Google Books and Reference

The future is always in the back of peoples minds and today I was wondering about the Google books project and how it might change the way I do reference. Already there have been times when a patron has been look for a certain play for example and I could not find in the library or library system but when I did a Google search the full text of the play was available online through Google Books. I think from a patron point of view this is much easier than checking an item out from the library and having to return it. Now they can simply download or print the document and they are free to make notes etc. Because of this I feel I should do these kinds of searches for patrons or explain to them this is a source they could try to use. At the same time I wonder if I am promoting something that will take patrons from the library. This is difficult for me.

Throw out perfect?

Is there a perfect answer to any question? I don’t think there is. There may be a right answer and a wrong answer, but perfect, that is another story. I think in reference services the public would be worse off if we didn’t get hung up on perfect. How many times has someone asked a question, then even after they are gone, you the librarian is still looking for a better answer or more information for your own knowledge? I think this is what makes us good at what we do. At the same time, some patrons don’t want perfect, they just want good enough, so if you cant find perfect fast enough they give up. How do we walk that thin line?

Do you have a Second Life?

For a little while I was really interested in Second Life. This is an online forum where you create an avatar and navigate a virtual world by flying. Volunteer librarians from around the world have created a library island. The most interesting thing I found when I was looking into Second Life was they have visitors in the thousands each day. I heard this in a podcast and can’t quite remember the total number they gave. I thought this related to the “Slam the boards” outreach that librarians did, only in a different way. I think that these librarians have really accepted and found a way to embrace the new technologies that surround us.

YouTube @ your library

So many young people use YouTube these days I think it is great that libraries are reaching out! I have seen tons of library promos doing everything from introducing patrons to workers to taking patrons step by step though finding a book. My favorite was about library zombies, which really worked more as a commercial for the library. You can find the video here. I think there are so many ways that libraries could embrace technology to really reach out to everyone. We really need to continue searching out technology to make our own.

Give the people what they want

I want to know how we decide what is best for a patron. They trust us for recommendations and to help them find reliable sources. Sometimes I wonder if we really do know best. There are books, great, wonderful, amazing books I have read for pleasure, which I will never recommend to a mom who is asking for a suggestion for her child. The main reason is I don’t really know that mom, I don’t know what she thinks is best for her child. Maybe there is a word in that book that I don’t look twice at which that mom doesn’t want her child reading. For example, one mom I know did not want her child to hear, read or see anyone call anyone else “stupid.” This is the thing that makes me most nervous about readers advisory. I am a fairly liberal person, I don’t think “stupid” falls into the category of “bad word.” I am waiting for the day a patron attacks, I just hope I am ready!

I think this goes along with reference questions as well. I don’t like to tell someone which is the best math book we have. I think that each math book might be the best, depending on the question. I have not read every book that exists, I can lead a patron to the math books, look though and help find the answer, but I don’t know that I feel comfortable telling them the “best” answer. I feel that has a lot to do with personal preference. Am I alone with these feelings?

Give them a fish, or teach them to fish?

Now that I work mainly with children answering reference questions I have a different perspective on the whole thing. Many times when answering questions for adults you can tell, they don’t want a long explanation about what you are doing and why you are doing it, they just want what you think is the best answer to their question based on the information they have given you. I know this is aggravating for many librarians because to a point only the patron can choose what the best answer is or maybe you are standing there looking through every book you can think of that might contain a picture of a bicycle wheel off the frame, while the patron is just looking over your shoulder telling you none of those pictures will work. The opposite of that seems to be true in the children’s department. Many times young patrons come to the desk and ask specifically how to find a book, not for me to show them the book. When they ask this, I try to find the least complicated explanation and give them a walk though. I wonder what kind of patrons these children will be when the move to the adult department. I also wonder if the ever evolving nature of the library confuses patrons into thinking they will never be able to find a book without the help of the librarian. Is that what we call job security?

What Story Is Your Library Telling

At the recent Illinois Library Association Conference in Springfield, the keynote speaker talked a lot about Library 2.0 and what it means to us as individuals. Something that stuck in my mind was a question he asked, “What story is your library telling?” After this he showed us signs both good and bad from libraries across the country. We all know that there is only one chance at a first impression. Putting these two ideas really made me think me about different places I have visited, including libraries. I have decided to think of every meeting I have with a patron as my chance to make that first impression. Even if that patron comes in everyday they deserve to get a smile. It also made me want to step back and think about why we do the things we do. Did we make that choice to make it easier for us or because it makes sense in the bigger picture? Reference services are one place that we can make that impression over and over again. There are some libraries where an importance is places on reference services, but if looked at closely one could see that staff is only allowed to take a short time with each reference question. I realized that If library staff is give permission to take the time and resources they need to find the whole answer that impression will be a good one every time. I have a new perspective on my job, and libraries in general!

What does Dewey-less library mean for the way we do reference?

There has been much buzz in the past months about libraries going “Dewey-less” in order to draw in the book store crowd. I don’t know if this will work or not, I think it might, but I do not think it will benefit library users or library staff. Right now where I work (in the youth services department) we have the picture books in “browsing bins” at low heights so the little ones can search and find easily. The books are then shelved by general letter of the author’s last name (not in order within that letter). You notice I say so the little ones can find things, when a patron comes in looking for a certain title it takes me FOREVER to find that title. I also have to explain to the patron why it is taking so long and how our shelving is set up. Luckily this is only in the picture book section; if things were this in the non-fiction I would feel totally helpless. I think this is major problem with a Dewey-less existence. I find that on the rare occasion I am looking for something specific in a book store they can never help me find it. So this brings us to a question, what will happen to reference services if all libraries go Dewey-less? This will most defiantly make my job harder and in my own experiences at my job, patrons do not understand why I am not able to just go to the shelf and pull the book off right away. The whole reason they ask for help is so they find the proper information and find it quickly. I do think that some reference services will be moved online, however books will still be needed for sometime. Maybe when more services have moved digital than a move to a Dewey-less system would work…who knows?

Putting my life on the line: defending Wikipedia

Okay, don't shoot! At least hear me out first.

Wiki's and Wikipedia have a place in the internet world. It is not a place to find information to include in your research paper. It is a place to find and share information, ideas and opinions. My mind was fully changed today when I found out the book "And Tango Makes Three" was a true story. i knew this title was ALA's 2006 most challenged title, but i did not know its main characters were real. I wanted to find out how or if this changed any feeling about the book. I did a Google search and Wikipedia popped up. Here I found links to several articles which were very informative, in fact they were exactly what I was looking for. In this case I was more interested in what other people thought about the topic rather than the facts so a wiki worked well!

I by no means think that people should base research on what they find in Wikipedia, let alone a google search, but wikis do have their place.

What kind of information do we want?

While looking for information today on a piece of writing called "Libraries should reflect majority values" by Phyllis Schalfly which, appeared on an instructional materials list for the schools I work with through my library (don't worry they were also reading "Libraries should reflect diverse views" put out by the ALA) I came across a conservative answer to "Wikipedia" called "Conservapedia: The Trustworthy Encyclopedia". This made me think about where people get their information from and also where they WANT their information from. It seems so often now that people may not want the unbiased facts, but they want the facts that are skewed to their liking. I wonder how often this effects the process of answering a reference question in a library? Or how this effects libraries in general?