POTENTIAL FUTURE OF REFERENCE: The Next

Five YearsMaryland Library Association/Delaware Library Association

Joint State ConferenceMay 5, 2016

Ocean City, Maryland

Presenters: Joe Thompson, Senor Administrator-Public Services, Harford County Public LibraryLaura Bosley, Senior, Research Program Coordinator, Johns Hopkins UniversityCathay Keough, Statewide Coordinator, Delaware Reference Services, Delaware Division of Libraries

Goals/Objectives – When you leave today, you will be able to:1. identify at least 2 ways in which library reference service has evolved

2. know at least 2 resources for identifying user behavior trends in order to make informed decisions regarding library reference services

3. have 2 to 3 ideas for developing and adapting library services to meet the changes in patron reference services needs

Format for our workshop:Past (how did we come to this point?)Today (what does the data show us?)Tomorrow (potentially where all this is leading us)

Ask, interrupt, have conversations!

How did we get to this point?

Who does reference work in a library?

Agree?

“The Reference Desk or Information Desk of a library is a public service counter where professional librarians provide library users with direction to library materials, advice on library collections and services, and expertise on multiple kinds of information from multiple sources.”

-Anne Patricia Badique (MLS student assignment)https://youtu.be/cdNprq9Wsgo (YouTube February 26, 2010)

The questions:

Where is reference service headed?

What do we need to do to prepare?

Evolution of Reference – a speedy look

Reference Services 1876-1930s

• 1876: Samuel Green (considered the Founding Father of Reference) published “Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers” http://pacificreference.pbworks.com/f/Personal%20Relations%20Between%20Librarians%20and%20Readers.pdf

• The American Library Association was formed on October 6, 1876 – Melville Dewey was one of the founders. The goal was "to enable librarians to do their present work more easily and at less expense." (American Library Association).

• 1890s: Assistance to patrons became well known as “reference work”

• 1900-1930s: Dedicated space and services for reference services spread nation-wide, such as “reference rooms” and patron assistance over the telephone

Samuel Green

Quotes of the library from 1922

“All round the room my silent servants wait,My friends in every season, bright and dim.”

-Barry Cornwall, My Books: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439-40.

 “A great library contains the diary of the human race.”

-Rev. George Dawson, Address on Opening the Birmingham Free Library: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439-40.

“Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.”

-Francis Bacon, Libraries: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439-40.

“A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of shadows.”-Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers, Oxford, Bodleian Library: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439-40.

 “Shelved around us lie The mummied authors.”

-Bayard Taylor, The Poet's Journal, Third Evening: Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 439-40. 

By The original uploader was Dpbsmith at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Matthiasb., CC BY-SA 3.0, of Bates hall, Boston Public Library https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3611945

• 1960s: Instructional reference was formalized (instructional classes for patrons and students)

• 1980s: Bookstores became popular

• 1990s: Digital/Internet/Search Engines• Amazon (1994)

• Google (1998)

• “Reference is Dead”

Reference Services 1960s - 2016

Top ChallengesCompetition Image

Bookstores Stereotypes

Internet/Search engines/Google Marketing

Affordable technology Professional online presences

“A librarian should be as unwilling to allow an inquirer to leave the library with his question unanswered as a shop-keeper is to have a customer go out of his store without making a purchase.” – Green, Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers

Competition Image

Bookstores Stereotypes

Internet/Search engines/Google Marketing

Affordable technology Professional online presences

Bookstores threaten – sample articles• Michael Sullivan. “The Fragile Future of Public Libraries.” Public Libraries, Sept/Oct 2003.

Retrieved: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/bibcontrol/osmc/sullivan.pdf

• Jim Trelease, and Stephen Krashen. "Eating and reading in the library." Emergency Librarian 23.5 (1996): 27. General OneFile. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

• Eileen Coan. “The Use of Reference Tools and Skills by Bookstore Employees.” January 1993. Retrieved: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED355952.pdf

• Craig Clark. “Defining User Behavior in the Coffee Shop Area of a Super Bookstore, a Grounded Theory Approach.” 1999, 42p.; Master's Research Paper, Kent State University. Retrieved: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED435397.pdf

Top Challenges : Our perceived competition

Competition Image

Bookstores Stereotypes

Internet/Search engines/Google Marketing

Affordable technology Professional online presences

From: “The Future of Search”Marcus TandlerNovember 2013 TedX – MunichYouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa4jQIW2etI

See also Search Engine history: http://www.searchenginehistory.com/

Inception of Internet and Affordable Technology

(2003 – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)“Our Original Libraries Work is CompleteThe foundation’s original libraries work is complete. The U.S. libraries program invested $240 million to connect 99% of allU.S. public libraries to the Internet with computers and training.”

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/History

Professional development- guidelines from the past

“A librarian should be as unwilling to allow an inquirer to leave the library with his question unanswered as a shop-keeper is to have a customer go out of his store without making a purchase.”

– Green, Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers, 1876

Types of Reference Services• Ready Reference• Bibliographic • Information & referral• Research

• Reader’s Advisory• Advice/Editing (usually one-

on-one assistance)• Selective services and

information in and through library (such as community partnerships)

• Locations, directions (such as for finding library equipment, bathrooms, study and meeting rooms)

• Where can I find…?

• Library tours• Classes, tutorials and

workshops• Guided, supportive

experimentation (Maker labs)

Information Guidance

Directional (?)Instruction

Top Challenges : Our perceived image

Competition Image

Bookstores Stereotypes

Internet/Search engines/Google Marketing

Affordable technology Professional online presences

Professional development –more recent guidelines

“The face of Reference Services has changed significantly since the original RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance were first published in 1996…

“…the world of Reference was moving beyond the traditional Reference Desk.”

Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers (revised 2004) Reference and Users Services Association

http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/guidelinesbehavioral

Examining the beginnings of today’s evolution

• R David Lankes. “AskA‘s Lessons Learned from K-12 Digital Reference Services.” Reference & User Services Quarterly; Fall 1998; 38, 1; Research Library, pg. 63 http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/Publications/Journals/AskAsLessonLearned.pdf

• Richard A. Danner. “Redefining a Profession.” 1998. http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=faculty_scholarship

• Dennison, Russell F. “Technology and Reference Changes in the 1990s: An Annotated Bibliography.” 2000. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED477453.pdf

http://joelcomm.com/the-elephant-in-the-living-room.html