. The library offers two listservs that people can sign up for to receive alerts of new books, reports, and documents. Scanned items are being run with OCR to make the text searchable. A highly anticipated report is the consultant’s report on the 1-35 W bridge collapse.

Robbie LaFleur, Director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, talked about historical resources available through their library like Legislators Past and Present which contains information on legislators back to territorial times. Issue guides are another tool offered by the library to help direct legislators to library and online resources on topics of interest

Melissa will report on the 2nd day of the Spring Forum.


--Erin

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE

I attended a recent workshop on “Building a Business Case for Archives” at the TCART Spring Meeting at Hamline University. This workshop was presented by Robert Routhieaux, an Associate Professor of Management in Hamline’s Graduate School of Management and who also helps nonprofit organizations with organizational development and strategic planning. In the workshop he had us pretend that we were in charge of a special collection whose budget was to be cut. We had to discuss a creating a proposal that would address the following points:

1) Purpose, vision or “desired state” that you are hoping to achieve.

2) How your vision relates to the mission or vision of the organization to which you are submitting your proposal. How your goals align with the goals of the organization you are writing to.

3) The specific “outcomes” of the work you do: the number of people you serve, the value you add to existing programs or organizations, the services you provide to the community or organizations.

4) The budget you are working from and hope to achieve. The proposal should have specific needs identified that you are seeking funding or support for.

5) Your plan for ‘sustainability’ regarding the funding you are seeking. What collaborations or other activities will help sustain your efforts and prevent you from having to go back to the same sources every year. What is your timeline for implementation of any special projects you are proposing?

6) Additional information that will provide evidence of your ability to achieve the stated goals and sustainability: background information of key personnel, key relationships with other organizations, specific alternatives for support and continued funding of operations.

Important points that came up in the discussion are:

1) Nonprofit organizations need to remember the importance of educating people about the organization’s importance and value.

2) If your organization is thinking about trying to get a grant or other types of funding, be sure to look at the different types of funding organizations out there and the types of grants/funding they offer and the types of projects they fund. This will help you determine which funders are good matches for the work you’re doing. You should also look at some of the RFP’s (Requests for Proposals) to see whether you have readily available the type of information they request or if you need to take time to gather this so that you are able to completely fill out the proposal.

3) Be able to quantify outcomes: number of people, number of requests, number hits on the website, types of requests, background of people requesting, etc.

4) Funding should be sought for new projects and those that expand on existing work and/or create collaborations with other organizations. Very little funding exists for maintenance or basic operations.

5) If a special collection’s budget is in danger of being significantly cut, it may show that you haven’t done enough work in the past to demonstrate the value of the collection. Be sure to be visible, involved, and making connections. Be sure as well that you are part of groups involved with decision making or are at least known by those who are making decisions that could affect your collection.

6) Having some business skills and being able to create good business plans will allow nonprofit organizations to achieve their passions.

Mr. Routhieaux had two handouts on writing proposals:

How to Write a Winning Proposal

12 Tips for Writing a Winning Proposal

We also had a chance to visit the Hamline Archives, whose archivist is a member of TCART.


Erin Z-R