In my previous life, before moving to Gainesville, I worked in the Community Awareness Division at the St. Petersburg Police Department. Here we were responsible for the dissemination of all information to the media, citizens of St. Petersburg, and the employees of the police department. We did this in several ways, through press releases, newsletters, brochures, press conferences, presentation, and even through general conversations.One of the first thoughts, when I think of dissemination tactics in information science and libraries is the potential focus on community outreach and public relations. Many libraries now have weblogs that help them spread information. Many libraries, including the local library here in Alachua County have an employee (or more than one) devoted to Community Outreach and a section on their website that concentrates on news releases. Some libraries also have podcasts, which help them reach their patrons easily obtain information about their library and potential special services.
Can libraries use these types of activities to disseminate information? I think so!
3 comments:
These are some great ideas for dissemination! I am excited about the possibilities, but there are some limitations in what I can do at a public high school. It must be interesting to be able to see the difference between places and procedures!
Maggie,
I think there are limitations at what you might be able to do at a high school. I know a lot of librarians are using Facebook to communicate with their patrons and maybe something like that would be possible. A lot of kids use Facebook and MySpace anyway, so adding your library probably wouldn't be hard. You could put different events, promote different books, or just talk about what kinds of services you offer!
Just a few quick ideas off the top of my head that might be possible, but you do have some challenges there. :)
Thanks.
Trac
Your idea for community outreach from libraries is great. Libraries have a social responsibility to be a resource and disseminate information to the citizens. Now that I am learning more about Web 2.0, I really like the possibilities of disseminating information through websites, blogs, wikis and podcasts.
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