project # 2

For this assignment I am applying for a $10,000 grant for reference services for my made up library in Hooterville, Oklahoma. Hooterville is a small town with a total population of 9,052. Our demographics are 79% white, 4% African- american, 7% Hispanic, 8% American Indian,  and 2% other ethnic groups. the average income is $34,000 per household. 8% of the population lives below the poverty line and 6% of household speak another language other than English and their first language. Hooterville has a mix of small businesses and also a number of self employed household involved in agriculture. The three major employers are Northeast Oklahoma State Hospital, Hooterville Community College (enrollment 4,000) and the Canadian River Ammunition Plant, which employs 800 persons. Hooterville is located on state highway 12 about 15 miles from U.S. Interstate 44 and is about 60 miles northeast of Tulsa.
    Hooterville Public Library is a medium sized library with about 15,000 items for circulation. We have CD's DVD's, playaways, audiobooks, and periodicals as well as monographs for circulation. We have 7 full time employees including a manager, circulation staff, a children's librarian, a computer lab technician and a reference librarian. We also have 4 part-time employees who work in cataloging and the business office as well as the circulation and reference desk. The library has a dedicated children and young adult collection as well as large print and two study areas. We have 10 public access computer which are available for two hours a day. The library also has WI-FI  throughout the library and printing capacity. All library services are free and anyone who lives in the Hooterville or Miami County may apply for a card. In addition, anyone who live in the 10 county area served by the Northeast Oklahoma Library System may use all library service with that card. All materials circulate for two weeks and reference materials may be checked out overnight after 4:00 pm and must be returned before noon the following day. The library is opened 9 am to 7pm Monday through Thursday. Fridays and Saturday the hours are 9am to 6pm. The library is not opened on Sundays.
   The grant will include $5,000 to improve our library reference collection. We will be purchasing new atlases, various dictionaries, auto repair manuals, an art encyclopedia, some antique and collectible guides, some legal self-help books and other specialized resource to add to our reference collection. The remaining $5,000 is for a  a five year commitment to join the Northeast Oklahoma Library System Reference Consortium. This is a group of 30 academic, public, school, hospital and private school libraries who have joined together to pool their resources to have access to a large number of databases to serve the 10 county area in Northeast Oklahoma outside of the Tulsa metro area. Each library will contribute based on the size of their library and their needs. Hooterville has a service community of about 14,000 users. At Hooterville, we are requesting access to 8 subscription databases that will be available on our public access computers. We will also have access to 15 other databases on our staff only computers. The amount for these services is $1,000 and we are asking for funding for five years. In addition to Hooterville Community College, there is a public high school (enrollment 500), and one private high school with an enrollment of 124. Both high schools have libraries which are involved with Hooterville Public Library in a number of projects, but they will not be a part of the consortium.The community college has a large library which is open to the students and the general public and is a member. The nearest library to Hooterville are in Pixley( population 9,000 and Crabwell Corners( population 11,000. Pixley is located 15 east of Hooterville on U S 44 and Crabwell Corners is 18 miles southeast. Both of these towns have public libraries similar in size to Hooterville and both communities have community colleges. All of these libraries are members of the consortium.
 At his time we don't  have any plans to include Web 2.0 in our plans and are not requesting that any of the grant money be used for this purpose

blog #6

I have a few observation about the activities we have been working on the past few weeks. I think that it is very useful to be exposed to the many types and sources of information that is available to a reference library worker. I also can appreciate that it can seem overwhelming at times and sometimes you don't even know where to start sometimes. I think that it is easy to lose perspective when you are in the learning process and sometimes it is good to remember the purpose and the mission of the reference search. It is exciting to explore all the various websites and to look at print source and I think that is part of the appeal of library work. Any one in the field should be excited about learning and helping others find information which can actually improve their lives. I love working in a library because every day I can say that I have helped someone and that is very satisfying. We need to always remember that we work for the patrons. We also need to remember that reference work is work and that there is no excuse  for being lazy.  If the reference librarian just googles every inquiry the they are not really helping their patrons.
It is a process and a commitment to become a good reference worker. One of the first things that you must do is determine the needs of your service community and you must also take the time to see what resources that you already have in the library. I think that patrons have the right to expect us to know how to find information. We don't have to be "smarter " than our patrons. In many case we are going to meet people who are better educated that we are. We need to be the "experts" in finding information not knowing it. We should be so familiar with the encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs that we can almost find the right source by instinct.
The second part of the process is what we talked about at the beginning of the class. We need to make sure we understand what the patron is actually looking for. I hope that everyone remembers that important step and if we do we won't just start typing in a word search in google. We have to continually evaluate whether the databases and materials that we have at the library are really meeting our service needs. We can  be so impressed with something like Proquest of Gale that they become their own little icons. If our patrons don't use them and we don't know how to really use them they are of little use. One thing that we do is once we find a good site is we bookmark it and we share it with our staff. We even have a little notebook where we talk about  searches and inquiries that were unusual or useful. Also don't be afraid to ask for help. We make calls to the County Law library and UCR all the time, they are glad to help. One of the five laws of libraries is not to waste the reader's time. Typing in a term search and then staring at ten thousand responses is not using the patrons time well. Find good sites and use them and know your resource helps everyone

blog #5

I have found that the readings in our textbook have been helpful and I have been able to visit a lot of the databases that are listed in each chapter. My favorite is the C.I.A.site that gives information about all the countries in the world. I actually had a chance to recommend it to a patron and I think that it is great that it has a kids page. I think that one of the most important trends that I have seen in the past five years or so is that so many of the databases have become more and more expensive and specialized. I always try to find free information for our patrons when I can, but sometimes you get what you pay for. The saying used to be "knowledge is power" now it is more like "information is profit". One of the most important aspects and strengths of the public library is that it provides everyone with information and is accessible to everyone. We are losing that as more and more information becomes a paid commodity. I also would like to respond to the  question of reliability of the sources we use. One of the most important things we need to do as library workers is to make sure that we give reliable information to our patrons. We really have an ethical responsibility to do so. I never used blogs and so I can't recommend any for finding out whether a source is reliable. I think that too much has been made of the supposed credibility gap with free sites like Wikipedia. Some of the stories are nothing more than urban legends. For myself I rely on the tried and true sources. I don't have the time to evaluate sources, and I don't have the time to sample all of the free trial periods that they offer.
  I am a member of ALA and CLA and read the periodical that these organizations publish. I also read Choice and Library Journal and both of these publish lists as well as evaluate reference sources. I think that these are independent sources for reviews and we rely on them for making decisions for purchasing materials.
I would also like to reiterate the value of print sources. I know that electronic sources may seem faster, but there are a lot of patrons who don't have access to smart phones and computers. There is definitely a digital divide in our communities and in our schools. It is critical that libraries help patrons who cannot access online or electronic sources. A good selection of both online and print materials and a trained staff is a great combination for a public library. Finally public library cannot always afford all of the databases that a college can. If only a few people use the database it may not be something that the library should acquire no matter how up to date it might be, and opt for something just as good but cheaper