A Reference Renaissance

No workshop would be complete without breakout sessions. Participants could select from the following sessions: “Is the Reference Desk Dead?” “Assessment: Measuring the Quality and Impact of Reference Services,” “Library As Place,” and “Training Issues in Reference.” Retreat planners did an outstanding job of keeping breakout sessions focused by providing each group with a list of four or five discussion questions.⁸ I attended the breakout session “Library As Place,” which centered around the following topics: creating a social as well as a study and research space; advantages and disadvantages of the information commons model; the role of cafés and coffee shops (do they add or detract from a library’s mission?); and strategies for marketing the library to the broader Penn State community. We concluded that academic libraries have become multifunctional spaces (and this is a good thing). Some of the initiatives that we are rolling out (such as the creation of a leisure reading collection at University Park) are rooted in our past. The archivist in this group informed us that decades ago, our library had sponsored a student contest for best personal library.

What did Penn State librarians learn after two days? We were pleased by our diverse approaches to reference. At the wrap-up session, Radford reminded us that we need to count the same thing at every service point, that assessment is an every day activity, training is crucial, and that we need to market our services more aggressively. Participants were asked to comment on one or two things before leaving the workshop. One anonymous comment that has remained with me is, “I’m glad reference is back!” Given the innovative approaches being adopted by many of my colleagues (and mirrored nationally), I will venture that reference is experiencing a regeneration, a reference renaissance. Within a week of the retreat, I joined Facebook and established an iGoogle account so I could create my own research portal. I am excited for classes to begin this fall so I can invite students to be my friend on Facebook and to demonstrate how easy it is to create a personal research portal. Finally, I am heartened by Radford’s sage advice: “We are in control of inventing the future.”⁹

References and Notes

1. More information about the “Seeking Synchronicity” study and Radford’s prolific research and presentation record can be found on Radfords’ Web page, www.scils.rutgers.edu/~mradford (accessed Aug. 23, 2007).
2. The 2007 RUSA President’s Program was titled “Time Odyssey: Visions of Reference and User Services.” If you missed it, podcasts from this program are available from RUSA’s Web site, www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusapubs/pastpresidentpro/2007abc/ac2007prg.htm (accessed Aug. 23, 2007).
3. Penn State University Libraries serves 84,000 students and 6,000 faculty. The University Libraries comprises thirty-eight libraries located at University Park and twenty-three campuses. In terms of staffing, there are 157 librarians and professional staff, 321 support staff, and 98 FTE student assistants. Librarians have full faculty status.
4. Marie Radford, “Challenges for Reference Excellence: Realities and Possibilities,” keynote address presented at the Penn State University Libraries Reference Retreat, August 1-2, 2007, University Park, Pennsylvania.
5. Marie Radford, “Strategies for Effective Communication and Service Excellence,” workshop presented at the Penn State University Libraries Reference Retreat, August 1-2, 2007, University Park, Pa.
6. Reference and User Services Association, “Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers,” www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesbehavioral.htm (accessed Aug. 23, 2007).
7. Alexia Hudson, a reference librarian at the Penn State Great Valley Library, is leading the way as a reference librarian in a virtual world. Her participation in Penn State’s Second Life initiatives are chronicled in these recent news stories: “Program Allows Students to Simulate Life at PSU,” The Daily Collegian Online, July 31, 2007, www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/07/31/program_allows_students_to_sim.aspx (accessed Aug. 23, 2007); “Next Step in Virtual Reference,” Interview 1, no. 15 (Apr. 16-22, 2007), www.libraries.psu.edu/news/interview/Interview04162007.pdf (accessed Aug. 23, 2007); “What Is Penn State Doing in Second Life?: Penn State Virtual Worlds,” http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/virtualworlds/node/216 (accessed Aug. 23, 2007). The Thun Library at Penn State Berks serves up reference in a fun way by using a real hotdog cart to provide mobile library service. More information (including photographs) about this clever marketing strategy can be found at “The Ask Cart with the Library Dude!” www.libraries.psu.edu/berks/cart.html (accessed Aug. 23, 2007). Nicola Cecchino, assistant librarian at Penn State’s George T. Harrell Library, has created an excellent mobile technologies portal to serve medical students. More information about this portal (including a link to Cecchino’s blog) can be found at “Mobile Technologies Portal,” www.hmc.psu.edu/library/eresources/pda1.htm (accessed Aug. 23, 2007).
8. Much credit is due to the reference retreat planning committee co-chaired by Laurie Probst and Sam Stormont. I encourage readers to contact Sam Stormont, head librarian at Penn State Abington Library, directly (srs29@psu.edu) if they would like more details about Penn State’s reference retreat.
9. Radford, “Challenges for Reference Excellence.”

Correspondence for Reference & User Services Quarterly should be addressed to Editor Diane Zabel, Schreyer Business Library, The Pennsylvania State University, 309 Paterno Library, University Park, PA 16802; e-mail: dxz2@psu.edu.

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