The Mobile Librarian Program at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract

The library at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began a Mobile Librarian Program in February 2009 to meet the information needs of approximately 8,500 employees in more than 30 buildings across a large campus. Reference librarians established themselves in selected buildings at NASA Goddard, becoming a part of the day-to-day workflow of the community. These mobile librarians provided NASA Goddard's scientists and engineers with ready reference, library instruction, interlibrary loan, circulation, and interviews for extensive reference research. This article outlines the user communities served at NASA Goddard, the planning and support for the Mobile Librarian Program, and lessons learned from our first year of field operations. We describe the demographic research conducted to choose buildings for mobile librarian service, campaigns for advertising the service, and how we established a loyal customer base. In the Mobile Librarian Program's first year, the project contributed an 11% increase to the total number of reference questions received. The Mobile Librarian Program has been a successful outreach effort for the Goddard Library, resulting in new customers and partnerships with employees who otherwise would not have visited the library.

Keywords:

• NASA
• NASA/Goddard Library
• LAC Group
• mobile librarian program
• reference services to space scientists and engineers
• library literacy for space scientists and engineers
• library instruction for space scientists and engineers
• interlibrary loan for space scientists and engineers
• circulation services for space scientists and engineers
• research consultation for space scientists and engineers

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Corrigendum

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NASA/Goddard Library and Robin M. Dixon, Goddard Library Branch Head, and Eugene Major, Project Manager, LAC Group, Code 272, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771. This work was performed under NASA contract NNG07AZ07C to LAC Group.