Presentation Title: Mental, Physical, and Social Benefits of Dance: A Client Project
Presenter(s): Ashley Minnich, School of Information
Abstract: Special librarianship is a diverse career pathway in which information professionals can come from various educational backgrounds, work in different types of settings, and can be experts on a range of different information topics. Client projects are one method by which developing information professionals can develop the research skills and the communication experience necessary to work with external clients with varying information needs in future work environments. The client for this project is Nanine Wainwright, the Artistic Director for the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance in Pueblo, Colorado. The information request was for scientific and peer-reviewed scholarly literature published within the last 20 years about the mental, physical, and social benefits of dance for the organization to use in future marketing materials. The project was executed by conducting a reference interview with the client, evaluating potential databases for topic relevancy, developing a search strategy and evaluating results, presenting results to the client concisely for their evaluation, and mutually concluding that the information need was met. The aggregate databases ProQuest Dialog, Clarivates Web of Science, and the Dance Education Literature and Research descriptive index from the National Dance Education Organization were selected for topic relevancy. Suitable articles were presented to the client for review before final searches were conducted and a final list of articles provided. By completing this client project, evaluation and searching skills for databases and articles were developed as well as communication skills with individuals outside of the field of library and information science.
Link to Recorded Presentation: https://youtu.be/hPngpWO0WWY
Congrats, Ashley, and thank you for sharing this insightful process! I appreciate seeing your style of reference interview and also how your deliverables evolved as the client interacted with the articles you found. I have to ask: do you dance?! How did you find this particular client to work with?
Hello Erin, thank you!!
I can’t say that I’ve pursued dance like the students at the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance do, but it is a hobby I enjoy! I “found” this client because Director Wainwright is a former supervisor of mine. I was the administrative assistant for the department for over four years, though I was no longer working there when I started and completed this client project.
As I was considering topics for the final assignment for my INFO 240 – Online Searching class, I reached out to Director Wainwright to see if there might be an information need she did not have time to dedicate to researching herself, and that was how the project developed.
Thank you for your comment!
-Ashley
Hello Erin, thank you!!
I can’t say that I’ve pursued dance like the students at the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance do, but it is a hobby I enjoy! I “found” this client because Director Wainwright is a former supervisor of mine. I was the administrative assistant for the department for over four years, though I was no longer working there when I started and completed this client project.
As I was considering topics for the final assignment for my INFO 240 – Online Searching class, I reached out to Director Wainwright to see if there might be an information need she did not have time to dedicate to researching herself, and that was how the project developed.
Thank you for your comment!
-Ashley