Table of Contents
Reference and Information Services Group Meeting
Fairfield Library 17 February 2015
Introductions.
Apologies.
Matters arising from last meeting
Promotion of Reference services and collections - what are libraries doing?
- Not promoting ref as such as physical collection was very old - massive weed - senior staff positions now filled
- Self checkouts installed so want to have more people working with customers but also difficult to present online resources - need better presentation method
- Moving to electronic resources - visiting local schools and making contact with local librarians, going to their meetings and doing database training, library tours, tech talks and ref talks, roving librarian.
- Social interaction is a massive need this needs to be considered with self checkouts
- Readers advisory is where roving really helps
- Manly promoted historic pictures collection in conjunction with surf championships by showcasing surfing photos
- Review how we make eresources available.
Feedback from those participating in Information online
- what are the key ideas? Did you go to the conference or follow online via twitter (via #online15 or @aliaonline search)
- Maker spaces was a big topic
- Badging - earning badges for training
- Eric from doc lab - keeping up with environmental shifts - need to keep innovating, sharing with public, survey but talk to people
- Copyright - libraries need to fair use like in United States
- ABC and Trove - using standards to get information - make digital collections harvestable
- Collaborating with your community - looking outwards and engaging
- Mitchell Whitelaw - big data sets - Newcastle, UK collection - also 'every noise counts'
- Photo recognition as an exploration tool
- Discovering other collections through Trove
- Tim Sherratt - beautiful seams - seamless isn't the only way to do things - there is a value in people being able to see how collections join together to create a large product - make your borders an interesting transition
- UNSW Sarah k? - project with europeana, chinese heritage group scanning caves but creating spaces where you feel like you're in a cave
- (Lots manual data cleanup involved with all these tech projects)
Technology and reference
- what was at CES and what may it mean for your library? Plus LITA technology trends from ALA Midwinter
- Maker spaces as reference service e.g.questions about how to use 3d printers, where to find things to make with 3d printers
- Some museums are putting scans of their collection items online for people to make
- Consumer Electronics Show - Samsung oven with split door, drones, lots of smart watches, wearable tech for medical conditions,
- Oculus rift - in libraries
- Google Glass but for more specific purposes
- Erik Boekesteijn from DOKLAB has an idea for a tamagotchi library card if you don't feed it books and library visits it would fade
Video - include links from library incubator project
As collections change - see these examples - including Library as incubator project… and the Canadian library gardens (see video below)
What are the implications information services?
Shameless plug for seminar on 6 May at SLNSW - no bookings yet but stay tuned
Crazy collections that libraries could offer:
E.g. Ann Arbor telescope collection, lending collection of surfboards?
IFLA Reference and Information Services Section Call for Papers
- 2015 Theme: Surprise Yourselves! New Models of Reference and Information Services It would be interesting to see what ideas people have for these areas. Topics of interest could include:
- Transforming reference services during a time of budget restraint
- The benefits of the human interaction as we balance access to both print and digital resources
- Sustainable development of reference services
- The reference librarian as a partner in community service (career advisor, tutor, local Government information, homework coaching, etc)
- The role of the reference librarian in the development of discovery services
Discussion of council amalgamations
- Queensland examples, Goulburn, Auckland
Question re inter filing of nonfiction with reference -
- better for pointing people to the right place
- reduced doubling up but challenging with borrower confusion
- need to think about shelving and storage issues, some loss of coherence about what the collection actually was
- reference collection can slowly diminish as a result and 10 year age limit for weeding so collection disappears
- What happens to the reference space?
Partnerships
- Hawkesbury - tourism crossover both in same section of the library - walk guides
- Bush care walking app
- Blue mountains - a while ago identified that they were missing photos of people - had lots of buildings - so worked with photographic club to run competition and entries became the property of the library
- Wedding examples - collect photos
- Refugee groups?
- Disabilities groups - boarding houses change to group homes - do these carers connect with us, if not why - fear of loss of items, noise vocal clients, linking up with existing groups in the library
- Chatswood - blind teenagers group
- More and more marginalised people are coming into the library space - do we need better training? How do we handle these situations and
- Centrelink training at blue mountains
- Passports uk, immigration, police checks, government, cultural issues, mental health, forced partnership as a result of customers being directed to us,
[ Move this discussion to the wiki to collate and collect and suggest]
Next agenda focus on this?
- Point 9 for agenda - do we still need this, pop up and reference, Waringah has a caravan, Camden has a tent, Waverley has a beach pop up
- The changing nature of Reference collections and access options - what are libraries doing?
- Discussion based on the soon to be released title Reinventing reference
Plug for re seminar, and March seminars at SLNSW
- Feedback from group that too much is scheduled to happen in March and this is making it very difficult for libraries to send staff.