Page 41 - DLIS105_REFERENCE_SOURCES_AND_SERVICES

Reference Sources and Services

Notes (b) Reference Librarians will perform the four functions of selecting, organizing, provision
of access, and interpretation of relevant information
(c) Personal service will be valued.

The Changes
(a) Newer and better tools will be developed.
(b) The demand for instruction will rise.
(c) The demand for factual information will decrease.
(d) The community will become more diverse.
(e) The librarians will become more diverse.
(f) Librarians will become information generators rather than merely information
conservators.
Over the next few years, we are likely to see an information environment dominated by an Internet
being used in much the ways we know today: for communication via electronic mail, chat, and
instant messaging; for delivery of information services such as the library catalog, databases, and
native Web resources; with facilities such as search engines and directories as finding aids.
Bandwidth, processing speed, and storage capacities will continue to rise and cheapen, technological
access and use will continue to spread, and more information, of quality high and low, will be more
available to more people in more ways as time goes on.
What makes sense here is that libraries will need to examine these possibilities, and others that
might arise, and select from among them those that make the most sense for the communities they
serve, the kinds of information needs they have, and the situations in which they find themselves,
and the appropriate mix of resources (human, information, financial) to be allocated among them.
If these services are made professional, attractive, effective, evaluated, marketed, integrated,
institutionalized, value-based, and appropriate definitely the services would thrive.
Reference librarians will indeed make their own future. The reference librarian of the future will
not be symbolized as the woman sitting behind the desk, but as someone who is readily accessible
to everyone in the community and who provides individual information services using whatever
technologies become available. By concentrating on the needs of their users, providing personal
service, and providing leadership in the information society, the reference librarian will continue to
perform an essential function for the community.
Reference service will remain place-based, but will no longer be place-bound. The place at which it
is based won’t be a reference desk staffed by a reference librarian. Instead it will be an information
consultation room in which a librarian can work face-to-face with a user or from which a librarian
can work screen-to-screen with a remote user. The place will also be a library’s Web site, a “place”
that transcends a building’s fixity. It will grow organically to save the time of the researcher and to
assure that every bit of information has its user and every user finds his/her needed information.
Reference Librarians will be faced with a much more difficult task than the profit sector because
library services are only indirectly tied to revenues—the public decision makers who have to be
convinced of the value of library services are generally not the consumers of the library’s services.
The separation of funding and customers will still make it very difficult for Reference librarians to
transform their role and their services in academic and public libraries. It also explains why libraries
historically have not placed a strong focus on obtaining direct customer feedback on quality of
services.
To change the professional culture and to allow libraries to truly play a leadership role in designing
future reference services, each organization has primary responsibilities that must be fulfilled:

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