LS407REFERENCE AND INFORMATION SERVICESSpring 2010

Laura Saunders

ROLES AND EXPECTATIONS

What is the reference librarian’s job? And, what isn’t?

Who relies on reference librarians? Patrons, colleagues & support staff, employers,

professional organizations, etc. What do you expect from your career?

REFERENCE

Reference Transactions are information consultations in which library staff recommend, interpret, evaluate, and/or use information resources to help others to meet particular information needs. Reference transactions do not include formal instruction or exchanges that provide assistance with locations, schedules, equipment, supplies, or policy statements.

REFERENCE

Reference Work includes reference transactions and other activities that involve the creation, management, and assessment of information or research resources, tools, and services. Creation and management of information

resources includes the development and maintenance of research collections, research guides, catalogs, databases, web sites, search engines, etc., that patrons can use independently, in-house or remotely, to satisfy their information needs.

Assessment activities include the measurement and evaluation of reference work, resources, and services.

REFERENCE

What, exactly, do reference librarians do?

USER EXPECTATIONS

What do users expect? What should they expect?

EMPLOYER/COLLEAGUE EXPECTATIONS

What do employers want? What do we expect of each other?

PERCEPTIONSHow do our patrons see us?

PERCEPTIONS OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANS

What are the perceptions of our field? Are perceptions important? Why?

PERCEPTIONS- OCLC STUDY

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

PERCEPTIONS

WHAT DOES THIS TELL US…

Future of libraries

Areas of focus

Areas of improvement

PERCEPTIONS OF LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION RESOURCESOCLC. (2005). Retrieved from

http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_all.pdf