Librarians at Land-Grant Universities Working with Extension: Three Case Reports

Abstract

Librarians and Cooperative Extension Service (CES) professionals in the United States have common missions to make authoritative information available to their constituencies. Both professions have long traditions of service and success in the dissemination of information. This paper explores how librarians can partner with CES and contribute unique skills and expertise. After a summary of the history of CES and the historical connection among land grants, extensions, and agriculture, three case reports are presented that outline how three librarians at land-grant universities have worked with CES.

Libraries and Extension: Partnering to Expand Access Through Ebooks

“…This process created a partnership between the Libraries and Extension to make content not only more accessible to the public but also preserve it historically. Along with this partnership, Extension's library liaison, Kristen Mastel, serves as an integral part of Extension's research, teaching, and promotion process; this allows her to connect Extension staff with library resources and services (Haugen, Mastel, & Pfander, 2017). In 2014, the Libraries created a department dedicated to open scholarship and publishing-an initiative that paired well with Extension's early adoption of hosted blogs, publication of ebooks, and archiving of digital records.…”