The Future of Reference

Dr. Eileen Abels College of Information Studies April 6, 2005 University of Maryland

The Future of Reference Depends Upon

Information Users Information Sources Technology Libraries Librarians

Information Users: Social Trends

24 X 7 expectations: Any time any place Self-help

Banking; Gas stations; Airline kiosks; Skiosks; Supermarket checkout; Library circulation

Information creators
Wikis and blogs

Choice
Cereals, automobiles, computers, video games, search engines

Media savvy

Information Sources: More Options

Free websites Individual subscriptions to digital libraries

HighBeam Research

Google

Questia

(http://www.highbeam.com/Library/index.asp)
(http://www.questia.com)

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) Digitization project Other project prototypes (http://labs.google.com/

Technology: The Web

The Web has become the new normal in the American way of life; those who dont go online constitute an ever-shrinking minority. [Rainie and
Horrigan. How the Internet. Pew, 2005]

Internet users are satisfied with search engines, yet they are nave about how the search engines work. [Fallows. Search Engines. Pew, 2005] 8 million American adults have created blogs and over 25% of Internet users read blogs. [Rainie. State of
Blogging. PEW, 2005]

Technology: The Cell Phone

180,464,003 Current US Wireless Subscribers [Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA)
www.ctia.org Accessed April 2, 2005]

New uses of cell phones:

Telephone directories New pricing structure

Multi-purpose devices (e.g., BlackBerry)

Phones Cameras Text messages E-mail Web surfing

Technology: Instant Messaging

R U IMing 2? No longer just for kids

(Breeding, 2003)

"With more than 28 million business users sending nearly 1 billion messages each day, EIM is clearly reaching more mainstream users. P.
Mahowald, IDC research manager, Collaborative Computing
[http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=31809 accessed March 20, 2005]

Technology: Wireless

Wireless access in coffee shops, fast food restaurants, hotels and airports. What about libraries?
Marshall Breedingss Directory of Lib-Web-Cats

Includes wireless information at http://www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats/

<accessed March 19,2005>

Wireless Librarians

Blog to advance use of wireless in libraries at http://wirelesslibraries.blogspot.com/ <accessed April 5,2005>

Future of the Library?

Rem Koolhaas was given the 2005 Wired Rave Award in Architecture for transforming the library.
[Wired March 2005, p. 88]

Seattle Public Library

Times

[See Getting to Know the New Central Library. Seattle

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/library/ <accessed April 5, 2005>]

Solution for the problem of storing information, not intended to be a house of books. Library has to adapt to social and technological change and to the accumulation of books.
[Rave Awards. Wiired March 2005 p. 88]

Librarians

Be flexible Embrace change Conduct environmental scans Think outside the box, the library, and the reference desk Take advantage of CE opportunities LIS Education
Prepare librarians for the future

Future of Reference Services ?

Learn from the past, look to the future:

The library in the life of the user
[Zweizig, 1977]

One of the best means of making a library popular is to mingle freely with its users, and help them in every way.
[Green, 1876]

Continue to transform, like the library building.

Predictions in the Literature

Future of reference services in libraries is not certain or guaranteed.

(Whitlach, 2002; and Richardson, 2003)

Point-of-need library reference service will thrive. Physical reference desk will disappear.
(Lipow, 2003) (Brandt et al., 1996)

Future reference services must:

Evolve with social trends. Be easy to use. Be readily available. Provide choices. Respond to information needs. Utilize appropriate technology. Be cost effective.

Possible Menu of Future Reference Services

Intermediated assistance

Invisible Librarian

Roving librarians with PDAs or walkie talkies Caf reference service E-mail and text messaging Chat with simplified interface VoIP chat Wireless reference: email, text message, chat, searching using cell phone or other device

Self-help websites Guide in selecting and using authoritative information sources Incorporate virtual training into websites

Using products like Viewlet (www.qarbon.com)

Future of Reference?
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