Services in a (post) Google world

Citation

Mitchell, E. and Barbara Watstein, S. (2010), "Services in a (post) Google world", Reference Services Review, Vol. 38 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr.2010.24038aaa.001

Services in a (post) Google world

Article Type: Editorial From: Reference Services Review, Volume 38, Issue 1

We are especially pleased to introduce this themed issue on reference services in the (post)Google age. Themed issues provide a unique opportunity to focus a suite of manuscripts on a given topic, thereby enabling our readers to engage at a deeper level with a subject. Themed issues come in a variety of formats. A themed issue might consist of a several articles within a specific issue on a given subject, or an entire issue devoted to a subject. A themed issue might be contained within one issue, or might spread over several back-to-back issues. To date, the journal has supported several themed issues, focusing on subjects as diverse as information commons, the merged organization, and the emerging role of health science librarians.

We believe that the timing of this themed issue is particularly important. We suggest that if we are to responsibly address the continuing challenge of budget reductions, the design and delivery of “value-added” services is critical. In the (post)Google age, reference services have never been more important and opportunities for reference and instruction librarians abound.

Much has been written on web search engines and web spaces before Google, Google and (post)Google. Much too has been written on the possible futures for reference service, and reference librarians, in a Google world. In a presentation by Marylaine Block for the Rhode Island Library Association, the speaker asks “how do librarians become known for providing a superior product?” She suggests “we can be the caretakers and guides for the unsophisticated; for sophisticated users, we can provide the kind of product that independent information professionals charge hundreds of dollars an hour for. We can personalize information, contextualize information, add value to information, reformat information, create information, and continuously update information”[1].

In a Google world, “information is a commodity: free, fast, and good enough for the casual seeker”[2]. In a Google world, search is all-important; our service relationships are based on a relatively straightforward conceptualization of literacy. In a Google world, “click” is the operative action. In a (post)Google world, users – unsophisticated and sophisticated alike, are confronted with the challenge of navigating an increasingly interconnected information space (through the blogosphere, interconnected wikis, mashups, etc.). In a (post)Google world, discovery is all-important. In a (post)Google world, “click” and “think” must go hand in hand. In a (post)Google world, reference and instruction librarians can create a portfolio of learning strategies where Google is the start, rather than the end, of a research journey. They can design and deliver a wide variety of discovery services supporting the long-term access to and greater exploitation of both print and digital resources in the creation of new models, methodologies and paradigms for the twenty-first century scholarship. In a (post)Google world, our changing service relationships must be based on and developed from a more subtle conceptualization of literacy.

Paula Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, speaks about the “service turn”[3]. She observes “I think it is fair to say that all libraries are focusing on services as a strategic investment for the future.” And, she goes on to define the phrase a “service turn,” commenting that it suggests “both that we see the future of libraries as being tightly coupled to the evolution of library services, and that we are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the way we approach the design, delivery, and assessment of library services … Perhaps the simplest way of thinking about this is to suggest that librarians are shifting from making strategic decisions from the perspective of a ‘collections imperative’ toward making them from the perspective of a ‘service imperative.’ Making the ‘service turn’ means that you are committed to one simple belief: the library of the twenty-first century will be distinguished not by the content of its collections, but by the scope and quality of its services.”

We agree with Kaufman – committing to the service turn, and making strategic investments based on that belief, “challenges much of how we have operated academic libraries over the past 50 years.”

Kaufman continues, making the distinction between service activities, and service programs. She asserts that “taking a programmatic approach to the design, delivery, and development of library services forms the foundation of any attempt to meet the service imperatives of your library, campus, and community. Raising your vision of library services to the program level is the first step in making the service turn.”

Ten articles comprise this themed issue; an editorial by the issue’s guest editor, Theresa Arndt, complements this set of articles. Several of these articles focus on service activities; others focus on service programs. We close the issue with two articles on instruction – one on the Pecha Kucha style PowerPoint and its effectiveness as an instructional technique that should be considered for inclusion in the university classroom, and a final article on Project SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills). Here, readers will find valuable information about the large-scale administration of standardized information literacy assessments. In many of our libraries, information literacy services enjoy the status of being core components of our overall public service programs. The scope and quality of the reference and instructional services described in this issue affirm for us that many of our colleagues are making the service turn, as Kaufman describes.

In closing we remind readers that RSR welcomes proposals for themed issues or mini themes. To help prospective themed issue editors and authors, guidelines are posted on the journal’s web site, http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=2019 (accessed November 18, 2009).

http://marylaine.com/ref.html (accessed November 8, 2009).

http://marylaine.com/ref.html (accessed November 8, 2009).

“Carpe diem: transforming services in academic libraries.” Kaufman’s presentation was made in Xi’An, China; New Delhi, India; and Taipei, Taiwan, June 2009 and can be found in IDEALS (http://hdl.handle.net/2142/12032) (accessed November 30, 2009). See also her talk “Carpe Diem: seizing opportunities from crisis” delivered at the University of Wisconsin in September 2009 and also in IDEALS (http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14287) (accessed November 30, 2009). IDEALS collects, disseminates, and provides persistent and reliable access to the research and scholarship of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more on IDEALS visit www.ideals.illinois.edu/ (accessed November 30, 2009).

Eleanor Mitchell, Sarah Barbara Watstein