Highlighting the innovative thinking of some of the leading lights in reference librarianship in the USA today, this volume extends the work of the first volume Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends (2010). Reflecting changes in technology; advances in e-reference tools and new initiatives in the reference sector, chapters are “fully juried” and make up three parts: Visionary Thinkers on the User Experience and the Future; Revelations from Reference Research; and Reference in Action – Innovative Initiatives Forging the Future.
The contributors represent an eclectic mix of public, college and university libraries as well as consortia and collaborations. Together they present an equally eclectic range of innovative, avant-garde and provocative thinking. In Part One, a challenge is issued almost immediately by Walsh in order to provoke consideration for the implementation and use of mobile reference services. A few chapters later, LaRue along with Bell and Bivens-Tatum gently urge readers to enhance their reference user experience (UX). In the case of LaRue this is done via better systems analysis: looking at the invisible and visible elements that make up a successful twenty-first century library. A final contribution by Costello, a “disenfranchised user”, succinctly sums up the need for libraries to produce serviceable information pathways: “laying tracks for more navigable informational journeys in pursuit of knowledge” and the need for “better systems for discovery and contextualization that easily connect patrons with material”.
To assist readers along this trajectory, editor Radford maps out a path in the next two parts of the book. Part Two comprises reference research chapters that look at virtual reference (VR) encounters and instruction initiatives; evolving service and staffing models and using data to inform the future of reference services. Beginning with her and Connaway's research findings, comparing virtual reference use of the millennial generation to older adults, their conclusion makes for a sober read. The emphasis here is on the requirement of continued and sustained study of reference user preferences. The challenge to librarians and VR system designers is to figure out how to serve the differing needs of generations with particular attention on the technologically driven younger generation. In four out of the eight chapters that comprise Part Two this theme is continued. If criticism is to be levelled at this stage, it would be towards an over-emphasis on the virtual reference experience.
The remaining chapters look at staffing models more closely: Van Scoy's “Inventing the Future by Examining Traditional and Emerging Roles of Reference Librarians” is perhaps the most useful of these chapters for its potential use in advocacy as she explores and urges librarians to reflect upon the variety of positive roles played out by reference librarian. So it was with some surprise to find the next chapter looking at stress in libraries. Seemingly, an unusual choice in a book that looks to tomorrow's cutting edge services, this chapter, in fact, is a necessary addition because of the requirement for such services and the rate of change that technology has (and will continue to) wrought.
Comprising the largest part of the book, Part Three focuses on innovative service models as well as technological advances that impact reference service. This focus is honed via 15 “reports from the field”, with service models that look at new ways of engaging with library users: the roving reference service; community outreach; embedded librarians (reference librarians integrating with key community groups); chat, text, SMS and other virtual reference services. Collaborative service models are also explored using a variety of technologies to assist with the connection between librarian and user. Finally, the tools with which to research current user demands and gauge direction for future reference services are also generously discussed: from new methodology to data collection and the use of rubrics.
Taking action, becoming an agent for change, joining the leaders of our reference services future is what this book is all about and it does it with aplomb: superbly, comprehensively and inspiringly. No librarian should be without this book.
