Meeting students on their own turf

Academic librarians strive to make their expertise and their library's resources available to remote users. At Bowling Green State University, librarians boldly left the library building and offered reference and research assistance to undergraduate students around campus. This column describes an effort to take library instruction to residence hall computer labs and discusses possible reasons why this attempt to extend library instructional services outside the library failed.     

Leveraging Technology and Staffing in Developing a New Liaison Program

With nearly all library resources and services delivered digitally, librarians working for the New York University Health Sciences Library struggled with maintaining awareness of changing user needs, understanding barriers faced in using library resources and services, and determining knowledge management challenges across the organization. A liaison program was created to provide opportunities for librarians to meaningfully engage with users. The program was directed toward a subset of high-priority user groups to provide focused engagement with these users. Responsibility for providing routine reference service was reduced for liaison librarians to provide maximum time to engage with their assigned user communities.     

Reference Librarianship:

The current developments in technology and the various societal forces that are driving the major changes in librarianship are very similar to what was recognized as the birth of reference services during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Reference services evolved partly as a result of the spread of education which was iin a state of explosive development. As the general population of the time became better educated, more emphasis was put on the use of the library as an integral part of the educational curriculum. Libraries realized they needed skilled smmg to explain or instruct users in how to use the library and the collections. The intermediary between users and the library collections eventually came to be called reference librarians. From these beginnings, the role of reference librarianship has evolved to its present state. This paper discusses the current state of reference librarianship and the roles and duties of today's reference librarians.     

Adding Value at the Desk: How Technology and User Expectations are Changing Reference Work

The notion of what reference service ought to be continues to change as technology provides new ways to interact with users and alters their expectations of the library and librarians. As new tools for interaction become available, it is critical that librarians continuously evaluate their effectiveness at providing users with a valuable service that meets the needs of the community being served. By assessing tools and techniques in light of user expectations and satisfaction, librarians can come up with unique service programs that also incorporate their own knowledge and interpersonal skills.     

Making the Right Assumptions

Summary

Reference librarians often make incorrect assumptions about the library knowledge of their users. These assumptions can impede the reference interview and influence the outcome of the reference transaction. This article examines seven misconceptions about users and discusses how librarians can correct them to better understand their public and improve reference service. The misconceptions discussed involve users: stating their actual information needs, knowing what sources to use, understanding library arrangement and jargon, communicating with librarians, and caring about competency.     

Reference Services in Law Firm Environments

SUMMARY

Law firm libraries have undergone drastic changes in recent years. This chapter chronicles the evolution in the size of the law firm library and its collection, the changing expectations of law firm library users, and the inventive ways that law firm librarians are fulfilling the needs of the law firm library users with technology and other means. This chapter also explores how law firm libraries can improve service and overall efficiency through limited outsourcing of reference services.     

Enhancing Reference Services Through Technology

Summary

Technology makes it possible for library users to ask reference questions using e-mail or forms on the web and for librarians to conduct reference interviews using chat or videoconferencing software. This article explores each of these technologies and their current and potential use in reference services. A discussion of how technology has changed the way librarians find answers to reference questions is followed by a review of the tools needed for a well-equipped reference desk.     

Trends Affecting the Roles of Reference Librarians

Technological, economic, social, and demographic developments transcend every library and affect the way libraries provide services to users. This article reviews societal and general library trends in relation to roles of reference staff in libraries. Four bends are described that characterize the substance of future directions of front line reference librarians. These include contextual perceptions, technological competence, a human dimension, and creativity and innovation. Front line reference librarians must be astute environmental scanners; technological wizards; sensitive, proactive, advocates of diverse library users; and creative innovators of information delivery systems.     

Managing Reference Services in an Electronic Environment

The increasingly electronic environment in today's academic library is placing new demands on managing reference services. Staff are faced with selecting, implementing, and servicing a wide range of services and resources. This necessitates learning the new and integrating it into the established. At the same time, users are becoming more varied. Not only is their demographic profile changing, but more users with interdisciplinary interests are seeking assistance. Reference librarians are also working to establish new interfaces with the increasing number of users who wish to access resources without coming into the library. This article addresses the management of reference services in a medium-sized research library to meet these needs. A model for planning reference services is presented along with a staff organizational structure to meet agreed upon objectives.     

Reference and PDF-manager software: complexities, support and workflow

In the past, librarians taught reference management by training library users to use established software programs such as RefWorks or EndNote. In today's environment, there is a proliferation of Web-based programs that are being used by library clientele that offer a new twist on the well-known reference management programs. Basically, these new programs are PDF-manager software (e.g., Mendeley or Papers). Librarians are faced with new questions, issues, and concerns, given the new workflows and pathways that these PDF-manager programs present. This article takes a look at some of those.     

Reference and PDF-Manager Software: Complexities,Support and Workflow

In the past, librarians taught reference management by training library users to use established software programs such as RefWorks or EndNote. In today's environment, there is a proliferation of Web-based programs that are being used by library clientele that offer a new twist on the well-known reference management programs. Basically, these new programs are PDF-manager software (e.g., Mendeley or Papers). Librarians are faced with new questions, issues, and concerns, given the new workflows and pathways that these PDF-manager programs present. This article takes a look at some of those.     

Current Issues in Music Reference

Abstract

The climate of change in music reference represents a challenge to librarians. The three issues in the library literature that probably have the greatest impact on music reference service and are the subject of this paper are changes in users, sources, and modes of access to sources. These three issues are certainly related, as users need to use sources, and they need to know how to access them in order to use them. Reference librarians are called upon to mediate this process. Music library collections have their own peculiarities, however. Because they contain a wider variety of materials than many other kinds of library collections, reference librarians for music collections must be aware of the format, content, and intended uses of these materials, as well as the research patterns of their patrons. In the recent past, as cultural norms have changed with the paradigm of Western culture, users have wanted to use music libraries in new ways, and librarians are challenged to accommodate them. The musical genres used and requested by today's library patrons are different than they once were, both for listening and for academic study. Musical reference sources are being issued in electronic formats, and this represents a challenge for some users. The expanded use of interlibrary loan and electronic access to materials represents new opportunities and challenges. Music librarians are being called upon to provide services to patrons they may never see.     

浅谈4G环境下的图书馆服务

在介绍4G技术概念及其特点的基础上,探讨了4G技术有利于图书馆员的监控管理,有利于参考咨询服务质量的提高,有利于促进移动图书馆的发展。     

移动图书馆推广探析

移动图书馆推广应从其管理层、设计层、实施层和反馈层同时推进,做到在管理层面,增强馆员移动技术和功能维护等素养培养,克服技术畏难心理;在设计层面,保证移动图书馆功能强大、信息海量、访问快速、资源易得以及随处下载等特色;在实施层面,注重社会影响、自我效能和便利条件非常重要;在反馈层面,将服务感知和用户反馈结合读者使用移动图书馆过程中的服务期望、满意度,以提升读者满意度.     

Information and Research Support Services:

Organizing reference services to use paraprofessionals as information providers can help academic libraries adapt to new technology, provide staff support for resource sharing, and assist reference librarians in developing new and enhanced roles on campus. It is a staffing alternative that can facilitate the integration and use of electronic reference resources, such as Online Catalogs, CD-ROM databases and end user searching by providing more assistance to users. Placing responsibility for teaching library clients how to use document delivery with the same staff who help users identify needed materials makes access easier for requestors, and resource sharing more readily accepted by students and faculty. And by separating Information and Research Support activities and sharing the workload between staff at different levels, reference librarians can provide an advanced level of research assistance, spend more time on support for faculty research collection development, classroom instruction, and the development and improvement of programs. Training of the paraprofessional staff and practice of the referral process are essential to the librarian-paraprofessional partnership this model requires. This article describes how paraprofessionals have been used in reference at a new academic library, and how the role of the reference librarian has been redefined as a result.     

Joy Is Bustin' Out All Over

When the American Library Association's Reference and Adult Services Division adopted "Information Services for Information Consumers: Guidelines for Providers" in June of 1990, it set the positive tone that reference work can and should have throughout the decade and beyond. Efforts by corporations to promote end-user online services, consumer-oriented CD-ROMs, and the like constitute an attempt to recreate the library. These attempts are, however, inherently flawed in that, unlike the library, they do not marshal the wide variety of information resources - print, online, CD-ROM, audio-visual, etc. - that libraries routinely make available. "Information Services or Information Consumers: Guidelines for Providers" challenges information providers (i.e., libraries and reference librarians) to take full advantage of new information and communications technology to make not only the services marketed to end users useful to library patrons, but to realize more fully the potential of the rich resources already concentrated in libraries. The guidelines offer reference librarians and library administrators and governing boards a vision of a comprehensive information service centered in and delivered by the library to the members of the community it is intended to serve. They also challenge reference librarians, library administrators, and governing boards to make that vision a reality. This will require creativity, entail some risks, and depend for its success upon the quality of the resources allocated to the task. The most important variable will be the quality of the front-line reference librarians and their commitment to that vision and the spirit of the guidelines.     

Richness vs. Reach

Summary

The ability of reference librarians to bring library services into new electronic arenas has been constrained by the inherent conflict within traditional approaches between the reach (number of users that can be served) and the richness (complexity) of its services. Increased use of information technology has brought with it increases in traffic at the reference desk without increases in staffing. Through the application of information technology used in electronic commerce and available on the Internet, libraries may be able to offer customizable electronic reference services to their users that increase both the richness of these services and the number of persons who benefit from them.     

Videoconferencing and Remote Application Sharing for Distant Reference Service

Summary

Computer technology has progressed to the point where desktop videoconferencing with personal computers and remote application sharing software can be employed in remote reference library service. These technologies can be used to provide personal and effective distant reference and library instruction services to library users, in addition to such traditional methods as mail, telephone, and e-mail service. This article presents scenarios in which videoconferencing and remote applications sharing software can be used in distant reference service. Free software discussed includes CU-SeeMe for videoconferencing and NetMeeting for videoconferencing and remote applications sharing.     

Reaching Additional Users with Proactive Chat

ABSTRACT

Despite a general decline in recent years in academic libraries’ reference desk statistics, research indicates that library users continue to have complex research questions but are largely unaware that librarians are waiting and ready to assist them. The challenge for librarians is to connect with users at their point of need. At Bowling Green State University, we are making a move in this direction with proactive (pop-up) chat widgets embedded within our library Web pages, catalog, and databases. Since implementation, the number of chat reference questions received has more than doubled, helping us reach additional users from on-and off-campus.     

Optical technology: Considerations for collection development

Collection development librarians are confronting yet another new technology, the optical media. The industry is fast-paced and vacillating. New prototypes and products are introduced in rapid succession. Prices are fluctuating with the demand in the marketplace. This presents unique considerations for collection managers. How will optical technology, particularly CD-ROM, affect the collecting of print and use of online sources? The potential impact of optical technology on library users, user education, collection management, and library budgets is explored in this paper.