RUSA President's Program, 2007

Time Odyssey: Visions of Reference and User Services

Program Description

Speakers

• Genevieve Bell, Director of User Experience at Intel and an anthropologist, will discuss the dynamic quality of information and libraries from a cultural and anthropological perspective. She describes herself as "storyteller" for Intel; giving them insights "about the rest of the world and they aren't always simple stories, and they aren't always what people want or expect to hear." She will consider the means by which libraries transform into new manifestations-the transition of the function of libraries as depositories of information to social hubs as well as the changes in patronage and attitudes surrounding the paperless office rhetoric will be explored.
  
  Podcast
  Transcript to come
  
  
• Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project, will discuss how changes in computing change the way people interact with information and with each other. These changes will spawn—are spawning—the "internet of things," the "semantic web," "spime," and "everyware" and will ultimately place greater demands on librarians to help people learn how to learn. In addition, he will talk about the role of public policy in shaping technologies and how "different policies will result in different technological and social "outcomes."
  
  Podcast
  Transcript to come
  
  
• Allen Renear, Professor of Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and expert in knowledge representation, will focus on the use of electronic resources in the information-seeking activities of scholars. His provocative contention is that researchers increasingly use various indexes, bibliographic databases, and other tools not to find articles to read, but to avoid reading. His view is that the explosion of information and the competitive nature put enormous pressure on research scholars to exploit information efficiently—and the sequential reading of research articles is disastrously inefficient.
  
  Podcast
  Transcript to come
  
  
• Wendy Schultz, Director of Infinite Futures and Executive Board Member of the Association of Professional Futurists, will argue for a holistic approach to environmental scanning that encompasses education, technologies and societal changes. In a recent article, she writes that "Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations, they are convocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange. Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories; they provide mentors not only for the exploration of stored memory, but also for the creation of new artifacts of memory."
  
  Podcast
  Transcript to come
  
  
• Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University and blogger at the ACRLog and The Kept-Up Academic Librarian, will act as moderator in a "Meet the Press" format. In addition, he is the creator of Keeping Up Web Site, a resources for librarians "designed to help library and information science professionals, information technologists, instructional technologists, and other academic technology support professionals develop and maintain a program of self-guided professional development." He will conclude the program a story of his own-what will reference look like in the future as envisioned by his thoughts and those of the four speakers.
  
  Podcast
  Transcript to come

Talking points for the audience and speakers

• Students make 1.5 billion visits to school library media centers during the school year this is 100 million more than attendances at movie theaters in 2005.
  
• Reference librarians in the nation's public and academic libraries answer more than 7.2 million questions weekly. Standing single file, the line of questioners would stretch from New York City to Juneau, Alaska.
  
• Public libraries are the number one point of online access for people without Internet connections at home, school or work.
  
• "Many librarians perform their duties with a profound sense of responsibility: supporting the foundations of democracy by ensuring free access to information." New York Times reporter John Schwartz
  
• "My guess is (it will be) about 300 years until computers are as good as, say, your local reference library in search." Craig Silverstein, director of technology, Google.com
  
• "A 2006 poll conducted for the American Library Association found that 92% of respondents expect libraries to be needed in the future, despite the increased availability of information via the Internet." It shows a future need for libraries.
  
• "Americans spend more than twice as much on salty snacks as they
  do on public libraries."
  
• 89 percent of college students typically begin their information search using a search engine.
  
• 72 percent of college student respondents said the search engine would be their first choice the next time they need a source for information. College students rank the library a distant second with 14 percent...
  
• While only 8 percent of college student respondents have used an online librarian question service, 64 percent of the college students who used this service completely agree or agree this service provides worthwhile information.
  
• 75 percent of college students completely agree or agree that the librarian adds value to the search process.
  
• 88 percent of college students were very satisfied or satisfied with the information provided from their most recent search conducted with the assistance of a librarian, while 90 percent were very satisfied or satisfied with the information provided using a search engine.
  
• 49 percent of college students... feel that the library's main purpose is "information." 33 percent of college students... indicated that the main purpose of the library is books.
  

Sources

Quotable Facts About America’s Libraries ( Chicago, IL: ALA, 2007) http://www.ala.org/ala/issues/toolsandpub/quotablefacts/quotable07_printer_010807.pdf

Quotable Quotes About Libraries http://www.ala.org/ala/issues/SALquotablequotes.htm

Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources_ (Dublin, OH: OCLC, 2006) http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm

• Amy Tracy Wells (Chair—2006–2007)
  
• Lisa R. Horowitz (Member—2006–2007)
  
• Jessica Emily Moyer (Member—2006–2007)
  
• Kathy A. Parsons (Member—2006–2007)
  
• Marilyn Nabua Ochoa (Intern—2006–2007)
  
• Alec Sonsteby (Intern—2006–2007)
  
• Megan Z. Perez (Ex-Officio Member—2006–2007)
  
  

MARS Chair's Program

Harnessing the Hive: Communicating with Millenials