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Is the nature of Reference Service changing?

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Susanne Caro Posts: 3 Join Date: 1/25/07 Recent Posts	Re: Is the nature of Reference Service changing? 2:50 PM EDT 4/18/07 as a reply to Bob Watson. Top This topic seems to be coming up a lot lately. Here is link to a California study on changes in the roll of reference in libraries: http://www.library.ca.gov/assets/acrobat/CAReferenceReport.pdf

Bob Watson Posts: 1136
Join Date: 5/11/03

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Re: Is the nature of Reference Service changing?

3:21 PM EDT 4/18/07 as a reply to Susanne Caro.

It's interesting how funding issues affect the question ... some states do not have "second level" reference because there's no central funding.

I rather expect that this requires a "Web 2.0" approach ... a "reciprocal" network of subject specialists to whom patrons can be referred (with some transparency).

It does (in my view) mean that we have to give up the idea that every reference librarian can answer every question.

(Though I'm not at all sure how that idea got started ...)

Bob Watson Posts: 1136
Join Date: 5/11/03

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RE: Re: Is the nature of Reference Service changing?

9:46 AM EDT 9/2/09 as a reply to Bob Watson.

I thought readers might be interested in this article by Howard Rheingold:

Mindful Infotention: Dashboards, Radars, Filters

Here's some o' the text:

Infotention is a word I came up with to describe the psycho-social-techno skill/tools we all need to find our way online today, a mind-machine combination of brain-powered attention skills with computer-powered information filters. The inside and outside of infotention work best together:

Honing the mental ability to deploy the form of attention appropriate for each moment is an essential internal skill for people who want to find, direct, and manage streams of relevant information by using online media knowledgeably.

Knowing how to put together intelligence dashboards, news radars, and information filters from online tools like persistent search and RSS is the external technical component of information literacy.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?blogid=108&entry_id=46677#ixzz0PxN5SqSM

Expertise in this, I think, is part of the "new reference."

Bob Watson Posts: 1136 Join Date: 5/11/03 Recent Posts	RE: Re: Is the nature of Reference Service changing? 3:39 PM EDT 9/14/09 as a reply to Bob Watson. Top There's also Howard's Nibipedia info: Howard's videos Enjoy!