To: RCPL Board of Trustees

From: Jeanie McCallister, Reference Department Supervisor

Re: Community Partnership Project

Date: April 30, 2006

To: Jeanie McCallister, Reference Department Supervisor

From: Jared Likness, Reference Department Librarian I

Re: Community Partnership Project

Date: April 30, 2006

Summary:

As part of the recent restructuring combining the Reference and Youth Services Departments, the community partnership project is being realigned. There was not a designated contact person which caused for confusion on the status of project deadlines. A team of three Reference Services staff will be assigned to take over the project, with biweekly reports to the Reference Services L1. The goal is to establish ten community partnerships a year.

Goal:

• Open a dialog with community groups in order to highlight and promote portions of RCPL’s collection.
• Use their expertise in their area of interest to strengthen the collection
• Develop program possibilities
• To increase library use and our profile in the community

Expectation:

• Community groups will look over our existing collection for currency
• They will suggest more current titles that would help to increase usage in that area and to also suggest new titles for purchase.
• By involving them we highlight what the library has to offer not only to their group but the broader community.

Plan:

• Systematically contact community groups that would be a good partner in the process of looking over our materials.
• Use Rapid City Journal community group listing as basis for making contacts
• Have group make suggestions for collection development within their area of expertise. This may include suggestions for new titles as well as suggestions for deselection.
• Explore program possibilities
• Invite group to host one of their meetings at the library
• offer a tour
• offer a presentation of resources, if applicable

Marketing:

• Use homepage headlines to promote the new and existing titles of interest; including information on our partner.
• Work with IA L1 to create press releases, if appropriate.

Assessment:

• Determine success rate of contacts.
• Evaluate usage of new material
• Evaluate program turnout
• Determine if ongoing relationship developed (i.e., did the group continue to met at the library?)
• Determine improvements to be made to the process

Staffing:

• Community Partners team: Maryanne, Leah, Leanna

Timeframe:

• Team will be continually working to make successful contacts.
• The goal is to be working with three organizations at a time
• Continue calling until a successful contact is made
• Once a relationship with a group is established, work will have to be done according to their timeframe.
• Overall goal is 10 community groups per year.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER