Food for Thought about the Reference Desk on a Rainy Thursday

As the chairperson of the Academic Reference Librarians group, it may be sacrilegious to post about an article entitled, "Who Needs a Reference Desk?", but hear me out. I just read this Stephen J. Bell piece from Library Issues (27.6, July 2007) about a whole host of issues surrounding the future of reference services. I found myself nodding in agreement with a number of the points Bell makes about why librarians no longer need a constant presence at the reference desk.

I realize this is not really a new area of discourse in librarianship, and I may not have even read this article if a colleague from the County College of Morris hadn't recently shared that librarians at her institution no longer spend assigned hours at the reference desk. While one of them is always "on call" for reference consultations, the desk is staffed by paraprofessionals trained in knowing when to call the reference librarian. Many of Bell's arguments are similar to CCM's rationale for the change to their reference model (as it was described to me). Still, the resistance to the idea from others at the meeting where she announced this was profound!

Tom Sanville, the Executive Director of Ohiolink, has this to say in Bell's article: ". . . old things and ideas that have been successful for us . . . will not keep us successful." I agree. And I think this idea sums up why, as a profession, we need to be hashing these things out.

I'd love to know what others think about the future of the reference desk, (or this article), and I hope we can discuss it some at our December meeting.

CJARL Meeting Notes – 10/12/07

Location: Brookdale Community College, Bankier Library Room 215

In Attendance: Brookdale Community College – Amy Clark, Jeanne Ostrowski, Karen Topham; Burlington County College – Dave Peterson; Mercer County Community College – Martin Crabtree; Monmouth University – Ma Lei Hsieh, Susan Kadezabek; Ocean County College – Beth Roszkowski, Gary Schmidt

Announcements:
The Documents Association of New Jersey is hosting its Fall Conference titled, Staying Digital: The Future of Government Information, on Friday, November 2 from 9:15 - 3:30 at the Friend Center, Princeton, NJ. Please register by October 18. Visit http://www.danj.org/ for more information.

Future Meeting Dates:

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, December 7 from 10:00 - 12:00. Location TBA.
Academic Reference Discussion:
The group discussed some of the issues individual libraries are facing regarding print vs. electronic reference collections, including renovations/space issues; service to higher education centers away from the main library; cost issues; and quality and ease-of-use of the electronic sources. Mercer will be doing some reference collection assessment and trialing some e-reference products in the near future. We look forward to hearing what they find.

None of the libraries represented at the meeting currently use IM/Chat reference, although Brookdale will be piloting a chat reference program sometime this semester. The group discussed the importance of having a set of standard operating procedures for librarians who will provide chat reference service, as well as the importance of maintaining an instructional reference focus. Members shared concerns and possible pitfalls, (along with possible solutions to those pitfalls), about offering this service. Q&ANJ was identified by some members as a model program.

Most libraries represented said librarians handle a good deal of IT questions in addition to more reference-centered questions while at the reference desk. All agreed that the number and level of reference questions varies, depending on the time of the semester.

Brookdale is currently advertising for its first-ever library research award; Monmouth will also be offering an award this Spring. OCC has put its library research award program on hold for now. Mercer is looking to work with the newly formed Honors Council and possibly start a research award connected to this program at some point down the line.

There was a brief discussion of librarian office spaces. Members shared their office configurations and talked about the advantages and disadvantages.

The group shared IL instruction techniques and approaches, which led to a discussion of the quality of the database products and their contents. Danny Wallace's editorial in the September 2007 Journal of Academic Librarianship was mentioned, as was Barbara Fister's ACRL post, "Build It and They Will Build Another one."

Discussion Items for 10/12 meeting

Here are some possible discussion topics for Friday's meeting. (If you have others, please bring them with you!) Thanks everyone, for your input!

• What electronic resources are our libraries using to replace or supplement print reference sources? What has been the experience with these sources?
  
• IM Chat Reference: Best Practices
• What's Happening at the Reference Desk?: IT vs. Reference Questions
  
• Instruction Issues:
• Barbara Fister's ACRLog post, "Build It and They Will Build Another One"
• Incorporating More Critical Thinking into IL Instruction

As always, light refreshments will be available. See you soon!