Preliminary Survey Results on Library-Extension Collaborations at Land-Grant Universities
Overall Summary
Institutional Responses: 12 (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington)
Institutions with Significant Library/Extension Collaboration: 6
Institutions with Moderate Library/Extension Collaboration: 4
Institutions with Minimal or No Library/Extension Collaboration: 2
Number of Responding Institutions Participating in AgNIC: 7
Number of Libraries Identifying Collaborations with Extension on AgNIC: 5
Types of Services Libraries Offer to Extension:
- article/book delivery and research services to County Offices
- technical support for electronic services
- access to licensed electronic journals and databases
- ILL and document delivery
- seminars, workshops, and training sessions (up to 6 hours) on library resources and/or research skills (face-to-face, teleconferencing, and web-based; sometimes for credit; often throughout a state)
- archive for historical Extension publications
- repository for Extension publications
- database searches
- presentations and exhibits at Extension meetings
- advise on software and standards
- triage for requests for information to Extension
- web page of library services for Extension and Experiment Station Staff (Tennessee)
Types of Services Extension Offers to Libraries:
- large e-mail account on PINE
- financial support for training and instruction
- houses back-up copy of NAL online thesaurus (Michigan)
- briefings on Extension resources and services
Types of Collaborations Between Libraries and Extension:
- AgNIC web sites (Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio)
- NEH/Cornell Preservation Program for Agriculture Literature (Michigan's agricultural and rural heritage; to be migrated to MSU AgNIC site)
- Extension Portal with library view (Michigan)
- orientation program (Ohio)
- state-wide Extension web pages offering online publications and “Ask-a-Librarian” services (Ohio and Missouri)
- scanning current and historical Extension publications (Michigan)
- identifying and scanning USDA publications and reports (Michigan)
- civic/community service programming for counties provided by Extension, university libraries, and public libraries (Kentucky and Minnesota; in discussion for Washington)
- tentative plan for integrating staff and services from Extension, Agriculture Communications, and the Library (Ohio)
- presentations at Extension meetings (Kentucky)
- extensive collaborative training programs (Kentucky)
- library support and services for Extension distance education programs (Michigan, Missouri, and Tennessee)
- representatives on each other's Advisory Committees (Tennessee)
- collaborative databases (in discussion for Washington)
June 2004