Are Reference Collections DOA in the 21st Century?

EBSS Current Topics Discussion

Angela BoydPsychology & Web Services Librarian; UCSB

Who’s Who…

Angela Boyd is the facilitator… so talk to me! Let me know what you’re thinking.

Cheryl Goldenstein is hosting the meeting. So if you have any questions about Adobe Connect Pro or the volume etc please let her know.

Dana Peterman will be taking notes.

…and What’s What

What’s Your Story?

What Do You Want To Know?

Defining a Reference Material.

Organization, utilization, and marketing of print and digital reference collections.

What’s your story?

The librarians began to wonder if this collection of ”frequently used" materials, which occupies such a visible place in the library, was going to disappear altogether. (College of William and Mary Law Library)

The reality is, print reference is dead, nearly dead, or never existed for many of our users, yet we still have patrons who need and prefer print. (Sue Polanka)

Define a Reference Material

reference book, n. A book containing comprehensive information about a subject or range of subjects, esp. one intended for research or consultation on specific matters rather than continuous reading. (Oxford English Dictionary.)

ref·er·ence book • n. a book intended to be consulted for information on specific matters rather than read from beginning to end: a beat-up old grade-school dictionary was the only reference book we ever had in our house.

"reference book." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-referencebook.html

Does format matter?

What about usage stats? Usage stats of our libguides are pretty astounding – does anyone want to go back to print guides?

Top 10 Research Guides

Chemistry & Biochemistry Departments - United States 68522

Chemistry & Biochemistry Departments - Worldwide 17886

East Asian Studies 10077 Music 9820 Communication 7241 Citation Styles 6434 Chemistry & Biochemistry 6259 Sociology 4788 Political Science 4756 Psychology 4295

eBook Usage Stats

2009, January - August

Behavioral Science -- 177 titles -- viewed 222x

Business and Economics -- 1,029 titles -- viewed 10,290x

Math and Statistics – 1,497 titles – viewed 58,277x

2008, January - August

Behavioral Science – 288 titles – viewed 9x

Business and Economics – 2,660 titles – viewed 15x

Math & Statistics – 3,688 titles – 78x

Online - advantages

Don’t have to worry about volumes being currently used or misplaced

Don’t need to know specific titles. Keywords can find titles for you.

Librarians create online reference shelf suggesting best titles for specific subjects.

(2 examples on next slide)

Online Reference Shelf

http://library.fortlewis.edu/Services/research/RefShelf.html

Further Reading

Hellyer, P. (2009). Reference 2.0: The Future of Shrinking Print Reference Collections Seems Destined for the Web. Library Staff Publications. Paper 7. http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/7

Lee, M. (2009). Weeding Is Not Just for Gardeners: A Case Study on Weeding A Reference Collection. Community & Junior College Libraries, 15(3), 129 — 135

Ford, L., O'Hara, L. H. and Whiklo, J. (2009). Shelflessness as a Virtue: Preserving Serendipity in an Electronic Reference Collection. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 21(3), 251 — 262

Polanka, S. (2008). Is print reference dead? Booklist, 104(9), 127.

Ramaswamy, M., Baillargeon, T., and Simser, C. N. (2008). Making E-Reference Books Findable. Library Philosophy and Practice