[Web4lib] Stephen Abram: Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

Colleagues/
 
Reference in Transition 
 
/Gerry
 
FEATURE
Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition 
by Stephen Abram, Vice President of Innovation, SirsiDynix

________________________________

Many years ago, the esteemed Barbara Quint offered an estimate that Google answered as many reference queries in half an hour as all the reference librarians in the world did in 7 years. 

I suspect that ratio is quite different now - worse, from this old reference librarian's perspective! Reference is the place to watch for change and innovation in libraries. Indeed, all this 2.0 talk is all about the real nature of the customer relationship - in person and virtual. The IT and metadata types were dealing well with a fairly predictable future - one driven by the consumer space and reaction-driven, one with standards and rules and not as influenced by messy human behaviors. You can almost see that train heading down the track and just hop on and enjoy the ride. 

It cannot be denied that our reference stats are down, though this is not the case with our research requests, training activities, and one-on-one contact with clients. Public library circulation is way up. Website hits - from nearly any measurement data point - are up. Even gate count is up in most libraries. In public libraries, life is proceeding very well. In the academic and college space, change is moving apace with elearning and learning commons initiatives growing and major technologies expanding, such as OpenURL, federated search, portals and portlets, APIs, and more innovation in user experiences aimed at learning and research missions - and not centered on libraries alone. 

Reference and research services, the front line of library service, are dealing with a far-less-predictable future. The asynchronous, asymmetrical threats facing us are very real hydra monsters challenging our roles in many ways, all having some truth. The fate of reference has come into clearer focus in Web 2.0/Library 2.0 discussions and debates. The emphasis has moved from understanding and learning the technology to understanding end-user behaviors in context. Policies have moved from serving library management needs and library workers' preferences to where end-user needs trump librarian insights and personal search preferences. If this attitude hadn't changed, we'd be in real trouble now - although, admittedly, you still occasionally encounter dinosaur tracks and hear the roar of distant mastodons. A plethora of new end-user research - from usability through personas and from hit analyses to ethnographic and behavioral studies - focus on workplace needs, scholarly behavior, learning styles, and entertainment and demonstrate a material shift in the library user firmament. 

After more than 20 years of primarily working on the infrastructure of libraries - servers, websites, wireless, electronic content licensing, broadband, access, security, viruses, etc. - we have reached a real tipping point. In 2008 we are seeing the real action in our world of libraries move from the back office to the front desk. We're moving from a technology-centric strategy to one in which the real needs of our clients must predominate. Aligning technology with user behavior no longer suffices to ensure success. We need to understand, and understand deeply, the role of the library in our end-users' lives, work, research, and play. This is critical to our long-term success, and failure is not an option. 

[MORE]

[ http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/sep08/Abram.shtml <http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/sep08/Abram.shtml>  ]

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu

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