The Shape of the Reference Desk, a Panel Discussion

So much is changing at libraries, and the reference desk is part of the evolution to more client friendly service. Libraries are ripping out old desks to replace them with designer service stations to help staff help their clients. Thinking it was a good time to assess the change and spot some trends, 43 librarians attended our July 9 The Shape of the Reference Desk program, sponsored by the Adult Reference Librarians Network and held at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library.

Our three panelists - Blaise Dierks of the River Forest Public Library, Nancy Kim Phillips of the Arlington Heights Public Library, and Nicole Wilhelms of the Downers Grove Public Library - have all participated in the redesign of their libraries' desks. Coming from three different communities, each showed and explained how their new desks are designed to improve their public services. I added a brief report on our local survey of librarians' thoughts about their reference desks. (See the pie chart summary by clicking here. There is also a link to all the individual comments.)

Reference desk trends that I noticed from the presentation:

• Many new desks are removing the barriers between the librarian and the client. A new goal is to get the two side by side for the interview. This might be both standing or both sitting, and often a computer is involved. Having librarian and client side by side can let the librarian bring the client into the search. The client might notice something the librarian has not and redirect the request. The client might also learn self-help skills as a by-product. 
• New reference desks are getting closer to where clients enter the building and closer to the checkout desks. Having reference desks in the back in no longer ideal. Clients will ask other staff before ever getting back to a remote reference desk. 
• Reference desks are getting smaller. 
• Several reference managers vowed to get clutter off of their reference desks, to make them more inviting and not give the impression that the librarians are too busy to help. It was noted that sometimes too many signs and handouts around a desk seem to suggest "Do it yourself" when what a librarian really wants is to offer assistance. 
• Reference departments, especially those with call centers, are taking some tasks more usually performed by circulation clerks or receptionists. Reference and readers' advisory departments are merging. Libraries are reorganizing to have fewer departments. 
• Reference desks go by many names, including Information, Questions, Answers, Ask Us, and many variations including the word "service." A slight majority are still known as Reference according to our survey.

There was much interest in the public service point at the Arlington Heights Public Library, which Nancy Kim Phillips said is hard to call a desk. Librarians stand in the area of the structure to offer help and bring clients to open positions on the counter if necessary. Staff rove and use tablets in many of the reference interviews. One of the Arlington Heights librarians said that she has gotten in healthier shape working the reference shifts of her library. When off the floor, the librarian may be working the call center.

What I did NOT hear at this program was the idea that reference librarians should be pulled from public service desks because their time is too valuable to be assigned walk-up clients with easy questions. I heard this expressed by a manager of a small college library at the ALA Conference in Chicago in 2013. This group still seemed to be committed to reference librarians being on the front lines.

The Adult Reference Librarians Network's next meeting will be held on October 8 at the Indian Prairie Public Library.

Helping Job Hunters: Recommendations and Resources for Librarians

Forty or fifty librarians met at the Oak Brook Public Library for a program about assisting job seekers in the public library called Helping Job Hunters: Recommendations and Resources for Librarians yesterday. Starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending at 1:30 p.m., this combined DuPage Library/Metropolitan Library systems offering was an oddly-timed two-thirds day workshop (by the time you add travel), but I am glad I did not leave early to eat lunch. The last hour and a half had most of the practical library service suggestions. Besides, there were snacks, including a delicious vegetable tray, to tide us over until lunch.

The main presenter was Diane Shelton, a career counselor whose company is called Follow Your Instinct. She spoke about the emotions of job seekers and the role of librarians helping them. She knew of what she spoke, having been laid off by the University of Chicago Hospitals in March 2009. She said that in many cases receiving a pink slip is a total surprise. In her case, the hospital had assured everyone in her department only two days earlier that there would be no cutbacks. Like many suddenly unemployed people, she then went through the stages of job loss grief. Being a counselor may have tempered her grief, but the sting was still there.

Shelton spoke first about the emotions of the unemployed, who feel that they have lost control of their lives. She explained empathetic/reflective listening skills, which librarians and other professionals utilize to help the jobless. Attentive, non-judgmental listening is the first of the services that we need to provide. Shelton stressed that it is easy to discourage these already fragile clients and provided a long list of things not to say, including:

• "I know how you feel."
• "It's part of life's plan."
• "Look what you have to be thankful for."
• "This is behind you now: it's time to get on with your life."
• Statements beginning with "You should" or "You will."

Letting them grieve, you listen and help them with their practical concerns.

Part of the discussion centered on how to help the seemingly "powerless." Several librarians recounted how they have helped people without any computer skills find their way through online job search and application procedures. When to stop "helping" was a big question, as some of these people would like to have constant hand holding. Some would also prefer the library staff do all of their typing and job seeking. Shelton emphasized that we must not enable these people to become burdens on the library. That helps neither the library nor the job seekers, who must ultimately take responsibility for reordering their lives. Teach the jobless to help themselves.

The second half of the program was a panel discussion. Jeanne Friedell spoke about how the Oak Park Public Library started a job club that meets on Tuesdays. Two professional job coaches are managing it for the first four months. Librarians and outside speakers give 30 minute talks, and the participants learn to network.

Jane Klingberg from Triton College discussed their program to help job seekers with their resumes. I learned that a lot has changed since I last put together my own resume. Resumes should be one page; only the most experienced job seekers should venture to use a two-page resume today. She recommended writing in 8-point font to get the content into a nicely formatted single page. Only include work and experiences from the past ten years on your resume. Her place of employment recommends starting the resume with a statement of the job seeker's objective; studies show that half of the employers really want this and the other half do not. The second element on the resume should be a summary of skills aimed at the specific position advertised. She said that resume templates from Microsoft Word should be avoided because 1) they are hard for unskilled computer users to manipulate and 2) employers are tired of looking at the cookie-cutter results.

Fidencio Marbella spoke about programs for job seekers at the Melrose Park Public Library. In workshops at his library, he has incorporated roll playing to make the point that resumes have to look good to be considered. A volunteer plays the employer going through resumes. Fidencio gives that volunteer a stack of sample resumes and five seconds to evaluate each. The point is quickly made that appearance is critical. He also described how his library got grants and solicited funds from area businesses for their job programs. (Fidencio impressed me as a speaker who can draw an audience into his subject. I'd welcome hearing him discuss other topics.)

Chris Schabel, who was once laid off by Sears, described the job resource center that the Aurora Public Library has set up. The room has computers with two-hour sign-ins for job seekers and a collection of career materials. Chris said that she knew from experience that many area employers advise applicants get help with online applications at the public library.

There were numerous website recommendations. Snagajob.com was recommended for people seeking low paying jobs, which are often difficult to find in many of the other online job services. Klingberg recommended librarians bookmark the soon-to-be-remodeled CCJobNet.com, a source put together by the junior colleges of northern Illinois; these Chicago area job listings do not often make the national job boards. Several speakers recommended Indeed, a mega-search across many job banks.

Time Odyssey: Visions of Reference and User Services

Everything that reference librarians do may change in the next ten years, but they will still be needed. This was the consensus from four panelists at the RUSA President's Program Time Odyssey: Visions of Reference and User Services, one of the final presentations at the American Library Association conference in Washington, D.C.

The future is not magical, according to Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist from Intel. There are always unforeseen consequences of technological change. Libraries will survive, she said, as people want the library as a place and books are stubborn, persistent artifacts. Libraries are "centers of gravity" - important to society for the tradition they foster, for the distribution of knowledge, and for the stamp of legitimacy they give to the materials they collect.

Bell said that libraries have always been high tech. In the 19th century they broke ground in the use of indexes and filing systems that would be the backbone of business and government. In today's world there is a crisis in the disorganization of digital information. Society need libraries to make sense of the information explosion.

She went on to say that libraries are needed to preserve civilization. They have done it before, especially when Islamic libraries preserved classical Greek and Roman literature.

Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet & American Life Project said that there is a new twist on Andy Warhol's statement about everyone being famous for fifteen minutes. In the Internet age, everyone is famous to fifteen people.

Rainie said we have several questions ahead of us. First is "What kind of Internet do we have?" There are more kinds of information and more methods of dissemination than ever before. Soon there will be smart doorknobs that know when the owner will come home because of Internet transmitted information. Is this good?

We have questions about our national information policy. Are we going to let rural areas and the poor be left out? Are we going to allow corporation to buy higher speeds than anyone else? Who owns information?

Third, we have personal identity questions and security problems to solve. The Internet was built by trusting people who expected good behavior. Some users have abused this trust, so the Internet needs to be redesigned.

Allen Renear of the University of Illinois told a long joke about a girl approaching the reference desk ten years from now. The point was that scholarly publishing, especially for scientific and technical knowledge, will no longer be reliant on expensive periodicals.

The most interesting statistic he mentioned is that scholars are reading many more articles now than ten years ago but in the same length of time. So reading is not as deep. In ten years it is thought that scholars will be reading only little bits of articles as needed.

Wendy Schultz of Infinite Futures said that there will still be reference desks in 2017. She said librarians are in a great position to thrive, as they will be needed more than ever. She urged librarians to plot out alternative futures as to be able to adapt to the actual outcomes as they develop.

He Reads ... She Reads: The Booklist Adult Books Readers Advisory Forum

On Sunday at the American Library Association, I spent the entire day attending readers' advisory programs. I capped the day with He Reads ... She Reads: The Booklist Adult Books Readers' Advisory Forum, a sort of Point Counterpoint formatted discussion between David Wright of Seattle Public Library and Katie Mediatore of Kansas City Public Library, Missouri.

David went first. Through a series of humorous slides, he let the audience know that the readers that concerned him where not "men" but "guys." Serious reading men may not differ so much from women in their reading, but guys have their own desires. Here is what studies show about guys:

• Men read less than women.
• Men value reading less than women.
• Men read less fiction/literature.
• Men read more factual material.
• Men read more newspapers and magazines.
• Men read more science fiction.
• Men are not interested in the lives of women.
• Men who read have narrower tastes.
• Men are more likely to read everything in a series.
• Men do not want to talk about the books they read.

When Katie talked about women, the points were mostly the reverse of the list above. She did also say:

• Women do not care whether a man or woman wrote a book, while men often only consider books written by other men.
• Women will stick with a book longer before deciding not to finish a book.
• Women are more likely to join book clubs.
• Women consider romance novels like chocolates or massage - they are treats to read.

Throughout the program, both speakers used fake book jackets for laughs. (There must be a pulp fiction book jacket generator on the web, but I have not found it yet.) These were funny and sometimes almost crude, but they really supported the discussion. David also kept the crowd jumping with pulp fiction giveaways. About half the audience left with a paperback book.

One of the genres that got a lot of discussion was westerns. Though many libraries do not even collect them any more, David said they are very popular with guys. Seattle loans tons of them. He said it was important to keep up with the new series and to buy all the titles, as those guys who want to read them want to read them all.

Katie said that many women really like bloody suspense titles. She recommended the books of T. Greenwood for women.

David said that pulp fiction that comes in series can be treated as periodicals. Subscribe to the series. Get lots of copies. Do not bother cataloguing them.

In the questions period at the end, Katie said that if you are serious about readers' advisory, you approach clients to offer your service. You can not lay back and wait for someone to ask. You also have to use displays, book marks, and other marketing ploys continuously.

Another long discussion arose from the audience about librarians' spouses who bought books instead of checking them out from libraries, especially in regard to pulp fiction. Some of these spouses, especially the guys, want to own all the books in a series so they will have something they like to read over and over. Others fear overdues. Many of the librarians in attendance said they had spouses and friends who would not use the library because they hate having to have books back at a specific time.

The Future of Information Retrieval

Monday at the American Library Association Conference began with an overflow crowd to an obviously inadequate room for the hot topic presentation The Future of Information Retrieval. Four panelists (not listed in the conference book) discussed the trends that they foresee in professional and amateur research.

Marydee Ojala of Online magazine and the blog Online Insider issued a warning. She said that the Internet 2.0 movement reduces the effectiveness of tools for the professional researcher, as free Internet resources muscle out the more precise fee-based databases that have been the backbone of the research industry. The databases that survive modify themselves to be more like amateur search engines. She compared an intricate search strategy from a database with a one-word search engine query, saying the former will obviously get a more precise result. Users of search engines accept top ranked answers while information professional want right answers.

Ojala said that the free search engines are obviously attractive, but corporations with interests tamper with their results. The integrity of research is challenged.

Jay Datema, technology editor for Library Journal, sees five trends in information retrieval:

1. Older resources are becoming available on the web.
2. More authentication is being demanded.
3. There are more ways to distribute and receive data.
4. Privacy is challenged.
5. Use of mobile devices for retrieval is increasing.

Datema cautioned that Internet searches have become commodities. They may be free of charge to the end users but at the price of privacy as all their transactions are monitored.

On a brighter note, he spoke about back runs of newspapers and periodicals breaking the "nothing before 1980" rule in database contents.

He recommended watching a new search engine called Powerset, which is in beta testing.

Datema said that there is an amazing lack of control in the digitizing of books. In the interest of speed, many mistakes are being made and the quality of some images is poor. He said the digitizers are making all the same mistakes made in the rush to microfilm documents in the mid-20th century. Regardless of the quality issue, he said that digitized books will allow for (1) faster interlibrary loan, (2) more print on demand, and (3) a boom in historical research.

Mike Buschman, a technical editor for Microsoft Live Search, was less critical of the book digitization effort. He said that Microsoft is working with the University of California, University of Toronto, Cornell, New York Public, and the British Library. He said that there are currently 40 million items from 30,000 journal in addition to books on Live Search Books.

Buschman sad the digitization of print is important because the web has only about five percent of the world's knowledge. Many forgotten resources are now getting new life in digital form because they are being found through online searching.

He posed four benefits of digital research:

1. increased efficiency
2. new research connection (data found in unexpected resources)
3. enhanced texts (with comments and hypertext links)
4. liberated forms (not rely on loan of physical items)

He also said we will stop thinking of the resources as books as we mine their sentences and paragraphs.

R. David Lankes of Syracuse University described a trend in librarianship. He first spoke about a failure - an attempt by his university library to create prepackaged generic search aids. They were never of much use to any library users. He said his clients had specific, not generic needs. As a reference librarian, his strength is helping people with their specific research needs. Every request has a context. Advice without a context is weak.

Lankes indicated that reference librarians have job security because they can not be replaced with digital documents. Every client needs the reference interview, which he called "the conversation."

He said that there are other conversations, some of which are digital. An academic course syllabus can be a conversation if it is loaded onto the Internet and loaded with hypertext links. A librarian should still monitor and update it. Also, librarians can start collaborative bookmarks, which become conversations among the participants. The knowledge value in these efforts is in the conversations, which gives context to the information being exchanged.

The role of the librarian is to be a conversation facilitator and community advocate.

Lankes thinks that the profession has gone as far as it can go with metadata. The future of librarianship is in service.

Ken Burns Previews "The War"

"There are no ordinary lives," according to Ken Burns, who focuses on individuals to tell his stories about historical events. In his new documentary series The War, he and the crew of Florentine Films anchor the story of World War II on the experiences of people they met in four American towns: Sacramento, California; Mobile, Alabama; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. Like his series on the civil war, baseball, and jazz, he weaves together interviews, still photos, archival film, and period music in this production, which will premiere on PBS in late September.

Burns said that many people have requested that he make a series on World War II, but he had resisted for years. He changed his mind for two reasons. First, he read seven years ago that a thousand WWII veterans were dying every day, and he realized that many of their stories were being lost. Also, he read in the late 1990s that a poll of high school graduates revealed that many thought the U.S. fought with Germany against the Russia in the war. Being interested in the power of history, he had to address these problems.

Burns admitted that he keeps making the same film over and over. The question he is always asking is "Who are we?" He uses the same techniques and always combs libraries and archives for "the grist of all the films." He and his researchers visited hundreds of libraries in the making of The War.

I was impressed by the eloquence of Burn's speech, which reflects on his skill as a writer. I was also impressed by the seven segments of the documentary series that he previewed for us. Burns has gone far beyond the sanitized footage of the war that we normally see. The series will have to have viewer warnings.

I know what I will be doing with fourteen and a half hours this fall.

Zone 1 Reference Librarians on Nonfiction Readers' Advisory

Thursday’s meeting of Zone 1 Reference Librarians (Metropolitan Library System outside Chicago) was really good. Six librarians met at the Indian Prairie Public Library to discuss nonfiction readers’ advisory. Debra Wordinger baked cookies, which we ate with our choice of beverages, and we settled in for a good long talk.

Bonnie Reid of the Downers Grove Public Library reported on meetings of the Adult Reading Round Table, which has devoted 2006-2007 to nonfiction. Each meeting focuses on a nonfiction genre, such as biographies, adventure stories, or science discoveries. The participants read an assigned book and two titles from a genre booklist for the discussions, which are held every second month at the libraries in either Downers Grove or Des Plaines.

A key reason for the ARRT discussions is to identify appeal factors, which could help in choosing like books to offer readers. Appeal factors include frame, characterization, pacing, and storyline. Advisory for nonfiction readers may be more challenging than for fiction readers, who may happily read every book in a series by an author. The nonfiction reader may feel one book was enough on a topic and want the next book to be on a completely different topic but still have similar appeal.

Participants of the ARRT meeting keep the initial genre lists and the meeting notes to help them with their reader services.

Bonnie went on to tell about the DGPL Reference Department’s nonfiction readers’ advisory. At the staff’s weekly Wednesday afternoon meeting, the librarians report on any nonfiction books they read that week. (DGPL has a separate Readers’ Advisory Department that is devoted to fiction.) Each title with subject tags goes into a departmental database to help with advising readers and producing booklists. DGPL has these booklists on their website, and they are searchable in the Librarian’s Booklist Search.

During the Zone 1 meeting, we talked about nonfiction books that we had read. Each title mentioned suggested another. We jokingly started to identify new sub-genre, like “growing up in a really bad family” or “incidents in small midwestern towns.”

The next Zone 1 Reference Librarians Meeting is Thursday, May 3 in Downers Grove.

Notes from the Local History Special Interest Group Meeting at the Elmwood Park Public Library, January 16, 2007

Seventeen librarians attended the Metropolitan Library System Local History Special Interest Group on Tuesday, January 16 at the Elmwood Park Public Library. Most of the participants from the previous meeting returned, and several new members attended this meeting and tour of the local history room at the hosting library.

Russ Parker of the Elmwood Park Public Library passed out copies of his library’s local history policies and forms. The well-organized document describes the collection, explains the acquisition, access, and loan policies, and describes the library’s relationship to the Elmwood Park Historical Society. Attached were forms to apply to use the collection, to donate materials, to loan materials to the collection, to borrow materials, and to request duplication services (photocopies, scanned documents, or photographs). Russ said that he has used all the forms. Recently, staff from Channel 11 (PBS) in Chicago used the collection to research for an upcoming program.

Jack Simpson of the Newberry Library cautioned against making acquisition policies too detailed, which might scare off some donations. He said he would rather see what was being offered and then decide. Several members asked how to know when the documents of local organizations or companies were worth collecting. There was no easy answer, but many of the libraries limited by available space in their buildings. One suggestion is to collect newsletters from local organizations but not serve as the organizations’ archives.

Mark Johnson of the Franklin Park Public Library told us about the collection of photos and negatives given to his library. Some the photos can be seen at his library’s local history website. We discussed the rights to use scanned material on web pages. Copyright seemed to be less concern than being sensitive to privacy rights.

When discussing the management of digitization projects, Kathy Nicola of the Eisenhower Public Library District described Backstage Library Works, a company that will bring scanning equipment to a library and do a project on site. Knowledgeable staff will scan and create metadata. She has discussed a project with the company and thinks its rates are reasonable.

Christina Stoll of the Metropolitan Library System had another suggestion for a library trying to do a local history project but having trouble finding staff time. She said that library students at Dominican University need to do practical projects and might be able to help.

Kathy urged anyone who has not yet to join the group’s Yahoo Group.

Jack recommended the Mapping and Genealogy Workshop at the Newberry Library on April 13-14.

Christina took suggestions for Metropolitan Library System sponsored workshops. There included the following:

• Basic archival techniques for small collections
• Best practices for clipping files
• Software and online tools for local history
• Establishing good relationships between libraries and historical societies
• Marketing historical collections
• Using collections to create publications and programs
• Meeting with Chicago area organizations, such as South Suburban Historical and Genealogical Society

The next meeting of the Local History Special Interest Group is pending for Thursday, March 15 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Metropolitan Library System.

Metropolitan Library System Local History Special Interest Group

A new group met on Thursday, November 11, 2006. It is called the Metropolitan Library System Local History Special Interest Group. Fourteen people met at the Burr Ridge offices of MLS for two hours of discussions about collecting and managing local history collections.

First on the agenda were introductions. All the librarians spoke about their collections and challenges. Within the group were representatives from libraries with small, beginning local history collections and others with large, well-organized collections. All had some common problems of collecting, preserving, managing, and distributing materials. There is much interest in digitization and for finding ways to partner with local area historical societies.

Kathy Nicola of the Eisenhower Public Library District set up a Yahoo Group for local history librarians as a communication media for the group. Its URL is groups.yahoo.com/group/MLSLocalHistory/ and its membership is limited to library staff and volunteers who work with local history. She demonstrated how to sign up and sign in. Members have to have a Yahoo ID, which they can get with or without signing up for Yahoo email. As moderator for the Group, Kathy will approve the memberships.

Kathy went on to show the features of the Yahoo Group service. It has a couple of pages that can be seen by nonmembers, including information on the group and links of interest to local history and genealogy. Members can read the messages, post messages, load files or photos, add to the links or the databases, poll the other members, and edit the calendar. She asked members to add their real names to the Yahoo profiles to facilitate communications with other members. Members are also asked to post an introductory message if they have not.

The group decided to meet every other month, alternating between Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings to accommodate members’ schedules. Meetings will be held in members’ libraries and the Burr Ridge and Chicago offices of the Metropolitan Library System. Jack Simpson (unable to attend) has offered a tour of the Newberry Library, also.

Tentatively, the next meeting will be January 16, 2007, at the Elmwood Park Public Library, hosted by Russ Parker. The group plans to see the local history room at Elmwood Park, discuss local history collection policies, and decide what continuing-ed topics to pursue.

That was the business part of the meeting. During the course of the morning, much useful information was imparted.

Kathy reported that the Illinois State Historical Library will microfilm local newspapers for a nominal fee. The local library is responsible for collecting the newspapers to be sent to the state library. (Not everyone realized this. At my library we receive the Suburban Life microfilm from the state library without effort. Some other library must be collecting the papers.) Kathy promised to post further details on the Yahoo Group.

Mary Krekelburg of the Indian Prairie Library showed us the book Nearby History by David E. Kyvig, which she has found helpful.

Robert L. “Bob” Brubaker gave us publications about the Batavia Public Library local history collection. Bob worked for both the Illinois State Historical Society and the Chicago Historical Society libraries. He recommended that local libraries concentrate on what the local historical societies do not do, especially the providing of electronic databases with genealogy and local history resources. He also recommended the Midwest Archives Conference for learning about preservation.

Marilyn Oorbeck of the Riverside Public Library told about the Olmstead Society collection at her library.

Russ Parker of Elmwood Park talked about indexing his local newspapers back to 1962. When he has access to the Chicago Tribune Historical database, he finds and collects articles about Elmwood Park.

Christy Eyre of the Brookfield Public Library is running genealogy classes.