San Jose State University and LSSI Announce Partnership to Help Educate the Next Generation of Virtual Reference Librarians

[Stephen Coffman]

San Jose State University and LSSI Announce Partnership to Help Educate the
Next Generation of Virtual Reference Librarians

 

(San Jose, CA) The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State
University (SJSU/SLIS), a leader in educating librarians and information
scientists, and Library Systems and Services, LLC, the leading provider of
virtual reference software and services for libraries, announced today a new
partnership.  SJSU/SLIS will use LSSI’s Virtual Reference ToolKit to revamp
its reference curriculum and educate upcoming generations of reference
librarians in how to ply their trade online.

 

The LSSI software will be deployed to San Jose’s Reference and Information
Services-related courses, where students will use it to gain familiarity with
the techniques of live online reference.  Students will also have the
opportunity to participate in practicums in LSSI’s Web Reference Center, the
largest professional online reference service in the world, as well as in the
QandACafe, a collaborative online reference service offered by libraries in
the San Francisco Bay Area.  In addition, faculty and students at SJSU will
work with the librarians at LSSI on a number of joint research projects.

 

Dr. Feili Tu, project head at SJSU/SLIS, worked on this partnership with
LSSI’s Steve Coffman, Vice President of Product Development. Dr. Tu said, “At
San Jose, we believe that much of the future of reference lies on the Web.  We
see virtual reference as a core competency and we intend to make sure that the
students who graduate from this program have the skills and knowledge to
handle it as effectively as they can handle reference behind the desk.”  Dr.
Blanche Woolls, Director of the School, expressed her thanks to LSSI for
providing the software and for working closely with the faculty at San Jose to
develop the new partnership.

 

Coffman said the partnership would be beneficial to both SJSU and LSSI: “It
will help San Jose to better educate the up-and-coming group of librarians,
and as the largest employer of virtual reference librarians in the world, it
is in our own self-interest to make sure that people come out of library
school better trained to handle virtual reference.”

 

For further information please contact:  Dr. Feili Tu at San Jose State
University, or Steve Coffman at LSSI (800-638-8725 x265) or stevec at lssi.com.

 

 

 

 

Feili Tu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science San José State University
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0029
Voice: 408-924-2416
FAX: 408-924-2476
E-Mail: feilitu at wahoo.sjsu.edu