LIS 407

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LIS 407

• LIS 407/ Instructor Sergio Chaparro-Univazo
  Class 2.

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Information Services

• Information Services in libraries take a variety
  of forms including direct personal assistance,
  directories, signs exchange of information culled
  from a reference source, readers advisory
  service, dissemination of information in
  anticipation of user needs or interests, and
  access to electronic information (Bunge, Bopp
  2001).

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LIS 407

• Reference librarianship is strongly related to
  the spread of education in the XIX century
• Size
• Number of volumes
• Scholarly literature
• Vickery, B. C. (1999) A Century of Scientific
  Information. Journal of Documentation, 55 (5).

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LIS 407

• In science, by action as remarkable as any to be
  found in law, what has once been published, even
  though it be in the Russian language, is spoken
  of as known, and it is too often forgotten that
  the rediscovery in the library may be a more
  difficult and uncertain process than the first
  discovery in the laboratory (Vickery 1999).

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Chemistry

• So Lord Rayleigh told the British Association for
  the Advancement of Science in 1884 1. Ten years
  later, H.E. Armstrong was telling the Chemical
  Society of London that chemical literature is
  fast becoming unmanageable and uncontrollable
  from its very vastness. Not only is the number of
  papers increasing from year to year, but new
  journals are constantly being established.
  Something must be done in order to assist
  chemists to remain in touch with their subject
  and to retain their hold on the literature
  generally 2. Such complaints were far from
  new. (Vickery, 1999)

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LIS 407
Vanevar Bush look

• Special Libraries/ Legislative Reference service
  Wisconsin 1900 (Special libraries)
• Industrial, business, health care, etc.
• Service as a goal.

• Post WWII /The Atomic Bomb
• Technology and information
• RD
• UK
• Cutting edge technology
• Post-Internet times

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LIS 407 Change
Digital libraries

•  Reference librarians have been facing a decade
  of rapid change in the workplace new information
  resources, emerging services, alternative ways of
  organizing work, and increased expectations of
  users. All these point to an urgent need to keep
  up-to-date the knowledge and skills for public
  service and reference work (Austen Chan 2004)

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LIS 407 The Internet
e.g reference interaction

•  Technological change, in the form of the
  development of the Internet and electronic
  resources, is changing the practice of reference
  work. The development of electronic resources has
  changed the volume, nature, and quality of the
  information sources available. Where reference
  librarians once relied solely on print resources,
  they can now answer the majority of questions
  accurately using only Web-based sources.sup1  
  (Austen Chan 2004 )     

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LIS 407 Still print resources..

• However, there is evidence that traditional print
  resources still form the main source of answers
  to reference questions in public libraries. Thus,
  there are concerns about the ability of the
  reference librarians to use Internet sources to
  answer reference questions. (Austen Chan 2004)

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LIS 407 Management

•  Change is also occurring due to management
  practices. Organizational restructuring,
  increased use of paraprofessionals on the
  reference desk, and growth in part-time
  employment have resulted in changing roles for
  librarians. The knowledge and skills that
  librarians have acquired through formal education
  and one-the-job experience may no longer be
  relevant for jobs that have been redesigned.
  (Austen Chan 2004)

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Reference What kind?What Variety?
Art
Science Reference
Acad
Academic Reference
Public Reference
School Reference
Medical Reference
Non-Traditional Reference
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Competencies

• Competencies are defined as behaviors that
  distinguish excellent performers from average
  performers. They are grouped into broad
  categories of behaviors related to access
  knowledge base marketing, awareness, informing
  collaboration and evaluation and assessment of
  resources and services The list of competencies
  incorporates behavioral guidelines that focus on
  behaviors that are correlated with positive
  perceptions of reference performance. These
  behaviors include approachability, interest,
  listening, effective searching, and follow-up.
  (Austen Chan 2004)

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The challenge (among many)

• Most librarians agree that about 10,000 different
  books are regularly used for reference purposes.
  Many of these fall into various groups. A simple
  grouping is Encyclopedias Dictionaries Atlases
  and Gazetteers Indexes Handbooks and Manuals
  Biographical Directories Bibliographies and
  Almanacs and Miscellany. (Britannica Online 2005)

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LIS 407 Becoming Updated II (always important!)

• ALA RUSA
• LIBREF-L

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LIS-407 Varieties and approaches

• (I)Information
• Ready-Reference Questions
• Bibliographic verification
• ILDL (Interlibrary Loan and document delivery)
• Information and Referral services (I R).

• Information (what is?)
• Guidance ( I need..)
• Instruction (How do I search..?)

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LIS 407 Varieties and approaches

• Research Questions
• Fee-based services and information brokering
• (II)Guidance
• Readers' Advisory Services
• Bibliotherapy
• Term-paper counseling

• Selective Dissemination of Information
• (III)Instruction
• One to one instruction
• Group Instruction

1923 Chicago Public Library/ Suggested by Samuel
Green 1876
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New trends
Why?

• Library System and Networks Cooperation and
  cooperative reference service
• Electronic Reference Services Spread of
  electronic databases (e-reference)
• Virtual Reference ALA Virtual Reference

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What is in the future?
Resources and cost

• Integration of library services
• Interlibrary Cooperation
• In large part, the future of reference services
  will depend on the future of libraries. (Bopp and
  Smith, 2001)
• The Internet is not a reference library, is it?

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At Simmons

• Index of Full Text Electronic Journals

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LIS-407 Becoming updated

• Reference User Services Quarterly is the
  official journal of the Reference and User
  Services Association of the American Library
  Association. Its purpose is to disseminate
  information of interest to reference librarians,
  information specialists, and other professionals
  involved in user-oriented library services. This
  Web site serves as an online companion to the
  print edition providing a preview of its
  contents, reprints of award-winning articles,
  indexes to past volumes and to SOURCES, and links
  to members-exclusive databases to SOURCES and the
  Exchange column.

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Regarding Readers advisory

• A little bit of history
• Immigration and the new citizen
• Education and the role of the Public library
• When did we stop doing Readers advisory?
• Did we really stop?

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Resources for reference

• Internet Public Library
• USA Government resources
• Thomas

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References

• Austen Chan (2004). Reference Librarians and
  keeping up to work/ Reference and User Services
  Quarterly 44(1).