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Reference and information services working group

Minutes RISG meeting 2.00 – 4.00pm Manly 10 November 2010

Anna Pearson, Manly, John Taggart, Manly, Ion Sloggett, Kogarah, Helen Perry, North Sydney, Annetta Kuchaska, Auburn, Cynthia Methven, Hornsby, Kerry-Ann Prideaux, Burwood, Angela Livinstone, Sutherland, Andrea Seifert, Canada Bay, Ellen Forsyth, State Library Apologies Genie Wilson, Lawrence McDonnell

Slam the boards discussion of background, discussions, will be using as part of monthly reference upskilling, will be running it for reference training for some staff, one library using for social software training for the public http://referenceandinformationservices.wikifoundry.com/page/Slam+the+boards
Preview for Reference at the Metcalfe for 2011 – see e-mail sent 12 November
How do you manage your reference collection
big culls of reference collections, growth of interfiling of reference collections with loan (after substantially reducing the size of the reference collection, are getting much better use of reference by it being interfiled, is junior reference necessary?
Very few issues with people trying to borrow interfiled reference works (Five Dock), reference books seem to be used more in the libraries with interfiled reference titles, need to keep thinking reference work and looking at the collection differently,
need to keep looking at how the collection is used, consult with schools and other reference clients, survey your clients (and make sure you include reference and information services), how can you make is simpler for the clients (do they really need to go to three places for one reference enquiry?), and make sure your e-books are catalogued as well so they can help with a reference enquiry as well,Manly has EBL where they buy e-books based on direct client demand, e-resources also need to be accessible on catalogues (including journals and newspapers on the databases as well if at all possible). Consider Federated searches as well, but there are costing issues with this, but very promising for clients

Favourite reference tools

Facts on file history and science databases very popular as good supplement to NSW.net databases, Facts on file a very approachable and increasing in use, highlighting the importance of promoting the reference tools which are used, need to work with the schools for promotion, but libraries seem to be not working as well with rest of community using the databases, also have approached parent associations in schools as they are often looking for speakers,
Google (usable, useful and a good starting point),
Dynamic learning, computer online Tony Webster (loved by customers – but can’t get statistics yet and this is an issue),
Law handbook online has enhanced usefulness with reference work, useful for telephone reference and privacy with legal issues,
would be great to see Excel guides online as gets around the issues of some students not wanting to share, big issue about some databases not having statistics

How do you promote reference services?

Shelf sitters (like for readers advisory work)
go to schools, promote with parent associations,
separate promotion for primary students, high school and adults/university students – double A5 fliers,
promote to council (don’t forget this area), integrated catalogue/federated searching as a way of promoting,
importance of measuring statistics to see the change in use discussed, some people seeing databases use patterns and others not,
discussion of tours of libraries as mobile apps or mobile tours – like Library of Congress http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/08/shiny-appy-people-library-gets-iphone-app/

How do you keep up to date in providing reference services

RISG meetings
at staff meetings discuss 2 or 3 new print resources and they can be looked at
training for staff updates on databases and other reference work, include in staff training days (databases, refreshers, need to know reference), use webinars (like Ebsco)
use provider based training, use NSW.net training, (think about partnering with other libraries for training)
blogs for example Lorcan Dempsey http://orweblog.oclc.org/, Library garden http://librarygarden.net/, David Lee King http://www.davidleeking.com/,
thinking about your own collection and how to promote it,
reading e-mail

National Year of Reading 2012

encourage this through databases, e-books, resources for research, reference resources – antiques on line, facts on file, exploration of science and history through databases – add to wiki – e-mail reference list also about local studies – newspaper digitisation project,

other business

idea of rolling out the ref-ex like learning 2.0 as refresher