Reading and the Reference Librarian: The Importance to Library Service of Staff Reading Habits

by Juris Dilevko, Lisa Gottlieb

Overview

Reference librarians are no longer expected to know much about the information they find; they are merely expected to find it. Technological competency rather than knowledge has become the order of the day. In many respects, reference service has become a matter of typing search terms into a library's online catalog or a web search engine and providing the patron with the results of the search. Calling for a re-intellectualization of reference librarianship, this book suggests another approach to providing quality reference service--reading.

The authors surveyed both academic reference librarians and public library reference personnel in the United States and Canada about their reading habits. From the 950 responses, the authors present findings about the extent to which librarians read newspapers, periodicals, fiction and nonfiction, and recount and analyze stories about how reading has made them better librarians. The authors also report that North American professors in the humanities and social sciences believe that the best reference librarians are those who have wide-ranging, subject-based knowledge as opposed to the type of process-based, functional knowledge that is increasingly dominating the curricula of many Library and Information Science programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786416523
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	11/26/2003
Pages:	269
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.54(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Juris Dilevko is a retired associate professor from the University of Toronto. In addition to his books about librarianship, his writings have appeared in American Studies, Journal of Information Ethics, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Library Quarterly, and Reference & User Services Quarterly, among other publications. Lisa Gottlieb is a graduate of Wellesley College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Toronto. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, American Studies, Library Quarterly, and other journals.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     

I. GENERAL CONCEPTS     
1. Ideology and the Deprofessionalization of the Reference Function     
2. Reading and Reference Work     

II. ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS     
3. The Importance of Being Current     
4. Developing a “Reader’s Mind”     
5. You Can Lead Librarians to Knowledge, But You Can’t Make Them Think     

III. PUBLIC LIBRARY REFERENCE STAFF     
6. Being a Jack-of-All-Trades     

IV. PROFESSORS AND ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS     
7. Meeting the Expectations of Professors     
8. Reading as a Species of Intellectual Capital     

APPENDICES
A. Methodological Notes and Text of Survey Questions Sent to Academic Reference Librarians     
B. Methodological Notes and Text of Survey Questions Sent to Public Library Reference Staff Members     
C. Methodological Notes and Text of Survey Questions Sent to Professors in the Humanities and Social Sciences     
D. Statistical Analyses of Selected Variables from the Survey Sent to Academic Reference Librarians     

Notes     
Bibliography     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

a thoughtful and critically informative look”—Midwest Book Review; “interesting and important. This book is a page turner”—Catholic Library World; “detailed...required reading...valuable...extensive body of very detailed information...outstanding”—LISR: Science Direct; “thought-provoking...informative...authors’ solid, sensitive research and revelant treatment of its subject qualifies this book as an important new primary resource...the rigor of the authors’ scholarship is evident”—Colorado Libraries; “one of the most remarkable and thought provoking texts on reference librarianship to have been published in the past few years...well done...articulate and insightful...fascinating...interesting...important and worthwhile”—Library & Information Science Research.

From the Publisher

detailed...required reading...valuable...extensive body of very detailed information...outstanding

LISR: Science Direct

interesting and important. This book is a page turner

Catholic Library World

a thoughtful and critically informative look

Midwest Book Review

The evolution and future of reference librarianship and reference service have been and continue to be hot topics, as this new monograph attests. Is today's reference work just a matter of keying in search terms into an online catalog or web search engine? Dilevko (Information Studies, Univ. of Toronto) and Gottlieb (doctoral candidate, Information Studies, Univ. of Toronto) present original research findings and conclusions in support of the thesis that quality reference service and the preservation of the reference librarian as a key player in the information age rely "on the acquisition of a wide range of general knowledge and subject area expertise through concerted and extensive reading of newspapers, magazines, and works of nonfiction and fiction." Further, the authors ask: Is reference librarianship in need of "re-intellectualization" and is it being defined by "external forces" (i.e., technology-based solutions)? Reading and the Reference Librarian is unique in addressing the specific impact of reading on reference service and reference librarianship. The thesis and questions are fodder for compelling thought and discussion. Though a little repetitious, the presentation of the research data (the authors surveyed some 900 academic and public library reference librarians) is not mind-bogglingly complex. Suitable for public and academic reference librarians and library/information science students.-Janet Brewer, Anderson Univ. Lib., IN Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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