Reference Renaissance--more conference notes from Beverly Lehrer

Some belated additional notes from the Reference Renaissance conference August 3-4 in Denver.
Some conference powerpoints are now available at http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/schedule_details.html


AUGUST 3

KEYNOTE ADDRESS -- Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, or Not…, David Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Purdue University

The revolution we are experiencing now is the easy production and distribution of information via the web. The tools of the 19th century library will not organize content on the web. Instead, we need new tools to manage this content.

We are seeing the mass amateurization of information—anyone can publish. Wikipedia is an example of this. It is a process, not a product. If people care about it, they will improve it, and create a good body of work.

His conclusion—libraries need to create tools and communities for open scholarship and information.

SESSION 2 TRACK C --Meeting User’s Needs Through New Service Models . Kay Cassell, Ph.D., Rutgers University, SCILS

This presentation was essentially an overview of some alternatives to the traditional reference desk in libraries. Libraries are trying:
*roving reference, to enable contact with users who don’t approach the desk.
*reconfiguring reference desks. Smaller desks may be less intimidating. Using better signage for the reference desk.
*No reference desk???
* Consolidating service points—combining circ/ref desks.
*Tiered reference—two or three levels of service. In some cases, this involves use of paraprofessionals.
*Outreach reference—going where the users are. Trying office hours in academic departments. Outreach to students worked best in areas where students were really studying (not hanging out or taking breaks)
*Innovative technology—tablet PCs with headphones, OPAC’s in the stacks.
*Web based—e-mail, chat, blogs.

What needs to be done in the future? Keep up with user needs. Try new models. “Librarians must be more visible. Marketing is essential.”


SESSION 2, TRACK C -- Traditional vs. Hipster Librarians, Hannah Kwon, Ph. D. Student, Rutgers Univ.

Are we hip? What makes a librarian a hipster, not a traditional librarian? Are there real differences between the two?

Ms. Kwon thinks the distinction reflects the shift from traditional—system centered—librarianship, to a more user-centered approach.

System centered librarianship has the goal of helping patrons retrieve materials from tools like the catalog, responding to organized categories and with the librarian as gatekeeper. In user-centered approaches, the user’s information need is the primary focus—and the user often does not know what is needed. In this model, the goal is to deduce the information need, with the information seeker as a “customer,” then figure out how best to meet the need.

AUGUST 4

TRACK B, SESSION 4 -- Neo-Reference — Looking for Real Change Susan Beatty and Helen Clarke, University Library, University of Calgary, Canada

Helen Clarke—Libraries are experiencing ‘disjunctive’ – rapid change, rather than a gradual change in ways of doing business. In Canada, reference stats are falling as off-campus use of electronic resources rises. Some of this may reflect the value users place on independence.
She made the following assertions about reference collections:
*Digital is better. Invest in user needs for digital resources
* A ‘digital collection’ is not needed—be careful about duplication of print and electronic resources.
*Buy what is hard to find and use—but is of high value.

One of the challenges is improving ‘discoverability’ of materials in aggregated electronic resources—whether it is material in open source products such as Wikipedia and Google, or commercial products from vendors such as Credo.

Susan Beatty—The issue for reference service is creating user-centered tools. She spoke about the new information commons library at the University. Rather than try to describe this project, here’s the link: http://tfdl.ucalgary.ca/

Her advice to librarians: learn how users learn. Be approachable.

text questions to ChaCha & get answers

Have you heard of ChaCha yet? It's a place people can get answers (from real people) just by calling or texting.

It's a venue I personally think libraries should have been in LONG AGO, but alas, here we are.

I have a mixed review of ChaCha- I've used it a few times to see what it was like and only about 1/2 the time did i get an answer i liked. Perhaps I hold these things to a higher standard than most non-librarians would, but i wasn't totally impressed.

I WAS impressed, however, at HOW i could get an answer and HOW FAST it was. I'm in the grocery store wondering if peaches, apples, and carrots all have pectin in them and within minutes, I know that Apples have a lot of pectin, peaches have a little, and carrots have none. What would the response have been if i called my local library with that question? I couldn't have asked AskUsNow! because I was in the grocery store!

Betty@AACPL fwded a Marketplace Radio spot about ChaCha to the listserv: "Texting experts for an Internet search"

What are your thoughts on ChaCha and this method of Q&A?
I think it speaks greatly towards library's epic role- as information providers, question answerer's, search guides, and best friends... not just the collectors and purveyors of books (which is only ONE medium information comes in).

Coping with Burnout

I attended a Staff Development opportunity at BCPL back in June on Coping with Burnout. It was presented by Sandy Lombardo and Louis Sica of the BCPL Staff Development Committee.

I was expecting more of the "how to solve" burnout than the "how to recognize and prevent," but still found the session useful. Here are my notes/thoughts:

You are burned out if you dread going to work in the morning, feel overwhelmed, hopeless, futile, or insecure or think the only way to fix the problems are to get a new job or win the lotto.

Burnout is a state of emotional exhaustion that results in decreased work production. Work avoidance is the primary characteristic. Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishments are signs.

• Public Library Staff exhibit higher rates of burning out than other library staff
• Emotional exhaustion: feeling empty *and* overwhelmed.
• stress is a psychological and/or physiological response to the PERCEPTION of a demand or challenge.

Factors of Job Satisfaction:

1. Futility and Avoidance
• you stop doing the things that no longer have meaning. Sense of futility leads to avoidance. apathy sets in. I think the key to the whole burnout thing is to remain connected to your work, your customers, and it's meaning. without it, you're not doing meaningful work, just meaningless tasks- which you quickly drop because "life is too short."


2. Professional self-esteem
• cultivating professional self-esteem
• offer challenging assignments
• stretch abilities
• develop "go to" people
• offer guidelines for best practices
• practice positive feedback
• maintain realistic standards of evaluation
3. working conditions
• You need organizational support. Like flexible scheduling.
4. job related affect
5. achievement support
6. self-actualization
• a meaningful sense of connection with customers needs to be fostered

Causes of stress:

• Change. (my note: the lack of change is also a cause of stress.)
• lack of people, time, money
• "those people": customers don't understand what we do
• (my note: only because we don't tell them what we do. we need to set up expectations through day to day work and effective and ubiquitous marketing.)
• security issues
• the problem that won't go away
• technostress

What do you do?

• get involved & grow. change up your work assignments, join a professional org or committee
• transfer, job shadow/sharing/exchange
• celebrate successes
• strive for good customer service (internal and external). happy, satisfied people make you feel good too
• "let go" when something goes wrong. review for improvement, don't take customer comments personally.
• escape. create a "vacation area" for staff. keep relaxation triggers in your personal area. take a REAL vacation.
• reevaluate your job. stop trying to do everything. prioritize. set realistic goals. don't procrastinate.
• burnout didn't happen overnight and should be addressed in stages. burnout may have been caused by work, but effects all areas of life.
• harness creativity. creative thinking can spark enthusiasm. the right idea can decrease stress by improving or altering a process. boost your own morale.
• use other coping strategies: exercise. take breaks. cultivate positive relationships outside of work. seek support from others in the profession. develop a new skill or take up a new hobby. blogs can be cathartic, social networks can help you stay connected.

If all else fails:

• leave of absence
• keep an updated resume
• explore employment transitions.
• LAUGH

See coping.org for a Burnout Assessment.

You are the future of Libraries, no pressure.

(originally posted on the strange librarian)



On Wednesday, June 18th, David Lankes spoke at UMCP. "If libraries fail, is (our) fault. no pressure." Here are some of my notes:

The Question you ask is important.
What is the future of libraries?
What should be the future of libraries?
What should be the future of libraries and librarians?
What should be the future of libraries and librarians in a democracy? (especially in a time of the Patriot Act and habeas corpus. You want to live in a land of freedom? It's not because of what we shelve, but because we tell the truth.

We need to stop talking about whats going to happen TO us and start talking about what we are GOING TO DO. We need to be proactive, not reactive, in defining our roles. Librarians aren't done- we're redefining, reimagining, reworking who we are and what we do.

We spend too much time worrying about process. We need to think about the end goal and let the processes and technology help, not hinder, those goals. What is our fundamental and recognizable contribution? (market this!)

Conversation is exchanging language (meaning and symbols) seeking agreements. [library jargon- how much accommodation do we have for people who don't know our language?]Knowledge is created through conversations. Libraries are the memory holder of the human story/cultural record. Are we capturing these conversations? No! By the time they come to us, they're inviting us into the conversation but very late in the game, not starting the conversation WITH you! How awesome would it be to be able to say, "conversations around this topic tend to go here..." instead of "here's a mound of resources with no context for you to look at." Access isn't the answer and is insufficient for knowledge creation. Context is just as important, if not more so, than content. Context is lost in things like databases- articles don't appear within the whole of their journal, and there's no e-margin writing! We need to capture the context and the conversations, not get in the way of them. We need to worry about their long term storage!

A syllabus is a map of a conversation. Academic libraries- are you saving them?

Libraries are in the "knowing business" and that spans disciplines. Instead of library usage statistics, we should be analyzing the conversations that are happening in our community (inside and outside of our physical and virtual doors).

Public and academic libraries need to partner up to even out the bumps in learning.


Don't create another vision statement, just go out and change the world.
If you chase, you will only ever be 2nd.
Don't ride the wave, be the wave machine. Function as your community does. Are your librarians your customer's interface? Know your communities.
Who are you serving? What is their language? Where are there? Are you there?

You have to care. You have to have a voice. Manage up. Lead up. We need to teach people how to be change agents (here's the admin, here's how to win them over or overthrow them). Dysfunctional innovation = looking to the young kid who knows about wiki but has no idea about the politics of the organization. There needs to be a communal conversation.

RefRen notes by Julie

This past Monday and Tuesday was the first ever Reference Renaissance conference at the Four Points Sheraton in Denver. It all started as an idea floated by Brenda Bailey-Hainer at the bar of the Curtis Hotel where the Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium was going on last July.

I had the great pleasure of being Publicity Chair, a presenter, and the chair/moderator of a panel presentation. Overall, i'm highly impressed with how well everything went for it's inaugural event. We had 508 attendees and with 6 tracks and 6 sessions, there was a lot of great stuff to choose from.

After 8/20 all the presentation slides/handouts will be available on the detailed schedule page of the conference website.

Here are the highlights from the sessions I attended:

Monday, Aug 4th

Keynote Address: Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, Or Not...
David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

• Google = the next bubonic plague?
• libraries organize and protect the cultural imprint. It's all always been "user created" but now there's so much more!
• The value proposition for disruptive (versus Sustaining) innovations is entirely different. An organization can't disrupt itself, you need to remove the innovation from the organization in order to let it happen; it can't be "crammed" into the existing values and processes of the organization, it'll be stunted. You need to have a separate organization to do the innovation.
• don't invest all your resources on the first try
• 7 years ago, though the library was inconvenient and hard to use, students dealt with it until something more convenient came along (the internet)
• Don't ask customers what they want. Watch what they do.

Session 1
Getting Better All the Time! Improving Communication and Accuracy in Virtual Reference
Presenters: Marie L. Radford, Ph.D. Rutgers University and Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, OCLC, Inc., OH

• Don't be a machine. Create that connection. Listen. Answer the actual question asked and be aware of the sub-questions that might be there. You're not just passing off information, you're creating relationships
• there is an assumption that people use chat because they're in a rush. Usually not. And they're willing to wait if you set up the expectation of how long it's going to be. Knowing it will be 1 minute, that minute goes fast. Not knowing when someone will help you, 1 minute can seem like an eternity.

Expanding Service and Enhancing Learning: Preliminary Report on a Novel Virtual Reference Collaboration
Presenters: Andrea Wright, Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina and Feili Tu, Ph.D., SLIS, University of South Carolina, SC

Come Together: Melding IM with an Existing Virtual Reference Service
Presenter: Samuel R. Stormont, Abington Library, Penn State University, PA

Session 2
Everyone is One: Customer Service or Retail Reference?
Presenter: Diana D. Shonrock, Iowa State University

• Everyone has their story, the one you remember when you're having a bad day.
• You don't need to have all the answers, just be willing to help them on their journey to finding the answers
• MySpace, Meebo, Facebook, Twitter. You don't have to live in all these places as a librarian or as part of the library, but you DO have to be able to explain them and help people get started on them.
• Experience Economy > the 4 E's
  
  • Education
  • Aesthetics (sic)
  • Entertainment
  • Escapism (allowing the customer to take a role)


• The 4 E's of Leadership
  
  • Envision
  • Enable (the tools to make the vision a reality)
  • Empower (towards a common goal)
  • Energize


• Ideas:
  
  • have art from local artists for borrowing on a rotating basis (ie, "check out" a painting for 3 mos)
  • sponsor a car show
  • give out / sell passes for local venues/events
  • Victorian Day in the Park
  • Douglas County Libraries.org won an Emmy for their PSA

Session 3
Ready, Set, Go! 90 Minutes to a Collaborative Virtual Reference Service
Presenters: Beth Cackowski, Project Coordinator, QandANJ, NJ; Laura Osterhout, Western New York Library Resources Council, NY; Vince Mariner, Statewide Coordinator, Ask Here PA, PA; Julie Strange, Operations Supervisor, Maryland AskUsNow! MD

• see the slides, notes, and other related links at askusnow.info/denver08

Tues, Aug 5th

Session 4: Sculpting Services: Models for Creative Change
Neo-Reference — Looking for Real Change
Presenters: Susan Beatty, Head, Information Commons, University Library, University of Calgary, Canada and Helen Clarke, Head, Collection Services and Electronic Resources Librarian, University Library, University of Calgary, Canada

• customers put a value on their independence. where do we fit in this model? How do we help?
• how to you keep the discovery / serendipitous finding?
• library as creative studio.
• go beyond knowledge transfer to a new learner outcome (creation)
• We're not here to make it hard. So make it easy.

Meeting User’s Needs Through New Service Models
Presenter: Kay Cassell, Ph.D., Rutgers University, SCILS, NJ

• people make assumptions about the kinds of questions they can ask at desks.
• Address the customer before addressing the screen (how do you apply this to VR??)

The Medium is Not the Message: A Model of Networked Reference for the 21st Century
Presenter: Bruce Brigell, Skokie Public Library, Skokie, IL

• Check out the book "Understanding Media: The extensions of Man" by Marshall McLuhen
• Jill Lepore. Our own devices: Does technology drive history? New Yorker, 5/12/08, pg 122
• Jeff Pomerantz. RUSQ 46 #1, 2006, Collaboration as the Norm in Reference work
• it's about the service, NOT the intake medium! Do not succumb to the limitations of the medium!
• Local expertise network> wiki. utilize the expertise of the local.
• why disclaim wikipedia? learning versus unauthoritative knowledge transfer.

Session 5
Libraryh3lp: Building a Next-Generation VR System
Panelists: Josh Boyer, North Carolina State University, NC; Jean Ferguson, Duke University, NC; Eric Sessoms, Nub Games, Inc.; Pam Sessoms, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC; Amy VanScoy, Ph.D. Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Librarian North Carolina State University, NC

• meebo is invisible to screen readers. LibraryH3lp isn't and can also be used on the Wii and the iphone.
• files can be sent both ways
• customers have an idea of "library" as a big box without sub sections. While it's not true, we shouldn't just say it's not true while trying to mold them to our thinking. don't make customers conform their perceptions of reality; make them reality.
• can have people monitoring "zero queues" for the purposes of being available for transfer only.

Plenary Session Panel
Theory Meets Practice: Educators and Directors Talk
Presenters: R. David Lankes, Ph.D., Syracuse University; Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries; Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., Rutgers University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies; Carla J. Stoffle, Dean of Libraries and Center for Photography, University of Arizona

• "Reference is an island of order in a sea of chaos" (david lankes)
• don't point. help make sense of the stuff you point to.
• be subversive change agents!


• its not about the technology, it's about the service and the customers' needs
• stimulate learning, don't wait for someone to realize they need to learn
• are your customers on your committees?


• be aware of what is behind the question.
• "we're not ready to sunset anything," Bill Pardue
• it's OUR job to figure out our professional roles.


• communication is the most important skill
• find some way to touch the customer. in a "study" those customers who got books weren't blown away. those customers who got books and the librarian had lightly touched them on the arm, we're BLOWN away by the service. It's the acknowledgment of another human being that makes the interaction so much more pleasing. (How do you "touch" someone in VR?)
• go find the questions no one is remembering to bring you


• calling customers "members" makes them a part of "you" not "you" vs "them"
• start where they are. don't make them start where you are.
• put upwards pressure on people to get deeper and deeper into the community
• trust. risk. honest discussion at all levels.
• if you have something to contribute, speak up.

Session 6: Reworking, Reinventing, & Road Tripping
Milner Library on the Go: Taking Reference on the Road
Presenter: Sean Walton, Illinois State University, IL

• students/tutors are assigned a librarian.

Reworking Reference: A California Project
Presenters: Rosario Garza, Metropolitan Cooperative Library System, CA and Stacey Aldrich, California State Library, CA

• as the number of questions are going down, the cost per question is rising.
• interview question: what about the future of libraries keeps you up at night?
• think about data + consider trends = transformational scenarios
• it's about quality, not quality. People can find the easy things on their own now (thank you, Google), so we're open for the harder, meatier questions you need a human liaison for.

Scheduling Software: check out whentowork.com... can schedule people and has opps for ppl to interact.

Check out Yale Text messaging... library.yale.edu/science/textmsg.html

Reference Renaissance Notes from Stephanie Petruso (AACPL)

Stephanie Petruso of AACPL was kind enough to share her RefRen notes with us:

Day 1

Opening Session

Disruptive Innovation Theory
I. When innovation happens, some companies survive by adapting and others die.
a. Disk drives for computers is a good example of this.
II. There is a point where improvement no longer makes a difference. You have to find a whole new tack.
III. Students have abandoned the library in droves. Libraries are a centralized inconvenient location requiring specialized knowledge to use.
IV. We need to rethink “users need to come to us.”
V. The only way to really innovate is to isolate a part of the business and really protect it.

ChaCha
I. Started as a guided search
II. Mobile answers. People text questions and receive a text reply from a “guide”
III. Services like this could threaten us down the line.

Gift Economy
I. We’re moving towards a “gift economy” where many of people’s information needs can be satisfied for free.
II. We need to learn what people will pay for:
a. Immediacy
b. Personalization
c. Embodiment
d. Trust
e. Authenticity
f. Accessibility
g. Patronage
h. Findability

Questions To Ponder
I. What happens if information skills become a mass amateur activity?
a. Libraries would be well advised to go more upmarket, focus on sophisticated users with hard questions, become specialists-not generalists
II. Can we survive with one foot in the world of proprietary content and one foot in the web?

The term “Free for All” is not literal. It just means chaos.

Staff Training in the 21st Century
I. Online Training Programs that May be Useful
a. dimdim is a free product for conducting online meetings (up to 2 hours)
b. Presenter turns Powerpoint into a Flash movie with audio
c. Captivate is another tool
II. Training both new and old employees at Brigham Young Uni
a. 3 subject matter experts develop online courses for staff
b. The biggest challenge has been getting off desk time for staff
c. Created mini (audio-free) courses on the library’s databases
d. A staff wiki is being developed to discuss database tips, tricks, and problems
e. Public service staff have IM widgets to quickly and quietly talk to managers. Can send an SOS without patrons knowing. Use “Groupwise” IM client.
f. Subscription to Lynda.com allows staff access to short snippets of training in key areas.

Reference Customer Service or Retail Reference
I. Experience Economy
a. Education: providing professional development opportunities
b. Entertainment
c. Esthetics: beauty, art, an attractive, recently updated, website
d. Escapism
II. Nordstrom Model
a. Empower employees to take ownership and sell the customer/store relationship
b. Provide the customer with choices
c. Inviting place
d. Nice, motivated people
III. Fish Model
a. Have fun, be silly
b. Happy employees=happy customers
IV. Leadervalue
a. Envision: Vision for the future
b. Enable: Give them the tools
c. Empower: Give employees the power to make decisions
d. Energize

You Bought It, Now Sell It! Creating a Reference Renaissance in the Public Library by Merchandising Collections and Services
I. Some libraries are putting a value calculator on the front page of their library website so that the public can see where/how their money is invested.
II. New Ideas of Service
a. Lending cake pans-hugely popular
b. Lending flip cameras
c. Having a car show in parking lot
d. Offering free passes to state parks, museums
III. Emmy winning PSA from Douglas County Libraries
IV. Libraries should sell themselves as facilitating networking
a. Reader’s Social Nights
i. Invite avid readers (personal invitations to favorite patrons) to an evening to socialize and discuss books
ii. Outside library hours
iii. Use word “Networking”
iv. Have giveaways
v. Show off databases
V. Offer a relocation resources page. It will become essential to anyone moving to your community and introduce them to the library.

Day 2

Theoretical Perspectives of Reference

I. Relaxed people ask better (more thorough) questions
II. Information is usually based around a problem
III. Leisure is a pleasurable experience undertaken in free time
a. Types of Leisure at the Library
i. Site
ii. Resources
IV. Hobbies capture a big part of the imagination
a. Crafts and hobby activities are big library market
b. Serious enthusiasts usually buy their books (master cook, car repair)

Now You’ve Built It, Will They Come? Marketing Reference

I. Successful MTV commercial made for surprisingly little money. QandANJ commercial shown during MTV Music Awards.
II. Dickinson College has gotten rid of its Reference Desk altogether.
a. Patrons no longer confused by multiple service desks.
b. 80% of questions do not require an MLS to answer. MLS Staff were wasting time at desk.
c. Librarians each have own offices and support staff can page them if an information question is brought to the desk.
d. Students can make appointments.
e. Go to great lengths to let students know who librarian is for their area of study.
f. Librarians have IM at desks; students can IM them directly. We should no longer expect them to come to us. We need to reach them where they already are: IM and Texting.
i. IM client at public pc’s to allow patrons to contact staff without getting up?

Plenary Session Panel
I. David Lankes: Libraries should facilitate creating knowledge, not only consuming it
II. Jamie LaRue: Our most important skill is communication. We need to touch our patrons (literally-light touches on the shoulder or back are an easy way to personalize an interaction).
a. There should be a clearinghouse for calls, so librarians are only handling Reference Inquiries
b. The desk is a distraction
c. Self-check and RFID are already handling some of the tasks that used to monopolize our time.
d. The new role of the Reference Librarian is Leadership

Reference Renaissance conference August 4-5, 2008

Highlights of notes from the conference Reference Renaissance: current and future trends held in Denver Colorado August 4-5, 2008
Compiled by Debra B Mattingly

For more details see my complete notes of the sessions I attended

OPENING SESSION
Reference in the Age of Wikipedia or Not
David W Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis
dlewis@iupui.edu

Today we are not in Renaissance, we are in something new.
New technology makes new things possible.
Wikipedia is a process not a product.

Video - Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business By Chris Anderson

www.wired.com/wired/issue/16-03/

4 questions to think about:
1) What happens if info skills become a mass amateur activity?
Focus on high quality; teach info skills

2) Can we survive with one foot in the world of proprietary content and one foot in open web?
Not well and not for long

3) What is role of institutional level services in world of network level tools?
Create local content that can be used by network level

4) Do we focus on our support of users as if they are consumers or as info creators?
Peter Senge: World's knowledge belongs to the world.

Conclusion: Create tools for open scholarship

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Session 1B

One OLIVE or Two: Shaking (or Stirring) Up Library Service with Videoconferencing: New Approaches to Reference Instruction

Presenters: Julie Ventura and Kathy Sanchez, Orange County Library System, Florida

OLIVE = Orange County Library Interactive Virtual Experience
OLIVE uses video teleconferencing software to answer patrons’ questions remotely. OLIVE has co-browse feature. There are OLIVE stations in several of the branches and even in the main branch where OLIVE is staffed.

It is a self service island.

*************************

Reference Librarians Sharing Space with Information Technology:
Five ways to ensure success
Presenter: Susan Lieberthal, Stony Brook University Libraries, NY

5 planning elements for collaborative projects between reference librarians and information technology

1. Technology
2. Architecture
3. Workflow
4. Policies
5. Personnel

Territorial issues

3 projects – see full notes to see details

Be there or be square!!

************************

Virtual services librarian: Bridge between the public Desk and IT
Presenter: Laurie Van Court, Douglas County Libraries, Castle Rock, Colorado

"1st in a new job position being made up as we go along"

Future of reference librarian in public service
Now reference librarians are virtual services librarians or digital services librarians
Wanted better way to judge success of the products we purchase
Have ability to craft or purchase products to help patrons - in addition to regular databases

"Didn’t have to promote Rosetta Stone because of their advertising; don't have to promote Ancestry.com; but other vendors don't advertise like these do……

Create and maintain online subject guides

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Session 2E – Everyone is One: Customer Service or Retail Reference?
Diana D Shonrock, Iowa State University

Public service should be fun and patrons should see that

The longest lines in the library at Iowa State are at the Bookends Café.

4 E's of the experience economy - Harvard businessmen wrote this
EDUCATION - provide training, professional development opportunities
ESTHETICS - beauty/art; a new web page -- look at ALA's libraries.com which is for users, not librarians
ENTERTAINMENT - plan a program or seminar
ESCAPISM - allow customer to act a role; escape

----

ENVISION - focus on the future
ENABLE - tools to make the vision reality
EMPOWER - involve others in a common goal
ENERGIZE

Maybe the new things will be the carrot to bring new patrons into the library whether in body or virtually

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Session 3C – You Bought it, now sell it! Creating a Reference Renaissance in the Public Library by Merchandising Collections and Services (Panel)

You bought it, now sell it
Merchandising reference Services
Karen Long, Adult Services librarian
Farmington Public Library, NM

Branding your reference services - logos
Put your logo in places where it can be seen by patrons and staff
Make it memorable, short
On the Reference Desk
On the web page
On the JUST ASK web page
Promote internally

Once staff is on board, promote to the patrons
Show the functionality of the service and how it is relevant
Demonstrate the service rather than just telling about it
Provide incentives to use library services
Reinforce / revisit your promotion

****************

Bernadine Goldman and Lizzie Eastwood
Los Alamos County Public library system, NM

Merchandising reference collections

Goal to make sure that all users are aware of all resources available and are introduced to them all in one place
To integrate the different types of reference material formats by placing signs and lists of online resources next to the books

Future of public library reference collection is content rich, format free.

How we rearranged the Reference Collection

Didn't abandon Dewey
Put subject signs up on end of shelves

Brought subjects together
- aging
- health
- weapons
- environment
- culture
- jobs

Made a one page sheet to tell staff what they did and where things are now - for circ and info
Made subject signs for end of shelves
Did Reference book displays
Designed new brochure with RUSA best reference websites.
Patrons get 10 pages copied for free from any reference book - sign made to say this
Keep arrangement at least a year to see what happens

Still a 'work in progress' at Los Alamos PL
Bernadine.goldman@lacnm.us
Ej.eastwood@lacnm.us
Library.losalamosnm.us

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Session 4B – Sculpting Services: Models for Creative Change

Studying Services Models for Creative Change
Susan Beatty and Helen Clarke, University of Calgary, Canada

Reference statistics falling in academic libraries in Canadian academic libraries but off campus use of e-resources rising

My assertions for reference collections I need to build to meet needs of new users:
Digital is better [bar is higher for print than for digital in terms of purchasing]
Don't replicate print ref collection in digital - not necessary
We should focus on what is hard to find/use but of high value

Discoverability issue is huge -- how to help users FIND these resources

Focus is on the USER

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Meeting Users' needs through new reference service models
Kay Ann Cassell, Rutgers University

New Models of Reference

¨ Roving

¨ Reconfiguring ref desk - maybe no ref desk
¨ No reference desk
¨ Consolidating service points
¨ Tiered Reference - been around a long time ; still used some
¨ Outreach Reference - coming back
¨ Virtual Reference
¨ Use of Technology
¨ Use of the Web

Future:

Libraries need to keep up with user needs
Best news is we are trying new models
Best models are tailored to individual library and its patrons
Librarians must be more visible and marketing is essential

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The Medium is NOT the Message:
A model of networked reference for the 21st century
Bruce Brigell, Skokie Public Library

Networked reference

QuestionPoint - good example

New media alters the environment; environments are not passive wrappings but active processes; it affects our experience but does not determine it

iPhone has email, text, web browser. There is no debate about integration of a new media. It is here today.

It's about the SERVICE not the intake medium

Maintain professional standards & values

Play to our strengths

Use the network to better collaborate with our users

Good reference is networked reference - it isn't digital or virtual - its reference

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Session 5B – Loving Library 2.0

Wikis, Blogs and Add-ons: taking advantage of online Tools
Todd Quinn, Northern State University

6 different FREE web tools

Googledocs - wiki

Wiki's used in classroom and librarian could see student's research and suggest new / other sources

Googledocs - share documents internally with staff

Zoho.com

Add on to Firefox - iMacros - automates repetitive things

Can program it to search several databases, search engines, sites, etc. at one time

RSS

Really Simple Syndication

One reader: Pageflakes - the one presenter uses

Delicious

Yahoo pipes

http://ipipes.yahoo.com/pipes

creates one RSS feed from several RSS feeds

Then puts this one 'pipe' feed in your reader like pageflakes

Can create feeds for different faculty

http://grazr.com

Take any feed or multiple feeds and create a widget

Then you can publish the widget into any page - it gives you the code to paste into the body of a web page

Handout will be on the conference site

Also on: research.northern.edu

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Becoming Ambient: finding reference services and Me
(or How I learned to stop worrying and love Library 2.0)
Lance J Heidig, Cornell University

Using a library guide online live
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/refren

Web 2.0 are giving us opportunities to interact with our patrons in new ways

Findability - we will have the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime - in the future

Ambient librarianship - The ability to find human mediated assistance from anywhere at anytime www.ambientlibrarian.org

Librarian can be found:

Emailing
Chatting
Blogging
Wiki-ing
Podcasting
link to Facebook

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Reference & information services for library customers you may never meet
Christine Clifford, Hennepin county Library System, Minnetonka, MN

Web sites are now possibly the only library our customers will see

Subject guides in 2005; Librarian blog for each subject heading page - 40 staff are selectors for these sites and is part of their job duties; have web tools for them to put content into

There are guides and procedures and forms for staff to use to be consistent.

Add widget of library catalog search to anyone's MySpace page at their request

Comments on titles in the catalog are 'biggest' thing - they are checked before posted by a staff person; blogs are not blocked at first but can be deleted if not wanted

Put the askalibrarian link everywhere they can on all the web pages

Try to do consistent branding

Go buy domain names - i.e. bookspace.org

cclifford@hclib.org Christine Clifford

Extreme Customer Service: Becoming a customer activist

Originally posted at Julie's strangelibrarian blog; reposted at BCPL Staff Out and About blog. You can also listen to a recording of Julie speaking about this session at BCPL's Administrative Council.
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The gap between Expectations and Reality is where emotions form and problems happen.

Become a Customer Activist- An advocate for customers

• Passionate, fanatically, committed, progressive, protective about their cause
• Closes gap between expectations and reality
• you need a hat
• you need a creed

Nordstrom customer service: The Tire (and possibly the best customer service story of all time.

• Interact with customers so that they want to come back
• Customer Radar- Look at the library through the customers eyes
• Look through the eyes of who is in your community
• Look at how policies and procedures affect them
• Need to have a radar

Remove the barriers

• don’t make excuses
• don’t blame
• just find solutions.

You must become an Environmentalist

• What kind of environment do we want to have?
• Think about your favorite places. What do they look like/feel/sound/smell like?
• How do you create the same type of environment?

Exceed expectations

• need to know what people expect before you can exceed it.
• how do you find out what they expect? You have to ASK them.

All co-workers are partners. Not rivals

• Libraries are extremely hierarchical

Shift your focus

• Shift from being library focused to being customer focused
• what is good for librarians versus what is good for customers- we *always* need to be thinking about what *they* think is good for them. NOT making them conform to us.
• Expectations are influenced by “others…” (other industries… like google (faster, and “good enough”))

Stoplight Rules

• Red rules- things NOBODY can override
• Green rules- rules that can be bent (this is where staff can get confused as to what they can do)
• Yellow rules- when staff is not sure what to do
• It’s important to know the INTENT of the rules and for staff to be empowered to follow them as they see fit. (empowerment story: @Rtiz Carlton, any employee can comp a customer up to $2k without talking to management first.)
• Some rules seem reasonable but when they come into practice, they are ridiculous

Empowerment

• See it
• Own it
• Solve it
• Do it

Words that say “no” set a tone

• Say things in a welcoming way
• instead of “no cell phones” try “courteous cell phone use, please” or “you are welcome to use your cell phone in our lobby.” & don’t forget the signs as you’re leaving the building that say, “don’t forget to turn your cell phone back on!”

Think about the terms we use

• Calling them patrons allows us to patronize them (Stephen Abrams)
• Circulation/OCLC/ILL/Periodicals/Call Number/Reference/Page. No one should have to understand these terms. Use better things. Not “reference” but “questions.”
• Purpose of signage is to help people move through something easily and quickly.

Be Emotional Intelligence Activists

• Empathy (not feeling sorry for, but being in their shoes)
• No more Golden Rule. Try the Platinum Rule-Treat them like they want to be treated
• The only way we know what people want is to ask them. otherwise we’re treating them on OUR OWN assumptions
• Attitude
• When you say I can’t, you here “i won’t”
• Be open-minded. All the time.
• TTWWADI (“That’s the Way We’ve always done it”) must die
• Need to be genuine

Environmentalist plus CIA = Customer Activist