The Reality of Reference: Responsibilities and Competencies for Current Reference Librarians

Academic reference services face great challenges as they cope with the pace of technological change, competition from other information service providers, and tight budgets. In fact, some critics suggest that reference services are no longer relevant or necessary as more information moves online. This study examines a nationwide survey that reveals that reference librarians are indeed engaged in a wide variety of activities requiring a range of competencies and skills. Results of this study suggest that reference services are not dying but are evolving, with most academic reference librarians engaged in multifunction positions involving both traditional and nontraditional reference activities.     

Hurry Up and Wait

Summary

This article offers practical suggestions for doing chat reference, including setting up, using language, interviewing techniques, and composing responses. It contains comparisons to in-person, phone, and email reference techniques.     

“Contact Us”: Archivists and Remote Users in the Digital Age

SUMMARY

Archive repository web pages have become more sophisticated in the past several years, and information about repository holdings is often readily available online. However, so long as full archival records are not available electronically, archivists will have to contend with the increase in reference requests from remote users. The author surveyed one hundred university archives web pages to examine the current availability of archival records on the Web and to explore the possible effects of this presence on archivists' efforts to provide remote users with access to repository holdings through “ask an archivist” forms, electronic mail, and other modes of communication.     

READ-ing Our Way to Success: Using the READ Scale to Successfully Train Reference Student Assistants in the Referral Model

The Reference Services Department at Radford University's McConnell Library has been developing a training program in the reference referral system for student assistants (SAs) over 3 academic years. The program's goal is to effectively instruct SAs in balancing high quality customer service with the importance of appropriately referring users to librarians and to assess the accuracy of their referrals and responses. The trainers have met these goals with the successful incorporation of a modified version of the Reference Effort Assessment Data (READ) scale, a reference transaction assessment tool developed by Bella Karr Gerlich, into the student training program.     

参考文献引用质量鉴审的3个基本要素

为充分发挥参考文献的学术论证作用,并保证基于引文计量分析的学术评价的准确性、真实性和有效性,在审稿过程中应重视参考文献引用质量的鉴审.文章提出参考文献引用质量鉴审的3个基本要素,即引用格式、引文内容和引证作用,并简要阐述有关评审要点.     

科技期刊参考文献数量与部分引证指标的定量关系初探

针对目前相关研究缺乏定量分析的现状,探讨中国科技期刊参考文献数量与总被引频次、影响因子的定量关系.根据《中国科技期刊引证报告》2000-2013年的相关统计数据,拟合出相应的关系曲线及公式,分析篇均引文数与平均总被引频次、篇均引文数与平均影响因子的关系和变化趋势.结果表明:篇均引文数与平均总被引频次呈现较好的线性关系;篇均引文数与平均影响因子呈现比较理想的三次多项式关系;拟合曲线与统计数据吻合良好.根据这2个拟合公式进行预测,当篇均引文数达到20时,中国科技核心期刊的平均总被引频次有望超过1 700,平均影响因子有望超过1.0.根据预测结果,如果篇均引文数能在现有基础上提高26％,则平均总被引频次有可能提高44％,平均影响因子有可能提高90％.     

让长尾巴舞起来——用长尾理论创新高校图书馆参考咨询服务

随着社会的发展,新事物不断出现,高校图书馆也同样面临着机遇与挑战并存的局面。发展靠改革,改革需要新的理论支撑。长尾理论作为网络经济的一个新概念,它在某种程度上为图书馆的发展提供了一种新思路。重点介绍了长尾理论在图书馆参考咨询工作中的应用,并在此基础上探究相关服务模式的改革,以便读者利益最大化。     

基于LABVIEW的调相解调器的教学研究

本文通过介绍传统高频实验室存在的弊端,以及虚拟实验开发平台LabVIEW的特点,提出了将虚拟仪器用于高频实验室的思想,并通过仿真实验阐述了具有网络功能的调相调制和解调器的可行性。