eLibraryUSA

Digital Government Strategy: Building a 21st Century Platformto Better Serve Our Constituencies

Using Information Access in Public Diplomacy

SLA 2014: June 10, 2014

About the Office of American Spaces

Manages the corps of Information Resource Officers Supports over 700 American Spaces worldwide:o Budget supporto Physical and electronic resources

Types of American Spaces

U.S. Government owned and operated: Information Resource Centers American Centers

Partnerships with local institutions: Binational Centers American Corners

Goals for eLibraryUSA

Equal access to resources for all American Spaces Broad range of resources to support Department’s public

diplomacy goals Provide a sample of the type of information Americans can

access at their public libraries

What eLibraryUSA offers

Over 40 free and licensed resources Discovery-based catalog Guides to resources and research topics Access to all Spaces using a proxy server Information Resource Center members can get their own

account.

Challenges

Internet access varies among Spaces Difficulties in providing training Focus on English language resources limits audiences How do we show return on investment?

Solutions

Increased web-based training opportunities Training for staff at regional workshops Guides to help Spaces better incorporate resources into

programming Collection of statistics and anecdotes

Next steps

Survey to partner Spaces about usage Continued reevaluation of ROI data collection Platform evolution as user and stakeholder needs change

Thank you!

Chris ZammarelliATSG/U.S. Department of State@czammarellichris@zammarelli.com

All opinions expressed in this presentation and on the internet are my own and not those of my employers or the U.S. government.