   
Workshop 'Strategies for Recognition: How to Promote Government Library Services'
Report by Rob Klaverstijn
On Thursday, August 23, the Section Government Libraries has organised a workshop on 'Strategies for Recognition'. The workshop was hosted by the Middlesex Law Library. The library is housed in the Trial Court of Massachusetts, Cambridge (MA) and will probably the only library with a prison on top of the building. The workshop was attended by 19 people from 10 different countries, (the Law Library Staff not included).
In her paper 'How to win friends and influence people: growth strategies for government libraries' Suzanne Burge (Ombudsman Office, UK Government), described five key factors that helped UK government librarians to 'conquer' a strong(er) position in solving the problems of the use (by government and citizenry) of information. As UK government began taking onboard the concept of information strategy and information overload and as she became more and more aware of the power of information, all the traditional information literacy skills are needed more and more. One of the biggest problems still to overcome, is to convince that the 'librarian' is in possession of those skills.
Irja Peltonen (head of Information Services of the Finnish Ministry of Finance) stressed in her paper 'Strategies to improve Government Library Services' that co-operation and knowledge sharing are among the key factors to gain recognition.
Marnie Warner (Law Library Co-ordinator for the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries) briefly described the mission, organisation, role and position of the Law Libraries in the Massachusetts Court systems, whilst Marie Saccoccio (Attorney at Law) accounted for her personal experiences of using the library (which by the way were very positive).
Sharing resources and networking between all professional groups (librarians, information professionals, archivists), being part of the ICT (inter, and intranets), focussing on users (and being part of their primary processes and core business) together are among the strategies for recognition.
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