Recently, Jennifer and I had the pleasure of speaking with several Florida librarians about their state’s initiative to provide resources, tips, and techniques for finding and using federal and state government resources. Here are a few highlights:

Karen Brown, library program specialist at the State Library and Archives of Florida, manages a program to harness the activities and documentation of libraries around the state, including coordinating a working group that meets once per month. The state library has given a number of training workshops to staff around the state on e-government. We look forward to learning more about the resources that this group produces.

Nancy Fredericks, e-government services manager at Pasco County Library System (PCLS), used LSTA grant funds to create extensive e-government resource section on the PCLS website:

• E-government Tools Page: includes e-government videos, tutorials, statistics, and more). Click on each section and more information displays below.
• E-Government blogs: General E-gov information; Healthcare blog; Job Seekers blog. In the works are blogs on topics such as business, legal, and grants information.
• PCLS E-gov web page

Florida also maintains an e-government email discussion list. This list is open to anyone.

Nancy also serves on an ALA e-gov committee, which exposes her to the needs and ideas of librarians around the nation. She tells us there will be some helpful resources–including a toolkit–coming out of this group’s work later this year.

We also heard from Sol Hirsch, director of Alachua County Library District, and Otto Pleil, a staff member at the library, who described the innovative partnership between their library and the local community. As part of the program “Partnership for Strong Families,” thirty social agencies rotate into the open space in the building that also houses the library, and the library sets up related material in a highly visible location. This means that patrons don’t even need to leave the building to find the additional information they may need for their social service needs, such as job search, literacy, parenting, healthcare, and so on.

Otto described his witnessing of the challenge that staff face in shifting from book- to computer-centered service and the growing need to provide social service information and assistance. He has presented with Nancy on tips and techniques for how libraries can be prepared for this type of service. We have posted one of these presentations (as PowerPoint slides) on WebJunction in the Introduction to E-Government section, along with Nancy’s cheatsheet of both state and federal e-gov resources.

What e-government initiatives are happening in your state? Post a comment here or on WebJunction to let us know.