Annotated Bibliography: The Reference Desk: Grand Idea or Gone Down the River?

This bibliography is from a panel presentation at the 2017 ACL Conference. The goal of this panel was to explore different rationales or sets of values that illustrated the continuation of the reference desk and reference service as essential to the success of the academic community. We discovered that “what to do with reference” is far from a settled question. We discovered passionate arguments, diverse models, and an array of data. In this current stage of figuring out the value of academic libraries to the campus as a whole and to students in particular, it seemed that there was limited hard data connecting Reference services to how they met students’ needs. How do we make ourselves valuable, important, essential, and useful? Maybe we need to change our model? If so, how do we examine ourselves and our environment appropriately to make this happen? What factors should we examine? Which ones must we keep? What things can we discard or change? When students come to seek assistance, they generally need the short, instant, and personal help, without having to attend a whole training session or class. Individual and personalized guidance for their immediate need is the most important factor for them. How do libraries provide that

Listening from a distance: A survey of University of Illinois distance learners and its implications for meaningful instruction.

In Spring 2009, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library conducted a significant new survey of distance learners enrolled in off-campus or online graduate programs. Exploring distance learners’ perceptions about and use of library services, the survey of 146 students reveals opportunities to better meet the research needs of distance learners whose graduate work may demand extensive use of library resources. The survey affords insights into distance learners’ communication preferences, and their particular research needs. Findings from this survey have informed one academic library’s strategy to begin addressing important questions in library instruction for distance learners.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Skating With Donovan: Thoughts on Librarianship as a Profession

James M. Donovan’s article: Skating on Thin Intermediation: Can Libraries Survive?, 27 Legal Reference Services Q. 95 (no. 2-3, 2008) argues that librarians place more emphasis than they might on providing service to library users at a time when information seekers are relying less on intermediaries, and that over-emphasizing service to the detriment of other values diminishes the status of librarianship as a profession. The article presents two contrasting models of librarianship. This article discusses Donovan’s models and comments on the continuing importance of the service model to librarianship

Justify or die? - using contingent valuation of service provision in a UK public library

The public library service in the UK is currently under pressure to justify its existence. An Audit Commission report suggested that if current borrowing rates for libraries continue into the future, libraries would be effectively issuing no books by 2020. Recently the Coates Report asserted about book loans that, "in simple terms, if a service is without separate charge and the public decides not to use it, then the service is de facto without any value to these individuals". Yet Coates' simplistic notions of the services public libraries provide lies at the heart of the problem. Performance indicators based on book loans are unable to assess 'the totality of library effectiveness'. Conversely, qualitative analysis, interviewing users about service impact, shows that libraries 'promote social cohesion and community confidence'. However qualitative findings are by nature not quantitative and not comparable. To try to produce a measure for service quality, contingent valuation was chosen. It elicits economic value judgements from users on both services they use and services they do not use. A major independent study using contingent valuation was conducted by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde on East Renfrewshire Library Services, near Glasgow, which is recognised as an exemplary public library service. The study revealed the inability of contingent valuation to adequately assess the complex mix of services provided. The study concludes that an urgent rethink is required regarding measures for public library service evaluation

Evaluating Digital Libraries: A Longitudinal and Multifaceted View

published or submitted for publicatio

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

Academic Libraries in Transition: Current Trends, Future Prospects

Academic libraries are in transition because of changes in the context of higher education. Changes in the world of information are even more radical: the displacement of paper, the primacy of the search engine, the emergence of the digital lifestyle, and innovative patterns of scholarly communication. Decreasing reliance on local collections is transforming the library as a physical destination.Traditional measures of library success have begun to be replaced. Given the superiority of other information professionals’ data management skills, the role of academic librarians will shift toward the enablement of learning.This environment of upheaval will pose both opportunities and challenges for academic librarians

Information Outlook, October 2004

Volume 8, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2004/1009/thumbnail.jp