Category: The Weekly Post

Week 2: Libraries vs. YouTube – Reference Services

Patron saint of librarians Neil Gaiman put it best: “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.”
Reference Transactions are information consultations in which library staff recommend, interpret, evaluate, and/or use information resources to help others to meet particular information needs. Reference and User Services Association. (2008). Definitions of Reference.
If anything is a hallmark of the librarian’s identity, it’s putting people into meaningful contact with the information they seek. It’s one of the first things we learn about in grad school, and oftentimes what draws us to the profession in the first place. Continue reading “Week 2: Libraries vs. YouTube – Reference Services”

Week 1: Libraries and the Internet

Many believe that the world wide web now provides access to all of the world’s accumulated knowledge. A simple Google search will provide all the relevant information a person may desire about a topic. They do not know that valuable information will never become available in machine‐readable form and that much digitized information is only available for a price. Spalding & Wang. (2006). The challenges and opportunities of marketing academic libraries in the USA: Experiences of US academic libraries with global application.   Library Management, 27(6/7), 494-504. doi:10.1108/01435120610702477
This quote may be a little dated in internet-years, but by and large it’s still true, and still relevant: libraries have had trouble when it comes to marketing themselves against (and on) the Internet. This broad point has been tackled by tons of people before me and is an important topic on its own, but it’s as good a place as any to start a discussion on libraries and online video. Continue reading “Week 1: Libraries and the Internet”