Today I interviewed Barbara Kieran, Head Librarian at ASB, about reference services.
One of the most important thing that we talked about and that kept coming up over and over in the interview was the importance of knowing your library community. The purchase and use of different types of resources depend heavily on the users. For example, when I asked what were "Must Have's" for the library, she automatically said "It depends on the library". She mentioned public libraries needing genealogy resources and school libraries needing curriculum specific resources, which can also very from school to school.
Also, we kept coming back to physical copies vs. online or database copies of resources. She mentioned that although encyclopedia's, dictionaries and thesauri are all must haves, much of this is moving online. Barbara metnioned specifically about the currency of online versions. I asked about how often things like the encyclopedia's should be updated, especially considering their cost. She explain that it use to be they were replaced every other year, but now she waits up to five years to replace them. However, again she emphasized the importance of the online resources and making sure she updated and payed for those every year, which can also be expensive.
And on a final and funny note, when I asked what kinds of reference questions she got she said everything from "where is the Bathroom to complex research questions". Ah, the life a reference librarian!
One of the most important thing that we talked about and that kept coming up over and over in the interview was the importance of knowing your library community. The purchase and use of different types of resources depend heavily on the users. For example, when I asked what were "Must Have's" for the library, she automatically said "It depends on the library". She mentioned public libraries needing genealogy resources and school libraries needing curriculum specific resources, which can also very from school to school.
Also, we kept coming back to physical copies vs. online or database copies of resources. She mentioned that although encyclopedia's, dictionaries and thesauri are all must haves, much of this is moving online. Barbara metnioned specifically about the currency of online versions. I asked about how often things like the encyclopedia's should be updated, especially considering their cost. She explain that it use to be they were replaced every other year, but now she waits up to five years to replace them. However, again she emphasized the importance of the online resources and making sure she updated and payed for those every year, which can also be expensive.
And on a final and funny note, when I asked what kinds of reference questions she got she said everything from "where is the Bathroom to complex research questions". Ah, the life a reference librarian!
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