Rethinking Reference: Shaken Foundations, Predictions, and What Really Happened Between 1988 And 2005

1
Rethinking Reference Shaken Foundations,
Predictions, and What Really Happened Between
1988 And 2005

• Linda Absher, Don Frank, Robert Schroeder and
  Michael Bowman
• Portland State University

2
Introduction The Predictors

• Whats Wrong with Reference? Bill Miller (1984)
• Shaking the Conceptual Foundations of Reference
  Jerry Campbell (1992)
• Rethinking Reference in Academic Libraries (1993)

3
Phases of Reference Librarianship

• Classical ?? mid-1980s
• Control
• Experimental mid-1980s mid-1990s
• Creativity, innovation, ambiguity,uncertainty and
  challenges
• Eclectic mid-1990s - 2005
• Dynamic Hybrids

4
User Expectations - 2010

• Students
• The library comes to them.
• Intuitive federated Google-like searching
• Simultaneously Format Agnostic and Format
  Fundamentalists
• Multimedia for study and reports.

5
User Expectations - 2010

• Faculty
• Librarians collaborate on assignments and syllabi
  
• Librarian knowledge base
• Librarians answer esoteric research questions.

6
The Future of Reference Services

• Beyond the Desk
• Virtual Reference
• Reference Area
• Prioritization

7
The Reference Librarian in 2005

• Sign of the Times
• Special Libraries Association (SLA)
• Information Professionals Inc. (IPI)?
• Information Consultants
• Information Literacy for students and faculty
• Growing demand
• Reference Interview Tech instruction routine

8
The Reference Librarian in 2005

• Information Architects
• Jerry McDonough-Director, NYU Digital Library
  Group
• Influencing usability and design of online
  resources
• Building online resources ourselves

9
Questions?
10
Thank you!

• Linda Absher absherl_at_pdx.edu
• Don Frank frankd_at_pdx.edu
• Robert Schroeder schroedr_at_pdx.edu
• Michael Bowman bowman_at_pdx.edu