Are Reference Desks Dying Out?

That's the title of the article in the April 20, 2007 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Well, are they or aren't they? In the article some surveys have indicated that students want the traditional reference desk while others have the opposite result. Is that such a surprise?? University campuses are different. Libraries can be different too. What works in one library will not always work in another.

The article also talks about using library clerical workers to staff the reference desk. So where are they getting all of these clerical workers? Are they hiring more staff to work the desk? I doubt it. Most likely they are pulling staff from other areas and having them work some hours on the desk. So it's not the reference desk that's dying, it's the use of librarians staffing the reference desk.

Maybe we should rename the reference desk to service desk. That would be more appropriate and correct.

Week 9, Thing 22 and 23

Well, I tried to look at ebooks and audiobooks. I did not feel comfortable having to register for everything and then have to download software in some cases. These extra steps could be very frustrating for users. This as well as many other library products lack any standardization so users have to learn and adapt to every vendors site. This is so irritating and making their use more complicated than it has to be. Why can't there be some standard interface with these products? Why does each vendor feel the need to create their unique site with unique software needs? Please simplify if you want people to use your product!!

I basically have an aversion to trying to read an entire book online. For me that is not a viable option. I don't want to read a monitor.

Well, the final entry to the 23 things. It has been mostly an entertaining educational experience. I learned more than I thought I would and feel like I have advanced in my knowledge of the technical/internet world. I am sure there is much more to come. In fact, I'm sure there are a great many other existing sites that we did not even touch on in this excursion through 23 things. How do you find and evaluate all the sites? How does anyone find time to investigate all these sites? And just think of all the new sites and services that are in the process of being developed at this moment. It's more than I can handle at this point. Good luck to us all.

Week 9, Thing 21

How do you stop the podcast??? I got it started and can't get it to stop!! The site I went to did not state the length of the podcast as far as I could tell. It would have been useful to have that information available before I got into it and now can't get it to stop. Oh, I just figured out how to get it to stop.

I also found out I lost my Bloglines account that I had set up. I did not go to my email account and respond to their validation email in a timely basis. I guess I need to start all over with that system. After figuring out how to get back on I added an RSS feed for Chronicle Books.

At this point I question the real use of this application in libraries. I am much more visual and would prefer to have at least a powerpoint presentation to coincide with the audio. I'm sure someone will find something useful from this.

Week 9, Thing 20

YouTube. My first thoughts when I was viewing it right now were "this is entertaining" and "are there copyright issues to be concerned about". Then I thought, how could this be applied to libraries? Maybe we could have a page with a variety of links that provide directions to the restrooms or the copier from each workstation or service point in the library. We can suggest people go to the YouTube for directions to the restrooms. We just need some short video clips to provide that useful information. Or maybe even kiosks at various locations throughout the library. There would be buttons to select "directions to restroom", " directions to copier" etc. The user would select a button and the video will display with the directions.

I guess in reality instructional information videos could be made available through YouTube. The library could have their own page(s) in Youtube with all sorts of informational videos. Throw in a few comedy shorts to keep users entertained.

week 8, Thing 19

I revisited the LibraryThing website and added to my shelf. I guess I should know how to create a link to my shelf from this blog, but I don't or I forgot how to do that. I copied the URL so you can copy and past the address. Sorry about that.

See my bookshelf at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=shigaki&shelf=shelf

I looked at one of the public libraries and how they are using this site. I can see it helpful to highlight newly acquired materials in their collection, if that is what they were trying to do. For libraries with very very small collections it would be useful too.

Of the books I have on my bookshelf, Tortilla Curtain and The Good German were held by quite a few readers. For the other books I listed there weren't so many other readers. I guess I'm not reading the really popular materials. People should read Ann Purser. For a light mystery read she is great.

Week 8, Thing 18

I took a look at the Zohowriter site. I found a couple of features intriguing. I liked the fact that there were some templates available for use. Why recreate something new for some basic layout features. The fact that more than one person could work on the file at the same time would be useful if doing a group paper.

Week 7, Thing 17

I did the posting to the library wiki under the favorite books page and entered my blog address so you know I have been there. I'm still skeptical about the use of a free for all wiki in libraries. I could see classes using it to develop a group project or as a means of communication among classmates. In a library???