1 Terry Wasserman, Changes, ILS 504, Prof.

Okobi

Compare and Contrast a Recent and an Older Article

On Reference Work

In looking at J. Rice’s 1986 article about technologies’ affects on reference

librarians and R. Lankes 2008 article about virtual reference, one sees that both authors

view the reference librarian’s position as a continued necessity within the library but from

very different perspectives.

For Rice, technology has obviated the need for much of the reference librarian’s

record-keeping and this is a definite positive (pg. 2). This leaves the reference librarian

free to pursue the fundamentals of personal service in dealing with patrons, which he

believes will remain the same (ibid). The new optical media will assist in

“reinstitutionalizing” reference sections by creating a free place where entire collections

of databases would be accessible, thus making the reference section more important (pg.

2-3). He thinks that “total user self-sufficiency” is highly unlikely as patrons will not be

able to afford to purchase all of the desired information: “legal and economic realities

will continue to bring people to the library and reference department,” (pg. 3).

For Lankes, most of these issues have already been settled. That people access

the library and its resources remotely is a given for him, rather he focuses on another

issue that Rice mentions, reference as a “one-on-one” conversation (pg. 11). Lankes sees

the continued use of the one librarian-one patron mode of answering reference questions

as outmoded in a virtual environment (ibid). Rather, he cites a test case from the

Information Institute of Syracuse-- they created “StoryStarters” a site that allowed users

to ask and track questions online. The questions could be answered by librarians, experts

or anyone who wished to via a posting to the answerer’s blog that would be included in
2 Terry Wasserman, Changes, ILS 504, Prof. Okobi

the StoryStarters website (pg. 12). Lankes sees this as part of the continual evolution of

reference services from “an in-person place based activity to the anytime-anywhere

nature of the internet,” (pg. 14).

Reference List

Lankes R. (2008). Virtual Reference to Participatory Librarianship: Expanding the

Conversation. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
34 (2), 11-14. Retrieved on 6 February 2009, from Library Literature and Information
database.

Rice, J. (1986). The Golden Age of Reference Service: Is It Really Over? Wilson Library
Bulletin 61, 1-4. Retrieved on 6 February 2009, from Library Literature and Information
database.