Is the Web Reference's Future?

New venues, better toolbars, and smartphones scrutinizedat ACRL

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 5/1/2007

There was skepticism about the future of reference services at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) National Conference in Baltimore, March 29–April 1. “We've tried chat, roaming, deskless, and walkie-talkie reference, all with modest success,” said Bill Miller, Florida Atlantic University's director of libraries. “Now we're IM, MySpace, Friendster, Second Life—all laudable efforts.” Still, he said, reference service is declining. If there is reference service in a decade, “it's going to look like the airport Avis desk at 3 a.m.”

“It's easy to get so close to something we can't see its dimensions,” suggested Jerry Campbell, president, Claremont School of Theology, CA, and author of the influential 1992 article “Shaking the Conceptual Foundations of Reference: A Perspective” (Reference Services Review). “The kind of revolution we're in is not over,” he said, urging attendees to abandon their comfort zones and follow the rapidly changing web. “We could've created a Google...if we had the will and the foresight,” said Campbell, but librarians as a group are mostly change averse.

“Some people would have you believe Second Life is the future of reference,” observed Georgia Tech's Brian Mathews doubtfully. Mathews, whose library received ACRL's Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, was more positive about MySpace, “which allows us to repackage our content into a framework people can understand,” and Facebook, which allows him to target reference help to people in specific courses.

One popular innovation discussed at the show was Cyber Zed Shed, featuring 20-minute presentations on the innovative use of new technologies. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) library staff developed the I-Go Library Toolbar, a companion to Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browsers, which goes beyond typical toolbars only targeting OPACs. I-Go provides quick access to departmental library web sites, the Ask a Librarian web page, library catalog, online research resources, campus phonebook, and, of course, Google. “They're not smart enough to include us,” joked the library's Lisa Hinchliffe. “We're smart enough to include them.” The toolbar was installed on all library terminals because students don't necessarily visit or bookmark the homepage.

The toolbar is popular; besides marketing it in library instruction classes and via links on the library web site, a Facebook ad costing just $50 generated more than 600 downloads. Other librarians wishing to incorporate a similar toolbar can customize UIUC's Firefox version; the Internet Explorer toolbar, however, requires a small financial investment ($75 for Toolbar Studio, in UIUC's case) and some staff time.

Michelle Jacobs of the University of California, Merced, was in Baltimore but used her Cingular smartphone to remain in contact with students back in California. On her campus, all librarians use mobile phones; they have no stationary phones. Jacobs said she walks the stacks to help students. When she needs to search the Internet, she unfolds a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and is in business. “I'm a walking reference desk,” she said. Students “love seeing that you're not bringing them back to the desks.”

Would you believe video IM reference via webcams in the library and at a remote kiosk? Yes, said Char Booth of Ohio University, who suggested it has much promise and some pitfalls. “It offers a means of more personal interaction: putting a face to a service,” she said. “Then again, you need to know where the mute button is.” She asserted that such a service has to be marketed as “talk to a librarian” rather than give the impression that the librarians are monitoring students at the library's remote reference kiosk.

Booth also noted that actual eye contact is impossible while using a webcam and typing, so librarians should ditch any hope for a traditional reference interview. Student reaction, she said, has been “mixed but positive.”