More from the Reference Evolution Preconference
Posted by: Rebecca Vnuk
I’ve written in previous posts about two of the presentations at last month’s ”Reference Evolution” preconference organized by the MARS and RSS sections of RUSA and held at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D. C. These were the presentions given by Joe Janes and Amy Van Scoy. Here’s the lowdown on the rest of the program.
Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College), who writes the Digital Reference blog, talked about some of the new tools reference librarians are using–web page annotations, screenshots and screencasts, knowledgebases and FAQs, etc. Tools are becoming more user centered and more integrated. Going mobile is another trend, and libraries are trying to “slim down” in order to get stuff into users’ phones. Franceour also pointed out that chat reference transcripts have value as content, and libraries are finding ways to reuse and repurpose them. You can find Stephen’s slides here, along with numerous links to services and tools.
The final speaker, Kathleen Kern (University of Illinois) talked about the decline in the volume of reference questions and what it means. Reference librarians need to refine their focus and find ways to make themselves part of the patron’s question process, or risk being “disintermediated.” Kathleen’s slides are here.
The four presentations made for a thought-provoking–and long–morning. I wasn’t able to stay for the afternoon breakout sessions because I wanted to catch the Independent Reference Publishers’ Group meeting. You can read Sue Polanka’s summary of that meeting here.
