Ohio Reference
Excellence
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Purpose
Ohio Reference Excellence (ORE)
Contents
 What's New: Summary and Resources
New: Library 2.0 and virtual reference
Guidelines
Purpose
History and
Background
More than half of Americans visit libraries! Young generations
are most likely to visit for
problem solving.
Results of a Pew Internet &
American Life survey "challenge the assumption that libraries are losing relevance in the internet age. Libraries
drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes."
"Young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the
most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose. Furthermore,
it is young adults who are the most likely to say they will use libraries in the future when they encounter problems:
40% of Gen Y said they would do that, compared with 20% of those above age 30 who say they would go to a library."
(Report of IMLS-funded project with University of Illinois -Urbana-Champaign and the Pew Internet & American Life,
December 2007)
Where do users go for information?
The 2008 Digital Future Project Report shows the average number of hours users spend online has increased to 15.3 hours per week. 16% of Internet users said they go online to find or check a fact at least daily, while 7% of users go online daily or more often to look up the definition of a word. The Internet is perceived by 80% of users age 17 and older to be a more important source of information than television, radio, newspapers, and books.
A growing number (21%) of Internet users said that their home page is a search page such as Google. Other common activities include e-mail (96%), Internet surfing without a specific destination (71%), looking for news online (60%), finding product information (43%), conducting online banking or other financial services (38%), instant messaging (37%), playing online games (35%), searching for humorous content (25%).
Online communities continue to grow, affecting user expectations of libraries, increasing opportunities for outreach, and creating new questions about user rights.
According to The 2008 Digital Future Project Report, membership in online communities has more than doubled in only three years. 54% log into their community at least once a day. 71% of members said their community is very important or extremely important to them. 40% say they use the Internet at least monthly to participate in such communities. 87% of online community members are participating in social causes that are new to them.
Visit ALA's Online Social Networks site and the ALA Wiki on Online Social Networking for issues about access to online communities for library users.
Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace, a PEW Internet report.
How do libraries use Library 2.0? News, ideas, resources, blogs
"Library 2.0 is all about library users - keeping those we have while actively seeking those who do not currently use our services. It's about embracing those ideas and technologies that can assist libraries in delivering services to these groups, and it's about participation - involving users in service creation and evaluation." Library 2.0 Reading List, created by Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens for the Library 2.0 course for ALA with the Otter Group.
Need ideas? 100 Free Library 2.0 Webinars and Tutorials, "Webinars, presentations, and tutorials designed to help you take your library to the next level." Created by Jessica Merritt.
Comprehensive list of resource links for Library 2.0 and the new technologies: "New Technologies in Libraries", definitions, best practices, presentations for blogs, RSS, wikis, folksonomy, tagging, library catalog 2.0, multimedia, Flickr, Podcasting, You-Tube, social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook), virtual worlds (Second Life), Web 2.0, Library 2.0. [Megan Fox, Simmons, February 2008.]
Track library bloggers for new ideas:
ALA TechSource
Blyberg.net
Information Wants To Be Free
The Librarian in Black
LibraryBytes
LibraryCrunch
The Shifted Librarian
Stephen's Lighthouse
Tame the Web
New reference work definition from ALA.
New definition of
reference (ALA RUSA 2008): Reference Work includes reference transactions and other activities that involve the
creation, management, and assessment of information or research resources, tools, and services. Creation and
management of information resources includes the development and maintenance of research collections, research
guides, catalogs, databases, web sites, search engines, etc., that patrons can use independently, in-house or
remotely, to satisfy their information needs. Assessment activities include the measurement and evaluation of
reference work, resources, and services.
Virtual or remote reference: roving and predatory!
Guide to Roving: An Essential Service for Library 2.0 Webinar to learn how you can reach out to "hidden customers" who don’t approach the reference desk.
Slam the Boards! Predatory Reference and the Online Answer Sites where librarians demonstrate their reference skills on the online answer boards, Amy J. Kearns Dec 9, 2007 by WebJunction.
What do you need to know for virtual interviewing? Virtual Reference Adventure: Choose Your Own Experience, a
self-paced learning experience based on the Anytime, Anywhere Answers curriculum, was developed by Washington
libraries virtual reference project to address core competencies (the critical skills, abilities and aptitudes) for
library staff providing virtual reference services.
Virtual Reference Desk, now part of WebJunction,
has standards, Aska Digests, DIG_REF forum, conference proceedings, evaluation and research about virtual reference
practices and procedures.
Digital Reference
Blog, with "News and views on chat reference," plus IM, email, VoIP, video, SMS, phone, roving and face-to-face
reference from TeachingLibrarian.org.
Virtual Reference: Alive & Well, by Brenda
Bailey-Hainer. LibraryJournal.com,
January 15, 2005
Universal access
Working with new generations
Eight key realities of the Millennial generation,
ALA TechSource Blog post of CIL keynote address highlights by Lee Rainie
from Pew Internet and American Life
Project.
The Alternative Teen Services blog offers YA ideas and the Library Success Wiki maintains the
Library 2.0 Services to Teens - Best Practices, lists of public libraries that use
Library 2.0 technologies such as blogs, Flickr, podcasts, vodcasts, and RSS to connect with teens.
UI Current LIS Clips:
Digital Native or
Digital Immigrant. March 2006. Compiled and annotated by Marianne
Steadley.
Working with Diverse Groups to Promote Reference Services
The Diversity Cookbook
from Ocean County (NJ) Library is a toolkit of diversity programs.
The ALA Office for Diversity has a Library
Diversity wiki.
Serving Non-English Speakers in U.S. Public Libraries,
March 2008, ALA report about library services and programs for non-English speakers, covers effectiveness of
services, barriers to library use, most frequently used services and most successful programs by language served
(which were English as a Second Language, language-specific materials and collections, computer use and computer
classes, story time and special programs).
Updated guidelines: Guidelines
for the Development and Promotion of Multilingual Collections and Services 2007 from Library Services to the
Spanish-Speaking Committee and
Guidelines for Library Services to
Spanish-Speaking Library Users (2007) from Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association.
Start your search in the right place! Try these links and also see Look
It Up in Module 4.
Search Tools from Infopeople lists
recommended search sites for news, government, kids, indexes, and search engine guides.
Also try their Best Search Tools Page, a search form that serves as an
interface to several of the best search tools - on one page.
Use the Search Tools Chart to compare features of the search tools.
You can print for staff or patrons.
Social bookmarking and tags
What are users' search terms? Look at the tag
cloud
which results from users' search terms of the NASA home page.
Tags are assigned on social bookmarking
sites such as del.icio.us and Connotea for
clinicians and scientists.
"Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web
pages. Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags,
so users stay aware of new bookmarks." Ben Lund, Tony Hammond, Martin Flack and Timo Hannay. Social Bookmarking Tools (II): A Case Study – Connotea.
In: D-Lib Magazine 11, Nr. 4, 2005
Wikis, Blogs, RSS, Podcasts
Good example! Euclid Public Library online visitors may subscribe to the Reader's Advisory blog with
RSS.
New Ways of Delivering Service: Blogs and RSS.
Ian Baaske, North Suburban Library System, March 31, 2006.
Bloglines RSS feeds
supply news from hundreds of blogs and news sites, allowing you to check the
headlines in a newsreader
Technorati tracks
who's linking to you, posts the top topics in blogs at the moment, and lets
you find blogs on particular topics.
Digg is a technology
news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and
non-hierarchical editorial control.
To get some good
ideas (and see how wikis and blogs work to allow cooperative building of information sites), look at a library blogs
list on the Blogging Libraries
Wiki or a list of librarian and library blogs with links to
individual, library, organizational, medical, and other topical library blogs.
Tools for searching blogs about libraries
LibWorm is a blog search engine and current awareness tool for people who work in libraries. LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds and makes them available for searching.
LISZEN is a Library & Information Science search engine powered by Google Co-op. It includes user submitted blogs that relate to library and information science.
Information literacy website
ACRL Information Literacy
website. Understanding and expressing real information needs is the first part of information literacy. “To
be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when
information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the
needed information.”
Catalog connections
New features for WorldCat, with more than a billion items from
OCLC libraries:
-Add a Worldcat search box sites.
-Search from browser toolbars.
-Build Web links to WorldCat info.
-OCLC and Google agree to exchange data and link digitized books to WorldCat.
A library
podcast that explains call numbers!
Fun
with Our Meebo Widget and the Library Catalog (David Lee King blog). "When a customer searches
our catalog and doesn’t find anything, they can contact us via IM and ask for help."
Catalogablog, good stuff for
library cataloging, classification, metadata, and subject access info.
How do users classify? Ponder the tag cloud
which results from users' search terms of the NASA home page.
Cataloging in a digital world: Resource Description and
Access, designed for the digital world, guidelines and instructions on resource description
and access covering all types of content and media (expected in 2009 and built on foundations established by the
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules).
Recommended reference books
Library 2.0 and
Virtual Reference
What's new? A current catchphrase is "Go where
the users are." New technologies - and new generations - create new demands
for mobile services such as
developing library blogs to promote services, using wiki software to involve
users in creating web site content, creating webcasts (Podcasts), working to
integrate the catalog with other online systems for seamless information
delivery, and subscribing to RSS feeds to keep up with the latest concepts. These technologies are part of Library 2.0, a term
describing use in libraries of Web 2.0, the second phase of development of
the World Wide Web.
The new wave of web technologies is primarily
collaborative. Many library users are dedicated to online communities for
work, recreation, and sharing all aspects of life. Users no longer rely on
big publishers and news corporations for information needs. Libraries should
consider the advantages of the social aspect of these new Internet
applications when planning and marketing reference services.
The mission of the library remains commitment to meeting community needs.
That commitment now requires understanding not just new technologies, but differences between digital
natives and digital immigrants (those who have grown up online and those who
are working hard just to keep up!). Many library users depend
on mobile devices for working and playing. When providing services, it's
critical to consider changing needs and motivations of all user groups.
The different generations have
different styles of getting and using information. Ease
with technology is one outstanding difference. "Millennials, also known as
Generation Y, the Net Generation, the Digital Generation, the Echo Boom
generation were born during the period of about 1980 – 2001 and are in our
schools, universities, and recently have entered adulthood. And while only
the youngest of this Millennial generation, sometimes known as Generation
Z, have been surrounded by digital technology from infancy, the others
have grown up and have extensive experience with the web and other
technologies. These “digital natives” often pose a challenge to
librarians, many of whom are Boomers or Generation X and are “digital
immigrants.”
[Articles about different
generations are summarized in
Digital Native or
Digital Immigrant. UI Current LIS Clips, March 2006. Compiled and annotated by Marianne
Steadley.]
Current Guidelines
The following guidelines from ALA and IFLA are a recommended
starting point for any library interested in current reference policies and practices.
Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers,
American Library Association Reference and User Services Association (ALA RUSA). Revised
by MOUSS Management of Reference Committee and approved by the RUSA Board of Directors,
June 2004. URL is http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa
/rusaprotools/referenceguide
/guidelinesbehavioral.htm,
visited June 2008.
Professional
Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians, American Library Association
Reference and User Services Association (ALA RUSA), 2003. URL is
http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa
/rusaprotools/referenceguide
/professional.htm,
visited June 2008.
Guidelines
for Information Services, American Library Association Reference and User Services
Association (ALA RUSA), 2000. URL is http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa
/rusaprotools/referenceguide
/guidelinesinformation.htm,
visited June 2008.
Guidelines
for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services. Prepared by the MARS
Digital Reference Guidelines Ad Hoc Committee, American Library Association Reference and
User Services Association (ALA RUSA), 2004. Approved by the RUSA Board of Directors June
2004. Section 3.3, Service Behaviors, et.al. URL is http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa
/rusaprotools/referenceguide
/virtrefguidelines.htm,
visited June 2008.
Digital Reference
Guidelines, Reference and Information Services Section, Standing Committee on
Reference Work, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA),
2003. Latest page Revision: April 19, 2005. URL is http://www.ifla.org/VII
/s36/pubs/drg03.htm, visited June 2008.
Guidelines for the Introduction of Electronic Information Resources to Users, 2006, are intended to assist librarians who provide and publicize new electronic information resources to users and potential users. URL is http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools
/referenceguide/guidelinesintroduction.htm, visited June 2008.
Purpose
The ORE goal is to improve the quality of reference service in Ohio
and to expand training access to include everyone, anytime, at any pace. The emphasis of
ORE on the Web is the reference process, whether service is provided in-house or with
remote technology. Modules include exercises and quizzes, plus Ohio library photos,
stories, and links.
History and Background
Ohio Reference Excellence on the Web was based on the ORE
Manual, 2nd Edition, A Self-study Reference Course, developed by the Ohio Library
Council's Reference and Information
Services Division ORE Task Force. The ORE Manual was an adaptation of MORE: Minnesota
Opportunities for Reference Excellence and CORE: California Opportunities for Reference
Excellence. The Manual was used for two years as the basis for ORE workshops around Ohio.
ORE on the Web was adapted for the Web in 2000 and is revised annually, adding new links
and content about the latest developments in reference service.
Ohio Reference Excellence on the Web was created by Deana
Noack Web Design and edited by Jennyann Noack. See copyright, credits, and contributor information.
Instructions for using the modules
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Virtual/Remote Services/Chat page
highlights the differences between remote and in-house reference.
Email reference is part of the
Phone/Email page.
Web searching and evaluating Web sources is covered throughout the
modules (for example, on the Internet page, in Examining Resources, and on the
Look It Up page).
Reader's Advisory page: goals, skills, tips, interviewing.
Photos of Ohio libraries who contributed to the project are featured on
many pages. Some photos are linked to larger versions. Click linked photos to see the
larger images.
Photos have either a text or a pop-up caption that appears when the cursor hovers over the
image.
Putnam County District Library
London Public Library staff work with individual patrons.
Everyone has reference experiences to share and stories to tell.
Learn from others! Photos and stories reflect the nature of reference work - working
with people.
Reference work comes in two flavors: "I love working with people," and
"This job would be great if I didn't have to work with people!"
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Overview
Interview
People
Strategies
Resources
Ethics
