Well, I had a VERY BUSY day at the ALA Conference in D.C. on Friday, 6/25/2010. First up was the (full-day) RUSA Preconference “Reference Evolution: Envisioning the Future, Remembering the Past” which featured four speakers: Joseph Janes (The Information School at the University of Washington, founder Internet Public Library), Amy VanScoy (PHD candidate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College in New York, Digital Reference blog & Teaching Librarian website), and Kathleen Kern (University of Illinois at Urbana, author of Virtual Reference Best Practices – ALA Editions, 2008).
The morning consisted of each presenter speaking about various aspects of Reference – how things have changed, how they continue to change, and most important what librarians can do to keep up with and ahead of the changes. Janes started out with what he termed ”rethinking stuff’: what is a book?, what is a journal?, what is a newspaper?, expanded into where the winds are blowing (reference-wise) especially in relation to changes/advances in technology, talked about what we need to add, presented five Secret Weapons that librarians have, and ended with how stuff comes & goes but method (will always win) over material.
Amy VanScoy is working on her PHD and doing research into how librarians can shape the evolution of reference and direct where it will go. Specifically, she is investigating ‘practictioner belief’ – how librarians see their role or their purpose for providing reference service (there is very little research as yet on this topic). She addressed this topic initially in her chapter: “Reference Librarians’ Personal Theories of Practice: a New Approach to Studying Reference Service’ which appears in M.L. Radford & R.D. Landes (Eds), Creating the Reference Renaissance: Current & Future Trends (pp. 115-128), from Neal-Schuman (2010).
Stephen Francoeur discussed the tools for reference interactions and said that his goal is to provide customer service that’s better than expected. He said that librarians need to MAKE OUR WORK VISIBLE TO OTHERS !! Francoeur also generously created a website on which he has compiled the presentations for each of the day’s four speakers; it is available at http://sites.google.com/site/referenceevolution
Kathleen Kern presented some provocative ideas for librarians to consider. She asked the group to consider the question: did reference questions get more difficult? OR did the percent of questions that were difficult, increase? Kern also suggested that librarians should no longer be saying to patrons: ‘Come to us first, we can save you time.’ Instead we should be saying ‘Come to us last, we can get you the best stuff.’
The afternoon was devoted to two sets of breakout sessions. The first was small group discussions of three issues: ‘We’ve lost Ready Reference – Now what?’; ‘What reference data is worth capturing?’, and ’Consultations / One on One’ the results of which have been compiled at http://bit.ly/referenceevolution. The second breakout session was a great exercise from Joe Janes based on the idea of: what if Google, Bing & Wikipedia had all been shut down. Each group had to identify three websites that would, on the whole, provide the best starting points for the widest possible range of inquires, both ready reference and research, in the widest possible range of disciplines. The results of this exercise will appear as an article in a forthcoming issue of American Libraries(!)
After the preconference, I went to the Association of American Publishers program From the Insider(s) Out: Book Editors and the New Titles They Love which was hosted by Nancy Pearl. The speakers were Jamie Raab (from Hachette Book Group, Booth #2714), Carrie Kanie (“It” Books & Harper Perennial – HarperCollins, Booth # 2513), Susan Kamil (Random House, Dial Press, Booth # 2903), Ina Stern (Algonquin Books – Workman; Booth # 2701), and Bob Weil (W.W. Norton, Booth # 2415).
Raab spoke about OOGY: a Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin and An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. She said that Steve Martin is a Renaissance Man – comedian, novelist (fiction & nonfiction, adult & children’s), playwright, musician, and actor. An Object of Beauty centers around Lacy a character who violates taboos and the consequences. She said that OOGY is the answer last year’s cat book, Dewey and that Levin’s book will have a step ladder display in Barnes & Noble at Christmas(!)
Kanie talked about Celebrity Chekhov by Ben Greenman which re-imagines Checkov in a modern setting and retells the stories through the eyes of celebrities. She said that is you like Sylvia Plath with a little bit of Virginia Wolfe you might like Blow by Blow by Detmar Blow and Tom Sykes, the biography of Detmar’s late wife, Isabella. It’s a book with lots of money, affairs and scandal(!)
Kamil discussed Let’s Take the Long Way Home: a Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell and Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie. She said that Caldwell’s book is for anyone who has a best friend and that Rushdie’s title is a fable for all ages – witty, magical.
Stern spoke first about West of Here by Jonathan Evison which she feels is an epic American adventure about how our country is put together and what the future holds. Exley is by Brock Clark, who also wrote The Arsonist’s Guide to Homes in New England and Stern said that Algonquin will be reprint A Fan’s Notes (heavily referenced in Exley) because they believe readers are going to be looking for this title BECAUSE of Exley.
Weil told the audience about two nonfiction titles which are significant due to the topics they address. The first title is Charlie Chan: the Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous With American History by Yunte Huang which addresses the issue of America’s Asian racism; a topic not really covered before. The second book was Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror by Charles Fried and Weil said that he thinks this is one of the most urgent books written since 9/11. It is a moral compass and cracked mirror to what America could become.
Both the preconference on the future of reference and the Fall book preview were excellent programs and provided a wealth of interesting information for me to take back home to the staff in my library. I hope you, the reader, got something from my report. ENJOY(!)
There are 2 Comments to "A BIG First Day @ ALA by Lucy M. Lockley"
[...] We had a great mix of attendees at the workshop: not only did we have the expected crowds from public and academic libraries but also a fair number from special libraries. One of the attendees, Lucy M. Lockley, wrote up a nice post where she discusses the workshop. [...]
[...] We had a great mix of attendees at the workshop: not only did we have the expected crowds from public and academic libraries but also a fair number from special libraries. One of the attendees, Lucy M. Lockley, wrote up a nice post where she discusses the workshop. [...]