Facebook

I just had an interesting thing happen; something I never expected to happen. I just received a reference question on my Facebook account. I have always been skeptical about the value of Facebook as a means of connecting librarians with students. I still am but events like these will crack my convictions. I remain skeptical because one question does not make an overwhelming argument and this question came from a graduate student. I think they may view Facebook in a different manner than undergraduates. But if things like this are happening with more regularity, I could be convinced that we need to offer services through Facebook. I would like to hear from others who have been contacted by students requesting "library type help".

Preparing for Eau Claire

Friday was my last day on the job at OSU. I wrapped up all my loose ends and went around to see as many people as I could before I left. It was a bittersweet time. Although I will certainly miss the folks at the OSU Libraries, I am getting very anxious to begin working at the McIntyre Library. I now have my e-mail account set up and am checking my messages through web mail. I have a couple of annual reports from the library that I am reading and three articles on diversity that will help direct conversations on campus during the coming year. It promises to be very exciting. I am very interested in increasing diversity on campus having been an advisor to Latinos Unidos at Augustana College and a mentor with the ACRL Dr. E. J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Program. During the last year I have been serving as a mentor to someone getting his MLIS at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. I think that I learned more from the experience than he did.

In the mean time, this week will be spent packing dishes and books (of course) and canceling services in preparation of the move to Eau Claire. It is becoming more real everyday.

Hipster Shushers

I finally read the article on hipster librarians that appeared in the fashion section of Sunday's New York Times; "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers". A friend of mine, who is much hipper that me, sent me a message about that post and a couple of reactions to it in the Library Journal student blog, "Student Affairs", and a blog by someone who writes as the "Annoyed Librarian". Evidently the article really annoyed the Annoyed Librarian. Personally, I thought it was a fun little article that poked another pin in a stereotype that we all know is erroneous. If you haven't read the article in the NYT (my friend says everyone in libraryland has already read it) take a look at it and the reactions to it.

As a side note, the second post in Student Affairs is written by a woman who is doing an internship at the Valley Library here at Oregon State. She talks a little bit about answering reference questions through the chat box I mentioned yesterday that is on the OSU Libraries' web pages. Her posting provides an interesting insight into virtual reference.

Whither the Reference Desk

This morning when I opened my e-mail the first message I saw was from Betsy Richmond. She was forwarding on a lengthy compilation of messages that reflected a Collib-l discussion of how to best attract students to the reference desk. Many academic libraries are seeing a fall in their reference desk use statistics. The discussion was wide-ranging and I suspect is reflective of what many of us are thinking about. Is time spent on the reference desk the best way to utilize professional librarians? Is it the best way to reach students? Is that where our students expect to find help with their research assignments? Are there better ways to assist students by utilizing new technologies?

I too have been thinking about this for years but have not come up with any clean answers. At one point I was wondering how one could be a good steward of university finances if the highest paid people in the library spent a large portion of their time sitting at a desk waiting for someone to ask them a question. But that really seemed to forget the nature of libraries. Here at OSU we have been working on lessening the time librarians spend on the reference desk to free up their time for doing other activities. The question was one of impact. Could librarians make a greater impact on campus by working more closely with faculty and graduate students with their research? By developing technologies that allowed students to learn and use library services more independently? Or would they have a greater impact on student research by offering one on one consultation sessions?

They are still working on finding a model of service that works best for OSU students and faculty. I would hope that during the coming year we will discuss how best to develop our reference services that are best suited to our university and our students and faculty.

One technology that seems to have worked very well here is having a chat box available in the upper right hand corner of most library website pages. From the very beginning of offering this option, students have been submitting chat questions as much or more than they have at the reference desk.