Reference Sources That We Once Loved…
Posted by: David Tyckoson
…but no longer use.
Each day as I walk to the reference desk, I see the bright red and blue colors of the spine of the Encyclopedia of Associations. That work is dear to my heart because it was one of the very first — if not THE first — reference source that I learned about in library school. Back then, when everything was in print format, we consulted this venerable title daily to find facts about organizations. Searching the index volume gave us a number — surrounded by stars! — that lead us to the information that we sought. Patrons marvelled at how we reference librarians could find information about just about anything related to organizations. Back then, the Encyclopedia of Associations (or EA as we affectionately called it) was a standard reference source that we could not live without.
Now as I walk by, I realize how much things have changed. I do not remember the last time that I opened one of those red and blue volumes — or even when a user asked any type of question about an organization. With the web at everyone’s fingertips, we can find more about organizations than we ever could back in the bad old days of print reference sources. And it is not just librarians who have that skill, but our patrons as well — which is why they no longer ask us that type of question any more.
For me, the Encyclopedia of Associations symbolizes the shift from a print to a networked world. I have to wonder why we even still have a copy of it on our shelves, since no one needs to use it any more. In some ways I am still happy to see it there, orderly on its shelf, serving as a sentinel for the old world way of doing reference work. However, it also makes me a little sad, because the efforts that the editors and contributors put in to create such a work can never live up to the fact that newer, better information is available instantly to everyone everywhere.
I would never want to go back to those dark ages when everything we used was in print. But it does make me wonder. My library still has the Encyclopedia of Associations sitting on the shelf — along with lots of other former classics that are not being used. What do you have in your library that you hang on to – and what have let go of? Have you reduced the size of your reference collection because print is no longer needed? Or are your patrons still using print reference sources? What are the reference sources — print and electronic — that you and your users value the most?
As for me, next time I walk by, I am going to pull the index to Encyclopedia of Associations off the shelf, look up some odd key word (maybe I’ll use pickles) and find the listings for all the pickle associations. I’ll find the entry number, flip the pages, and read about an organization I have no intention of knowing anything about. Then I will slip all the volumes neatly back onto the shelf, in proper call number order, so that they can watch me — and everyone I work with — walk by every day, paying absolutely no attention to their existence.
September 19th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
There’s not much of a reference collection in print left at my public library: a current encyclopedia set, a few atlases. The most popular is probably the Guinness Book of World Records.
The books we sold or repurposed just weren’t being used. I haven’t heard anyone really complain. That we allow most of what’s remaining in the reference collection to circulate, like all of our dictionaries, surprises patrons sometimes.
I actually had a chance to use an almanac once, while I ignored this strange feeling that the patron was mentally willing me to an empty staff computer for the answer. (There were no public computers available.)
Online, our Mitchell’s car repair and legal forms databases might see the most use.