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LeMire, Sarah; Graves, Stephanie J.; Farrell, Shannon L.; Mastel, Kristen L.

1 11 Survey Results SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement

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SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (November 2018) resources

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1 11 Survey Results SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement

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SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (November 2018) resources

2 Survey Results: Executive Summary Executive Summary Introduction Library outreach is experiencing a renaissance. Librarians have been reaching out to their communities and developing programming for decades, but libraries are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their value to the communities that they serve. In response, outreach positions are becoming more commonplace and communities of practice are emerging around measuring the impact of library outreach activities. This SPEC Kit was born out of the authors’ struggles and successes in providing academic library outreach services at their local institutions. The survey questions were designed to gather information from ARL institutions to create a picture of library outreach that spans across institutions a professional baseline. Questions of organizational priorities, vision, goals, resource allocation, staffing models, and assessment come together to paint the picture of how libraries are approaching outreach programs. The survey was sent to the 125 ARL member institutions in July 2018, with 57 (46%) responding by the August 6 deadline. The data gathered suggests that systematic outreach programs are still very much in their infancy and highly dependent on local organizational culture. This SPEC Kit highlights the areas where libraries share approaches to outreach programs while also shining a spotlight on issues that warrant continued research and attention by outreach librarians and library administrators. Definitions and Activities We know from the library literature that there is not an agreed-upon definition of outreach. As a result, this section of the survey sought to investigate how institutions define and describe outreach. The survey asked questions about the varied definitions of outreach, categories of outreach activities and programming, and frequency of outreach and target audiences. When asked to define outreach at their institutions, respondents from 55 institutions provided a variety of perspectives. While no single definition emerged, some common themes became apparent. Most respondents indicated that outreach at their institution was multifaceted, involving working across campus or the broader organization. For example, one institution defined outreach as “creating moments of discovery, learning, and exchange with the university community.” Other respondents did not seem to have a predefined outreach definition, but instead created a response specifically for the survey: “[f ] or the purpose of responding to your survey, we are defining outreach as activities that connect with our core constituents—faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the public—to provide awareness of our services, collections, spaces, technologies, etc. and to provide these populations with information, training, and knowledge to help them with their research, teaching, and learning goals.” Another strategy for defining outreach included focusing on activities, events, and programming. When outreach was characterized

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Page 1Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 110Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 111Outreach Mission and Goals click to expand contents

Page 125Outreach Programs and Services click to expand contents

Page 131Event Planning click to expand contents

Page 157Event Outcomes click to expand contents

Page 167Job Descriptions click to expand contents

Page 185Selected Resources click to expand contents

SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (November 2018) resources

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SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (November 2018) resources

SPEC Kit 361: Outreach and Engagement (November 2018) resources