Effective Government Document Outreach
February 15, 2003

Suzanne Sears

Documents Excitement
Four P's to Effective Outreach
• Passion

• Promotion

• Pro-active Reference

• Presentation
Passion
HOORAY!
 I am a Documents Librarian

* Know how important your job is in the foundation and existence of our democracy

* Love what you do and excellent customer service will be a result

* Be excited about what you do and others will want in on what you've got

Promotion
Increasing Public Awareness
Adding Bells and Whistles
• Requirement
* Federal Depository Library Manual  Chapter 7
• Displays
• Free Materials
• Newsletters
• Newspaper Articles
Formal Promotion
• Newspaper articles
* Freedom of Information Day March 16
* Census 2000 and Facts for Features
• Add documents to other library promotional tools
* Library wide displays
* Library tours and staff orientation packets
• Borrow ideas from other departments or libraries 
* GODORT Handout Exchange
* Government Documents Display Clearinghouse

Daily Promotional Ideas	
• Be excited about your job
* Enthusiasm is contagious

• Quality internal & external customer service
* Word of mouth is a great way to promote the collection

• Collection maintenance
* Keep the collection clean and relevant
Collection Maintenance
* Provide subject access through library's main catalog
* Keep shelves in order and documents in good condition
* Provide directional aids for documents not shelved with the regular collection
* Develop a documents web page to provide access to internet sources
Pro-active Reference
Internal 
Pro-active Customer Service
* Route shipping lists
* Examine titles when processing 
* Scan sources of new titles
* Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
* New Products
* Consumer Information Catalog
* Subject Bibliographies
* U.S. Government Subscriptions
* Email current news items and hot topics
External
 Pro-active Customer Service
• Monitor the news media
* Current legislation, featured reports, hot topics
* Feature related documents on a display and/or on the library web page
• New book display
• Bulletin Board
• Bibliographies 
• Newsletters
• Handouts
Presentation
Document Programs
• Provide Training for Internal & External Customers

• Introduce the Variety of Information in Documents

• Create Excitement Over the Collection and Services
Training Ideas
• Staff tutorials
* Quick tutorials on how you found the answer when a question is referred to you
• Tip sheets/pathfinders
• Staff and customer workshops
• Cross training staff 
Final Tips and Tricks
• Take control of what you can and don't sweat the rest.
* Your level of knowledge
* Your level of enthusiasm
* Your positive focus
• Be proud
• Become an integral part of your library and your community