Rethinking Reference: Shaken Foundations, Predictions, and What Really Happened Between 1988 And 2005 Linda Absher, Don Frank, Robert Schroeder and Michael Bowman Portland State University

Introduction – The Predictors What’s Wrong with Reference? – Bill Miller (1984) Shaking the Conceptual Foundations of Reference – Jerry Campbell (1992) Rethinking Reference in Academic Libraries (1993)

Phases of Reference Librarianship Classical: ?? – mid-1980s Control Experimental: mid-1980s – mid-1990s Creativity, innovation, ambiguity,uncertainty and challenges Eclectic: mid-1990s Dynamic Hybrids

User Expectations Students  The library comes to them.  Intuitive federated Google-like searching  Simultaneously “Format Agnostic” and “Format Fundamentalists”  Multimedia –for study and reports.

User Expectations Faculty  Librarians collaborate on assignments and syllabi  “Librarian knowledge base”  Librarians answer esoteric research questions.

The Future of Reference Services Beyond the Desk Virtual Reference Reference Area Prioritization

The Reference Librarian in 2005 Sign of the Times Special Libraries Association (SLA) Information Professionals Inc. (IPI)? Information Consultants Information Literacy for students and faculty Growing demand Reference Interview: Tech instruction routine

The Reference Librarian in 2005 Information Architects Jerry McDonough-Director, NYU Digital Library Group Influencing usability and design of online resources Building online resources ourselves

Questions?

Thank you! Linda Absher: Don Frank: Robert Schroeder: Michael Bowman: