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Many librarians have been asked to take on additional responsibilities during these tight economic times. In this column, Maureen Perry writes about what she learned from her year as a hybrid librarian, splitting her time between reference and special collections. (more…)
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A new cataloging code, Resource Description and Access (RDA) was published in June 2010 and has been undergoing tests at select libraries. (more…)
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Frontline reference librarians purvey their skills in a variety of reference service models. These range from the traditional to the tiered to the information commons (IC) to the learning commons (LC). Libraries might use one pure form of any model, a hybrid model, or a model in the process of transformation. (more…)
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These are challenging times for libraries. Stories of budget cuts abound while librarians report rising demand for library services.1 As we slash budgets and defer expenses, we may wonder how libraries coped during the Great Depression. (more…)
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This interview highlights one reference librarian’s creative approach to marketing librarians’ services. (more…)
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In this column, Mike Furlough writes about repositories from a user services perspective. His engaging and accessible article provides a fascinating history of repository hype, a primer on technical tools, and thoughtful reflections on the future of institutional repositories. (more…)
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I had the opportunity to view the work produced by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Emerging Leaders at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. While I was impressed overall with the quality of work produced by these rising stars, I was drawn to the research that one group presented as a poster session. (more…)
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This column addresses the impact of recent changes to APA style citation on the academic community, which widely uses this style to document its research. The author notes that these changes, especially the wholesale adoption of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for citing electronic journal articles, have caused frustration and confusion for users of APA style, and the problem is likely to worsen as more students and faculty realize what the new changes entail. (more…)
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Some things are timeless: the golden rule, family traditions, and even the more materialistic simple black dress or string of pearls. These classic items are often passed over for a shinier new toy or the latest trend. However, they are timeless because we can always return to and trust them. They ground us. For librarians, Ranganathan’s five laws of library science are timeless objectives that put our profession’s goals in perspective. (more…)
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“Let me be sure I understand you: You want to start a tearoom and bakery business, and you’d like to know the number of women living in Kansas City whose households have incomes of more than $60,000? … Okay! Yes, I can help you with that.”
So begins another reference interaction in which a librarian is asked to provide quite specific data for a business plan. Where should libraries without specialized staff turn for help? (more…)
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This is the debut of an occasional column exploring topics outside the purview of Reference & User Services Quarterly’s regular columns.–Editor
“The ideal college is Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and a student at the other.” This quotation–or something close to it–has become virtually a slogan among advocates of a liberal education. (more…)