Editorial

Citation

Mitchell, E. and Barbara Watstein, S. (2009), "Editorial", Reference Services Review, Vol. 37 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr.2009.24037baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Reference Services Review, Volume 37, Issue 2

Even as we continue to contemplate and engage with bad, and worse, economic news, it is important to acknowledge that life, and library life, must go on. Planning, implementing, assessing, and evolving library service programs and resources, even with constraints, are the activities which will assure our continuing relevance and utility. In these uncertain times, there is nothing more important than investing in that relevance and utility.

What specifically can we do to maintain forward momentum for library services? In this issue several articles provide examples of the myriad of ways we can transform library service, even in periods of restrictive budgets. Responsive service design, innovative approaches to service delivery, building strategic partnerships, creatively and effectively blending technology and human expertise to enhance services, and reconfiguring spaces to better help the library user in pursuit of learning are examples of ways we can transform library service.

“A decade of personalized research assistance” looks at a research consultation service over the ten years of its existence at a large university. In their review of the literature, these authors note: “New to the literature about research assistance programs, however, is the hint of anxiety that libraries may become outdated and irrelevant to users if they are unable to demonstrate their relevance to their campus communities. While research assistance programs are certainly not new, they do provide several features that meet the demands of today’s ever changing information environment”. One program cited by these authors suggested that such a service, when accompanied by a restructuring of traditional reference services, actually demonstrated economy through differentiation. If an individualized research service is something that your library is considering offering to add value to an existing cafeteria of programs, this overview may help you estimate what the costs are in staff time and effort.

Innovation in approaching information literacy may come at no additional cost, with real benefit. Another article, “Undergraduate research in the public domain: the evaluation of non-academic sources online”, presents an innovative approach to teaching students to evaluate not the sources librarians wish they would use, but the web-based sources that they actually use. This author argues that non-scholarly sources should not be overlooked nor ignored, but need to be critically assessed, perhaps using different yet still rigorous criteria.

Transforming library service through the use of partnerships and outreach is another sure-fire way to assure continuing relevance and utility. “Integrating information literacy skills into academic summer programs for precollege students” profiles one program that has been developed to teach information literacy skills to elementary and high school students attending academic summer programs. Key to the success of this program was the building of effective partnerships with campus personnel to promote information literacy for students who are involved in summer enrichment programs.

Two articles contribute to the evidentiary trail of successful service enhancement through the use of technology. “Guidelines for effective online instruction using multimedia screencasts” challenges readers to consider employing multimedia screencasts and tutorials for instruction; research in cognitive psychology and education suggest that there is solid rationale for this approach. Certainly, the payoff, in terms of student engagement with the library and student academic success, underscores the importance of investment in the development of transformative instructional services. Another article serves, to some extent, as a case study for the digital age. Here, the focus is international; in “A digital reference desk for the National Library of Iran: a prototype based on content analysis of the digital reference desks of the world’s National Libraries,” readers will see first-hand what is involved in reconceptualizing service and in redefining roles.

Transforming library service through information commons represents yet another way to assure continuing relevance and utility. In this issue, “Piloting an information commons at HKUST Library” makes a strong case for the information commons as an example of library innovation. A companion article, “The information and learning commons: a selective guide to sources” collects key sources that help librarians define, build, and manage a commons. These sources offer examples of space renovations or reference service updates that support student success while redefining librarians’ roles. They discuss issues in reference and user services, instruction, technology, staffing, training, space design, collaboration, and assessment.

As administrators we find White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual’s quote, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste” (Seib, 2008) to be particularly relevant for us in these times. Our service portfolios continue to evolve, as they must, in response to changes in user needs and expectations, technology, pedagogy and society. Fiscal challenges, we recognize, will differently drive this process, making it imperative that public services librarians and administrators prudently and responsibly plan, design and shepherd effective change in resources and services. We suggest that in meeting these challenges – in reconceiving, redefining, reducing or eliminating services or in recalibrating our service portfolios, we may actually and ultimately provide more effective and influential resources and services for our users. Planning strategically and tactfully how to design and deliver library services in these uncertain times will result in productive change – perhaps fewer, but more finely tuned, enhanced and differently diversified services and programs for our users and colleagues.

Eleanor Mitchell, Sarah Barbara Watstein