Page 45 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes

Task Visit a librarian and find out his/her skills, experience and qualifications.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

1. A …………………………….. must be responsive to the needs of users, think critically and
be organized as well as organize or coordinate projects and services for the user.
2. According to the BLS, an aspiring research librarian should have a …………………… in
library science, which can take two years to complete.

3.2 Role and Responsibilities of a Reference Librarian

Reference librarians play an important role in the daily operations of a library. They provide
assistance to library users in finding resources and how to efficiently use the library. They must
have knowledge on a wide range of topics because she may field a request concerning just about
any topic. Reference librarians typically possess a master’s degree in library science and may
work in public libraries, learning institutions or for research organizations.
This can be dependent upon the setting: In an academic environment it could be promoting the
library’s services, interacting with faculty, teaching information literacy courses, collection
development, keeping up with new technology, creating information services and conducting
the reference interview. In a public library it could mean doing reference work as well as
checking out books to patrons. The reference librarian is part of user services and is therefore
very important to the user and fulfilling their needs. The role of the Reference librarian today is
definitely changing, especially with so many students using Google and getting most of their
sources online, also there are several sources online where students can go that provide
information services. The Reference librarian is not called upon to answer questions or gather
information as much as they have in the past and the ways in which they answer questions are
changing as well.

Did u know? “Coffman and Arret reported on recent ARL statistics that show a decrease of
40 per cent in reference transactions between 1997 and 2003” (Cassell and Hiremath).

3.2.1 Additional Responsibilities

Experienced librarians may take administrative positions such as library or information centre
director. Similar to the management of any other organization, they are concerned with the
long-term planning of the library, and its relationship with its parent organization (the city or
county for a public library, the college/university for an academic library, or the organization
served by a special library). In smaller or specialized libraries, librarians typically perform a
wide range of the different duties.
Representative examples of librarian responsibilities:
Researching topics of interest for their constituencies.

Referring patrons to other community organizations and government offices.
Suggesting appropriate books (“readers’ advisory”) for children of different reading levels,
and recommending novels for recreational reading.

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